Easy Apartment Cleaning Routine

August 28, 2022 by Mulberry Maids

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Even though apartments are typically smaller than full homes, they still take effort to clean. So, it goes without saying that any thorough apartment cleaning should follow a sustainable routine to make sure that it is cleaned consistently and well throughout the year. 

Offering the best apartment cleaning in Fort Collins ensures that we have the right skills and insight to help you develop your own routine to consistently and easily keep your apartment in the best shape possible. 

Keep reading on to learn more about creating your own easy apartment cleaning routine to make sure you never fall behind on your cleaning again!

Should I start by decluttering my apartment?

When you live in a small space, or any space for that matter, the buildup of clutter will be the downfall of keeping your home a clean and peaceful space. Not only will clutter make your room less pleasant to be in, it makes the actual cleaning task much more difficult. From extra dusting to working around clutter and excess belongings on the floor, cleaning will take more time and energy, which usually results in skipping your routine cleaning sessions. 

Just like staging a home for short term renting, keeping the clutter to a minimum will make your space feel like a clean vacation home that you are excited to come back to each day. To keep the clutter down, follow the tips below:

• Wash your dishes, cutlery, and glasses after each use, or make sure that they are put in the dishwasher and never left out. 
• Make sure to store your clothing and bags where they belong, instead of letting them pile up on furniture or your floor.
• Have a designated area for kid toys that are not in use. Work on instilling the importance of putting things away with your family. 
• Have a specific area for pet toys and items, such as leashes and dog toys.
• Take time each day to go through new mail, magazines and newspapers, to reduce the buildup of clutter from these items. 
• Assign an area of the home for miscellaneous electronics such as extra phone chargers, remote controls, key fobs and other small things that create clutter, and also have a tendency of getting lost. 

How long should it take to clean my apartment?

While there is no easy answer to this question, the more consistently you clean and the better you are at keeping clutter to a minimum, the faster cleaning will be. For a small apartment that is well taken care of, you may not necessarily even need to do a full deep cleaning, as you are always cleaning areas of the apartment on a regular basis. 

Other factors that contribute to timing include:

• The size of your apartment is a big factor, as the larger the home is, especially with more bathrooms, the more effort it will take to clean. It is very reasonable to fully clean a small apartment in under an hour. 
• The state of your apartment. An extremely messy space that has not been cleaned for a long time will always take longer to clean than a decluttered and consistently cleaned apartment. 
• Dogs, cats and other pets will usually result in lots of hair and other debris that will make cleaning the floors and furniture a harder and slower process. Again, consistency is huge, as cleaning will be tougher once things get a bit out of hand.  

What is an easy cleaning routine to clean my apartment fast?

There are a couple of different types of cleaning routines that can be utilized to clean your apartment fast, and each will depend on your preferences and personal schedule. If you are interested in doing a thorough full apartment cleaning each time that you clean, you can try to get on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule to make sure that things don’t get too dirty in between cleanings. If you like setting aside 1-2 hours for cleaning all at once, then this is a good routine for you. Make sure to clean the following areas throughout the apartment:

• Kitchen and dining room
  • Clean the stove top, hood vent and cabinets throughout the kitchen using an all purpose cleaner and microfiber cloth. You may need to use a degreaser depending on the state of the kitchen, and other heavier duty scrubbing tools such as Magic Erasers or hard bristle brushes. 
  • Finish the kitchen by doing a counter cleaning and decluttering, and a sink scrubbing. 
• Bathrooms
  • Make sure to not skip the details, such as behind the toilet, and the corners and edges in the shower. Depending on the state of things, you may get away with cleaning the whole bathroom with an all purpose spray and disinfectant, or you may need to use a degreaser or specific toilet bowl and shower cleaner. 
  • Always do the floors last, as it is most efficient so you don’t get the area dirty after cleaning it. 
• Bedrooms and common areas (living room, family room, hallways, laundry room)
  • Start by high dusting the room, and working your way down. Make sure to pick up any clutter or loose items, and make your bed or change your sheets. 
  • Take a look at the windows, window sills and frames, and blinds for any dusting or additional cleaning needed. 
  • Make sure to clean all light fixtures and ceiling fans. 
  • Finish up by vacuuming or mopping the floor. 
• Baseboards and other areas
  • You likely won’t need to clean your baseboards or walls every cleaning, but if you are starting out with a deep cleaning after not having cleaned for a while, it is best to wet wipe the baseboards with an all purpose spray and microfiber cloth. Additionally, take a look at the walls to see if anything needs to be spot cleaned. 
  • Make sure to pay attention to door handles and light switches throughout the home. They can build up quite a bit of grime, and really brighten things up once they are cleaned. 

If you are not interested in doing a full cleaning each time you clean, you can break up your cleaning into multiple short days. This will take more consistent effort, but each cleaning session will be significantly shorter. You can schedule this in all different ways, depending on your cleaning goals and how heavily your home is used. 

A good way to break up cleaning into shorter days, is to do a 4-6 day cleaning split. It could look something like described below, which could be done as 4 days of cleaning, with 7-10 days in between starting the next cycle.

• Day 1: Kitchen cleaning
• Day 2: Bathroom cleaning
  • Depending on the size of the apartment, this could be broken up into 2 days if you have more than 2 bathrooms to clean. 
• Day 3: Bedrooms and common areas
  • Depending on the size of the apartment, this could be broken up into 2 days if you have multiple large common areas or bedrooms to clean.
• Day 4: Miscellaneous cleaning 
  • Cleaning of baseboards, walls, garage and other areas that didn’t get addressed on the other cleaning days. 

Regardless of which style of cleaning you prefer, consistency will always be key to sticking with a routine that allows the cleaning to be easy with lower effort. The more time in between cleaning, the harder and more tiring the cleaning will be.  Even if you are between your cleaning days, you will want to keep clutter to a minimum and clean up after cooking or  having guests over. 

Apartment cleaning in Fort Collins that surpasses your expectations!

Mulberry Maids works with the best cleaners around, who possess both the experience and expertise needed to provide superior apartment and home cleanings in northern Colorado!  

With competitive pricing and a 100% happiness guarantee, there is nothing to hesitate about when booking your next cleaning with us! Give yourself the treat of a home cleaning, so you can spend the evening at Ginger and Baker instead of cleaning your home!

Reach out to us today and get your home back in the shape it should be in!