How to EFFICIENTLY and EFFECTIVELY Clean Any Room

**Originally seen on my former blog, Organize ME!!

Contrary to what my 10 year old self believed, cleaning is not simply moving stuff around. Sometimes life gets so busy, that one (or several) rooms in our house become a dumping ground, and they get out of control fast. Where do you begin?!

1.       One of these things is not like the other...

Remove everything that doesn’t belong in the room. I have a basket in my living room that I use only for this purpose. 

My first floor is pretty small, so I just go from room to room, looking for everything that belongs upstairs, and put it in my basket. If I actually go as far as putting everything away I’ll get side tracked, so I just put it at the bottom of the stairs until I’m finished cleaning.

2.       Everything that goes up, must come down…

If you really want your hard work to be EFFECTIVE, you have to start high… if you have to dust vents or corners, do that first. Then breakdown each room into smaller areas, starting with the highest “area”. Remove everything from the highest surface and dust, sanitize if necessary, polish if needed, and generally just make sure everything is neat and tidy. When I am cleaning my bookshelves, I take everything off and clean one shelf at a time, then dust each item as I put it back.

Do this until every surface has been dusted, then it’s time to vacuum. Don’t be a lazy vacuum-er!! You have to move things!! Do the furniture first, then the floors. You have to go in one direction, then in the opposite direction. Then use your hand vac or detailing attachment to get the little corners and crevices that the vacuum can’t get. My husband says he has never seen someone take so much time vacuuming, but I don’t do it every day. So if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it right!!

3.       Get ready for your close up…

Now it’s time to make everything pretty. “Stage” the room for visitors. Now that the clutter is out, arrange the pillows, turn on your Scentsy warmer, open the curtains, and take a break!!

*my delusional dream living room*