11 Quick Cleaning Tips For Busy People

Life gets busy. We often find ourselves over overworked, over-scheduled and over-stressed. It’s only natural that some things get forgotten about, or just pushed down the list of priorities. These 11 quick cleaning tips will help you find a balance between your busy life and a clean home!

When you’ve worked an 8+ hour day, come home, fed the kids, helped with homework, dealt with bills and emails, the last thing you then want to do is clean!

If you want ideas to get your kids to help with the chores, check out – 10 EASY Ways to Get Kids to Do Chores

I get it, I’m the exact same way! But I also feel extra stressed when my house is messy or dirty. I can take any day-to-day stress in my stride, but if my house is dirty I completely lose it! It’s almost like the final straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Our homes are meant to be places that we can relax, unwind and reset. I can’t relax if my house is messy. I will try to relax because I just don’t have the energy to clean the toilet or vacuum the floors. But I don’t truly relax until my house is clean. It’s then a vicious cycle.

I have a busy life between work and my kids. I love spending down time with my kids and doing fun activities. But I also need a clean house or I get too stressed out. Many years ago I had to come up with a solution to this problem. I’ve developed quite a few cleaning hacks, that make my life easier and make it quicker to clean!

Below are a few of the quick cleaning tips that I use EVERY day to keep my house clean and tidy (without spending hours cleaning!).

Quick Cleaning Tips for Busy People

These quick cleaning tips are things that I’ve found make my life easier. They might be different for you. But hopefully, they will get you thinking about how to streamline your cleaning routine so you CAN have a clean house while working full time with a family!

1. What Are Your Cleaning Triggers

First of all, you need to set some priorities about what is important to you in a clean home. Do you have to have clean bathrooms or your skin will crawl? Are your dusty shelves making you feel like a slob? Does your kitchen need to be spotless before you go to bed? We all have different trigger points.

Mine are my floors – I just don’t feel like my house is clean if my floors are dirty. Carpet or hard floors – it needs to look clean for me to feel like I have a clean house. So that’s my priority. Dishes in the sink don’t bug me as much as crumbs on the floor. So sweeping or vacuuming quickly each day is a must for me.

Your “Clean Trigger” will be different. You might not even realize what it is. But it’s that one (or 2) tasks that make you roll your eyes and huff and puff when you see it. That’s the thing that you need to figure out a quick and easy way to clean!

Check out my FREE Weekly Cleaning Schedule!

2. Find an All-Purpose Cleaner That You Love

If I do have the energy to clean a room or two, then I want to make sure I always have the right cleaning product on hand.

I remember when I was a child, my mother had a giant caddy filled with a dozen different cleaning products. One product for each task.

She would spend hours each day cleaning the house and always used the exact right cleaner. But then again my mother could have given Martha Stewart a run for her money!

I bet you’re thinking the same thing as me- “I don’t have the time (or money) to use 10 different products just to clean my bathroom. That takes too long“!

You need one cleaner that you can use for EVERYTHING (or nearly everything!). There’s plenty of great multi-surface cleaners out there. Try a few until you find the one you like.

I love Infuse All-Purpose Cleaner (in fact my 9-year-old daughter loves the smell of it so much she BEGS me to allow her to clean the kitchen! Bonus!), the fresh smell makes my kitchen smell clean as well as look clean.

I also LOVE Infuse products because they are refillable which saves on packaging (less plastic waste ending up in landfills!) and saves me money too!

If you’re feeling particularly frugal (which I am most of the time!), then you like to make your own multi-surface cleaner. It’s super easy to make and can be used on just about anything (except granite or marble).

All the ingredients are easy to find at your local grocery store and each bottle will only cost you a few cents!

Vinegar Multi-Surface Spray

Ingredients

• 1 Part Rubbing Alcohol
• 2 Parts White Vinegar
• 1 Part Water
• 3-4 drops of Dish Soap
• Optional: 10-15 drops of Essential Oil (I like Lemon or Orange Essential Oils for a fresh smell)

Combine all the ingredients in a reusable spray bottle (Dollar Tree sells nice big ones) and give it a gentle shake.

You can use this mixture to clean counters, toilets, bath tubs and showers, windows, mirrors, even floors! (Do not use on granite, marble or other natural stones)

Just spray and wipe with a microfiber cloth! Easy!

3. A Good Door Mat

Did you know that a good doormat at each of the entrances to your home can cut down on 75% of the dust and dirt that gets into your home?

At each of your doors (front door, door to the garage, sliding patio door) you will want to have 2 mats, one on the outside and one on the inside.

The outside one should be a heavy-duty doormat that can stand up to the weather as well as scrap the majority of the mud and dirt off your shoes.

You can also ask everyone to take their shoes off as they enter the house so that the dirty isn’t tracked all over the house.!

My kids and I have a basket in the garage where we take off our shoes before we even step foot in the house (it also means the shoes are out of reach of a chewing-monster puppy!)

Inside each door, you will want to have a softer utility mat that is washable and generally a nice color/pattern that matches your decor.

There are so many choices of color and texture that you are bound to find one that you love!

4. Right Vacuum for the Job

I have a mild obsession with vacuum cleaners! OK, it’s a pretty big obsession. At its peak, I had seven… yes, SEVEN different electric floor cleaning devices (and that doesn’t include mops and brooms)!

Over the years I’ve pared down my collection and now I have the following 3 types of vacuum cleaner.

Full Sized Vacuum

I could talk for hours about how great my Dyson is. Yes, I know they are expensive and there are some great alternatives out there.

But I’ve had my Dyson for over 14 years and it’s never given me any problems. I recently serviced it myself for the FIRST TIME… yikes, there was a lot of crud built up! But even though it had been sadly neglected, it still cleaned wonderfully (I’ve never had a vac that has cleaned so well).

Spare parts are easy to find on Amazon or eBay and there are dozens of YouTube videos showing you how to replace them. I fully intend to have my Dyson for another 10+ years! Well worth the initial investment!

Cordless Stick Vac

Cordless vacuums come in all shapes, size, and prices. I’ve tried dozens of them over the years and the one thing that I’ve discovered is price really does make a difference. You want to look for one with a good sized battery. If the battery power is too low, then your vacuum just won’t have the power to do a good job.

I’ve never had much luck with the 2-in-1 cordless vacuums (a stick vac that lifts off and becomes a handheld one), they just don’t seem to have the same level of power. And remember we’re trying to find quick cleaning tips, so chasing the same piece of lint for 5 minutes isn’t going to help us!

The cordless vac that I’ve been happiest with is the Shark Rocket Lightweight. This has great suction and is perfect for pet hair and fast clean-ups.

Robot Vacuum

And last, but certainly not least… a robot vacuum! I’m sure we would all love to have a Rosie The Maid robot, like The Jetsons had, but that’s still a way off. BUT you can have a robot that vacuums your floor!

I’ve had a few different types of robot vacuums (I told you I was obsessed!) and they all have their benefits and detriments.

Going over the different types is an entire article just on its own! However, I’ll cut to the chase. My favorite budget robot vacuum cleaner (value for money vs. ease of use) is the Eufy RoboVac. It has a good battery life and dirty bin capacity. It’s not as fussy as the iRobot Roombas and cheaper than the Roombas and the Neatos.

Robot vacuums really do make life easier. You just press a button and let it do its thing! They do take longer to vacuum a room than you would… but you’re not doing it, so it doesn’t really matter!

It can take a little bit of trial and error to “robot-proof” a room, but once you’ve done it, you don’t need to do it again. Simple things, like hiding loose wires so it doesn’t get caught on them (things you’d need to do for a regular vacuum anyway).

Want to learn more about robot vacuums? Check out my Definitive Guide to picking the best robot vacuum cleaner for your lifestyle!

Edited to Add: I’m obsessed with my Neato D4 robot vac. I actually have 2 of them – one for upstairs and one for downstairs! Yes, that seems a bit extravagant, but clean floors are my cleaning trigger! It’s more expensive than the Eufy robot vacuum, but it is packed with features!

I have 4 dogs and 4 cats, so my floors have to be cleaned every day! I run them every day – I just hit the “run” button as I’m leaving the house for the day and I come how to clean floors! 

5. Microfiber Cloths For Quick Cleaning

While on the subject of having the right tool for the job, we should talk about another useful time-saver – Microfiber Cloths!

For a long time, I used paper towels to wipe down surfaces while I was cleaning. But this isn’t very environmentally friendly and it can end up costing a fortune!

I converted to microfiber cloths for all my cleaning a few years ago. And it is probably the best quick cleaning tip thing I have done. I have a pretty good stash of them now, so once I’m done cleaning I just throw it in the laundry (without fabric softner). Quick and easy… but also effective!

You should get the car detailing cloths as they tend to be bigger, thicker and cheaper than the household ones! You can buy them in bulk from Amazon. I normally buy 20-30 cloths, so I have lots of spares, so I don’t have to do laundry too often! I also like getting multiple colors, so I know the blue ones are for the kitchen, the green ones for the bathroom, and so on.

The Zwipes Microfiber cloths work out to be about 50 cents each! Sooo much cheaper than paper towels and much better for the environment!

6. Furniture Polish for Stainless Steel

Now I love my multi-surface cleaners, but there is one place that they don’t always do a great job – stainless steel.

But… oh…. the fingerprints! This is probably my second “cleaning trigger” after floors! I don’t understand how my stainless steel appliances can get so many fingerprints and greasy marks on them in such a short space of time.

I’ve tried the fancy stainless steel cleaners and I just haven’t been that impressed. They tend to leave a film on the surface or leave streaks and they are really expensive!

One thing I have found that works wonders is Pledge Multi-Surface furniture spray. Not only is Pledge great on wood, granite, and glass (yes, the multi-surface version works on glass), but it is AWESOME on stainless steel! It gives a nice shiny, streak-free finish.

The other secret to shiny stainless steel is microfiber cloths (again)! Using a clean microfiber cloth with furniture polish will not leave it streaky!

7. Clean Shower After Use

I hate cleaning the shower. I’m not sure why. I guess it’s because it seems like it should be such a quick and easy thing to clean, but it always seems to take forever. The dreaded soap scum!

So to save yourself time in the long run, one of my favorite quick cleaning tips is to clean your shower every day after you use it.

There’s plenty of different Daily Shower Spray products to pick from or you can make your own with a mixture of vinegar and dish soap. I like the Method Daily Shower cleaner – again it smells gorgeous and isn’t full of harsh chemicals.

OR… if you’re uber-lazy like me and you don’t want to have to mess around spraying down the shower every day (because that does take at least 30 seconds… who has that kind of time?!), then you can spray Rain-X on your shower walls and door once you’ve cleaned it. It will then work, much as it does on your car, and the water/soap just runs off the walls and door without leaving a residue, keeping your shower cleaner for longer!

8. Cleaner in Toilet Brush Holder

This is one of my favorite quick cleaning tips as it makes your cleaning routine easier and your house smell better.

Pour a small amount of disinfecting cleaner into the bottom of your toilet brush holder. It not only keeps the brush clean and sweet-smelling but also if you want to give your toilet bowl a quick swish, then you already have the brush loaded up with cleaner.

I like to use Fabuloso (you can get it at Dollar Tree) but you can also use Pine-Sol or similar cleaners.

Edited to Add: If your toilet brush has metal holding the bristles in place, then it will rust. If your brush is all plastic then it won’t rust.

Another quick cleaning tip is to swish out your toilet bowl every day. It takes seconds (especially if you have the cleaner already in the holder) and it cuts down on build-up that might take more time and effort to clean at a later date.

9. Line Pans with Foil

This quick cleaning tip will save you SOOOOO much time at the end of the day when you need to clean up after cooking dinner.

Before I cook anything, I always line the baking sheet or pan with foil. You can spray the foil with cooking spray so that your food doesn’t stick.

Once you’re done the cooking, all you need to do is carefully remove the foil and throw it away. The pan is clean and doesn’t even need to be washed!

You can use budget foil from a dollar store, but I find that can be too thin and tears easily. So I prefer to get the heavy duty foil at the grocery store.

10. Quick Hard Floor Cleaning with a Spray & Mop

So we’re back to my floor obsession! Vacuums are great for cleaning up dust and dirt, but sometimes hard floors just need to be mopped.

Ugh! So now you need to drag out the bucket and mop, fill it with soapy water and drag it around. Or you could use those expensive disposable mop heads. Nope and nope!

I LOVE the O-Cedar Microfiber Mop. It’s double sided – one side is great for “dusting” the floors and the other side for mopping.

To quickly give your hard floors a bit of a clean, just spray some cleaner (I use my vinegar multi-surface cleaner of course!) on the floor, and then wipe over it with the microfiber mop.

I hook the spray bottle in the waistband of my pants – spray, swish, spray, swish… I can do my whole kitchen in a minute or two. Once I’m done I just throw the mop head into the laundry!

Easy, quick and environmentally friendly!

Edited to add: I decided to update this quick cleaning tip as I recently found an EVEN better way to clean my floors! And quicker too! The Infuse Refillable & Reusable Mop. It’s as easy to use as a Swiffer mop, but without the waste or the expense. It leaves my floors looking (and smelling!) amazing!

11. Make Your Bed

This last quick cleaning tip is in honor of my mother. She really was a domestic goddess and always had an immaculate home. And the one thing she swore by (not that she ever swore, of course!) was to ALWAYS MAKE YOUR BED!

Every morning without fail she would make her bed. I have to say it does make a lot of sense. An untidy bedroom can look neater with a made bed, but even the tidiest room will look messy if the bed is unmade. It’s also wonderful to get into a made bed at the end of each day. Ah, bliss!

So now I have the same habit as my mother. When I wake up I kick back the covers to “air” the bed a little, while I shower and get dressed. Before leaving the bedroom though, I always straighten the covers and fluff the pillows. It literally takes less than a minute but it means I always have an inviting bed to come home to at the end of a stressful day.

Even my children are slowly picking up the habit. I’ll keep reminding them until it becomes second nature to them too! (Check out my post about Getting Kids to Do Their Chores for more tips!)

What’s Your Favorite Fast Cleaning Tip?

So there you have it! 11 tips to help you breeze through cleaning without using too much effort or time.