This article is courtesy of HomeLife magazine.

House cleaning doesn’t have to be an all-day Saturday affair. In fact, you can spend just a few minutes a day and have your entire home spic-and-span by the weekend.

 “It’s simple,” says expert cleaner Terri McGraw, otherwise known as Mrs. Fixit, the best-selling author of Mrs. Fixit’s Easy Home Repair (Simon & Schuster). “Pick one room a day and tackle it, while using quick tips to spot clean the rest of your house throughout the week. One room will not take that long, and using the quick tips will keep the remainder of the rooms from getting too dirty.”

Quick Clean Tips 

Try these suggestions from McGraw and the pros at The Maids Home Services®, one of the nation’s oldest and largest residential maid service franchisers.

• Instead of cleaning the kitchen as one big job, do the floor one day, the appliances another day, and the counters and cabinets another.
• Place a few lemon slices in a bowl of water, set it inside the microwave, and turn it on high for five minutes. When the time is up, open the door and allow the steam to dissipate. The steam and the citrus work together to loosen cooked-on crud so you can easily wipe the microwave clean without scrubbing.
• Clean stainless steel sinks by placing paper towels in the sink and pouring bleach over them. Let them process overnight, and in the morning put on rubber gloves and remove the paper towels to reveal a gorgeous shine.
• Keep a squeegee in your shower and take a minute to skim the walls after everyone has showered to prevent soap scum and hard water deposits. This will save you an hour of scrubbing on the weekend.
• Store used dryer sheets in a drawer in the living room. They make a great last-minute dust cloth for furniture and media equipment, and you don’t need spray polish because the static busters in the sheet pick up the dust.
• Throw a few dryer sheets into the hamper to keep it smelling fresh until laundry day.
• Wrap a used dryer sheet around a sponge mop, and skim your wood floors. The dryer sheet will decrease the static on the floor and prevent the dust from coming back so quickly.
• Get terry cloth oven mitts — one for each hand — and dip them into soapy water. Then scrub your tile floors and see the dirt disappear twice as fast.
• Use a slightly damp sponge to remove pet hair from furniture. 
• Use a handheld vacuum to clean the window ledges. (This works great for removing dead bugs, too!)
• Keep a cleaning kit on each floor of your home. You’ll save time because you won’t have to trek downstairs to get the needed supplies if your upstairs needs a quick cleaning.

Ordinary Stuff Cleans Extraordinarily Well

Forget high-priced cleaning detergents and gadgets. You already have a cleaning arsenal loaded with effective weapons — you just didn’t know it!

•  Keep baby wipes on hand for convenient cleaning. They give a quick, streak-free shine to sinks, faucets, counters, stoves, and refrigerators.
• Clean your windows with newspaper and white vinegar. Simply spray the window with white vinegar and wipe it with a piece of newspaper. The ink in the newspaper acts as a polishing agent, leaving behind a nice, streak-free, lint-free shine.
• White shaving cream mixed with window cleaner and cool water will remove stains from your carpets. (Test a hidden area for colorfastness, and only use white cloths so you don’t transfer dyes).
• Use rubbing alcohol to clean sinks, faucets, and counter tops for a quick, streak-free shine. Plus, alcohol promotes germ-free surfaces.    
• Attach a length of nylon stocking over a yardstick to create a dusting tool for hard-to-reach places.
• Use a paintbrush to clean between the pleats on lamp shades.
• Wipe your stove with white vinegar to remove greasy residue. This works especially well under the range hood. 
• Pour a can of flat cola or two denture tablets in the toilet bowl before you go to bed. Scrub and flush in the morning. 

Michelle Medlock Adams is a freelance writer from Fort Worth, Texas. She and her husband, Jeff, have two daughters. She is author of two children’s books, a women’s devotional, and numerous magazine articles.