A whole house cleaning is an event that can be somewhat time-consuming and you may want to schedule it for a weekend so you have extra help to get the work done quickly. What makes this type of house cleaning different from your weekly or daily cleaning is that you will basically go from room to room and clean them completely. Also unlike your normal cleaning you’ll be doing outside cleaning of the windows and also laundering the drapes and other window treatments where appropriate.

To start with the whole house cleaning be sure you have all of the cleaning supplies you’ll need for the project. Try and have these organized by room if possible and if you have different family member cleaning different areas, make sure they do all of the same type rooms so that they can have their own cleaning supplies for that specific room. For example if you are doing the bathroom, do all of the bathrooms and that way you can take your bucket of supplies from room to room with you. If someone else is doing the bedrooms, they’ll need different cleaning supplies and can have their own set. The trick here is to minimize trips looking for things like dusters, paper towels and glass cleaner. Try to have it all with you so you don’t have to drag out the job with a scavenger hunt.

Also, try to divide your help into zones. Have one person tackle the outside of the house and concentrate on the outside of the windows, patio, porch and driveway. Have the rest of your team concentrate on the inside. Try to do the rooms with carpeting last and move whatever furniture you need to move out of the carpeted rooms last into a room you’ve already cleaned. This allows you to vacuum the carpeted rooms from wall to wall and steam clean if needed. This will allow you to let those carpets dry overnight if needed. Doing it the other way means you’ll have furniture blocking access to rooms you still need to clean.

Once you get started with the cleaning, do each room from the top and work your way down to the floor. Clean any cobwebs from the ceiling, corners and air vents and then dust the walls as needed. If there are stains on the walls, clean them as you discover them. The trick is to make one complete pass through a room and not leave things to do later. The last thing you want to do in a room is the floor. This way any dust and dirt that was dislodged during the cleaning process will fall to the floor and be cleaned up in this last step.

The first and most important thing you need to do is pick a day each week that you have set some time aside for cleaning. This sounds like a simple thing, but having a time scheduled takes the decision out of your hands and will make it harder to put off the cleaning project. If you just let the activity hang out there as something you need to get to, you’ll always find something more interesting to do instead. Having a time and day each week when you do your cleaning takes that decision out of your hands and allows you to prepare mentally for the task.

The second most important thing to do is to have all of your cleaning supplies organized and in a spot that you can locate them easily. Some people like to keep them in a central closet or in the actual room you’re cleaning and either of these work fine as long as you can find them when it’s time to clean the room. Having to search the house for your cleaning supplies will drag out any task and make it more of a chore. Also, having these supplies organized makes it easier to know when you are low on something when you next head out to the store on a shopping trip.

When you start cleaning a room, there are two cardinal rules you need to keep in mind, and they are “top to bottom” and “dry to wet”. Always clean a room from the ceiling to the floor so that anything you dislodge like dust and dirt will fall to an area that is still going to be cleaned. Also, do all of your dry dusting and cleaning before you move on to your wet mopping and cleaning so that anything that has become airborne will settle on an area that will still be cleaned. These two rules can save you a lot of time and are easy to incorporate into your cleaning regiment.

Another mental advantage you can use is to always clean the part of the room that you hate the most first. This makes cleaning the rest of the room seem easier. Even though the amount of work is the same, there is a built-in satisfaction associated with tackling the hardest part first that can help inspire you to complete the rest. You also will have most of your energy when you start a project and this makes it easier to clean the toughest areas early.

The last tip is to use your vacuum liberally. A vacuum comes with a lot of attachments and they can really help you clean a room. Don’t think of your vacuum as just for carpets, it’s a great tool to eliminate a lot of the surface dirt and hair on the bathroom or laundry room floor before you start mopping. You can use the wand attachment on most vacuums to help you dust the high spots on a wall and heater vents as well. Try incorporating these tips into your cleaning routine and you might be surprised at how much time they save you.