If keeping your home clean and tidy during lockdown is getting you down, here are some home cleaning hacks to help save your sanity.

Having the whole family at home twenty-four-seven means far more mess than ever before. Here are some cleaning hacks and solutions to help halve your cleaning time and keep a sense of order in your home during these crazy times:

1. Clean in zones

Moving from room to room to put things away can be enough to make you dizzy.

Instead, try organisational expert Cassandra Mallett-Aarssen of Clutterbug‘s time-saving tip of picking a zone to clean, like the kitchen, and using a basket for items that need to be packed away in areas of your home.

Finish cleaning the zone you’re in and then take the basket to the next cleaning zone. Pack away items from the basket that belong in this zone before you move on to the next zone, and so on. No more running from room to room.

2. Focus on fast surface cleaning

When you want to get the cleaning done and dusted, don’t stress about what the eye can’t see, like inside a messy drawer, and focus on clearing and cleaning surfaces. The sense of accomplishment you get from clear kitchen counters may give you the boost to tackle that junk door later.

To clean surfaces quickly, it helps to simplify your cleaning products and techniques. This could mean using one cleaning product and one cloth on most surfaces. I like a natural mix of white vinegar, lavender essential oil and water in a spray bottle. It can be used to clean counter tops, glass, mirrors and even for spot cleaning the floor.

Another way to make surface cleaning fast is to cut dusting time when vacuuming by putting a small soft brush foot on the vacuum and using it to do what I call ‘vacuum-dusting’.

via Pexels

3. Zoom out

Okay, this is not for everyone, but you could multitask video conference calls and an opportunity to fold laundry.

I’ve been sitting in a few video conference calls lately and because my Internet connection is on the slow side, I’ve been kicked out of meetings and had to reconnect a few times. I’ve found that turning my camera off helps reduce this, and it means that I can fold washing while I listen in.

If you’re going to try this, say hi first with the video on and keep a note pad nearby.

4. Power shower

There’s no need to scrub soap scrum and mildew off shower doors every week if you get into the habit of using a squeegee to remove the water from shower doors after each use.

This is a cleaning hack I learnt from Melissa Maker of Clean My Space and it’s one of my favourites because it takes less than a minute and it works. I leave a squeegee in the shower and do it before I step out. Maker also recommends that you squeegee the tiled walls to prevent mildew build-up.

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