How to Maximize Cleaning in Minimum Time from Kim's Rude Awakenings

The longer you clean for, the better you get at it. People make a big fuss about cleaning: I never get time. It takes so long. But it doesn't .

One piece of advice about cleaning is clean as you go, throw as you go and you won't have a problem. For instance I'll come into my lounge at night and I'll puff the cushions up, I'll put the cups in the dishwasher. You leave the place clean. You can do these chores so quickly. I can get up in the morning, make my bed, whip a duster over the cabinets in the bedroom, pop downstairs, put the kettle on and that's done in two minutes.

We fuss you know, we just fuss all the time. Get organized. Stop switching from one room to the other. Complete one room! Clean as you go. You will never get into a mess. You'll get used to the parts that get dirty. My lounge, my kitchen, my bathroom of course, cleaned every day. Guest bedrooms and guest bathrooms they're not, are they?

I'll tell you what helps avoid a lot of cleaning: put a rug at your front door, outside the door and inside. Take your shoes off as you stand on the inside rug . Don't put them on the floor. Have a special cupboard or piece of furniture that they can go in to avoid dirt dropping onto the main carpet. Do you know that shoes bring 75% of the dirt into the house? It gets on the floors, the carpets and it dirties the whole house. If you take your shoes off it doesn't happen. Make your friends and guests take their shoes off. It's your house, you are the Queen of your own establishment.

You get used to cleaning. I'll say to myself: I'm going to do ten minutes of running around. I've got to go out today. You set the timer for ten minutes and you can do a great deal in ten minutes if you put your mind to it! You can clear the lounge for a start, you can dust it, you can puff the cushions up, take out the newspapers.You can go up and make your bed, you can vacuum near the front door where it gets dirty. You can check your mail - and you can have a cup of tea - and that is your ten minutes. So stop fussing. Just get on with it.

Enjoy housework because you know what, I don't care what you say, life is full of problems and to walk through my front door and turn the key and see a clean home is utter joy to me. You sit on the sofa, you look round and say, isn't this gorgeous? How people can sit in all this muck I do not know.

The thing is, it's organization. Get yourself organized and stop telling me that it takes ten minutes to make a bed. It does not. One woman said to me, 'You know, it's half an hour to unpack the dishwasher', and I said, don't be ridiculous! And she unpacked it in two minutes. These things don't take long. You can get so much done if you will just get off your backside. Don't be lazy and stop all these silly excuses.