strategies for cleaning a whole room?

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Are we supposed to take a break between two 20-minute sessions?

Not required, but it may help you stay on track if you allow yourself a break.

This is the very best book I have ever read about cleaning...written by a man! lol
It's a very short book, about 30 pages...and cheap.

Basically it says to do the following:

first grab a bag and go room by room and only pick up trash
then go room by room and put the things that belong in other rooms into piles, ie. if you are in the kitchen and find shoes, books, etc. make a pile in the corner of office stuff (books), bedroom stuff (shoes, etc)...after you do that in each room, then go through and put each pile where it belongs
then use a cloth, I use a solution of vinegar, water and a couple of drops of dawn dishwashing detergent and clean in room 1, the mirrors, furniture, etc., then move to room 2 and do the same, then room 3, etc...
then, go to each room and sweep or vacuum...

basically you only do ONE TYPE OF cleaning first, ie pick up trash only in each room, clean furniture, etc in each room, then vacuum in each room...etc

IT WORKS! I used to get overwhelmed cleaning, I would spend hours either in one room and not get anything done or go room to room and be all over the place. This method has truly saved me so much time. I highly recommend it to anyone who gets distracted.

Best 2.99 I have ever spent! lol

The Easy Way To Clean: How to clean your house using a three times faster method by Ian Stables.

For those who need to get rid of stuff, Simplify by Joshua Becker is a great book.

The guy has a blog too http://www.becomingminimalist.com His ideas really work. Take just one drawer of stuff, take everything out, put what you want back in and get rid of what stays out. Do ONLY one draws, closet, etc per day. It works as you will not become overwhelmed, but rather motivated because in just 15 minutes you cleaned out something.

To start with cleaning a room, you need space in your garbage bags: 1) Control the garbage and if its full bring it out, so you have space.

2) I start with "putting things in the right place". I simply start at one corner and work myself in a direction. Garbage to garbage, emptying dishes with garbages and do them into the dishwasher, things that belong into the fridge into the fridge, things that belong outside the kitchen I gather in a place outside the kitchen, tins with food to tins with food... When you are done with this, do not forget about the "things that do not belong into kitchen" stuff and bring it to where it belongs. Start the dishwasher if its full.

3) Now everything should be in ints place: Remove raw dirt as bread crumbs and everything from your kitchen tables and surfaces. If you want to do the floor too, you can simply let everything on the floor, if not catch the dirty stuff with a kitchen paper towel. (Bounty or what its called.) Afterwards, when the raw dirt is removed, you can clean the kitchen tables and surfaces wet. Spare the washing place yet, you will still need it, so polishing it now would be useless.

4) According to how much time you have got, you can do now additional stuff as -) Cleaning the fridge inside. -) Cleaning windows. -) Cleaning the stove inside. -) Cleaning storages. Concentrate on special points, so when you do the fridge you do the fridge. Remove all items, clean what you wanted to clean, refill the fridge, when your done you go to the next object. Not all at once. ^^

5) When you are done with additional stuff, back to the basics: AFTER done with the work above, you do the floor. (Because as long as you are still cleaning storages, fridge, stove the floor will get dirty, so no use to do it before that.) Clean it from raw dirt with a broom or hoover. Afterwards, if needed, clean it wet. When you are brooming you can also search for spider webs or dustballs around the kitchen (As example at the joint of the curtains.) Start in one corner and work yourself around.

6) When your done with everything: Clean the washing place. This is always the last step, because as long as you are cleaning the kitchen, the washing place will always get dirty again and again.

Hope it helps you.

I really like the "going around the perimeter" concept, and the 20-minute bits of time on a timer. When I have done the timer thing in the past, what works best for me is to wait a while before doing the next 20-minute session, if possible. That gives it a more playful kind of feeling.

When I first started, it took weeks to declutter and finally let go of many objects. After the initial decluttering, maintenance was easy. It also changed my attitude in stores. It went from "I gotta have that" to "I'm not bringing that crap into my house" When I buy an appliance, I won't get it unless a simple swipe can clean it.

That's what I do too. That must be why my house is a wreck.

I like to move everything that isn't in its place out of the room, designate an alternate room for each category, for instance toiletries in the bathroom, clothes in the spare room etc.

Then I clean and hoover, then finally I return everything to where it belongs.

Ooooh, cleaning! Being a housewife, this is my area of expertise! This is how I clean my kitchen, and how I would suggest that anyone else do it. I don't have a dishwasher, but I'll modify my list so it will work with a dishwasher.

1. Put all the dirty dishes in one central location (I use the table)

2. Go ahead and load the dishwasher and start it so it's washing while you do the rest

3. Throw out all the garbage that's on the table or counters, etc

4. Take out the garbage and put in a new bag if need be.

5. Put everything on the counters away where it is supposed to go

6. Wipe down the counters, sink, stove, microwave (wipe it out on the inside with a wet sponge, no need to scrub)

7. Check in the fridge for things that need to be thrown out, do that and then put the dishes in the sink

8. Wipe down the front of the cabinets with Pledge or some kind of dusting stuff

9. Wipe down inside the fridge, on the shelves

10. Use windex on the windows and any glass

11. Sweep

12. Damp mop

13. Put the clean dishes up and load any more dishes in

I clean by minimizing the number of things that come in. I have a garbage bin outside my front doorThings like paper are minimized because I have paperless billing and autopay for all of my bills. All junkmail gets thrown out in the garbage can outside the front door, and never gets inside. All non-essential documents with financial information or things like names are immediately shredded in my shredder near the front door.

I also have kitchen-sized garbage bins in every room. That is a very useful thing. It means there's no need to move anything from one room to another to clean, so I don't have to make the constant effort to carry trash or small trash bins into other rooms. O just let each bag fill up, and when any bag is too full, I throw it in the bin outside.

Not letting paper get into a room and having a garbage bin within easy reach make it easier to empty out the room than to bring new things in.

If I bring dishes into a room, they're stacked meticulously, like a tower, from biggest to smallest, as long as the smaller ones fit inside. I make sure to only get stackable dishes, so they're easy to stack and carry.

Do not have little things in rooms. Things like pillows, knick-knacks, et cetera, create clutter.

Look at where junk tends to accumulate in your rooms, and think about why things accumulate in those areas. Get rid of whatever makes junk accumulate in those areas.

Have lots of shelves. The more shelves and drawers, the easier to organize. And the more I can organize things, the happier I will be.

Have industrial-sized mops and brooms, like they use in schools. If you're going to mop or sweep, it might as well take two or three sweeps across the room, and not a massive amount of effort from little worthless ones. Never buy something that's used for cleaning unless it will do the maximum amount of cleaning. If something requires a lot of effort, I will not do it.

Have multiple clothes hampers. That way, you don't have to fold clothes. You have a hamper for dirty clothes, and one for clean clothes. Alternate between them, using all of the clothes in one until they're used up, then washing them, and then suddenly that's the clean clothes hamper.

If you have jeans, don't wash them often. Jean companies don't recommend it. I only wash mine once a month. I'll take off a pair, and hang it back up, then wear the next pair, and go through all of my pairs 3-4 times before it's time to wash them. They stay hung up, and there's not much effort.

This goes for things that seemingly have value: If you're not going to use something or haven't used it in a long time, put it in a drawer or throw it away.

Your bed: Make it, in the morning, while you're still laying underneath the covers. It's much easier to line up the blankets while you're underneath the covers than it is to do so by pulling on the sides of them. It takes about 10 seconds to make a bed while laying in it, and much longer otherwise.