10 Cleaning Hacks for People Who HATE to Clean!

Welcome to the Clean My Space channel. My name is Melissa Maker and I am an accidental cleaning expert. If you clicked on this video, you probably hate cleaning just like me, which is why I'm an accidental cleaning expert. You see, I hate cleaning, but I started a cleaning business in 2006 to help people just like me. And since then, I've learned a lot about cleaning. I figured things out and I share them here on YouTube and on Instagram and on TikTok and more. So in this video, I want to share 10 tips that have really worked for me that help people who hate cleaning clean better. Part of the reason I hate cleaning is because sometimes it just feels like the never-ending story. That's why if you want to get something done, set a goal, whether it's a surface, a room, or an amount of time that you're going to spend dedicating to cleaning, just set yourself a goal. Meet that goal and it actually helps you feel better and more empowered about the work that you're doing. I know for me, if I just said, I have to clean my room, that means it could be for a day. I could be so frustrated. I'll get distracted. I'll waste my time. I won't know how to get the job done. Whereas if I set a goal, I'm going to clean my room and I'm giving myself one hour to do it. Well, now we're talking business and that makes the job much easier for me to get done. The best way to maximize the time you spend cleaning is to spend time cleaning the things that are most important to you. I don't think there's value in cleaning something that doesn't necessarily bother you, but just something that you kind of think you're supposed to clean because your mother-in-law cleans it or someone you watched on TikTok cleans it. No, no. You need to think about your MIAs or your most important areas. The best way I can describe this is feel your body's physical reaction when you're present in that space. So if I'm in this kitchen and I see it and it is a messy disaster, my heart rate increases. I start to get anxious. Like I feel it. So I know if my kitchen is messy, it's an MIA. It's one of my most important areas. But my dining room, I mean the room we use the least on this floor of the house, I couldn't get two hoots about that. And if it is not clean on a random Tuesday, it is not going to affect my day or my heart rate. So when I get to it, I get to it, but I'm not going to focus on it on a daily basis. And that's what I want you to do. Really think about those areas that are important. And that's where you're going to focus your efforts. You can, I'm not saying you never have to clean those other areas, but you can let go of the feeling that you need to clean those areas all the time. Something that leads to the disdain of cleaning is the overwhelm of deciding the cleaning products to choose. And that's why I recommend just slimming it down and going back to basics. You can do so much cleaning with just soap and water. And if you add a few pantry staples in like vinegar, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide, well that's a first aid kit staple, but you get what I'm saying, you can even accomplish more cleaning. In fact, we have a DIY recipe book that you can click on. It's down below. It's DIY cleaning recipes that we've created and we've tweaked over the years. You don't have to spend a lot of money on these. You can make them for pennies and they get the job done. I know so many folks stand in that cleaning aisle kind of bewildered trying to decide what to get. And that just makes the cleaning process frustrating. So take it back to basics, make your own cleaning products, only buy what you absolutely need. And that will help to reduce your frustration. If there's a cleaning task you're dreading the most, do that one first. Because once it's out of the way, everything else will feel so much easier. What I'm talking about here are the tools. Your sponges, your brushes, your vacuums, your mops, your brooms, etc. Those are the things that will enable you to clean more efficiently and effectively. Now if you're picking up inexpensive kind of flimsy cleaning tools, you have to work harder to compensate for the crappy quality of your tools. And as someone that hates cleaning, that frustrates me. I actually find it worth my money to buy the better quality stuff that's going to work a little bit harder so I don't have to. We exist in a very distracting world. And for someone who has to do something that they don't love doing, it's very easy to choose the distraction and procrastinate on the work we have set out to do. Which is why when I clean, I have a pretty steadfast rule. I put in my AirPods, I turn on a podcast, and I put my phone where I can't see it. Because that way I just focus on the task and I'm not distracted by my phone or my watch. And sometimes what I'll do is actually turn my phone or watch on do not disturb so that I'm not distracted by texts or calls or anything of that nature. Because that will then take me away from the work I'm doing and the work I want to spend the least amount of time doing. The more I'm distracted, the more I have to prolong the pain of cleaning. If you don't like cleaning, figure out ways to stack your cleaning tasks on top of one another so you don't have to spend a whole bunch of time doing things that could have been condensed into one cleaning session. For example, I often talk about the importance of pre-treating a surface. That means finding a dirty surface, spraying it with a product, whether it's a cleaner or a disinfectant, and letting that product sit for the correct amount of time for that product to do the heavy lifting for you. That way you don't have to spend time scrubbing and the product will do what it was intended to do, which is lift that dirt or kill that bacteria. Now while that's happening, you can accomplish so many other things. In fact, when I'm cleaning, I will pre-treat my surfaces, unload the dishwasher, put things away, so by the time I get back to that surface that's been pre-treated, I have to do less work. I just have to wipe the surface down instead of having to scrub or work a little bit harder. Think about it when it comes to laundry, you can throw a load of laundry in, run through your dishwasher, get a few tasks done, and stack them instead of spreading them out over a period of time. I'm likely one of the few people on the internet who talk about cleaning that will say this. Don't over-clean. I think so many people online love creating all of this cleaning content and they're cleaning things that don't need to be cleaned or they're spending way too much time cleaning something. In my opinion, that's just a waste of time. I think cleaning is something that has to be done and should be paid no more attention to. With that being said, I also know that there is a spectrum of cleaning emotions. Some of us care deeply about cleaning. Some of us barely care about cleaning, hate doing it, don't want to think about it, and want to do the bare minimum. Be honest with yourself, know where you fall. And if you're kind of like me and you're over here, don't feel that you're obligated to spend the same amount of time that the people over here spend. When I teach cleaning, there's a trifecta, products, tools, and techniques. I think if you know those three things, you can accomplish anything when it comes to cleaning. Or in fact, when it comes to mastering any task. As long as you know the products, tools, and techniques that you need, you can get the job done. And when I think about what really upset me about cleaning when I was growing up and even when I was starting my business, like why I had this negative, visceral reaction to it, it's because I was frustrated. I didn't know how to do it and I would attempt it, I would waste my time, I wouldn't know how to get the job done, I wasn't getting great results, and it just felt crummy. So my recommendation, if you hate cleaning, is to spend a few minutes and research the technique. We have tons of videos on how to do that, almost 800. We also have an e-book that's available, I'll put it in the link down below for you, called The 3-Wave System, and it basically teaches the method that I use to clean any room in a home. I go on autopilot. It's how I train my cleaning staff. It's called The 3-Wave System and it is amazing because it gives you that strategy, it gives you those techniques so that you know what you have to do and you're not wasting any more time. As soon as I figured out this strategy, I felt way calmer. I don't want to say I hated cleaning any less, but I just didn't get that same level of frustration anymore. You live your life. You have your people, your job, your circumstances, your community. It is really hard to live a life where you are comparing yourself to other people, whether it's a neighbor, a friend, a family member, or for heaven's sake, an influencer. Remember, influencers' jobs are to make it look like they are cleaning all the time and they live in a perfect home. I mean, not me. I don't ever try to espouse that, but so many people in this space, that is what they try to do. And what does it do for the average viewer? It makes them feel bad about themselves. So no, let that go. Let go of what other people are doing and just focus on you and what you can do today. I'll give you a perfect example. Sometimes I'll get messages from people who have just had babies and they're like, I can't keep up, Melissa. What did you do when you had a baby? How did you keep your house clean? What I did, I hired help and I lowered my expectations and I told myself my house isn't always going to be this messy and hectic, but I have to give myself a break right now. I have to lower my expectations and I have to spend money on help because that is what is giving me sanity and I didn't feel bad about it. It was like a totally guilt-free move. So please let go of those expectations. Let go of what other people are doing and just focus on you and what you need to feel good and clean in your home. Well, now you have some strategies to overcome that disdain for cleaning. And that brings me to this week's comment question, which is why do you think you hate cleaning? If you hate cleaning? For me, I know exactly why I hate it. Because when I was growing up, there was a lot of negativity associated with cleaning. Like my parents would yell at my sister and I, they're lovely people, but they'd be like, girls, clean your room. Girls do this. Girls do that. And it felt like we were always only rewarded after the cleaning was done and there was no joy in cleaning. It wasn't fun. It was just something we had to do and I resented it. So that's why I think I struggled with it so much. Plus, I didn't really know how to do it, which is why I had to learn so much as I got to my sort of professional point in cleaning. But I'd love to know in the comments why you hate it or what you think made you come to this point in your cleaning life. So let me know in the comments down below. If you'd like to know how to clean different rooms or things like a pro, we have a whole playlist that you can check out. It's right over there. And two ways you can support the Clean My Space channel is by subscribing and by visiting Makers Clean, which is our microfiber cleaning cloths and cleaning tools online store. You can check that out right over there. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next time.