Organized Home

Paid cleaning help can be a wonderful short-cut to a clean and organized home--if the household budget can stand the cost.

But what do you do if the Prize Patrol bypassed your door this year?

Take a speed-cleaning lesson from the pros! Paid cleaning services are masters of the art of speedy, efficient cleaning. They don't waste time, cut corners or dawdle over the job--and they know how to clean fast, clean right.

Take a tip from their copybook. To clean your house in record time, try these tips from professional cleaners:

Schedule Cleaning as A Job

Professional cleaners schedule every job. Nobody hires a cleaning service that promises to arrive "some Saturday when nothing else is happening." Take a tip from the pros, and set up a regular weekly cleaning schedule.

There's nothing like the feeling of a completely clean home—but you won't get it by cleaning in fits and starts! The pros don't quit until the job is done, and neither should you. Schedule the job and stick to it to get the work done in record time.

Get Motivated

You won't find the pros pausing to follow television soap operas or check their e-mail. Amateur cleaners, too, should limit distractions as they clean.

Use appropriate motivators to energize cleaning sessions. Play upbeat music for an energy boost. Bookworms look forward to cleaning when a book-on-tape plays in the iPod. Cleaning as a team with friends or family members can help you stay on task and ease the boredom of a cleaning session.

Dress for Success

Professional cleaners dress for the job in comfortable, washable clothing designed for work. Check out their supportive shoes and kneepads. Goggles and gloves protect against chemicals.

Clean catch-as-catch can and clothing tends to catch it! End the era of bleach-stained sweatshirts and dripping nightgowns. Set aside a "cleaning uniform", and wear it, right down to shoes, gloves and eye protection.

Invest In Proper Tools

Professional cleaners don't use gadgets. You'll never find them toting specialized, one-use tools, or gee-whiz gimcracks hawked on some television infomercial.

Forget flimsy supermarket cheapies, and invest in sturdy, well-made tools. Replace the rackety sponge mop with a terry-covered Magic Mop or Sh-mop for easy, efficient floor cleaning.

Buy good tools, once—because they'll have you out the door in record time.

Tote Your Tools

Watch an average home manager clean the bathroom. Ooops! Forgot the powdered cleanser, so down the stairs you go. The toilet brush? It's in the kids' bathroom down the hall. Run to the laundry room for more cleaning towels, to the kitchen for a box of tissues. Where's the vacuum? Did the teenager take the squeegee to wash the car?

Professional cleaners tote their tools with them--all their tools. Look in the cleaner's tote tray: all tools, cleansers, brushes and rags needed to finish the job are right there. Vacuum, mop and mini-vac wait in the doorway. A plastic bag for trash is tucked into a pocket, next to the waving feather duster.

That's why the pro has finished the entire bathroom before our amateur makes it back up the stairs with the powdered cleanser.

Simplify Supplies

There's a reason the pros can tote all the products they need in one tray: they've simplified cleaning products. Professional cleaners carry:

• light-duty evaporating cleaner (glass cleaner or multi-surface cleaner)
• heavy-duty degreasing cleaner
• tile cleaner
• powdered abrasive cleanser

That's it! No soap scum remover, no special counter spray, no single-use products designed to clean only blinds or fans or walls. The pros know that these four simple products can handle any ordinary cleaning chore.

Take a page from the pros! You'll save money as well as time if you streamline cleaning products.

Make Every Movement Count

Professional cleaners don't circle a room more than once. Taking their place before the bathroom sink, they'll spray and wipe the mirror, scrub the sink, wipe down counters and polish fixtures before they move one inch to the right or left.

Don't get physical with your cleaning sessions—make every movement count. Stand fast and clean everything in your path before you move on.