Guests? Tips for a 15-Minute Quick Clean

One of my family’s most cherished traditions is the ten-minute tidy. I’m lying about that — it’s not very cherished by my kids! But I’ve found it to be super effective to get the accumulated clutter cleaned up — and sometimes even counters and floors cleaned, too!

With the ten-minute tidy in mind, I’ve worked up a few ideas for a 15-minute quick clean, just in time to practice it when holiday guests drop by. It’s ironic, and not in a good way, that the busiest month means the least amount of time to keep the house clean — yet it’s just the time that we want to spend more time with family and friends, and we love to see them when they drop by!

While I use a variety of cleaning products, my favorite go-to for more than just laundry is Clorox Bleach.

Yeah, just Clorox Bleach. I can carry it along with me and hit the house’s hotspots: doorknobs/doors, bathrooms, floors and the kitchen. Here’s how my fifteen-minute quick clean works:

Bathrooms (part one) (3 minutes)

• In each bathroom a guest is likely to encounter, pour 3/4 cup of bleach in the toilet bowl. Leave it until later.
• Pop the sink stopper and run the water for a few seconds until there’s an inch or so of water at the bottom. Pour in about a tablespoon of bleach, and using a scrubbing sponge or rough cleaning cloth, quickly scrub down the sink and faucet. Let the water out, rinse the sink and wipe down the faucet with a dry cleaning cloth

Hotspots (3 minutes)

• In my house, the biggest hotspots for noticeable grime are around doors and doorknobs. With your dampened sponge or cloth from the bathroom sink, wipe the doorknobs and fingerprints from doors — both interior and exterior.
• With the same damp sponge, hit any light switches or other areas you see in your quick clean

Kitchen (6 minutes)

I usually give the kitchen a little more time because that’s where all of us — including guests — tend to congregate. If you have someone helping you with your quick clean, assign them to do a quick pickup of any clutter in the family room and fluff the couch while you’re doing this step.

• Use the same stopper-and-water trick you used in the bathroom in the kitchen sink. Run some warm water, add a bit of bleach.
• Use this bleach-and-water solution to dampen your cleaning sponge to wipe down the counters, then return and scrub down the sink and faucet.
• Dry the faucet with your clean, dry cloth.
• Use your damp sponge to touch up any fingerprints or grime on kitchen cabinets, chairs, light switches, etc.
• If you have time, you can use the water in the sink for a quick floor mop (see the care instructions for your floor). If not, use your sponge to touch up any spots on the floor you notice.
• Before you let the water out of the sink, dampen a paper towel or two with the bleach and water solution in the sink and save for the next stop.
• Be sure to let the water out of the sink … and as you do, hit the garbage disposal switch briefly to let the bleach solution disinfect that as well.

Bathrooms (part two) (3 minutes)

• With a toilet brush, scrub the toilet bowl with the bleach and water that has been sitting there for the last 12 minutes or so.
• Wipe down the toilet handle and any surfaces that need it with your damp paper towels; dispose when done.

(How do you clean your sponges? Clorox has some great tips.)

I like to use Clorox Bleach over other brands — for me, it works better. It seems to last longer than store brands (Clorox says Clorox Bleach lasts 33x longer — I didn’t measure it that precisely!), and I confess I like to change the scents with the seasons!

And Clorox Bleach disinfects 99.9% of germs and bacteria. That’s the whole point of cleaning!

Clorox even helps me clean up my messy moments … like these:

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You can find out more about Clorox Bleach here or by visiting Clorox on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

xoxo

This post was sponsored by Clorox; however, the 15-minute quick clean and other content are all mine. See my disclosures.