Tips I Learned From a Cleaning Lady
By Erica, Contributing Writer
When my school day started in my junior high through high school years my mother was beginning to head toward work. She worked as an independent cleaning lady… I say cleaning lady because she was not a housekeeper, she was not a maid, she was the “cleaning lady.”
She usually had a schedule of cleaning 2 houses per day all by herself and although she did limit some of the things she cleaned (no moldy refrigerators or anything unusually weird or gross). My mother bent over backwards to be a blessing and to earn the money and reputation that she had for being a thorough and hard worker. She worked for 17 years a single-mom doing that job so she could provide for my two sisters and I, she did her best at working and being there to support us in our individual endeavors through the years all on top of working. She also toted us around with her in the summers when we were old enough to go with her and taught us about cleaning and life all at the same time.
Tips I Learned From a Cleaning Lady
Set a pattern for your routine every time you clean
One way to do it is to work from the front of the house to the back of the house or choose a systematic way to clean your house doing the kitchen first, bathrooms, bedrooms, then living areas. Pick something that works for you, many women like to tackle the hardest areas first and then work on easier areas. This could easily be broken up between family members if you have enough people to help you do individual tasks or rooms, then make sure you teach them how you like it cleaned and then delegate the responsibilities out.
Another idea to take into consideration is rotating your cleaning methods. You may not dust every time you clean, but maybe every other time. You may have a set time of year to clean those light fixtures or trash cans and do the really special Spring cleaning type of work, not every single job has to be done when you are doing basic cleaning.
Work From Top to Bottom
In your living room begin dusting, allowing the dust to settle before you clean the floors, then pick up and straighten up the furniture. Working your way down, pick up the floor then clean it whether you vacuum your carpet or dust hardwood.
In the bathroom start with your mirrors, then work down to the cabinets, then over to the shower (same thing, work from the top of the shower to the bottom), then over to the toilet, and then sweep and mop the floors.
Carry your cleaning supplies with you from room to room
This is a basic tip that you would learn from any housekeeping company as well, carrying your supplies in a cleaning bucket or a caddy will help you to be efficient with your time. This prevents you from leaving cleaning supplies behind and going back for them. This also helps you to be prepared.
A good caddy will contain: cleaning supplies, rags and/or paper towels, trash bags (typically small ones), depending on your work the following supplies are optional additions: a large scrubber and toothbrush, scouring pad, and a magic eraser.
Utilize the vacuum cleaner and its extra parts
Your vacuum can be a very big help to you. Use it and it’s extensions for cleaning nooks and crannies, vents, dust bunnies lurking under furniture, hanging cobwebs. It’s great for cleaning out drawers full of crumbs and those hard to reach corners.
Most vacuums now have the bare floors feature that also help you to “sweep” tile and hardwood floors. If you’re really trying to save time put off vacuuming until you have completed mopping your kitchen, bathroom, and entry-way areas. Vacuum your other areas while you wait for those places to dry.
Cleaning two-sided glass takes practice
This is for cleaning two-sided glass, the screen door, french-doors, maybe even windows that are inside the home. My mom taught me that when you are on the inside you clean the glass in one direction, for example, you would clean from top to bottom. When you go to the outside you clean from left to right and the reason is so that when you double check to make sure the glass is clean when you see the streaks you can tell which side needs to be wiped down again.
If you saw the up and down streaks, then you would come inside and clean again. If you saw streaks from side to side then you would know to clean the outside again. It may take you a few times to clean an outside part of doors/windows especially if you live in a very dusty place.
Be creative and experiment even while cleaning!
We like to think of ourselves as women as creative in the crafts or maybe in the kitchen as a good cook, but you can even be creative in cleaning. In 17 years of using products that her employers provided, my mom tried everything from natural to a wide variety of store bought cleaners and over time she figured out what she specifically preferred to work with best.
Don’t be afraid to try new things! Try the new scrubber that catches your eye, experiment with the cleaning recipes that you’ve seen your friend talk about online, change your routine around, and even be creative in how you tackle your cleaning.
Read articles, check out books from the library, ask other ladies you know what works for them. Be realistic though, not everything that works for others will work for you and your family, so be a little adventurous when it comes to finding those things you like to help you get your housework done so your family can be happy and healthy.
Allow household chores to keep you humble and teach you to be a servant
Often we pick and choose specific cleaning tasks that we dislike, but those exact jobs can teach us to serve others with humility. There are people who choose specific jobs as being “too hard” or act as if cleaning a toilet is beneath them. When you take your responsibilities on as a personal project of learning humility, then while you are doing those jobs you can be content while are doing them. It doesn’t mean you might not feel uncomfortable, but you can have peace in knowing that your work is a service to others.
No person is too good, no job too gross, nothing beneath us because if you are a Christian you can look at the example of Jesus Christ humbling Himself, becoming a servant, and see that if the God of Heaven could come down and do the lowest of tasks. Who are we to reject menial house cleaning tasks? My mother was a good example of not being too good to serve others and taught me that thought and idea and it has helped me as we serve in the ministry and often have to clean up after others in our church.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2: 5-8
None of these tips were mind-blowing, but they may help that new wife or refresh the older one to apply her creativity to even her household cleaning. My hope is to inspire you not to let the day-to-day cleaning bog you down but to keep trying different things until you find the routine or the products that help you to do your work efficiently so you can go on and live life with your family. These are the things a cleaning lady, my mom taught me about cleaning and life and I love her for it!