At Minch, we can have your home clean in a jiffy with our cleaning services – but if you don’t even have time to give us a ring before your surprise guests stop by, we’re willing to share our best last-minute cleaning tips to help you clear the clutter and dust where it counts, pronto. So next time you find yourself with 45 minutes and a dinner guest on the way, test out this list to see how the Minch difference works, D.I.Y.!
1) Make a plan, then focus on the rooms where guests are most likely to go. Hopefully we’re not talking about an overnight situation, so if you’re reasonably sure there are places where your guests won’t need to venture – perhaps the entire second floor of your home – take a gamble and leave those for last, or skip them. Focus the most on the two or three rooms that they will be spending the most time – the den, kitchen and guest bathroom, for example.
2) Multi-task like a magician. In order to make the most efficient use of your time, stop and consider the cleaning activities that take a little time. Sometimes cleaning solutions need to sit in order to be effective; plan around this by spritzing every surface that requires it with all-purpose spray and let it stand while you attend to more immediately accessible tasks. This will also help save time later by lessening the need to scrub off stubborn stains.
3) Don’t corner-clean. We know it’s difficult to overlook dust and grime when you see it, but if you’ve got a very short amount of time, feel better knowing that your guests are unlikely to notice the small details– though they’ll probably catch on to a dirty sink! Pick the largest features in your room – the sink, toilet, tub and mirror in the bathroom, and the counters and sink area in the kitchen, for example – and focus on those. You can get the other stuff later.
4) Don’t feel bad hiding your mess. It’s not ideal, but if the best way to clear out a space is to place items where they don’t typically belong – perhaps by temporarily relocating them to a nearby closet – it’s much better than running out of time and leaving a cluttered-looking room. Clutter has the effect of making a room look disorganized and uncomfortable, so it’s more important, for the moment, that you restore some harmony for your guests – if not your closet.
5) Leave out cleaning supplies. This one’s a little counterintuitive – you may think that leaving out bottles and rubber gloves (in a neat pile, of course) may make a room look even messier; in reality, though, studies have shown that seeing cleaning supplies left out in a room actually has the psychological effect of making people think the room is cleaner than they did in control studies where no cleaning supplies were left out under the same conditions.
If you need a cleaning company in Bucks County, Philadelphia, or Princeton that will always leave your house guest-ready and spotless from top-to-bottom, contact us for a free quote!
