Desperate times can call for desperate measures, especially when you only have 10-15 minutes before company arrives. Don’t beat yourself up for taking a few shortcuts. Here are my tricks for getting your home surprise-guest-ready under 20 minutes.
1. Plan Ahead
Keep a large zippered bag (like the ones duvets are sold in) and have a set of wash cloths, bath towels and hand towels. You will have clean (and stain-free!) towels in the bathrooms your guest will go into without having to rummage through your linen closet. While you’re at it, put a fresh bar of soap in the shower. This will help give the bathroom a fresh boost.
Tip: Keep several clean-smelling candles (like Clean Linen, Fresh Cotton, or soothing Lavender scents) in your arsenal. Light these when you start cleaning, and by the time your guests arrive the scent will spread throughout your house. This is totally a shameless fog and mirrors effect: a house the smells clean gives the impression that it is clean.
2. Clear out clutter
Start in one corner of the room, and move in a circle around the room. As you walk around, pick up any items on the floor, on the backs of chairs, and anything out of place (including little knick-knacks). If you have a dishwasher, empty your kitchen sink of dirty dishes and hide them inside. An oven works, too, if you don’t have a dishwasher. (Just don’t forget about your secret stash after your guests leave, or you’ll have a super hard time finding the smell of last week’s dinner.
Tip: Have baskets for last-minute stowing of toys and blankets. I have a bookshelf in our living room where I stash the dog toys out of sight. I also have a basket to store extra blankets. It’s amazing how handy a few baskets can be for making your house look tidy.
Desperate Measures: If you are super short on time, grab an empty laundry basket and dump all miscellaneous clutter into it. Hide in the laundry room or in an off-limits closet.
3. Dust from top to bottom
Always dust bookshelves, countertops, and—if in a dire state—ceiling fans before vacuuming. Try to steer clear of feather dusters that will scatter dust and create more work for you. Instead, use microfiber cloths and dusters, or better yet furniture polish to reduce the airborne dust flurries. Take a quick look at your corners, floor and ceilings, for cobwebs.
In my experience, there’s nothing worse than guests enjoying their time with you when you suddenly lean back in your seat, see a dusty ceiling fan, and pray that no one else notices.
If your ceiling fans only look dirty when company is on its way, you’re not alone. Bonus points for being short, needing a step ladder to clean the fan blades and having dust fall in your eyes. A vacuum like the Dirt Devil® 360° Reach™ has an attachment perfect for ceiling fans (with another that can also be used to dust the top of your fridge and kitchen cabinets when you’re ready for a deep cleaning).
I love how I don’t need a ladder to clean the blades. It suctions up the big dust bunnies so the dust never hits my mouth (or eyes).
While you’re at it, run the portable vacuum quickly between couch cushions for those sneaky crumbs of food.
4. Motivate Yourself
Who says it has to be boring? Make sure you have music to help keep you moving (and help you keep track of time!). HGTV’s blog has an excellent list of tunes sure to make cleaning just a tad more fun.
5. Don’t Forget About Yourself!
You did it! Don’t let your guests find you all flustered and unkept. (I’m totally guilty of this myself. Sometimes I look like the cleaning lady and not the hostess!) Find a few minutes for yourself. If you need a shower, keep it under 1 minute. Dry off, brush your hair, and dab on some CC cream. Finish off with a bold lipstick and a flattering outfit. Now you look as good as your house does!
Do you have any tips on how to save face get your house ready for those surprise visits?
If you want your own Dirt Devil 360° Reach, the special package price of $149.99 is available at http://buydirtdevil.com and includes an additional attachment package valued at $75 (while supplies last).
P.S. Be sure to visit my other cleaning tips too!
Carolyn Selheim-Miller says
These are great tips! I am a big proponent of having baskets around for clearing clutter whenever you need to. Our dining table often gets covered in work papers and newspapers, so I have a basket at the end of it that’s wide enough to hold all those things. Makes clearing off the table for dinner and/or guests so quick!
Lisette says
Gah! Paper is the bane of my existence! I should probably get a shallow basket for our kitchen countertop. Thanks for the idea! Never occurred to me to have one just for mail. Our kitchen island falls victim to all incoming mail and it’s an utter eyesore. I usually end up stashing everything in our “junk drawer” never to see the light of day again. Haha!
Jessica Olson says
Love this! I need to get some baskets like that for my baby’s toys… they are always EVERYWHERE!
Lisette says
Those toys seems to multiply overnight. Baskets are life savers!
Nikki Frank-Hamilton says
Ha! We use the oven to hide dirty dishes, I’ve melted a few “tupperware” containers in my day!
Lisette says
Funny! I’ve stored tupperware in the oven when we first got married. Needless to say, my husband wasn’t too pleased when the house smelled of burning plastic when he wanted to bake a lasagna. Oops!
Nikki Frank-Hamilton says
Yeah, kind of a yucky smell!
B @ The Sequin Notebook says
Great tips, and I especially love that candle idea…simple yet genius!
Lisette says
Thanks! Candles have superpowers! I love them.
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Fogeddabotit says
Great tips… thanks everyone!
Nothing like fresh vacuum tracks to portray a clean home throughout (includes area rugs)! For bath/kitchen throw rugs, I use the Spic n Span fabric lint roller (Walmart) to remove hair/lint (a strand of packing tape works too… just press it on and rip it off). Next I slide a dust mop over tile/wood areas to quickly rid of any debris/dust/hair. The Swiffer Wet Jet completes the floors where any spot-mopping is necessary. I always buy its refill det containing Febreze, to give every room a super fresh, clean scent.
Also use the fabric lint roller on all upholstery containing pet hair (or the tape works well too).
I dust virtually everything with the vacuum, and (obviously with more time permitted) anything that can be put into the dishwasher through the rinse cycle gets it this way (just be sure to have Jet Dry levels filled to repel water spots and turn the ‘heated drying’ feature off so nothing is melted/warped).
I too stow dirty dishes inside the dishwasher and oven in a pinch, and to instantly shine that stainless or porcelain sink without scouring, lightly spray an even coat of WD-40*, then wipe clean with a paper towel… works like a charm in a fraction of the time!
For those who end up out on the patio, dust is a daily prob. If you have a pool, take advantage of this huge dunking tub… after all, the dust that resides on your patio furniture is the same dust that falls into your pool on a daily basis. Remove the cushions and dunk all pieces in the pool (anything from wrought iron to wicker to resin), then arrange them in the sun for quick drying (tilt whatever would retain internal water so it drains out). While those are drying, vacuum all cushions, and wipe the glass-top tables (I use coffee filters and Sprayway spray glass cleaner for streak-less results… Walmart… Windex streaks). I also dip my 6′ silk house plants/trees in the pool for a good dusting! If you don’t have a pool, spray furniture (or silk plants) off with the hose, but this will obviously take more time than dunking everything in the pool.
Finally, I lightly spray every room with Febreze (Fresh Linen or Original with Gain are cleanest scents), and put a couple of lit incense sticks in the ground around the patio area. Gonesh Sandalwood is the cleanest scent (https://www.gonesh.com/c-107-sandalwood-shop.aspx , and all Gonesh incense contains no wood-burning smell, provided you don’t leave the flame lit past achieving that brief, initial “glow”).
A great lighting schema can also create an illusion of a clean, elegant home during all hours, but in the earlier hours, you certainly don’t want direct sunlight beaming down onto any furniture in need of a dusting.
Now for your appearance… as long as you retain a great haircut and put on a great outfit (accessories benefit tremendously!), you need virtually no makeup to pull off a dazzling 5 minute makeover (I use a self-tanner on my face since I don’t tan my face, lip liner, a lightly-colored lipstick/gloss, and a touch of mascara). Hope this helps!
*Did you know that WD-40 stands for “water displacement”, which took the company 40 tries to obtain the perfect formula… hence the brand name WD-40? Yep!
Lisette says
Wow!!! Thank you so much for these detailed tips. Amazing!