By Manasa Reddigari
Use these some cleaning shortcuts to turn the grimiest estate into a prime estate in minutes.
Inviting Space
Stop fumbling in the foyer with a mess of shoes, umbrellas, and magazines. Instead, tuck them into cloth baskets or woven bins (like these from Target) placed behind the front door. Use a handheld vacuum to usher away dust and other uninvited guests from the entryway.
Hamper Scamper
No time to tidy up? Convert an off-duty laundry hamper into a receptacle for stashing loose personal effects, books, and supplies. When the party’s over, give the stowaways a lift back to their respective cabinets, shelves, and desks.
Fluffed Up
Transform homely sofas into decorative focal points by fluffing up flattened pillows and arranging them over any visible upholstery stains. Alternatively, flip battered couch cushions to reveal their good side.
Couch Potatoes
You don’t have to do the time for the crime of snacking on a microfiber couch and leaving behind dry food debris and fingerprints. Use a handheld brush to gently massage away offending grit.
Chaise Down
Give your sofas stylish arm candy with decorative baskets that hold wandering books, magazines, and toys. Place the storage containers at the far end of the sofa to bring focus to the conversation, not the clutter.
Dust Buster
A microfiber cloth (like these from Amazon) works wonders in the dusty microcosm of the living room. Run the cloth over the television screen, coffee table, and end tables to achieve pristine surfaces untouched by time.
Vanity Sanity
Counter clutter on the bathroom counter by organizing it in underlying cabinets outfitted with toiletry holders. Put a Lazy Susan (like this one from Amazon) to work to hold makeup and shampoo bottles, and stack towels and toilet rolls in baskets.
Well-groomed Workroom
Transform a haphazard home office into a study on cleanliness by scrapping expired post-it notes and to-do lists. Shelter homeless supplies and trinkets in attractive stationary containers placed atop your desk or beneath the keyboard.
Clean Sweep
Sweep—don’t mop—dry mud, debris, and pet hair off the floor, out of the door, and out of mind. Reserve your hardworking mop for spot-cleaning wet mud or visible food stains on hard floors.
Aromatic Accents
Banish everyday odors and make a fresh start by lighting a candle in your favorite scent. Candles naturally eradicate unsavory scents without help from harsh chemical cleaners.
Slick Move
Are your bathroom countertops, sinks, or faucets bathing in grime, soap scum, or dried toothpaste? For bathroom surfaces so shiny your guests can see their reflections, grab a wet wipe or a soft cloth saturated with homemade all-purpose cleaner and make a few quick, unidirectional swipes over them to disinfect and de-grunge them in a hurry.
All Fluff
Transform your bathroom from shabby to hotel-quality by swapping limp, lifeless bath and hand towels on towel racks for fresh, fluffy towels. Fold and hang the towels at the center of the rack for a tidy touch. While you’re at it, replace that half-used toilet paper roll with a full roll to make the bathroom guest-ready.
Furniture Fix
Can’t put your finger on why your living or family room looks off kilter? Furniture and other essentials might have budged from their usual parking spots, while other items might have started piling up. Restore order in the blink of an eye by straightening sofas, ottomans, pillows, and rugs; returning remote controls to their perch on a table; putting books back to the bookshelf; and recycling the magazines and newspapers that you’re no longer reading. For an extra measure, run the vacuum through for that fresh carpet look.
Straightened Out
Arranging items in a linear layout lends a sense of symmetry to any living quarters. So neatly stack those spread-out magazines and newspapers on the coffee table, corral loose mail in a tidy pile on an end table, and store books on shelves so that the spines line up. You’ll cut the visual clutter in seconds.
Folded Comforts
Blankets and throws are often the first accents to fall by the wayside after a night spent lounging on the couch, usually winding up in a crumpled heap on the sofa or the floor. Rather than leaving them there and creating an eyesore, or stashing them behind the sofa or in a hamper, where they’re bound to get more crinkled, fold them and drape them on the arm of the sofa for an elegant, bohemian-chic effect.
Sparkling Side Up
If the doorbell rings just as you spot a glaring food stain on a decorative kitchen towel, it’s no doubt too late to throw it in the washer. Try this stain-lifting hack instead: Fold the towel in half lengthwise and hang it from the oven handle with the clean side facing you—your guests will be none the wiser to the stain on the other side!
Discreet Desk
When company arrives, it’s well past time to put work away in the home office. Stow your keyboard, mouse, and any other peripheral equipment in desk drawers, leaving only the monitor behind for a clutter-free atmosphere.
Pajama Dilemma
Giving your guests the grand tour of your house? You’ll want to make those loose pajamas lying on your bed disappear pronto. And what better place to temporarily stash them than under your pillow? Fold up lightweight pajama tops and bottoms and slip them underneath a pillow on your bed for a spotless sleep sanctuary and easy retrieval of your nightwear at bedtime.
Blind Item
Visitors will be blind to the dirt on the topside of your blinds if you simply turn them up to display the tidier underside. Then, pull soiled curtain panels closed to instantly revitalize aging windows.
