Every Saturday we share one of our favorite entries.
Ivy says:
Sometimes you have guests coming over unexpectedly and you don’t have time for the full cleaning route. And sometimes you just don’t feel like cleaning like a madman when there are guests coming over. So what are the most important parts of your house to hit in order to make your house look decent? Here’s a list:
1. Toilets- because they’re probably going to want to use your bathroom, so make sure your toilets are sparkly clean. It’s easy to pull the shower curtain to hide a soap-scummy tub, and people will overlook a less-than perfect sink, as long as your toilet is looking good.
2. Mirrors/glass/other shinies- A general film is okay, but smudges and splatters on your shiny/glass objects, are very noticeable. Whip out the Windex and give them a quick shine.
3. Floors- Vacuum, sweep, and mop as needed. If I’m really short on time, I’ll do what I call “spot-mopping”; that is cleaning the parts of the floor that have spots or are otherwise funky. This works out better if the floor stays generally pretty clean but just has a few spots of funk on it. If your spot-mopping results in nice, clean spots that stand out from the rest, you’re going to have to go all out and mop the whole floor.
4. Cobwebs- Knock down any and all cobwebs. Pay special attention to your light fixtures, that’s where my cobwebs hide, only to come out when people come over. You can always tell them you’re decorating for Halloween, but that really only works one month out of the year.
5. Clutter- Even if you have to sweep it all into a laundry basket and hide it in a closet, get rid of the clutter on your tables and countertops. People tend to notice stuff like that, for some unknown reason.
Stumble it!
9 responses so far ↓
1 Sanjay Das // May 3, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Thanks for the very interesting details.
2 Lotte // May 3, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I had a visitor today… and your post pretty much describes what we did to make the house presentable. I cleaned the bathroom and the mirrors while my husband dealt with the floors. No cobwebs to knock down as we only moved into this house 2 weeks ago, but I did do that laundry basket thing with the clutter that had accumulated on the kitchen countertops and the coffee table… must remember to sort it out before I next need to do laundry!
3 chichimama // May 3, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I dump the clutter into paper grocery bags. Then find it months later and wonder why it is in there. The laundry basket is a much better idea as I will need that sooner rather than later!
Great list!
4 kate // May 4, 2008 at 5:00 am
Rule #5 repeatedly got me in trouble as a teen when I cleaned my room. And really, how dare they notice the counter clutter!
5 bridgett // May 4, 2008 at 10:33 am
You’ve just described my really GOOD clean. Gah. No wonder I don’t get many repeat visitors.
6 Sandyjoys // May 4, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I hear ya, bridgett. That is the quick clean? When I take the mop out that is the nitty gritty cleaning.
7 Carpet Cleaner Newcastle // May 6, 2008 at 7:54 am
The bit about cobwebs just made me look up at the ceiling - oh dear, oh dear oh dear!
8 JayMonster // May 7, 2008 at 2:45 pm
My 2 variations on this.
1. While on the cobweb “kick”, I also take a look at the major light fixtures. That little black ring that gathers if you have a closed end light fixture? Probably dead bugs. ewwwww.
2. Swiffer. I don’t particularly like Swiffer for a serious cleaning… but for quick once overs it is fast and efficient to get it “good enough”
9 Rosemary // May 13, 2008 at 7:36 am
That’s a great list for a quick clean. Good idea to keep this list around when the unexpected guest will be there in a few minutes.
Rosemary
http://her-home-blog.com
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