Whether you’re a single guy or a marriage veteran, house cleaning may be a skill you haven’t quite mastered yet. Men have notoriously gotten some bad press when it comes to housekeeping. The good news is, we have some pretty handy tips for men who want to learn the ins and outs of housekeeping.
Big Picture Cleaning Tips for Men
You’re probably familiar with the sayings about how a clean or dirty your house says a lot about you in general. While we don’t know if there is any scientific evidence, we do know a clean or dirty house says something, so we want that “something” to be good.
Let’s take a look at the advantages of a clean house:
- You can find things easier
- Your wardrobe will be in closets and drawers instead of on chairs and the floor
- Your house will smell fresh and clean
- A clean house is a healthier house because there are fewer bacteria and germs
- If there is a significant other, they will be amazed at your domestic skillset
- Your friends and relatives will tell the men in their lives all about it and ask them why they can’t be more like you
Now let’s take a look at the disadvantages of a clean house:
- If it’s been a while since you cleaned your home, your sparkling clean house will seem somewhat disorienting at first, but you’ll get used to it.
Hot Tip! Check out this great resource to get your house clean in 45 minutes!
Preventive Maintenance Primer
It may help to think of dirt and dust the same way you think of a broken faucet or a burned out light bulb. You have to fix it. And the way to fix it is to clean up the grime that prevents your house from being spic and span with these cleaning tips for men. Just like you (hopefully) do things to keep your car running well or your power tools in good condition, you have to tackle the problem before it gets out of hand.
If you want to get the house clean and keep it that way, follow a cleaning schedule and use a checklist that allows you to take on messes and grime in small, bite-sized chunks.
Do this daily:
- Pencil in 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening.
- In the morning, make the bed before you take a shower.
- After your shower, tackle your morning hygiene and then wipe down the sink and counter.
- If you cook breakfast, wipe down the stove and counters when you’re done and put your dishes in the dishwasher right away.
- In the evening, wipe down kitchen counters. If you cook, remember to tackle the stove top before any splatter hardens and sets in. Put the dishes in the dishwasher. This time put in some soap and start it up. (Don’t forget the ones that you left accidentally in the sink from this morning.)
Do this weekly:
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Mondays – Scrub toilets, clean the shower and sink and mop the bathroom floor.
Tuesdays – Sweep, mop and vacuum all other floors, including the kitchen.
Wednesdays – Kitchen duty. Purge the refrigerator of expired foods and old leftovers. Wipe down the outside of the fridge and clean the microwave.
Thursdays – Clean windows and mirrors.
Fridays – Dust everything.
Saturdays – Laundry day. Change your bed and wash the sheets and anything in your hampers.
Sunday – Kick back and enjoy your sparkling clean house!
Try this schedule for a couple of weeks using our cleaning tips for men and don’t be afraid to add other tasks if you’re up to it. You can change around the chores to different days, too. Remember the point here is that housekeeping is not a big deal if you do it on a routine basis. But first, you have to get your place into a reasonable state of clean.
Hot Tip! Learn how to clean your shower while you’re showering to save time.
On to Our 5 Cleaning Tips for Men to Get You Back to Ground Zero
Prioritize
Cleaning a filthy house can seem overwhelming. Start with the dirtiest room. Attack the cleaning that will have the most impact first, and you should be able to get into the groove pretty quickly. Now move on to the second dirtiest room and do the same thing. Do this enough, and you’ll end up with a clean house.
Tidy
You can’t clean something you can’t see. Before you start loading up with rags and cleaning supplies, go through your place and pick up anything that doesn’t belong where it is and put it where it should go. Not only will you have easier access to all the things you need to clean, but the job as a whole won’t seem so daunting when you get rid of the clutter.
Get Your Gear Ready
You have to arm yourself with the right cleaning tools before you get started. Find a tote or some other container you can carry from room to room to make sure you have everything you need to start scrubbing and wiping. You can stock your tote with sprays, microfiber cloths and other cleaning tools, so you can clean each room efficiently.
Show Some Patience
After you’ve sprayed the surface you’re cleaning with the appropriate solution, let it sit for a few minutes before you scrub. In the meantime, move on to another cleaning task. When you come back, you won’t have to scrub as hard to get things cleaned.
Beat the Clock
Most men enjoy competing. A great way to approach your cleaning tasks is to make it a sort of competition. When you approach cleaning as a fun challenge, you’ll be amazed at how much cleaning you can get done. Time yourself when you’re doing your housekeeping chores. Try to top your best time, but don’t take any shortcuts – you have to thoroughly clean for it to count. You’ll get faster and more skilled at cleaning, your house will stay clean, and you can have some fun while you do it.
When you use our cleaning tips for men, you can enjoy a cleaner house with less effort. Get into a daily cleaning routine, stock up on cleaning supplies and say goodbye to those weekend-long cleaning marathons.
