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These are housecleaning basics, retooled to be as guy-friendly as possible: essential know-how in the manly quest to streamline housekeeping.
- Get Started. This is always the toughest part of housekeeping for men, but it’s the most important. Why don’t we start? Because there seems to be so much to do that you don’t know what to do first. You’re intimidated into paralysis. The best way to start is to decide the one room you want to work on. Go in, look around, and start with the job that will improve the room most (like, moving dishes from kitchen sink into dishwasher). Everything else will flow from there.
- Pick Up the Place First. Shoes and socks, scattered newspapers, plates, coffee mugs, knives and forks, half-read Tolstoy novels … everything that’s strewn about the room just gets in your way and distracts you from the real job at hand: cleaning. Make a clockwise sweep of the room, toss everything into a big box, a closet, or even into another room, and then you’re ready for some serious (and fast) housework.
- Say No to Knick-Knacks. There’s nothing more maddening than to be dusting and get to a tabletop that’s filled with dozens of junky little figurines, bric-a-brac, curios, ornaments, tschotskes, delft pieces, or someone’s prized collection of what-nots. It’s a definite momentum-buster. So get this stuff out of your life forever (except for your sports memorabilia).
- Divide and Conquer. Contemplating the entire job ahead will only discourage you. Break each chore down into manageable, room-by-room "quadrants". Focus on one room at a time. Or chop it into even smaller pieces: one swath of carpet to vacuum, one shelf to dust at a time. Things seem more manageable that way.
- Carry Your Supplies With You. Any project takes longer and is more frustrating when you continually have to stop your work and go look for a tool you need. So tote basic cleaning supplies — sprays, spot treatment, sponges and cloths, a whisk broom and dustpan — along with you when cleaning. Your Mobile Cleaning Unit (MCU) can be whatever works: a basket with handles, a tool belt … anything.
- Deploy Supplies Where You Use Them. Place your most-used cleaning tools and supplies in strategic spots around the house to allow instant, easy access.
- Start High, Finish Low. Gravity: it’s the law! Clean from the top down — ceiling to floor — because when you stir up dust and dirt, they float earthward.
- Get the Right Stuff. Using the best cleaning supplies (both tools and products) makes housekeeping faster, easier and less aggravating. You can find brand name supplies in hardware, home improvement and discount stores.
- Give Cleaning Solutions Time to Work. After you’ve sprayed the surface you’re cleaning with the appropriate solution, let it sit there for a while before you scrub. Do something else in the interim. When you come back, you won’t have to scrub as hard to get things clean.
- Don’t Clean Too Much. Experts say that too-frequent cleaning isn’t good. Daily vacuumings wear out carpeting fibers faster, scrubbing rubs away wall paint, and so on. So sweep that guilt under a rug … you’re doing fine!
- Spritz, Don’t Splash. Purchase as many of your cleaning products as possible in spray containers or mix cleaning solutions in spray bottles. Then SPRITZ the appropriate solution onto surfaces and floors, let it work, and sponge it up or wipe it clean with a rag. This eliminates heavy, sloshing buckets.
- Set a Time Limit, Then Race the Clock. When you’re focused, even for a little while, you’ll get a ton of housework done. Tell yourself, "I’ll clean like crazy for 15 minutes, but that’s it." You turn yourself into a single-minded perpetual-motion machine. When time is up you can certainly stop, but you’ll often keep the mo’ going.
- Clean as You Go. Make it a habit to pick up after yourself to keep things uncluttered. Take care of small jobs to avoid big ones later.
- Spot-Clean Whenever Possible. One fingerprint on the fridge, a small spot on the rug … don’t obsess … do as little as you can. It’s the Clean Like a Man credo.
- Tune In. Use your Walkman. Listening to your favorite tunes makes cleaning close to painless.
- Send Out Invitations. That’s right, schedule a party at your place. Then you’ve set your own cleaning deadline and you’ve created the incentive to meet it.
From Clean Like a Man by Tom McNulty.
Clean Like a Man — Top Tips for Men: Created on August 23rd, 2004. Last Modified on January 21st, 2014
