How to Clean a Room – Our Top Tips for an Efficient Clean

I like to write about just about anything, and when inspiration hits, I can often find myself stating the obvious. Reading up on questions people ask about the home, a surprising number want to know how to clean a room. As inspired as I felt reading this, I figured it would be a quick article, and certainly nothing worthy of publication.

With no real thought at all, I narrowed the process down as follows:

• Enter room
• Clean room
• Leave room

Its neither nuanced nor informative, but it answers the question, right? Then I decided to give it some more thought. People that want to know how to clean a room are simply not asking the question they want to see the answer to. Add in just one more word ? like quickly, efficiently or thoroughly ? and we suddenly have a bit more to talk about. So, without further ado, let?s get into Robode?s top tips on how to clean a room, regardless of your choice of adverb.

How to Give a Room a Quick Once Over

If you?ve got people coming over or have better things to do than spend time on intensive cleaning, a quick tidy will often have to do. If you want to get in and out with the minimum of fuss, but still see worthwhile results, try the following:

• Grab a bag and either your trusty microfibre cloth or some wipes ? I swear by Dettol wipes for just about everything, but you?ll know what works and what doesn?t
• Start by placing anything resembling rubbish in the bin
• Straighten up the decorations and ensure everything is in its place
• Put anything that shouldn?t be in the room together ? this could be washing up, toys, books or anything else that doesn?t live in your target room.
• Give the visible surfaces the once over with your cloth or wipes. If you go with the latter, you?ll appreciate your decision to bring a rubbish bag.
• Gather up the clutter that needs to go somewhere else and your trusty rubbish bag, stand back and admire your handiwork.

What you do with that clutter is up to you. If you?re really in a rush, you can put it in the ?to do? pile ? just don?t let that pile get too big. Ideally, you?ll put it all back where it belongs, but you?re the best judge of what you can do and when.

You?ll notice that some crucial steps are missing here ? notably vacuuming. However, when time is of the essence, you have to consider that the above steps take a couple of minutes ? it can take longer than that to get the vacuum out and, depending on the room, lug it up the stairs. Of course, the vacuum is a crucial tool for a clean and tidy room, so you cannot ignore it completely.

How to Clean a Room Thoroughly

Different rooms require a different approach. For this feature, I?m going to cover an ?average? room. That?s the living room, dining room, bedrooms and others of the sort. You?ll find cleaning tips specifically for the kitchen and bathroom elsewhere on the site.

Also, I want to focus on cleaning that you can do every week, fortnight or monthly. We?re not going down the professional route here ? your furniture remains where it is for this one, and the room itself will stay untouched but cleaner.

What You?ll Need

• Your vacuum cleaner and, crucially, the handheld attachment
• Dusting supplies. This could include the microfibre cloth, wipes or anything else that gets the job done. I?ll assume you?ve done enough cleaning over the years o know what works for you.
• A feather duster or something similar that has the effect of making you taller
• A rubbish bag
• Another microfibre cloth and glass cleaner

The Method

Even with a more in-depth clean, some of the same steps from the once over will play a part here too. Cleaning is a fairly linear process, after all, so let?s get right into it by getting rid of anything that shouldn?t be there.

• Put all your tools and equipment somewhere that you can reach them easily, but they won?t get in the way.
• Start with your rubbish bag and collect everything that shouldn?t be there. Be ruthless here ? if you?ve got a couple of unfinished puzzles in your magazine, take the view that you?d have done them by now if ever you were going to.
• Next, collect up anything that doesn?t belong in the room, but doesn?t belong in the bin either. You?ll achieve a clean room quicker through a focus on item removal than working around them. You can put these items where they belong now, or place them to the side. As long as they don?t get in the way of the vacuum cleaner or duster, they?ll be fine.
• Start at the top and work downwards. Grab your feather duster or something similar ? an old pillowcase will do in a pinch ? and tackle everything above head height. This could be a ceiling fan, or might just be the top of curtain rails and similar fixtures and fittings. You probably won?t be able to see what you?re doing, so this is a trust exercise between you and the room. Try to be thorough and keep going until you feel like you?ve given every surface the once over.
• Still wielding the feather duster, give the corners of the ceiling a tickle where they meet your walls. Even if you can?t see them, this is where spider webs tend to congregate. They won?t mind ? they can always make another one.
• Dust every visible surface. As if your surfaces were not dusty enough already, you?ve now got anything you managed to dislodge from above to contend with too. Thorough does not have to mean slow, so start in a specific spot and work your way around the room until you get back to the beginning. This way, you won?t spend too much time cleaning a surface that is already clean.
• Clean your windows and mirrors with your glass cleaner of choice. Dust is rarely an issue here unless it has been years since you last grabbed the glass cleaner, so you don?t need to worry about undermining your other dusting efforts. Clean windows mean more light and less visible marks. Many people ignore the windows when cleaning a room, but I find this to be a crucial step with potentially the most significant visual impact of all.
• If you have blinds, dust them with your feather duster or equivalent tool now. If you have curtains, use the handheld attachment on your vacuum for a once over.
• At this point, some of your dust will be on your cloth or wipe. Most of it, however, will be on the floor and so its time for the noisy part. Give every bit of floor space the once over as usual and then break out the handheld attachment once again. Your goal here is to go where no one has gone before. Pay particular attention to the parts you can?t see ? behind furniture, deep into corners and under fixtures and fittings.

And there we have it. Following these steps, you have a room that is as free of dust and clutter as it gets without removing all the furniture, calling in the professionals or burning the house down. Repeat the process every week or so, and you?ll get it down to a fine art ? and there?ll be no chance for a buildup of dust and clutter so it will get quicker and easier each time.