If you find yourself in a time crunch and need to figure out how to clean your apartment in an hour, then I have some tips for you. Let’s face it, an hour is not enough to clean the whole apartment thoroughly. But you can do some things to get your apartment clean and presentable enough if you are expecting company or just want to maintain.
To clean an apartment in an hour you will need the following:
- Disinfectant spray or wipes
- Tub/Tile solution cleaner
- Wood polish
- Cloths (microfiber preferred)
- All-purpose cleaner
- Glass cloths (leaves no streaks)
- Sponges
- A small handheld brush or toothbrush
- Gloves (latex or rubber)
- Trash bags
- Paper towels
As an optional suggestion, include some music! I love to play upbeat music while I clean. It helps me get into the grove when cleaning.
Get yourself a basket to put all your cleaning supplies in. If you don’t have one you can just lay them out on a table. This will keep everything organized so you know what to get when you need it. I tend to have a trash bag ready so I can begin with the first step.
What to clean first in under an hour
First things first, you should start trashing anything that is laying around that you know belongs in the trash. Items like open envelopes, papers, candy wrappers, tissue, etc., should all be thrown immediately into the trash bag.
You should walk around your whole apartment and enter every room to collect trash so you can get it out of the way. While I’m doing this, I also like to put thing back where they belong. Keeping your items organized is key to making your apartment look clean.
Therefore, If I find my headset on the couch, I will put it back on my computer desk. The remote control is in the kitchen? Put it back in the living room. I think you get the idea. All of this should take no more than 10 minutes to accomplish.
Clean each room in your apartment respectively
All rooms in an apartment are different and will require different cleaning methods. Therefore, I have set up the next phase to clean each room in order.
- Bedroom: When you’re in the bedroom start putting everything where they belong. Put all clothes away or in the hamper. Alternatively, you can pile up your clothes aside if you are going to do laundry. If you have clean clothes, hang them, or fold them to put away. Your clothes shouldn’t be visible at all. Then make the bed and organize all other miscellaneous items in the room.
- Bathroom: You should spray and pre-treat toilet and tile surfaces before you start. I would suggest doing this first and let the chemicals settle on the grime to break down before you start. You should wait at least 5 minutes for this. While I wait, I will clean all glass and mirrors with a glass cloths and solution. Once I’m done, I move on to the surface I pretreated first. Clean all surfaces in the ordered you started pretreatment.
- Kitchen: Firstly, you should put all dishes and pots/pans in the sink. If your stove is dirty and filled with gunk, I would spray all purpose solution and let it stay for a few minutes. This will break down so I can clean it easier later. While I wait, I start cleaning all the dirty dishes in the sink. Then I’d go back and clean the stove once the treatment has done its job. I will then clean all counter surfaces.
Clean the Floors
Next, I move to the floors. The way I like to clean the floors is from the floor furthest from the entrance and work my way back to the front.
Generally, I use a vacuum, a broom, dustpan, and mop that I know will clean the type of surface floor that I have. You should be able to determine which mops best suites your floors.
I will start off with the broom and go under everything that is hard to reach. For example, if there is a gap between the Refrigerator and Stove, I will broom the debris out. I will continue doing this in every hard-to-reach place, like under tables or desks.
Additionally, I will use a dustpan to pick up all the debris and place it in the trash immediately. Once all the hard-to-reach areas are completed I will vacuum all floors first. This shouldn’t take too long.
Lastly, I will use a mop to clean all hard floors. This should be done last as you will require time to have the floor dry. You can also get a dry mop to help dry faster, but I feel that is waste when floors take about 15 minutes to dry on their own.
Refreshing scent
My final step is to use soft scented sprays to eliminate odors. This is optional but I like to use Gain fabric spray on my couch, bedding, and curtains. Having a good odor in the apartment supplements the aesthetic clean look.
Additionally, I use soft scented candles to help eliminate odors from the sprays I use. I don’t like to smell the chemicals I use to clean so this helps me get rid of it. Another option would be to use plug in scented oils. These work well but I wouldn’t use these after cleaning an apartment. These are more to maintain a smell overtime and would leave them all day instead.
Maintain apartment to clean under an hour
One thing you should do to keep your apartment maintained is organize every day. We all have rough days and sometimes we just don’t have the energy or mindset to follow our own rules. But this is something everyone should do as a habit. Small little things like putting things back where they belong go a long way. Plus this makes it easier to clean the next time you have to clean again.