Five Step Quick Cleaning Routine

That moment when the phone rings with friends asking if they can stop by, and you look around the house wondering how much you can clean up in the next 30 minutes before they arrive. Please tell me I’m not the only one this has happened to?!

I always do better when I have a plan, so I thought I’d embrace the idea of spring cleaning this year by coming up with a simple game plan that I can use throughout the year to whip the house into shape quickly. With young kids and a new puppy in the house, I’m always in search of green cleaning products that are safe for our home and family, so I’ve partnered with Safeway and their exclusive Open Nature™ household cleaning and care products to share my new Quick Clean Routine.

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We pay to have our house cleaned every other week, which has been one of the best investments we’ve ever made! It forces us to put everything away on a regular basis and gives us a fresh start twice a month. As a result, the house never gets too bad in between. But two weeks is still plenty of time for clutter to pile up, dust to accumulate, and of course, there are the daily messes, spills, finger prints {and nose prints} of two kids and a dog.

When it comes to giving the house a quick clean, I feel like I waste a lot of time running around trying to figure out what needs to be done. That’s why I decided to come up with a game plan so I can make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time.

A little organization goes a long way, so in addition to creating a quick cleaning plan, I also wanted to take the time to spring clean my cleaning supplies – both literally and figuratively. I pulled all my old cleaning supplies out of the linen closet and under the kitchen sink. Over time, we’ve become a lot more conscious of the products we use in our home – opting for safer and greener ingredients. I purged everything that was expired, not frequently used, or simply not in line with our new, greener standards. {Be sure to do your research on the right way to dispose of old cleaning supplies.}

I’m replacing our old cleaners with the new line of Open Nature household cleaning products that are safer for our home and family without sacrificing on the cleaning power we need for our toughest messes.

As a mom, it can be a challenge trying to figure out which products are really the best for our home, so I appreciate that the Open Nature cleaners are certified Safer Choice by the U.S. EPA.

The products are dye free, contain biodegradable ingredients, are made with 100% recycled paper, and come in fragrance and perfume free options.

I buy my Open Nature products at my local Safeway store in Denver, which proudly stands behind Open Nature with a 100% money-back guarantee. You can also shop Open Nature household products exclusively at Albertsons, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, Tom Thumb, ACME Markets, Star Market, or Shaw’s.

After gathering up all of my new, greener cleaning products, I realized it would be much easier to keep most of the supplies together in a container that I can easily carry from room to room as I work through my new cleaning routine. And you know my motto – everything is better with a pretty label!

I picked up a galvanized tub and added a bright green “Quick Clean” label to match the green in my laundry room and linen closet, where I plan to store it between uses. I filled the tub with the glass & window cleaner, the all purpose cleaner, a roll of paper towels, and my feather duster.

How to clean house quickly! Whether you need to clean the house fast for guests, or if you're looking for a quick daily cleaning schedule, this five step checklist will have your house looking clean in no time with products that are safe for your home and family.

With all my cleaning supplies together in my new, cute container, I’m ready to share my new 5 step quick cleaning routine.

STEP 1: CLEAR THE CLUTTER

Lots of stuff lying around makes even a clean house seem messy, so when you want your house to look clean in a hurry, start by clearing the clutter. But there’s nothing worse than tossing things in closets and drawers to make the house look clean, only to make a mess of those spaces and be searching for things later on.

For a while now, I’ve kept a basket at the top and bottom of each set of stairs in our house. I try to toss things in throughout the day that need to be put away on another floor of the house. For example, the basket at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the bedrooms is where we toss any kids clothes or books that belong upstairs, and the basket at the top of the stairs leading to the basement is where we drop any toys that need to be put away down in the playroom.

When it comes time to clean the house quickly, these baskets are a life saver! I can gather up all the clutter that’s lying around the house and toss everything into the right basket. Even if I don’t have time to put things away before guests arrive, I can fill up the baskets, get them to the right floor of our house, and then tuck them out of sight in a closet without loosing track of anything. After the guests leave, I can grab the baskets out and finish putting things away.

STEP 2: LIVING ROOM REFRESH

When guests arrive, our living room is the first space they see, and likely where we’ll spend most of our time. Dust accumulates quickly on flat surfaces like our coffee table and piano, so a quick pass with a feather duster refreshes the room in a hurry.

There’s nothing worse than walking into a house and smelling what was cooked for dinner the night before {unless chocolate chip cookies happened to be on the menu}. I like to light a candle to fill the room with a nice scent when guests are on their way. Turning on music is another nice, welcoming touch.

STEP 3: FOCUS ON THE MAIN BATHROOM

When you’re doing a quick clean up before guests arrive, you won’t have time to clean every bathroom in the house, so focus five minutes or so on the bathroom guests are most likely to use. Run a toilet brush quickly around the toilet bowl and use the Open Nature all purpose cleaner and an Open Nature paper towel to wipe down the faucet, sink, counter top, and outside of the toilet bowl. The all purpose cleaning spray is perfect for the bathroom because it kills 99.99% of viruses, bacteria, and germs.

I also make sure there’s a clean hand towel and plenty of soap, and I like to sit out an extra roll of toilet paper if it’s getting low. I love the water lily and jasmine scent of the Open Nature hand soap, and also that it contains no artificial colors.

STEP 4: QUICK CLEAN THE KITCHEN

I’ve gotten into a pretty good routine of loading dirty dishes straight into the dishwasher, but the items I prefer to hand wash, like pots, pans, and our good knives, sometimes end up piled in our sink until I get around to them. A sink of dishes not only looks messy, but can also leave unwanted smells in the kitchen, so it’s worth spending a few minutes to catch up on the hand washing before guests arrive.

After putting the dishes away, I quickly wipe down the faucet and the inside of the sink to leave it looking shiny and clean.

We seem to have little hand prints on every surface all the time, especially on the fridge, kitchen counters, and bar stools {little boys love to eat}. A spritz of the Open Nature All Purpose Cleaner removes hand prints, food spills, and water spots and immediately makes the kitchen look cleaner, in addition to disinfecting and providing 60-second sanitization.

When guests are on their way, there’s probably no time to mop the kitchen floor, but a quick pass with a broom cleans up the crumbs, and then I again use the all purpose cleaning spray and a paper towel to spot clean any dirt or spills on the floor. I always make this last on my kitchen cleaning list because other clean up steps may result in crumbs hitting the floor.

STEP 5: IF YOU HAVE EXTRA TIME

If I finish the first four steps and still have a few extra minutes to tidy up before guests arrive, I’ll take out the trash and then tackle the kiddo hand prints {and puppy nose prints} that always adorn the windows in our living room and kitchen using the non-toxic Open Nature Glass & Window cleaner.

Now that I’ve come up with my new quick cleaning routine, what I really should do is tackle each of these tasks first thing every morning after the kids are off to school so that I never have to scramble before guests arrive. That feels like a good goal, but I know that many days life will get in the way, so for now I’m just happy to have a solid game plan to clean up the house in a hurry any time I need to. Hey, at least I’m being realistic, right?!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Safeway. As always, the opinions and text are all mine. Comments submitted may be displayed on other websites owned by the sponsoring brand.

Five Step Quick Cleaning Routine

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