How to cheat at cleaning

Dear Busy Girls Guide

I'm totally fed up with cleaning. I seem to clean at every given spare moment of the day. Please don't ask me to get the boyfriend to help - I've tried that & it's not happening. I clean before I go to work, I clean before I go to bed but even though I clean all the time, the place still has that 'tidy but not really clean' feel to it. If you know a free cleaner or have a spare hour to come & help do let me know - alternatively I wonder if you have any tips for getting the house clean, quicker! Tania Roberts, Tarporley, Cheshire.

Dear Tania,

Thank you for your letter. Firstly, we'd like to you know you're not alone - apparently over 50% of us Busy Girls do 1/2hr cleaning before we go to work. Oh, & the men? They don't, quite simply. We'd love to help, so we've created a whole new article just for you - for a Busy Girl's hectic life - please let us know how you get on...

So, we'd love to be perfect Busy Girls, but does our quest for outward perfection mean that we can't cut corners sometimes? Even perfect comes with a few cover-ups (just look at the sales of Touche L'Eclat to top models if you don’t believe me!).

At The Busy Girls Guide, we're totally up for corner-cutting, time-saving & minimal-effort techniques for cleaning. Yes, we need ways to cheat! So next time you find yourself mopping the floor muttering like your mother, bring some of these cheats into play...

Narrow your focus

With a schedule like yours, there's no time to clean the house from top to bottom. But you'll get a good amount of work done if you attack mini cleaning projects throughout the week, five minutes here & 10 minutes there. Take a laser approach, rather than a machine gun! You may not be able to clean the entire bathroom before you leave for work, but you can squirt cleaner on the tub & wash it off.

Become a storage nut

Make the best use of the storage in your home & create new storage where none existed before. That's a key strategy to the easy elimination of clutter. This means mastering wardrobes, shelving, boxes, bins, hooks, hangers & more. Investment in storage gear pays off handsomely.

Make your gear easy to grab

When it's hard to get to your cleaning tools, less cleaning gets done. At a minimum, keep a fully stocked cleaning station on each floor of the house.

Engage the brain before cleaning

Ok, so it's easy to let your mind wander while you're slogging through a cleaning chore. But the task will go quicker & easier if you're ever alert for opportunities to cut corners: put your plastic cutting board in the dishwasher rather than hand washing it; after brushing your teeth, touch up the mirror & tap with one cleaning wipe; open your mail over the paper box & let all the junk mail fall into it. For every time saving move you make, award yourself TWO points on your mental scoreboard.

Be willing to spend money in exchange for convenience

Ok, so they can often be a little more pricey, but convenience items virtually allow you to "buy" time. Try some of the latest cleaning gadgets out there - keep in mind that any cleaning challenge is an invitation - we say outright permission - to buy cool stuff.

Acquire the right stuff, little by little

They look great the first time you wear them, then you spill something on them & consult the label - argh! Our wardrobes are rife with clothes that stain easily, wrinkle readily or require special care, such as hand washing & dry cleaning. No one expects you to toss them all out today, just make sure that you replace worn-out clothes with stain & wrinkle-resistant ones - things you can pull out of the dryer, hang & wear without further care. When it's time to buy something new, make easy care & easy cleaning priorities in your decision.

Be willing to replace old worn-out items with fresh new ones

Things like doormats, tea towels & shower curtains for instance are never really going to come clean. Run them into the ground, then replace them when they hit their inevitable irredeemably minging state.

Busy Girls Final Word: We can't stand & look over your shoulder as you clean. You're in charge. If you're not comfortable with using a particular piece of advice in this book, no problem - just move onto the next item. Your happiness is more important than being a slave to someone else's ideas.

The Busy Girls Team - collective!
Busy Girls Guide
Manchester & Cheshire