Easy steps for cleaning bedrooms, bathrooms and hallways

You're psyched up, fully equipped and armed with the best speed-cleaning techniques. Now put it into action with the ultimate step-by-step plan for weekly house cleaning. We'll start where you will make the biggest impact, the high-traffic areas — bedrooms, bathrooms and hallways.

• This plan assumes you have a two-story house. If you don't, you can adapt the plan to fit your home.
• Go into each bedroom, strip the sheets off the beds and throw them into the hallway.
• Go into each bathroom and throw the towels, hand towels, face cloths and bath mats into the hallway, too.
• Gather all of these washable items in a laundry basket and dump them in the laundry.
• Start a wash load with the bath mats and a couple of towels.

• Go into the upstairs bathroom and start spreading around the cleaning chemicals.
• Spray toilet cleaner (stored under the basin) inside the toilet bowl.
• Spray all-purpose cleaner on the toilet rim, toilet seat, vanity top and basin.
• Sprinkle your bath cleaner in the bath.
• Empty the wastebasket into your plastic trash bag.
• Spray a clean rag with window cleaner and clean the mirror.
• Now use a little elbow grease. Scrub the inside of your toilet bowl with the toilet brush and wipe down the vanity, basin, toilet exterior and toilet rim.
• Scrub the bath with a nylon scrubber sponge. Rinse the bath.
• Spray all-purpose cleaner on the shower walls and wipe them down. (Note that this prevents mixing two cleaners in the bath — something you want to avoid.)
• Mop the floor, backing out of the room.

• Go into one of the upstairs bedrooms and empty the wastebasket into your trash bag.
• Move any light furniture or other obstructions towards the centre of the room, away from the walls.
• Dust the entire room, starting at the door and moving from left to right. Using your lamb's wool duster, take one wall at a time, working from top to bottom, including valances, window frames, curtains and furniture.
• Now vacuum around the entire perimeter of the bedroom — made easier with the furniture in the centre of the room.
• Return the furniture to its original position.
• Starting at the far corner of the room, vacuum the rest of the room, backing out the door.
• Go into the other upstairs bedrooms and repeat bedroom-cleaning steps.

• Give the upstairs hallway a quick dusting, moving left to right, top to bottom, one wall at a time.
• Put away the upstairs cleaning caddy. Vacuum the upstairs hallway, backing towards the stairs.
• Take the trash bag with you and back down the stairs, vacuuming the stairs as you go.

• For the ground-floor bathroom, repeat upstairs-bathroom cleaning steps (except use your ground-floor cleaning caddy).
• For ground-floor bedrooms,repeat bedroom-cleaning steps.
• Dust and vacuum the downstairs hallway.

• Go to the laundry and unload the washing machine.
• Hang out the washing, or put everything but your rubber-backed bath mats into the dryer.
• Load the washing machine with dirty sheets and towels.
• Hang the rubber-backed mats on a clothesline or a clothes rack to drip-dry.