Thank you.
This is the real payoff of speed cleaning, more free time.
Hi, my name is Jeff Campbell, and about 12 years ago, I started a cleaning service in San Francisco called the Clean Team.
During the years since then, we've learned a lot about cleaning, and we're getting better and better at cleaning houses well and fast, really fast.
We've perfected our cleaning system and described it in a couple of books published by Dell.
They're really our trade secrets.
You might have guessed, one of those books is called Speed Cleaning.
This tape is based on that book.
This tape is going to give you a clear, step-by-step method for cleaning your house on a weekly basis.
What to do first, what to do second, what tools to carry, and how to proceed until you've completed the entire house.
What it's not going to be about is heavy cleaning.
You know, things like washing the windows or stripping the floors.
That's actually covered in another book called Spring Cleaning.
This book is also published by Dell.
What we're talking about here is routine cleaning.
You might call it maintenance cleaning.
You know, things like thoroughly cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, and then dusting and vacuuming the rest of the house.
Another thing we're not going to talk about or give you are a bunch of house cleaning hints.
I mean, why hint? Why not give you the whole story?
Believe it or not, our three-person teams can clean an average San Francisco home thoroughly, top to bottom, in about 42 minutes.
We can clean a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in about 18 minutes.
And we're going to teach you those exact skills so you can use them either by yourself or in your own team.
Depending on your own family or household, you may or may not be able to pull off this team idea.
But the system works just as well, whether it's men, women, or children, you know, depending on their abilities.
The floor doesn't really know who's scrubbing it, so everyone can kind of pitch in.
Actually, if you stop and think about it, no one ever really teaches us how to clean.
But don't worry. What we're talking about here is working smarter, not harder.
And also, you don't really need to worry about me trying to talk you into liking house cleaning.
You can go ahead. You can hate it if you like. You can love it, too.
But I can really show you how to get it over with quickly and to eliminate a lot of the frustration that makes house cleaning quite so time-consuming.
We can also eliminate house cleaning as a source of conflict in your household.
You know, households in the 90s are under more time pressure than ever before,
especially when both spouses are pursuing a demanding career
and trying to cope with the responsibilities at home at the same time, including being an involved parent.
You need some relief from that pressure.
And that's what this is really all about, developing a system for you to reclaim something very valuable in your life, time.
Time to relax, to spend with your spouse and children, to start something new in your life.
That's also why this is so personally satisfying to me.
This isn't just about house cleaning. It's also about your well-being and that of your loved ones.
First, let's take a look at what we're going to cover in this tape.
We'll start out by reviewing the equipment and supplies that we've found to work best after years of field testing.
Then we'll take you through each of the main rooms of the house, step by step, starting with the kitchen.
Then everybody's favorite room to clean, the bathroom.
Then dusting and polishing in the living room, dining room, and so forth.
And then some vacuuming techniques.
And finally, some information on where to find the right equipment and cleaning supplies.
Those are the main points that we're going to cover in this tape.
Never, never forgetting that the whole idea is to learn how to get it over with fast and reclaim some extra time.
There'll be no lingering, no dawdling, no fussing, and especially no cute little hints allowed.
In the speed cleaning book, we boiled our system down to 13 rules.
Here we're going to talk about the first two most important rules, and we'll sneak in the other rules later on when you're not looking.
The first rule and the most important rule is to make every move count.
You may know what it's like to work without a system.
You're zigzagging back and forth across the house.
You're repeating steps you know you don't need to, and you're making more and more work for yourself.
In short, you're working more than you need to, but you're getting less done than you could.
Rule one will fix that.
When you learn to make every move count, you'll learn to work in a sequence that makes good common sense without backtracking.
Once around the room and you're done, except for the floor.
Keep this rule in mind at all times when you're cleaning.
Make every move count.
To make every move count, you've got to observe rule two.
Use the right tools.
Regarding tools, what you don't need is a collection of gadgets.
What you do need are very few professional tools that really work.
Anything that takes up as much time as cleaning deserves its own no-nonsense tools.
And we found out that the single most important tool turns out to be a work apron, such as the one that I'm wearing.
When we were first developing our system, we knew we needed to just make one trip around the room when we were doing the work.
Well, the solution seems obvious now. You've got to carry everything with you.
And the easiest and the most comfortable way to do that is with a cleaning apron.
It's a little bit like a carpenter's belt.
You know, you and I wouldn't even hire a carpenter that ran up and down the ladder every time he needed a nail.
But that's the way many of us have been going about cleaning the house for years.
We're making trip after trip back and forth and across and through the house.
We had so much trouble actually trying to adapt other people's aprons to this, such as carpenter's aprons or other things.
They didn't have enough pockets or something. They just didn't work. Things fell out of them.
So we ultimately designed our own apron specifically for cleaning.
It has seven specialized pockets, three of which are dedicated to small tools that we'll talk about.
There's another pocket for carrying cleaning cloths.
There's a pocket for debris.
And very importantly, there are two loops so that you can carry the spray cleaners that you're going to need to clean the house with.
After Speed Cleaning was published, we received a real avalanche of requests from people who wanted more information about the products we use, particularly our apron.
Since it can be somewhat time consuming, try to locate some of these products.
And since our whole point is to try to save you some time, we put together a little catalog that lists all of the products that we use.
If you would like to mail order this exact apron or any product that we talk about in the tape, we're going to show you how at the end of the tape.
But we want to be fair minded about other products also.
You don't have to order anything from us or from anyone else.
You can use the products that you have at hand, especially when you're first learning.
Actually, the system is more important than the products anyway.
It's a little bit like learning how to type.
First learn how to type and then worry about what type of typewriter to have.
But some products really are better, and some products really are faster, and some products are safer both to you personally and to the environment.
So that's what we're going to do next.
We're going to list them for you so that you can see the products that we actually use.
In this section of the tape, we're going to talk about the items that you need for cleaning every room in the house, whether it's the kitchen, the bathroom, or the living room.
Later on, we'll talk about a few other items that are unique to each room, but we won't talk about them until we're actually cleaning that room.
The first group of products we're going to talk about are all the products that we carry in our apron.
And the first product in the apron is our Red Juice.
Red Juice happens to be our favorite cleaning product.
It's a heavy-duty liquid cleaner, similar to like 409 or Fantastic.
It happens to be non-toxic, it's odorless, it's biodegradable, it's USDA approved for use around kitchens,
and it doesn't make us cough like some of the grocery store brands that we've tried.
It's a champion degreaser and cleaner, and we use it for everything from fingerprints to spotting carpets.
You need to keep the top of the spray bottle tight at all times.
If it should ever come loose, it can cause a real mess.
And notice that the top is also color-coded so that we can quickly grab for whatever cleaner we want.
Always put it back in your apron in the same spot.
If you're right-handed, we suggest you put it back on your right-hand side since you'll be using it more than our second cleaner, which is Blue Juice.
Blue Juice is a light-duty liquid cleaner, similar to Windex or that type of product.
Like Red Juice, though, we think it's both better and safer than the other products that are available.
It's good for light jobs such as cleaning glass windows, glass in the pictures, or mirrors.
Like Red Juice, put Blue Juice back in the same spot on your apron.
The next product is a cleaning cloth.
It's really at the heart of our whole cleaning system.
What we use are high-quality, all-cotton table napkins that are hemmed so they don't become unraveled.
They are highly absorbent. They are as lint-free as anything gets.
We tell you to throw away your old underwear, throw away those old T-shirts you've been saving.
Don't even think about using polyester, which is highly unabsorbent.
Don't use any cloths that have color in them because it could come off on the wall that you're trying to clean.
And we definitely don't recommend sponges.
Sponges don't absorb as well as cleaning cloth.
You can't scrub it with them like you can with a cleaning cloth.
And you have to rinse them over and over again.
And even when you're finished, they're not dry.
The surface isn't dry, and you have to wipe it with something or another.
Clean cloths, on the other hand, can usually wipe a surface clean and dry in one or two swipes.
And then you just toss them in the washing machine.
So over time, they're a lot cheaper besides.
It's important that you know how to fold them so that you can fold them
that they don't all fall out of your apron at the same time.
So let me show you.
It's real easy. Just fold it once, fold it twice, fold it in the middle.
This also gives you several different surfaces that you can use
for cleaning surfaces when you're actually using it.
There are two options for the cleaning cloths.
One of them is good old-fashioned cotton diapers.
You probably remember them.
They're a little hard to find these days.
Try to get the ones that are not pre-folded.
The other option are paper towels.
This is kind of an expensive option compared to cleaning cloths
because you've got to keep replacing them over and over again,
not to mention how many trees it takes to make the paper towels.
However, if you're going to use paper towels, use the best ones available.
And they happen to be bounty microwave paper towels.
Those are the ones to pick if that's your option.
The next tool is a toothbrush.
We call it a toothbrush, but it's actually a stiff bristled brush
that's angled to get into tight spots.
You'll notice a real difference in cleaning power
when you compare this to a cleaning cloth alone.
A lot of surfaces appear to be smooth, but they're actually irregular.
With this brush, you can actually dig into the irregularities in the surface
and actually clean the surface much better
when a cleaning cloth is apt to smooth right over the top of the irregularities.
Besides those types of surfaces, it's also great for a light switch plate.
It's good for tight spots like around a faucet or the knobs on a stove.
We even use it for spotting carpets.
The next tool we're going to talk about is another one
that has its own dedicated pocket in the apron, and it's a scraper.
It's actually a little spatula like you'll see a painter use
when they're doing spackling, but it's used when even a toothbrush will take too long.
An example would be when you were cleaning, say, for instance,
pancake lumps off of a counter.
You know how they kind of turn to stone overnight?
You can wipe and wipe with your cleaning cloth,
or you can scrub and scrub with your toothbrush, and it won't come off.
However, if you take your scraper and quickly pop them loose,
you're done with that job, and you can move on.
There are a couple of precautions when using your scraper.
Use it at a low angle.
It's harder to scratch a surface if you keep the scraper at a very low angle,
and also get the surface wet with some of your red juice or blue juice
because it's also harder to scratch a wet surface than a dry surface.
But to be safe, always test in that famous inconspicuous spot.
The next tool is another one of the tools that has its own little pocket,
and it's a razor blade and a razor blade holder.
Use this for some chores that otherwise can be very difficult,
such as trying to get the soap scum off of a shower door
or use it to clean the inside of an oven door
and get that baked-on grimy stuff off of there.
It's also great for getting a spot of paint off of a mirror
that may have been there for five years.
If you carry this tool, you'll actually take it off.
The next tool that we're talking about is not a tool at all,
but two of the largest pockets in the apron have replaceable pocket liners,
and there's a couple of reasons for that.
One of them is for debris.
If you come across, say, an ashtray full of cigarette butts
when you're doing your cleaning,
your first impulse is to go off looking for a garbage can.
Well, you have no excuse to do that.
You'll just dump it into your plastic line pocket and keep on cleaning.
The other one is to help keep you dry.
It's a place to put your wet cleaning cloths.
Well, that's about it for all of the tools that we carry in our apron.
Now we're going to talk about the tools that we carry in our back pocket,
which means that we like to clean houses
wearing pants that have two back pockets.
If you don't have a pair of pants that have a couple of back pockets,
or if you happen to like cleaning house in the nude,
I guess you're just going to have to improvise.
The first one is a whisk broom.
It's great for getting cat hair off of the couch
or getting a few cookie crumbs off the couch
so you don't have to drag out the vacuum cleaner to do it.
It's also perfect for getting that little edge of the carpet
that the vacuum cleaner never gets,
no matter what the vacuum cleaner salesman tells you.
The other pocket we carry, one more tool,
and it's a feather duster.
It's a very special feather duster, however.
It's made of genuine ostrich down feathers.
Only ostrich down actually attracts dust.
It's also very soft and pliable,
which means you can get into some very tight spots with it.
Definitely don't get one of those tacky, cheap, fluorescent orange feather dusters.
They're absolutely worthless.
So how are you going to store all these supplies?
Well, we have an idea there.
We use a carry-all tray.
We've got one with steep sides so that your items won't fall out,
and it's made of strong plastic, so it's literally indestructible.
It's great for storing supplies that are not carried in your aprons,
such as a comet or extra cleaning cloths.
It's great for carrying your supplies from room to room.
It protects the surfaces of your house,
and it's a good place to store things in between your weekly cleanings.
Let's stick some of these items in here,
and speaking of storing your items between weekly cleanings,
try to select a storage place that's a little bit higher
than underneath the kitchen sink.
That's not a good place.
The kids can get to it, and besides which,
it's hard to find things under there.
If you want to save time cleaning,
you don't want to struggle around trying to find your cleaning supplies every week.
That's it for the tools and supplies that you need
no matter what room you're cleaning.
There are a few others that we'll talk about
when we're actually cleaning the other rooms that are involved.
Over the years, we've tried just about every possible combination
of strategies for cleaning,
and we've found that what works best for our company
is to work in teams of three.
But it doesn't matter if you're going to be working alone
or whether you're going to be working in a team of two or three or four.
We're going to explain one job at a time.
First, we'll talk about how to clean the kitchen,
then we're going to talk about how to clean the bathroom,
and then we'll talk about how to clean the rest of the house.
First, we'll show you exactly what you put in your apron
and what you put into your carry-all tray,
and then we'll go through that room step by step
so that you can learn it perfectly.
By the way, at least for now, we're the boss.
We're going to relieve you of the responsibility
of having to make any decisions.
Maybe later after you've got the system down pat,
you can make an adaptation.
But for now, let's do it this way,
and you'll learn how to get it over with fast.
And speaking of fast,
it's just about time to speed clean the kitchen.
We just have one thing left to do,
and that's to talk about the few extra supplies
you need for cleaning that room.
Hello again.
We've already talked about the products
we need for general cleaning.
Let's talk about the few extra products
that we need just for cleaning the kitchen.
I want to make a little room in this cleaning tray,
and then we'll load them up.
The first product we need is good old-fashioned Comet.
We've always had the best luck with Comet
compared to the other brands,
and Comet now has a safer formula,
at least according to the manufacturer,
that's good for most all surfaces.
As with anything, though, you can scratch practically
any surface if you bear down hard enough,
so be careful with it.
If you're so inclined,
you may want to use rubber gloves.
Rubber gloves, if you're going to use them,
use the professional kind.
They have a nice long sleeve
so the water doesn't dribble down your arm
and so that they don't rip about two seconds
after you put them on.
One other thing, kind of contrary to common belief,
they don't have to be skin tight.
This isn't brain surgery.
You don't want to have to wrestle them on and off
every time you clean.
Let's see, what else do we have in here?
A scratch pad.
You've probably seen one of these.
This is made by 3M, but it's a sponge on one side
and it's a scratch pad on the other.
It comes in several different colors.
The white's the one that's safe for almost all surfaces
you'll find in the kitchen or the bathroom,
but be careful of green or black or blue
or other colors of it
which can damage a lot of surfaces.
Even the white pad, if you used it
on certain highly polished surfaces
like lacquered, for instance,
it could scratch that.
Also, let me see.
We've got steel wool here.
Steel wool is something
that can come in real handy
when you're trying to clean a stove top.
You've got to be careful with it
because steel wool can scratch.
However, if you get the triple zero,
that's safe on most stove tops
and it can really save your life
on certain hard things to clean.
One other thing that we need
is something to clean the floor with
and what we use is clear ammonia.
Not sudsy, not detergent,
not anything else, but clear ammonia.
Ammonia actually cleans just fine
without suds.
In fact, we're convinced that suds
was added by some marketeer
who thinks that we probably will feel better
if we see suds on the floor.
But suds just take a long time to remove
and they don't make the ammonia work any better.
Ammonia all by itself is a great cleaner.
It's strong, it's effective,
and it's quite inexpensive.
One other thing that we need
is a supply of cleaning cloths,
probably 10 or 12 or plenty
to clean your kitchen.
You know, there is one little other thing
that we should talk about.
House cleaning isn't really fraught with danger
or anything, but there are a couple of precautions
that you should take.
The first precaution is don't ever mix your cleaners.
One of the cleaners we were just talking about,
ammonia, when mixed with bleach,
can produce a deadly gas.
Just be careful and never,
never mix any cleaners.
There is another precaution,
I'm sure you've heard it before,
but that is to read the labels
and follow the directions.
There is one other thing we need to clean the kitchen,
and that is a mop.
This funny looking thing is a mop,
and we're going to talk about it
a lot more when we clean the floor,
but just suffice it to say that it's an improvement
over the mop that you're used to using.
Well, I think I'm just about out of excuses.
I think it's time to go
speed clean the kitchen, finally.
I'm going to clean it for you from top to bottom,
and I'll meet you there.
First put your mop just inside the door,
and next put your
carry-all tray on the counter.
You're always going to start cleaning the kitchen
from the same spot, and that spot is
to the right of the sink.
Now it's time to get dressed,
so let's put on our apron first.
A smart way to put on the apron is
to put it on backwards.
That way you can see yourself
tying the bow, which is a little bit easier
than trying to do it behind you.
When you get it tied, just pull it around.
Now you've got it into place.
It's a good time to check and make sure
that you have your little tools.
Remember you've got a toothbrush, you've got a scraper,
and down here is the razor,
and they're all where they belong.
You need a few cleaning claws.
Take some of them out of your tray
and put them into your apron pocket.
And you notice I didn't say
stuff them in your apron pocket,
but put them in there in a nice, organized way
so you can pull them out one at a time
when you're using them to clean the kitchen.
You remember you've got two plastic-lined pockets.
The first one
is to carry your white pad in.
Your white pad will quickly be wet,
and the plastic will keep you from being wet also.
And the other one is for debris,
you probably remember.
Now, red juice,
check to make sure it's tight,
and then put it on the right side
as long as you're right-handed.
Put it on the left side if you're left-handed.
Set your blue juice in place also.
So, now we've got our apron is full
and we need a couple of tools
that go in the back pocket.
One of them is a whisk broom.
The whisk broom comes in real handy in the kitchen,
especially if it is carpeted.
And finally, we need a feather duster
and put that in the second back pocket.
Now, one other thing before we actually start
is let's take this
throw rug out of here.
That way it won't be in the way
when ready to do the mopping.
This is a good time to empty the trash also.
So, let's grab that.
And what I'm going to do is take them outside the room
and leave the garbage here
where I can pick it up and empty it later.
And I'm going to throw
the carpet or the throw rug
down here
where I can vacuum it later.
Take the time
to make sure that it's down really flat
because sooner or later when you do get around
to vacuuming it, you won't have to stop
and straighten it again. You're not making work for yourself
in other words.
The strategy for cleaning the kitchen
or any other room for that matter
is to work your way around the room once,
never backtracking,
always progressing to the right.
And at the same time, you're going to be
observing rule number three.
And that is work from top to bottom.
And we say for emphasis,
always, period, don't argue.
And the reason for that is
because there are no exceptions to that rule.
If you don't work from top to bottom,
you'll continually make work for yourself
because dust and debris
and even cleaning solution will drift back
down onto a surface that you've already cleaned.
Besides being time consuming
is also very exasperating.
It's also why we do the floor last.
You can knock debris on the floor
while you're cleaning it and you can pick it up
when you do the floor and it makes no sense
to do it any other time but last.
For now, we're going to start
over here to the right of the sink.
And following our rule
of working from top to bottom,
let's first look for cobwebs up here
and there are a couple so we'll knock those down.
And there isn't really much else
to clean here, but we can get the dust
off of these curtains.
Now we're going to clean the countertop
or the first area of the countertop.
So lift up your cleaning tray.
It requires a little red juice
and it requires a cleaning cloth.
And now we'll wipe it clean
and dry.
Did you notice how I set my red juice
back in my apron without even
looking? It's so automatic.
Always put your tools back in the same place.
It's quite surprising
how quickly you get good at this.
Once I've started the cleaning cloth
instead of putting it back in my apron
I throw it over my shoulder where it's easy
to grab for the next use.
Continuing on down you need red juice
and a cleaning cloth for the cupboards below
and be sure to grab for your toothbrush
whenever you need it. Now we're going
to start the same thing to the right.
Top to bottom. The first thing
that I see here are these fingerprints
and they require red juice and
a cleaning cloth also. Spray with
red juice.
Alright and agitate now with
your toothbrush to get into these little corners
here that you couldn't otherwise get
to. That makes the cleaning
much simpler. And then wipe it clean
and dry. See how
easy that goes?
Looks just like new.
That brings us
to rule four, which is
if it isn't dirty, don't clean it.
That actually sounds a little bit like
if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
But our rule isn't really all that
obvious. You know a lot of people
trying to clean those couple of fingerprints here
might have sprayed this entire door
at least all of it they can reach, which takes
a little bit of time. And it takes
even longer still to wipe it
now all clean and dry. Really
all they wanted to do is clean those
few fingerprints. So pay attention
if it isn't dirty, don't
clean it and just get the couple of fingerprints
that you need. The same goes for
vertical and horizontal surfaces.
Vertical surfaces don't get as dirty
as horizontal surfaces.
Upper shells get less dust than
lower shells. And the same goes for
upper and lower molding.
Now that we're done with the cupboard itself
let's go down to the counter here.
And you know if it weren't for
counters maybe and the stove
top and the floor in the kitchen
there isn't much hard work to do.
So let's talk about the counter a little while.
And one of the reasons that the counter is
hard to clean is that there's all
these things sitting on it.
The way to clean the things that are on it
are one, move
the item away from
where it was so you can reach behind it.
Put some red juice back there.
And now clean the area
that was right behind this
osterizer here. Now oftentimes
you want
before you move this back you want to clean it
and oftentimes you can clean it just with
your red juice dampened cloth.
But sometimes you need to do
even more. In fact this has all these
buttons that often drives us crazy.
Let's clean those. I'm going to unplug it
first and then I'm going to just spray
it with red juice.
Let's start here and work our way down.
Use the toothbrush in all
these places and then I can hardly wait to get
all of these little
buttons and get them all clean.
And this really works. Amazing
how you can make this look just like new again.
Okay
now everything's clean and loose
and we're going to wipe it dry.
It looks like you just got this
when it came out of the box when your
husband gave it to you for Christmas or
wife, whoever. Now see
how I've put the cloth over the toothbrush
here? Now by getting
down in between
each of these all of that dirt that I got
loosened up I can really get it
out. And now that
really is clean. Before
I move this back into place I think I'm going to push
the off button just to make sure I didn't turn it on
when I was cleaning all of those little buttons.
Now put it back
into place and let's clean behind
the canister.
Move it out, clean
behind it and I'm just going to use my red juice
dampened cloth. Set it back
there's really nothing to clean of the canister itself
and use a little red juice
on the counter in front of both of these items.
And wipe it clean
and dry.
Alright
so following our rule we're moving to the right
going to come to a new set of counter
here. You know how to clean a counter
top by now and you know how to clean
the front of the cabinets below.
Use your red juice in a cleaning cloth
grab your toothbrush anytime you might need it.
Now moving right
one more time we come to a little bit more
interesting stuff here on the counter top.
Here's some I guess they're just bread
crumbs or something they're loose.
And that means that we can kind of gather them up
and drop them into our little debris pocket.
And that works
real well at getting rid of them.
And if one or two of them fall to the floor it's
no big deal since we haven't cleaned the floor
itself yet. Here comes something
else. I don't know what this stuff
is but my experienced eye
tells me I think I want to use my white pad
and a red juice. So let's spray
it. And then
use your white pad
on it. Oh that's going to come up.
Now what we're doing
here is just getting it loose and in a
minute we will wipe it up
with our cleaning cloth. But the point I'm
making here is most of this gunk is
now in your white pad and
not on the countertop anymore.
Now most of us have this irresistible urge
to walk over the sink and rinse this
out. Well I'm sorry you don't get to do
that. That's going to waste time.
No matter how yucky this thing gets
it's not going to clean any better if you rinse it.
So just stick it into your
plastic line pocket
and leave it there. Now let's wipe
the counter dry.
Yeah that came off nice and clean.
And you notice
every time I use this cloth I keep putting
it over my shoulder. Well
ultimately this gets too dirty
and wet and yucky for me to put it
over my shoulder anymore and I want a new cloth.
When that happens you've got a couple of choices.
One is to put it behind the
plastic that's in the pocket with the white
pad. Your second choice
if you're still half way close to
your tray or if you're a pretty good shot is just
kind of toss it back to your tray.
Now then take another
cloth
and put it over your shoulder.
Now sometimes when you're cleaning around the kitchen
you come to something you need a very dry
cloth for. Chrome is a good example
and if this cloth is already a little wet
well that's not a good cloth to use.
So you might want to be using two cloths
sometimes. Use a very dry one
to dry chrome or glass
or whatever you need and then put it
here hanging out. Now then when this
one is too wet that will be the one that you
toss over your tray and then you can rotate
this one up to your shoulder.
Before we move on let's cover a couple
more rules. The next
rule happens to be rule five and it is
don't rinse or wipe a surface before
it's clean. You may know what it's
like. You're scrubbing and scrubbing and
scrubbing trying to get something clean
and you have this understandable tendency
to want to wipe it kind of just
to check and see if it's clean.
Sometimes unfortunately that's only
a form of wishful thinking because it's still
dirty. So you need to learn
to see through the dirt.
Really through the dirt and if
you can't do that feel through the dirt
because the surface feels differently when
it's clean. And rule six is
really just the flip of rule five.
Don't keep working after
it's clean. In other words when you
reach the actual surface stop
cleaning. Besides wasting time
scrubbing something that's already clean
you can actually damage the surface of
the countertop and it
wears out your cleaning cloth much quicker than you
really want to. I'll have to
admit that naturally this rule isn't
violated nearly as often as any of the
others. Let's find out
what's next in the kitchen shall we?
Now we're at the stove
top. By now you know I'm going
to tell you to start above the stove so
check for any fingerprints in the cupboard above
the stove. Above the stove
also is often a filter
and vent type of situation.
Here's one that pulls out. Now
often there the filter is dirty.
If it's dirty don't even try to clean it
though with your red juice and a cleaning
cloth. Instead put it in the dishwasher.
In fact that probably should have been a
clean team rule. If it fits
put it in the dishwasher. As long as it's safe
of course. Also up here there's
often a light bulb so be careful when
you're spraying up there with your red juice. If it's
hot it's apt to explode.
Let's look at the stove top itself.
This is a gas stove which is fine with me because
I think they're actually a little bit easier to clean
than an electric stove. But if you have an electric
stove the theory's all the same so
just follow along with us. That
also brings us to another rule.
It's rule seven I think.
If what you're doing isn't going to work
shift to a heavier duty tool.
In other words pick the tool
that's strong enough for the job at hand.
If you're using your cleaning cloth
and you're not making much progress
jump up to your toothbrush or a white
pad or the scraper or the razor.
Let's say you encounter some
mystery substance like whatever this is
here on the stove top. You know just by
looking at it that your cleaning cloth isn't
going to be strong enough and probably neither
is the toothbrush. So at the
first sign that your white pad isn't
strong enough jump up to another
tool. Don't waste time continuing
to try something that isn't working very well.
Cut your losses. You'll actually
get very good very fast at
sizing up exactly what tool
you need for the cleaning job at hand.
That will save you from the wasting the time
of all the intermediate steps of trying
one tool at a time.
So let's use our red juice and
white pad and see what we can do with this
stove top and make it clean again.
Let's make some room for
ourselves by moving this teapot out of the way.
Now the way you actually start cleaning
the stove top is to take the left side
grates and put them on top
of the grates on the right side.
Now I'm going to use some of our famous
red juice and see if we can get rid of this.
Spread
liberally. You're going to need it on something like this.
Now take your white pad and
start agitating working
from the back. We're kind of going to work towards
the front. Go down inside
as needed and just
make sure you get all the surfaces.
This stuff's coming off pretty
well actually isn't it?
There's that mystery glob.
Okay now once you have the
surface well agitated let's see
and wipe it clean and dry with one of our
cleaning cloths.
Well that's coming up
nice and clean.
Alright now when you
finish the left side
take and put the grates
back where they were.
Now take the grates on the right side and
set them to the right of the counter.
Now you're going to clean the right side
the way we just cleaned the left side.
Use your red juice and white pad.
Ultimately you're going to come to some
knobs and that's one of those things
that everybody either seems to dread or they
just ignore them completely.
And they can actually be one of the most gratifying
things to clean in the kitchen because it looks so
much better once you get them clean.
And it's not all that difficult to do.
This is one of those places where
the toothbrush is a real champion.
The way to clean them is to spray them in place
with red juice.
Now just go ahead and agitate the heck
out of them with your toothbrush.
Okay and just really
go at it.
Now these weren't too dirty to begin with but
when you clean them this way
you can make them look just absolutely like new
again.
Now problems sometimes exist
even though you get the knobs
themselves cleaned you're unable
to clean below them. So occasionally
you may need to clean below them.
The way to do that is to lift up
two of the knobs at a time straight up
and set them in the same relative position
over here on the counter to the right.
That allows you to get to this
stove top that was
underneath the knob to begin with.
You don't have to do this too often
unless of course the chef in your house is
more of the dribbling kind or the spilling
kind or the flinging kind.
When you're done put them back in place
and it's pretty easy to do if you
keep them in that same relative position.
Make sure the stove stays off.
Now continue on down and you're going to do
the counter top in front and then we're going
to move on to the oven.
Now we're at the oven and in this
house it looks like there's a microwave oven
on the top. They're real easy to
clean. Start with the inside
and all you need in here is your red juice
and a cleaning cloth. Maybe once
in a while you'll need a white pad or a toothbrush
but grab for them if you do.
And don't worry about using red juice in there.
Red juice is USDA approved
for use around food so it's
safe. Now to clean the microwave
on the outside, start at the top
and I'm just going to spray a little red juice right on my
cloth to get this
spot up here.
Then just clean the front
of the microwave. Mainly there's a few
fingerprints here that you want to keep
from accumulating.
Of course you need your toothbrush once in a while or if
you need your toothbrush once in a while go ahead and use it.
Now here's something that we haven't
talked about before. There's a vent
here that gets dusty after a while.
Well we've been carrying this whiskroom
around and I'm going to go ahead and use that.
Now you notice that I use it
dry. You don't want to turn that dust to mud
before you try to get rid of it.
And that's probably something you're not going
to have to do very often but I'm sure the microwave
will be happy that you clean it out once
in a while. Now we're not going to clean
the oven itself but there are a couple
of things that you can do when you clean it on a
weekly basis. I always clean
for instance this
top edge of the
door. That's one of those horizontal surfaces
that get dirty.
Now on the inside we can
actually cheat and make it look like we've
cleaned the whole oven by just cleaning the
window on the inside. To do that
you need your red juice and your
razor. Spray it with red
juice. That gets the surface wet
so we don't scratch with the razor.
Now use your razor at a low angle
and just get all this stuff
loose. Isn't that easy?
And as I say it really
does make it seem like you've cleaned the whole
oven.
And wipe it clean and dry.
There. Doesn't that look
better?
Well that's it
for the inside of the oven. All that
we're going to do on normal weekly cleaning.
You know how to clean the outside
of the oven by now. Use your red juice
toothbrush in the nooks and crannies
and wipe it clean and dry
working your way down.
It looks like in this house the next
thing we're going to come to is the refrigerator
so I'll meet you there.
Since this is weekly cleaning there's a couple of things
we don't have to do with the refrigerator.
And that's clean the inside of it or
heaven forbid defrost the whole
freezer part of it. So let's just follow
the normal rules and start cleaning
at the top. Use your feather duster
there.
That works real well. It's a nice flat
surface. Now you may not always
be able to use your feather duster
and you might have to use your red juice once in a while.
But use your feather duster
when you can because that's the faster of the
two operations.
Now on the outside of the refrigerator itself
mainly you're going to look for fingerprints
around the handle you know to use your red juice
around these buttons here
where people's fingers especially little
dirty ones hit all the time.
Use your toothbrush in any place that you might
suspect dirt will get in this tight
spot the hinges up here
those kinds of places.
But remember rule four if it isn't dirty
don't clean it. Whole areas of
this refrigerator never get touched so don't
absentmindedly you know
spray the whole refrigerator and then have to wipe
it clean and dry. There is one
thing you should do on the inside of the refrigerator
while you're doing your weekly
cleaning and that is to keep this gasket
clean. All sorts of
spills fall in there and things get
trapped in this kind of accordion design
of it. Use a little red juice
and then get your toothbrush in there. Really
cleans this area out real
nicely. Take cleaning cloth
and make it dry. While you're
at it clean this leading edge of the
refrigerator here. That makes sure
that where the gasket touches
that edge there's a nice good
seal. Keeps all the cold air in.
Probably even saves you a little bit of money.
So the only thing now left to clean on
this refrigerator is the vent down
at the bottom of the fridge.
This is another good place to use your whisk broom
and remember to use the whisk broom
dry of course.
Well that's it for the refrigerator.
Now what you're going to do is continue
moving around the kitchen working
to the right never backtracking.
If you've found you've
backtracked you know the most likely thing
you've done is to put your red juice
on a counter some place and so then you have to
wander over and pick it up. Try
not to do that. Put it back in your
apron every single time.
It's really amazing how fast you'll
move around the room if you don't
backtrack. All we
have left in this kitchen however
is the sink. So I'll see you there.
Well
we're back at the sink and that's good news
because that means we've just about
completed our circle around the kitchen.
That means we've just about cleaned the entire kitchen.
Before we clean the sink itself
you know by now to look up. Use your
feather duster if it's necessary up there.
You've got window sills. You'll use
either your feather duster or a white
cleaning cloth and red juice.
And this would also
be a great spot to use a little blue
juice if the window itself is dirty.
Now
notice there's no dishes around
here. Well the reason for that is because washing
dishes is a daily job and what
we're doing here is a weekly job.
So the time to do the dishes of course is before
you start the cleaning of the kitchen.
Also when most people look
at a kitchen sink and they're ready to clean
it they grab the comet and they start
splattering comet all over the place.
Well we've decided that's not such a good idea
because comet is too hard to rinse away.
So we don't use comet
anywhere but in the bowl itself.
On the rim of the sink we actually
use red juice. So use your red
juice on the rim of the sink.
Now the tool of choice is your
trusty toothbrush. So
use that to agitate all around all
of these areas like the
faucet and the handle.
And everyone's sink is a little
bit different so you know which places
to use it around your own sink. Here's this
rinse thing. Just be sure to
get all of those nasty areas real well.
Use your cleaning
cloth now to wipe this whole area clean
and dry.
Now this sink
doesn't have a chrome faucet but a lot
of them do. And if I had a chrome
faucet I would switch to my
dry cloth and really
give this a knock out shine.
You know the whole kitchen is going to
look so nice that you might as well have
this streak free nice
shiny chrome.
Well the next thing we need now
is comet for the inside of the sink.
And we're always telling you to
use comet sparingly.
One way we remind ourselves to do that
is to take and move this tape
to only expose a couple of holes
on the can rather than throw
it away.
So sprinkle a little bit
of comet on both sides of the sink.
Now you know how
to do that but let me remind you that the
tool of choice for agitating it
is your white pad.
And then you're going to use
your toothbrush for all of
these areas
inside the sink particularly
around the drain.
When you're finished with that
go ahead and rinse it.
Comets a little bit hard to rinse out
so it's often a good idea to use your fingers
on the bottom of the sink just to make sure that it's
all out. Especially if you don't have a white
sink it'll show up just as soon as the sink
gets dry.
Well we're ready to do the floor.
We're going to move the tray out of the room
so that that won't be in here with a wet floor
and we can't get it. Let's take out a couple
of things that we're going to need. One is
clear ammonia and the other is
this mop cover. We'll talk about that
just a little more in a minute.
I'm going to take the tray out of the room now
and get the mop and then we're going to do
the floor.
Well I've been promising to tell you about this
funny looking mop. It also has
kind of a funny sounding name.
It's called a shmop. That's
S-H-M-O-P
and I hear it's short for shine and
mop. Anyway
this mop is entirely different than the
sponge or string mop that you might be used
to. For starters it cleans
with terry cloth covers. This cover
is actually removable and it stretches
over this plastic
plate.
Now the thing that makes it work so fast
is that this is about
8 by 15 inches
in diameter.
Compare that with the amount of surface
that's on the floor when you use a regular
sponge mop which is a little strip
about like this and you can see
why this is about three times faster
than a regular mop.
It also swivels in all different
directions which means it works real well
when you're standing up. It means you can get into corners.
It'll actually go under the front
of the stove. You can see how thin
it is here.
When you're using it and one of the
shine mop covers gets dirty
rather than take it to the sink and rinse it
you just take it off and put on a new
clean one. And when you're done with your
cleaning you throw the shine
mop covers into the washing machine
along with your cleaning cloths.
This also means it's very sanitary.
It's like having a new mop every time you do
the cleaning. Now one
last thing before we start using the shine
mop is sometimes you need to vacuum
or sweep your kitchen floor before you clean
it. If that's the case you should go ahead
and do that now. Alright?
So let's make ourselves up a cleaning
brew here in the sink.
I'm going to put a little water
in here.
You don't need much. Just a couple
of inches of water in the bottom of the
sink and then a couple of
tablespoons of clear ammonia.
I call it a couple of gurgles.
That's about two tablespoons.
Now then,
this seems to be leaking out of there. Now
that's alright. Take the shine mop
cover off and just dip it in the
cleaning solution.
And then what you're going to do is
wring it so it's almost
dripping wet. That's about the right
way to start cleaning
the floor with. And then put it back over the
top of your shine mop.
What we're covering here is actually a real
dense foam pad that allows you
to put real even but
strong pressure on the floor when you're doing
the cleaning. You're going to really love this
funny looking mop. Now we're
going to go to the furthest corner of the
kitchen and start our mopping and we'll
kind of work our way back towards the sink.
Let's start here.
Start in the corner. Notice how I can get tight into the
corner and with just swiveling this I
can get right underneath
these cabinets. Almost no effort at all.
Big strokes cover a
long area. A little bit dirtier.
Slow down and go over it two or three times.
Now I can swivel it once
more and get tight against this cabinet.
It also leaves it very dry
so you don't have to wait a long time
before you use your kitchen floor.
When you come to something like
these dead raisins or whatever they are
go ahead and stop. Grab
your red juice and spray them
and then get your scraper
and get them loose.
You know there's some things that no mops can get up.
And then just put them into your
debris bag.
When you finish one area of the floor
just back up a couple of steps
and clean another area.
You know everyone's floor plans are a little bit different
so I'm not going to try to show you how to
shamop this entire kitchen floor.
But when you're doing your own floor
use landmarks for each area
so that you don't overlap.
After you've used the shamop for a while
it'll get dirty or it'll get too dry.
And when that happens you're going to want to
go to the sink and put on a fresh cover.
So let's do that now.
The thing to do with your dirty
shamop cover is treat it just like you would
a dirty cleaning cloth.
So let's take it off and I'm going to put it in my apron
the same way that I would with
the cleaning cloth. Now I've
showed you before how to get this wet.
Bring it out almost dripping.
And put on a clean shamop head.
Okay.
Now then.
The last time you're at the sink
with your shamop before you
and so you're never going to come back to the sink
this is a good time to let the water out of the sink.
And then do a quick rinse.
A real heavy rinse isn't very necessary
because we really haven't put any dirt into the sink.
That's one of the nice things about these shamops.
Also, grab your ammonia
because you don't need that anymore
and I'm just going to put it in my apron here.
Now then, let's go and
finish up the floor as we
mop our way out of the kitchen.
If you want to leave a modest shine
we've had good luck with a product called Bright.
Use plain water in the sink
without the ammonia of course
and follow the instructions on the label.
The shamop will work with most any floor cleaning product.
Let's do this
last bit of kitchen floor here
as we kind of
back our way out of the door
that we originally came in.
Good.
Now you remember of course
they're just going to pop these covers
into the washing machine along with your cleaning cloths.
And by the way
congratulations, you've just speed cleaned the kitchen.
What we're going to do next is
learn how to speed clean the bathroom.
So I'm going to go back to the storage cabinet
and change my carry-all tray around
so I have the right tools
to start one more job.
Hi, once again before we start the bathroom
let's look at the tools
and supplies that you need just for the bathroom
that we haven't seen before.
Let me make a little room in my tray for them.
Now actually you have
seen a couple of the things we use.
You know about Comet, where we're going to need that again in the bathroom.
And a white pad,
we're going to need that.
And if you wear gloves, make sure that you carry your gloves with you.
And of course
you're going to need a fresh supply of cleaning cloths
so we'll set these in here also.
Now let's look at a couple of products that you haven't seen before.
One of them is Tile Juice.
Tile Juice is great
for getting scum and mineral deposits
off of your shower walls.
You know how big of a job that can be.
What else do we have here?
Oh yeah, we have a plastic cup
that used to be filled full of ice cream.
Now we use it to help rinse the shower.
You can carry that over the top of your Comet.
If you have
fiberglass showers or tubs
you need a specialized product
and don't use Tile Juice, substitute a fiberglass cleaner.
Going to need a couple of brushes.
This is probably our favorite brush.
This is a perfectly wonderful brush.
You can see how the
stiff bristles dig into the grout
in the shower walls.
And that's where we use it to clean the shower
and the tub area.
Notice that they're synthetic bristles,
not natural ones.
Natural ones kind of tend to get a little soft over time.
No matter, it's a great
brush to use in the bathroom.
So we'll stick that in here.
Another brush that we need, of course,
and that's one to clean the toilet with.
Once again, this brush has
synthetic bristles, nice stiff ones.
And you'll notice the design of it
allows the brush to get up underneath
the lip of the toilet.
This is a great little brush, you'll like it.
There is one other product
that we use in the bathroom, and it looks a little
funny now because I've got a cloth draped
over the top of it. The reason for that
is that this is bleach.
And you know what bleach can do.
You can put a dribble of bleach on your carpet
and you'll make a white spot that will last forever.
So we keep it covered with this
cleaning cloth, an old cleaning cloth,
so that we don't leave any little trail on the way
to the bathroom. We use this product
in the bathroom to kill the mold
or mildew that might be growing around
your shower. We actually
dilute it four parts water to one
part bleach. And you can dilute
it even more if you'd like to.
But that's the one we use, and it seems to work well
for us. So I'm going to cover this
as a good example to you
when you're walking through the house, and I even
take care to point it towards
the middle of the cleaning tray so
there can't, almost no way there can be an
accident. Well, once again
it looks like I'm just about out of excuses,
so I'm going to go clean the bathroom for you
and I'll see you there.
Here we are in the bathroom.
Everybody's favorite room to clean,
right? But take heart,
we'll soon have you out of here in
fifteen minutes or less.
Just as in the kitchen, we're going to pick your
starting point for you, and in the bathroom
that's at the end of the tub.
So I'm going to put my carry-all tray
right here at the end of the tub.
And then, a couple of steps
before we really start, and that is
to take the trash and set it outside
the door, and also any throw
rugs. Now's the time to pick them up,
set them outside the door and lay them down
flat so that you can come by later and
vacuum them. If you don't
have your apron on, now's the time to put
it on. So, when you
do that, make sure you check and make
sure that your three tools are in place.
Your blue juice is on your
left side, red juice on
your right side, and I've got my
white pad in my line pocket here.
Now, you
may notice that I haven't put the feather
duster in my back pocket, nor
the whisk broom in my other back pocket, and
the reason for that is, is in
the bathroom, we're going to make two trips
around the room. The first one
to do the wet work. That's the work
that requires those brushes that we were
just talking about, but it's mainly
the tub and shower, and also
the sink, and also the toilet.
And then we're going to make a second trip
around the room, never backtracking, of
course, and do everything that's left.
But that's a lot of spraying and wiping, kind
of like in the kitchen. Now,
is that clear? I want to make sure
that we know that there is an exception
here. Two trips around the room.
First, to do the
wet work, and then a second trip
to do everything that's left.
And then we'll do the floor last.
We're going to start
with the tub and shower, and the first step
is to take out of the way
any little items that are going to be
in your way later on. So let's do that
now.
Well, I guess my rubber duckie's
going to be in the way, and the shampoo.
So let's set them right outside
the tub on the floor. And while
we're down here, it's a good idea to set the soap
out also. And it's usually kind of a mess
on the bottom side, so
turn it over and set it on a cloth.
That'll also keep it from picking up all
the hairs off of the floor when you put it back
also.
The next step
is to wet down the shower walls.
And we use cold water just the way
it comes out of the shower head. We don't
wait for the warm water for a couple of reasons.
One is, of course, it conserves
water by not letting the water run
until you get the right temperature.
But the other reason is, if the water gets
too warm, it'll steam up the whole bathroom,
and then it makes it kind of hard to clean some of
the surfaces.
Try to do this entire job of
cleaning the tub and the shower walls
while standing outside of the tub,
right on the floor. Don't step into
the tub. And there's a good reason for
that, of course, and that is, as soon as
you apply some tile juice and you start
liberating that soap scum that was on the
wall and it gets down in the bottom of the tub,
it gets very slippery.
So, don't get in there,
and usually you don't have to. Your arms are long
enough, especially since you've got the
tile brush in your hand. If
you have to get into the tub, however,
be careful, and it's a good idea
to wear non-slip shoes
and put down a couple of cleaning cloths,
one for each foot.
So let me grab my tile juice and my
tile brush, and we'll do the next step.
Okay.
Now, the wall that you're going to do
first is the wall that's furthest from
the drain. That's this wall right here.
I'm not going to start there
only because you can't see it as well as
you can see another wall. Also,
remember there's a part of the wall
that doesn't normally get wet,
doesn't get any soap scum on it, so
don't clean that part of the wall if you don't
need to. Now,
for demonstration purposes, I'm going to start
here. Wet the shower walls
before you start applying the tile
juice. Now, to apply the tile juice,
put a line here, then
I'm just going to spread it around with my tile
brush.
And you notice I'm
not really agitating
and I'm not scrubbing it. We're going to come
back in a minute or two
and do that.
When you come to the soap tray, take the time
to clean it. You can use the handle end
of your toothbrush to
knock loose these big pieces
of soap. Now, flip your toothbrush
around and use the brush end
to do the rest of it.
Don't rinse or wipe it
yet.
When you come to the fixtures,
just go ahead and
cover them with tile juice
when you're doing the wall
close to them.
If your bathroom has shower doors,
treat them just the way you did
the shower walls. In other words,
put some tile juice on them and then
spread it around evenly with your tile
brush. Once you've done that, you've
now covered all three walls and the shower
doors and we're ready to go back
over the walls one more time
and agitate them. The reason
that we made this two times around
is because in the ensuing time,
chemistry has had a chance
to do its duty and that
soap scum and the mineral deposits are
now loosened up and our job is much
easier the second time around.
When scrubbing,
work in small circles.
Allow the bristles to really dig into
the grout.
When you come to these fixtures, just go
right ahead and scrub right over the top
of them.
Even after you've scrubbed with your tile
brush, there's often mold left growing
all along here and here
and other places. Don't worry
about it. There's other places here where you often
see it. We're going to get it just before
we leave the bathroom by putting some bleach on
those spots.
When you come to the shower doors,
it's a good idea to change tools.
Don't use the brush on the glass.
The white pad actually works
better on that nice, smooth surface.
When you come down to the bottom
of the shower doors and you get to those nasty
runners, you have a couple of tools
in your apron that you can use to clean them.
One of them is our favorite,
of course. It's the toothbrush.
If you move the toothbrush around to different
angles, you can actually get into almost
all of the corners of the
Shower Runner and get it clean.
If it doesn't work, however, because of
the design of your particular shower door,
we can also use the white pad
in a new way. What I've
done here is now fold it in half.
Insert the whole thing
into the Shower Runner and move it back
and forth. That will almost always
get out all of the hair and scum
that accumulates down there
and it will accommodate a lot
of different sizes of runners.
Now, if you have shower curtains,
don't even try to clean those
while they're in place. The best
idea is to take them down and
put them in the washing machine with a couple
of towels. It's probably a good
idea to take it out before the
spin cycle and don't put it in the dryer.
Just hang them back up and the
wrinkles will come out within a day or so.
Now, we've cleaned all
of the shower walls and the shower
door and the runners and now it's
time to clean the tub itself.
You notice we haven't rinsed yet.
This is just a big bubbly mess, all the walls
and everything, but we're only going to rinse
one time and that's after we've finished
the tub. It saves a lot of time.
So let's grab for our Comet
and we're going to apply a little Comet
to the tub.
You know how to do that. We're real
sparing with it. We don't want to use
much. It's hard to rinse away and
especially if you get it outside
the rim of the tub itself. Keep it
in the bowl of the tub. Now let's scrub.
Well, everything's now scrubbed
and finally it's time to rinse.
One thing I'm not going to rinse, however,
though, is this tile brush. I'm going to set
it as is full of Comet in the sink
and we're going to use it there in a few minutes.
Now, regarding rinsing,
it's much easier to chore
if you have one of those shower heads
that's on a hose, you know,
really makes this job easy.
However, if you have the normal kind,
I'm going to show you how to use that and
we'll get most of it and make it a little easier.
Use the shower head, of course,
move it back and forth and you can get
most of the areas. You notice I don't
have the water on. You wouldn't be able
to hear me over it, besides which I'm
going to have to make a big mess. When you want
to rinse this front wall here, use your hand
to deflect the water. You see how I'm doing that?
That works real well.
If there's a few areas
that you're just unable to get,
no matter which way you turn your shower head,
remember that cup that we had over the top
of the Comet in the sink?
The cup that we had over the top of the Comet
in our carry-all tray?
Catch some water with it and then use that
to get those last nasty un-rinsed corners.
In general, the way that you want to
rinse is to start on the
walls and work them from the
top to the bottom
and towards the back. And then when you
rinse the tub, rinse it from the back
to the front towards the drain.
The next thing on our
agenda is the toilet.
On our wet trip
around the bathroom, when we come to the
toilet, all we're going to clean is the inside
of the bowl. And to do that, you need
your toilet brush and, of course,
a little Comet. And this is easy enough.
Just put a little Comet in the water,
get your toilet brush
a little wet, and then put some Comet on that
also. Now,
let's start up underneath the edge
here. All sorts of gremlins seem to
grow there.
And then just work your way methodically down.
And when you're done, just go ahead and flush it.
It's a good idea to rinse out your
toilet brush as the
toilet is rinsing itself out.
And now you're done with your toilet brush and your
Comet, so let's put them back in our tray.
The only thing left to clean on our wet
trip around the bathroom is the
sink. And once again, we're just going
to clean the bowl of the sink.
Remember, we left our brush in
here, and we're ready to use that
as is. Put a little water
in the sink first.
Just use the brush methodically.
You ought to do that by now.
I don't need it here, but
feel free to use your toothbrush down here if
it's necessary. Once you're done,
rinse it out.
I'm also rinsing out my
tile brush
because
now we're done with
the wet work, and we'll start our other trip
around the room.
Before you start your
second trip around the room, you need to grab a couple
of things from your cleaning tray.
One of them is the feather duster,
and I'm going to put that back in my pocket like
I did before. And the other is the
whisk room, which I'm going to put in my other
back pocket. Now,
you're going to start cleaning around the
room, doing everything that we haven't done so
far. And you actually know how to
do most all of that. You know you're going
to start at your cleaning tray,
and you're going to work your way to
the right, working from top to bottom.
Use your red juice if you come
to fingerprints. Grab your
toothbrush any time you come to a tight spot.
Anything like that, you know
the feather duster will reach up and knock down
a cobweb. The first thing that
we come to in the bathroom,
however, that we really haven't talked about
before is the toilet.
Now, we cleaned the inside of the toilet, but we haven't cleaned the
outside of the toilet yet. So we're going to
do that next.
When cleaning the toilet, start
at the top. You're used to that.
And use your red juice and a cloth
up here. Clean your way down.
Now, the important thing here is how to
clean the toilet and the cover,
the toilet seat and the cover.
It's really pretty simple. First, move
everything up. Now, you're going to need your
red juice and a cloth here, so let's get them
prepared. First, get everything
wet with red juice. So,
clean or start with
the under cover
and then the seat
and then under here
and the top.
And don't forget this
area back here with the hinges.
That little bit of porcelain gets real dirty.
Now, we're going to do everything in reverse
order when we clean it. Now, we've just
sprayed it. Grab your toothbrush because
you're going to use it a lot here. And the
first place is around these hinges back
here.
Alright.
Now, wipe that area clean and dry.
Now, wipe the
top of the cover dry.
Open it up. Use your
toothbrush again around these protectors
and again around the hinges
on the inside.
And then wipe that dry.
This
toothbrush really comes in
handy here. You can keep
you know how dirty it can get around these
hinges. It makes it stay like
new for a long time. Now,
wipe the top of the toilet seat
itself
and finally lift that up and there's
several more targets for your
toothbrush down in here.
Great. Now, that's
the cover and the seat done.
Let's do the top
of the toilet itself.
And there's
one more spot on the front of these hinges
that you can get.
Be real careful you don't have to redo
your work here because you've already cleaned
the bottom or the back half of those
hinges right here.
Now, I'm kind of cleaning the front half of it.
Alright.
Now, wipe that all clean
and dry.
One more area of the toilet that gets dirty and that's
of course the front of it. So, let's spray
a little down here and also
around those annoying little knobs
that are so hard to clean.
But they get dirty.
So, let's wipe once more.
Clean the front.
And there's another spot for your toothbrush
around that knob.
Great. Now, of course, do the same thing
on the other side.
You know, there's one other thing
that you should do.
As long as I'm here eyeball to eyeball
with the toilet, I don't want to have to get
down here again. So, clean
the floor around the toilet
right now. Since this is carpeted,
grab your whisk broom
and use it to clean all of those areas
that the vacuum is never going to get.
Along here.
Over here.
Now, of course, do that
same thing on the other side, but you get
the idea. Your vacuum cleaner isn't
going to fit in there, so now it's
nice and clean and it's ready to be vacuumed
up to your already cleaned
areas. The same holds true
if you've got no carpeting,
if you've got linoleum or whatever.
Use your red juice and a cleaning cloth
and clean this area of the floor
so that later on you're not going to have to get
back down in this position.
As you work your way
around the bathroom, ultimately you're going
to find yourself at the sink for
the second time. Now I'm
going to bring up a rule. I haven't had a rule
for you for a while, but this is rule
number eight. And the rule is
keep your tools in impeccable
shape. The reason I'm bringing that up
at this particular moment is because
there's a spot of paint here on the mirror
and I'm going to grab for my razor
blade holder so that I can take that off.
Now
once I get my razor blade out
and instead of finding a nice sharp razor
I find a rusty stump,
I'm going to waste time because
I'm going to have to go wandering through the house
looking for a spare one. Either that
or I'm going to ignore this
spot of paint again. We've probably
been ignoring it for years. So
keep your tools in impeccable shape.
Let's take the paint off of the mirror
shall we?
Let it with a little blue juice
and now get it loose.
See how easy that goes? If you have that
tool you'll use it.
As long as we're here of course you need to
finish off the mirror.
In a big mirror like this you can often just
touch it up a little bit.
There, that's
finished.
About all that's left in this bathroom was the sink.
Remember we've done the bowl of the
sink so let's do the faucets back here.
Those faucets look nice
now. The only thing that's really
left in here is to finish off the countertop.
You know how to do that.
And the cabinet front and work your way around
the rest of the room until you come back to your
carry all tray. Since this
bathroom is carpeted you can just
vacuum the floor whenever you do your
vacuuming. However there is something
left to do in here and that is to apply
a little bleach to those moldy
areas that were in the shower.
So the way to do that is take your
tray, set it outside of the
room. Now walk in with
your bleach and dribble a little bleach
right onto those nasty
moldy areas. Now go ahead and leave
the room. You don't want to smell that stuff.
Come back in a few
minutes, five minutes is probably
about right, and rinse the bleach
off. That's also a good time
to put the rubber ducky back
and the shampoo and you're done.
You have actually speed cleaned
a bathroom. Now
if you have a tile floor however
it's a little bit different.
First of all grab your carry all
tray and take it out of the room.
However go back
into the room with your red juice
and a few cleaning cloths because
you're going to use those to clean the floor.
And I actually get down on my hands
and knees in the far corner of the
room and spray the floor
with a little bit of red juice and then
use those cleaning cloths to wipe it up.
Fold the cleaning cloths real regularly
so you'll fold up all the hair and
debris that you're wiping up.
Leave the room and you're
done except for that bleach.
So walk back in,
put a little bleach on it and
once again when I say dribble I'm saying
that because I don't want you to spray it into the air
where you'll breathe it.
So just kind of dribble it right on those
moldy areas. Leave the room,
come back in a few minutes, rinse
it off, put the rubber ducky back
and you're finished.
The only job that we have left
is to go dust and vacuum the rest of the
house so I'll meet you there.
Well, hello again.
We're going to have to quit meeting like this but
actually we're going to because we're just about to
start the last job.
This last section of the tape is relatively short
but we're going to cover a whole grab bag
of jobs. We're going to talk about
dusting and vacuuming and polishing
and all of the rest of the rooms
of the house, everything but the kitchen and the bathroom.
Let's see, let's get out
the cleaning tray.
We've seen that before so I'll set it here on the
counter. You know we need a supply
of cleaning cloths by now so I'm going to add
them into the carry-all
tray.
If we're going to dust we generally need some furniture
polish and the one that we use
is this Old English here.
It's in a pump spray container that we like
real well. It's also a nice cleaner.
You may not think of it but it's good for
cleaning plastic surfaces such as the telephone
for instance.
Naturally there are better cleaners. There's
paste waxes and all sorts of fancy
ones but this is just fine for
weekly cleaning and it has a nice odor to it
also. To have a place
to store this
in your apron, what we do is
remove one of the plastic liners
and here's how you do that.
Set the apron down here on the
counter. First you remove
these two simple metal clips
and then you just
slip the plastic bag out of
the pocket. By the way
these plastic liners are disposable.
When they get gross just toss them.
For now we're going to set it in the cleaning closet
here. One more item
in our closet is a dusting
cloth. This is a good old American
all American dusting cloth. You've seen them
before. One thing to remember
about it however is to make it a dedicated
cleaning cloth. Don't use it
for anything else. In fact don't even put it in
the washing machine with your regular
cleaning cloths. You might get comet
with them and then you could actually
scratch the surface of your furniture
instead of polish it. That goes
into the cleaning tray.
And the last item in our closet here
is a 50 foot
extension cord.
We can show you how to save a lot of time in
vacuuming by plugging
in the vacuum once and vacuuming the entire
house without stopping. In fact we could probably
improve your vacuuming by 20 percent or so.
We have it on a cord
caddy which is kind of a plastic carry all
and it allows you to keep the cord organized
between weekly cleanings.
So let's drop that into our cleaning tray
also.
And I think we're ready to start that
last job.
Now I'm ready to do the dusting.
You notice that I set my tray
just inside the door
like you're used to seeing me do.
We're in the living room but when
you're doing the dusting it doesn't matter
which room you start in really.
Floor plans are so different from
house to house that you could decide
to start in the dining room or the bedroom.
But starting in the living room is just
fine and that's where a lot of people would like to start.
I'm all dressed for
dusting and have my apron on.
You notice that I've got my familiar red
juice and blue juice in their spots.
There is some differences however
and I because I've got
furniture polish in this pocket
and a furniture polishing cloth.
Remember that's the pocket that used
to be lined that I carried a white pad in.
I've also got my whisk room
that will come in real handy when you're doing the
dusting and also
a feather duster. It makes sense
that we're really going to use this now that we're doing
the dusting.
The strategy is the same however
and that is you're going to start in one spot
and proceed around the room never
backtracking. When you finish the first
room walk into the second
room and go around that room without
backtracking. So let's say the dining room
is next to the living room.
You make one trip around the living room.
Kind of loop in the dining room and make another
trip. Come out and go into the next
room in a logical sequence.
When you're doing the dusting
you're actually doing a lot of different things
considering that you've got red
juice and blue juice in
the whisk room and the duster
and you've got furniture polish. So it's
very important that you do everything
that needs to be done in each spot
before you move on. In other
words finish all of the dusting,
all of the polishing, the wiping,
the brushing, the tidying,
all of those things in one spot
before you move on.
Now before I start I'm going to put a dry
cloth over my shoulder
as you've seen me do before so it will be
ready to use. And that kind
of brings me to rule number nine
and that is that repetition makes
for smooth moves.
If I decide that I'm going to carry this
cloth over my shoulder then carry
it there all the time and you can reach for
it automatically. The same
idea with your red juice. If you
pick it up and put it back in the same place
all the time you can reach for it
without looking and you can put it back
without looking. Everything
goes so much more smoothly
and quickly if you put
things back in the same spot.
While we're at it let's cover
the last few rules. There's only four
left.
Number ten is pay attention.
Everything falls into
place if you do.
If you're cleaning, just clean.
Rule eleven
is keep track of your time.
Get a little faster every time.
It's amazing how that happens
kind of automatically anyway
and it makes you feel very gratified.
Rule twelve
use both hands.
If you stop and think about it
one half of your workforce is idle
if you're only using one hand.
Now you can't always use two hands
of course, but often times for example
you could be spraying with one hand
and wiping with the other.
And the last rule and actually
our most favorite is if
there's more than one of you work
as a team.
House cleaning is so much more fun
if you work as a team.
The way we're going to demonstrate to you
how to dust is to show you
a few different spots in this room
and demonstrate exactly how a
duster would approach the problems that
you come to. For example
to my left I'm going to work
by starting in the corner.
Now actually I can't reach that corner
from here to knock down any cobwebs
that might be up there. So a smart way
to handle that problem is to grab
a wand from your vacuum cleaner
drop your feather duster in it
and now you can knock down
any cobwebs in the corner.
Once you do that I'm going to work
my way down and come to this
plant. Now contrary
to popular opinion
you don't get to ignore plants.
It's a good idea to dust them
and it's easy enough to do.
You just kind of work your way down
knocking the dust and the cobwebs
off. Actually from what
I hear some gardeners actually use
these to remove mites from the leaves so
it's good for the plants.
Now I continue all the way down
to the floor because there's molding
and also
use your feather duster right
on the floor on any places
that the vacuum cleaner isn't going to get
because you can pull out dust
and hairs, dog hairs
if you've got a house like mine
that are under there so later on you're not
going to have to move the furniture.
Next I come to this chair here
and there's not much to do on the chair either
but if it's one of those places where your
cat likes to sleep use your whisk room.
It's a lot
simpler than dragging out the vacuum cleaner
and it also gets hairs out of this crevice
here.
It does a real nice job.
One place to remember
to use your feather duster
is up inside lampshades.
A lot of cobwebs gather
there. Of course you remember to use it on
the outside but also use it on the inside.
Now let's talk
a little bit about the proper way to use
this feather duster because used properly
it's a great tool.
A very important
principle is to bring it to a complete
stop
at the end of each time you
use it. If you don't do it
and you go like this
you're going to throw
dust into the air and it's going to settle back
down on what you've already
cleaned. However you come to a complete stop
the dust that was up there
is actually now in the feather duster
and what you're going to do when it gets
to be too much dust in the feather
duster or just whenever you think of it
is knock it against your
ankle. That loosens up the
dust. It's going to
settle to the floor and you'll vacuum
it away a little later.
When you come to a glass coffee
table like this you really can't
get away with feather dusting it because
there's too many fingerprints on it each
week. So the way to clean it is
one set the things
off that are in the way
and I'm not going to move this
off because it's so heavy and
no dirt's getting underneath of it but
it's a good idea to feather dust it.
Knock any of the
dirt loose it's going to fall down later.
Now we need
blue juice to clean
the top of the glass table
lightly, lightly.
Now wipe it dry
and you know how to do that.
One way to reduce streaks
is to keep turning over your cloth so
that you're always using a nice dry
part of the cloth.
Streaks come from leaving
it slightly damp and then when it dries
that equals a streak.
Great, so when that's done
put
the tchotchke back
before I set it on there let me wipe the top
of it off. I'm going to just use my
already damp blue juice cloth.
Alright, now there are a couple of other things
that we can do before we leave.
Dust accumulates under here on these
legs. Notice how my feather duster
will get under there, knock all of that
dust loose. Isn't that smart?
And the whisk broom will
get around these legs
on that little spot that the vacuum
cleaner won't reach. That way
you don't have to move the table when you do your
vacuuming. When you come to
your couch don't forget that
you've got your trusty whisk broom available.
Most of the time you
can actually use it to get
you know whatever's on the couch
and knock it onto the floor.
Now sometimes it's just going to be
too much for the whisk broom and you'll need
to vacuum it. Just remember
to follow the rules and vacuum it before
you do the floor.
Light switches
are a great place to use your red
juice and a toothbrush because
everybody gets their fingerprints on the
light switches. See how that
just gets into these corners
turning the light off and on but I guess that's
okay. Let's turn it off. Now wipe
it dry.
Perfect.
Something that a lot of people
seem to ignore are little spots on
the carpet such as oh dribbles
of coffee or little spots of food.
It's a good idea to put a little
red juice on it, agitate it with your brush,
blot it back up with a white
cloth. And that should keep the
carpet looking nice for a long time if
you do that. Straighten that
back out. The same thing goes with
the hardwood floor. Don't ignore little
dribbles. Put your red juice on the floor.
It's not going to hurt it. If you need your toothbrush
use it. Now wipe it back
up. That's also part of weekly
cleaning.
Before long
if you follow the rules you will have dusted
your way through all the rest
of the house doing all of the dusting and
the tidying and the polishing that needs to
be done. Now all
that stands between you and all that
free time we've been promising you
is the vacuuming.
Well we're down to
just vacuuming left and
we will have cleaned an entire house.
Luckily also
I don't have as much to say about vacuuming
so this will be a relatively short section.
You notice I don't have my
red juice and blue juice on anymore.
You don't really need them when you're doing the vacuuming
and they might get in your way.
I do carry my whisk broom and my duster
just in case I run into
some debris that I'd like to sweep out
into the way of the vacuum cleaner.
The most important thing
that I can tell you about vacuuming
at least that's going to save you a lot of time
is to plug in your vacuum cleaner
once and never plug it in again.
And obviously the way to do that
is with a long extension cord.
Here's the extension cord and I've plugged
it in on the wall there.
Now instead of plugging it directly
into the vacuum cleaner tie it into a knot
first.
The reason that you're doing that is that
the first time you give it a little yank
it's not going to pull loose and drive you
crazy.
Regarding the vacuuming itself
try to keep the cords behind you
that way you're not tripping over them
quite as much.
And vacuuming kind of follow the clean team
rules, in other words don't
backtrack, if it's
dirtier go over the area slower
if it's less dirty
you can speed up your vacuuming
and go around the room methodically.
Let me show you a little bit.
Notice how I overlap
on my return stroke.
Use landmarks like furniture
or plants so that you don't vacuum
the same area twice or skip
areas. Now here I can't
but tilt furniture if possible
or use a whisk broom so you don't
have to move the furniture at all.
Remember, thanks
to that extension cord you're going
to vacuum your way from this room
to the next room and then throughout the
house without stopping to unplug
and replug the vacuum.
When vacuuming stairs follow the rule
and start at the top and work down.
We use these canister
type vacuum cleaners and the way
I do it is to set the canister down a
few steps and then vacuum my way
down to it and then move it down a few
more steps.
Whenever there's any kind of debris in any of the
corners grab your whisk broom
and whisk it out.
Use the whisk broom to dig all of this debris
right out of the edge of
the wall next where the carpet meets it.
See all that stuff flying out of there?
Save a lot of time and what you're
really doing is just moving it an inch or two
so it's going to be in the path of the vacuum
and it'll get vacuumed away.
Don't hesitate to use your whisk broom.
It'll come in real handy and it really can
keep the steps looking nice without a
lot of extra work with the vacuum cleaner.
So let me vacuum these stairs
for you.
Once you're done
vacuuming you're also done with the
house. We promise to
tell you how to order the same products
we use ourselves. So here's how.
Just ask for a free catalog
by writing this at
2264 Market Street
that's in San Francisco
California
94114
or give us a call.
Our telephone number is
1-415-621-8444.
We never stop
testing products
and these are the best that we've found.
Well, there's speed cleaning
in a nutshell. We hope you
enjoyed it and that you benefited from
it. We've heard from
thousands of people that have told us
that learning speed cleaning
has had a real important and positive
effect on their lives.
If you would like any more
information or if you have some questions
don't forget our books
but also give us a call.
We love to talk about cleaning.
Thanks and
good luck.
Thank you.
you