10 Cleaning Time-Wasters (And What to Do Instead)

Life in Chicago moves fast. Between work, family, and trying to enjoy the city, keeping your home clean can feel like a losing battle. You spend time cleaning, but somehow your space never feels *truly* clean. Sound familiar? You’re likely stuck in common cleaning ruts that drain your time without giving you the spotless results you deserve. Let’s fix that.

1. Not Moving Things Before You Clean

Trying to wipe a counter around coffee mugs or vacuum around a pile of shoes creates a cleaning obstacle course. You’re not cleaning effectively; you’re just moving dirt around.

Do This Instead: Before you start any task, take two minutes for a quick reset. Remove items from surfaces, pick up floor clutter, *then* clean. You’ll get a far better clean in less time. If this feels overwhelming, consider booking a one-time deep cleaning help session to get a fresh, organized start.

2. Spot Cleaning All Day Long

Constantly wiping a crumb here or picking up a sock there is “death by a thousand microtasks.” It’s exhausting and your home never feels fully clean.

Do This Instead: Batch your cleaning. Let minor messes accumulate during the day, then dedicate 20-30 minutes in the evening for a full reset. This focused effort is far more efficient than being in perpetual “clean-up” mode. For a truly hands-off approach, you can schedule a cleaning with a pro to handle the big resets for you.

3. Having No Laundry Routine

Doing tiny, frequent loads or constantly wondering “should I do laundry now?” is a mental and physical drain.

Do This Instead: Designate a laundry day. Batch all your loads (lights, darks, towels) over a weekend morning. Wash, dry, fold, and put away in one dedicated block. You’ll free up mental space for the rest of the week.

4. Using the Wrong Cleaning Tools

A worn-out sponge or a weak vacuum means you’re working harder, not smarter. You compensate for poor tools with extra elbow grease.

Do This Instead: Invest in quality basics: a good vacuum, microfiber cloths, and a sturdy scrub brush. The right tool makes the job faster and more effective. Sometimes, the best tool is a professional team. A reliable cleaning service near me comes fully equipped with industrial-grade supplies.

5. Vacuuming Incorrectly

Vacuuming around furniture and cords is inefficient. You miss spots and often have to re-vacuum the same area.

Do This Instead: Quickly move lightweight furniture (chairs, stools, baskets) to clear the floor. Vacuum high-traffic areas first with extra attention, then do the whole room in straight, overlapping lines. Want perfectly vacuumed floors without the hassle? Let a professional home cleaning crew handle it.

6. Scrubbing Your Shower Weekly

If you’re breaking your back scrubbing soap scum every week, you’re missing two key steps.

Do This Instead: Use a squeegee on walls and doors after *every* shower. Then, ventilate the bathroom during and for an hour after your shower. This prevents mold and mildew buildup, meaning you only need a light monthly clean instead of a weekly deep scrub.

7. Cleaning in a Random Order

Dusting after you’ve already wiped the counter, or cleaning floors before dusting shelves, means you’re cleaning the same dirt twice.

Do This Instead: Always clean from top to bottom and left to right. Dust high shelves first, then clean surfaces below, and finish with the floors. This systematic approach cuts cleaning time in half. It’s the same method used by the best cleaning services in Chicago.

8. Being a Perfectionist

You don’t need to deep-clean your baseboards weekly. Trying to maintain perfection in every corner is a recipe for burnout.

Do This Instead: Differentiate between daily upkeep (kitchen counters, bathroom sinks) and occasional deep cleans (windowsills, under furniture). Do a visual inspection—if it looks clean to you, it probably is. Save the deep cleans for a seasonal schedule or hire someone to clean my apartment for those intensive seasonal tasks.

9. Buying Too Many Specialty Cleaners

A cabinet full of single-use sprays wastes money, storage space, and time as you search for the “right” product.

Do This Instead: Simplify! A few versatile basics (like an all-purpose cleaner, dish soap, and a disinfectant) can handle 90% of home cleaning. Use what you have, then stick to a minimalist toolkit.

10. Not Using a Timer (The #1 Mistake!)

Cleaning without a time limit can stretch on forever, with distractions pulling you away.

Do This Instead: Set a timer. Challenge yourself to clean the kitchen in 20 minutes or tidy the living room in 10. The deadline creates focus and efficiency. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish. When your own time is too limited, the most efficient step is to book an appointment with a trusted Chicago cleaning company.

Reclaim Your Time and Your Space

Implementing even one or two of these changes can transform your cleaning routine from a time-sucking chore into an efficient process. Your home will look better, and you’ll get hours of your week back. Remember, efficiency isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about working smarter so you can spend less time cleaning and more time living.

If your cleaning routine feels like it takes forever, it’s not necessarily because your house is messy, but it’s because you’re doing cleaning jobs that feel productive, but barely move the needle. You’re doing total time wasters. So, today I’m going to talk you through the biggest cleaning time wasters. These are things that are literally stealing time from your life, and we are going to talk about what to do instead so that you can have a clean and efficient home. And make sure you stick around until the very end because number 10 is the number one mistake that people make. And if you’re new to Clean My Space, welcome. My name is Melissa Maker. I’m an accidental cleaning expert, which means I struggle with cleaning just like you do. But I’ve been in this industry since 2006, and I am here to help you find the most efficient and effective way to get the job done right. So, if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you subscribe. So, when it comes to being efficient with your cleaning, what we’re looking for is how to get maximum impact with minimal work. It’s not about cutting corners, but it’s about doing work that’s actually going to make a difference so that when you walk into a space, it doesn’t feel like your whole room just exploded even though you spent 20 minutes doing some cleaning. Make sense? All right, let’s get into the first one. This drives me crazy when people do it, mostly because I used to do this before I started cleaning professionally. And that is not moving things before you clean them. So, what this looks like is trying to wipe a countertop clean without removing the items first. So, you’re wiping around bottles or you’re vacuuming around piles on the floor. So, when you’re doing this, you’re creating like a cleaning obstacle course. So, instead of doing that, you’re going to take a pause and before you do any cleaning, you’re just going to do a quick little declutter, a quick reset. You’re going to lift things up off the floor, move things off the counter, then you’re going to proceed with your cleaning, then you’re going to replace things where they belong. I do go into more detail about this in my threewave system, and I’m going to link videos for you about the three-wave system down below. If you’re someone who spot cleans all day long, you are essentially experiencing death by a thousand microtasks. Because what this looks like for you is you see a crumb, you wipe. You see a sock on the floor, you pick it up. You’re just constantly in cleaning mode all day. And that is going to burn you out. That’s exhausting. And by the way, your house never looks clean. It just always looks like it’s in a state of flux. So instead of doing all of this micro cleaning, we’re going to stop doing that and we’re going to batch clean instead. This is what I do. Now, it does require a little bit of tolerance for mess. Hear me out. Because what this means is you’re going to let things be as they are during the day. And I work from home, so this is a bit of a struggle for me. But at the end of the day or when my daughter comes home and I’m ready to make dinner or cleaning up after dinner, whatever the case may be, I know that I’m going to spend time. I’m probably going to spend 20 to 30 minutes tidying up the house. I’m going to catch everything during that time. So rather than me being distracted during the day picking up crumbs or socks or this or that, I save it all until the very end and then I get to do the work once and the house is reset. And let me be clear, this is not being lazy. This is surviving. This is what adults do to survive. I think laundry is one of the most exhausting cleaning tasks around the house because it always has to be done and it’s always building up. And if you’re someone who’s constantly thinking about, should I do a load of laundry? when should I do the load of laundry? What should I wash? You just don’t have a laundry routine down pat. So, it’s constantly stressing you out cuz it’s always on your mind. What’s worse is if you do a little tiny load of laundry, so like six or seven things going into the washing machine, that’s just a lot of extra work. So, instead of that, you’re going to develop a laundry routine that works for you. And the way that I do it is I do all of my laundry on the weekend. So, lights, colors, darks, towels, and sheets, and cleaning cloths. I tend to do six loads of laundry a week, but it all gets done. So, the washing, the drying, there’s a big cycle going, constantly moving things from here to there. It gets folded, it gets put away, but then it’s done for the week. I have to say that making time for this, I do it early in the morning so that it doesn’t waste time during my day, and I sort of break it up over Saturday and Sunday. Making this time means the rest of the week all I have to think about is putting my stuff in hampers. And that takes so much laundry stress off my shoulders. If you’re cleaning with the wrong cleaning tools, you have not been watching the Clean MySpace channel long enough. Because one of the first things that I like to teach is to clean with the right products and tools and techniques to get the job done right the first time. If your tools suck, if you’re not using the right tool for the job, or if you’re using an old or inexpensive tool because you don’t feel like replacing it or you don’t want to spend the money on it, you have to work harder. You’re compensating for a tool that can’t do what you need it to do. So, instead of that, take some time. I’ll put some links to cleaning tool videos down below for you. Learn what cleaning tools are right for the job. Invest in those cleaning tools. Maintain them. It’s a lot easier than it sounds, actually. And then use those to get the cleaning job done for you. Because why are you going to use a crappy sponge from the dollar store if you have to scrub for longer if you can use a better quality sponge that’s going to get that job done in half the time? This also comes down to investing in a better vacuum cleaner, mop, and broom, microfiber cleaning cloths. I’ll put a link down below to my sister company, Makers Clean, where I sell premium microfiber cleaning cloths and more. This is not necessarily a plug for my company, although it is a little bit, but I made premium cleaning tools because it drove me crazy seeing how much crap there was out there. There is a right and a wrong way to vacuum floors. And if you’re doing it the wrong way, you are wasting your time. I want to help you do it quickly. So, if you’re vacuuming around a lot of furniture and cords and things and you feel like you have to revacuum certain areas, we’ve got to fix this. The first thing you want to do is move bulky pieces of movable furniture out of the way. So, when I’m vacuuming my kitchen, for example, I kind of pull apart all of the chairs, the bars, stools, and the kitchen table. And that way, I have access to those difficult spaces, and I can sort of flexibly move the chairs around as needed. Even the coffee table when I’m vacuuming in my living room, I’ll just quickly slide that out of the way. I don’t want anything encumbering my ability to do my job. Because if I’m vacuuming around a piece of furniture, a I’m not getting the best vacuum, and B, it just means more work for me cuz I can’t go in a straight line. It’s less efficient. This also means moving baskets or cords or anything like that that you’re just going to have to sort of move around or avoid. Now, if you have any hightra areas, for example, the island area in my kitchen, there are always a lot of crumbs. I will vacuum this area first. Then I will do a regular vacuum and then I will do a final inspection of that area in case anything got flung over there or there was anything that I missed. I have a pretty good vacuum and it usually picks everything up. But I find those hightraic areas need a little bit of extra TLC to really look clean. I’m still shocked to this day when I see so many Tik Tok and Instagram and YouTube videos of people heavy duty scrubbing their shower. It’s like what are you doing wrong? And I know what they’re doing wrong. They are not using a squeegee and they are not ventilating. And if this is you, I’m not critiquing you, but I am telling you there’s a better way. I don’t want you to have to stand in your shower and scrub it with a toothbrush every week. That is not how we as humans were meant to spend our time. Instead, what your shower cleaning routine is going to look like is a slight transformation. You’re going to get yourself a great squeegee. I’m going to link the one that I use down below. It never gets grungy. It hangs on my shower door and it is freaking awesome. The next thing you’re going to do is ventilate. You’re going to ventilate during your shower and for at least an hour afterward. And that’s because anywhere there’s moisture, there’s going to be mold or mildew. And you don’t want that cuz then you’re going to have to clean that. So, by removing moisture both from the squeegee and from ventilation, you are not going to have to work nearly as hard at keeping your shower clean. No soap scum, no mold, no mildew, no nothing. But you will have to do maybe a monthly clean of your shower. And I think that’s reasonable. We can handle that. By the way, if you want a video on how to clean your shower, I’ve got a link for you down below. And if you feel like my shower wouldn’t qualify for that, it’s always gross. Clean your shower really well. Then follow this plan of using a squeegee and ventilating and you will see what I mean. Your shower’s not gross. You’re not lazy. You’re just not doing it right. Here’s something else that I’ve been talking about since the dawn of the Clean MySpace channel time back in 2012, and that is cleaning from top to bottom, left to right. It drives me nuts when I see people cleaning a surface and then cleaning higher and then cleaning lower and then cleaning another surface and then moving a thing here and moving a thing there. It’s inefficient. And this is how I used to clean before I started my cleaning business back in 2006. I was like the Tasmanian double bouncing around a room. I had no idea what to do. But there is indeed a method to the cleaning madness. And that quite simply is you’re always going to clean from the top to the bottom. That’s because if you take something, say a vase off a shelf, and it’s dusty, the dust will fall onto the counter. You’ll clean the vase, you’ll clean the shelf, you’ll put the vase back, then you’re going to move on to that counter, clean that, wipe everything on the floor, and you’ll clean the floor last. Imagine if you did that in reverse order. You’d have to clean everything twice. And this can become really exhausting because you will feel like your house is always dusty and you’re going to wonder, why am I always cleaning? What am I doing wrong? This is what you’re doing wrong. So, I’ve got a link for you to our three-wave system. It talks all about this technique, and I’m going to show you exactly how to clean efficiently. Once you figure out how to clean in the right order, top to bottom, left to right, clean your way out of a room, you will see that your cleaning time gets cut in half, and your room is going to look so much cleaner, so much faster. So, if you’re a perfectionist and you’ve gone down some of these cleaning rabbit holes online where you see these people who spend all day scrubbing their baseboards and cleaning their grout and doing all these things, you might be falling into a bit of a perfectionist trap. And I’m here to tell you that is not necessary. I’m giving you full permission to not be a perfectionist. There are certain things that definitely need to be cleaned on a very regular basis, aka daily, aka my kitchen, aka my bathroom. And then there are other things that you can deep clean once in a while. Because if you are deep cleaning all the things all the time, it’s just putting unnecessary stress and pressure on yourself. It’s impossible. You’re never going to get it done. Especially if you’ve got other things going on. Listen, if all you got to do every day is clean, please, by all means. But I don’t, and I don’t think you do either. So, instead, what we’re going to do is we’re going to figure out what those deep clean jobs are. For example, removing all the cushions from your sofa, cleaning your window sills, cleaning your baseboards, cleaning under a rug, cleaning out your closet. These are all little examples of things that you can do once a month, once a quarter, depending on, you know, how used those spaces are in your home. You can do a visual inspection. And if you notice that it’s getting dirty, that’s when it needs a good deep clean. If it looks okay to you, whatever your level of okay is, you can probably safely skip it and leave it for another time. This is definitely one of the reasons, by the way, why those seasonal deep cleans are really valuable because those things that you’ve left, which is totally fine, can be done during those seasonal turnovers. Okay, this is another habit that not only will waste your time, but it’s going to waste your money and it’s going to waste your storage space. And that is buying too many specialty cleaners. Look, it’s all fun and games to buy a new cleaning product. I get it. I love doing that with like skin care and hair and beauty stuff, you know, like, oh, get extra shine. It’s fun to buy stuff, but at the end of the day, is it necessary? And I’m here to tell you a lot of the time it’s not necessary. Here at the Clean MySpace HQ, I make a lot of DIY cleaning products and I will link videos for you down below sharing those exact recipes that I have been using and swearing by for years now. I definitely believe that there are products you need to buy. For example, dish soap, laundry detergent, a mold and mildew cleaner. Those are things that you really should be investing in. But like an all-purpose cleaner, a floor cleaner, yeah, these are things you can make on your own. If you’re using too many products, it’s a big waste of time. But more importantly, it’s a waste of storage space because you’ve got to store them. You have to think about refilling them constantly. You have to read more packages and figure out where to use what. And you’re spending more money. I don’t want you doing that. So, slim down what you have. Like, use it up, slim it down, stick to the basics, and you’ll see that your house is going to look equally as clean. It’ll just cost you less. I think the number one way that people waste time cleaning is by not timing themselves. And I learned this when I timed myself cleaning my bathroom without using any techniques and that I employed techniques that I had learned and I timed myself again. And I noticed there was a huge difference. From there, I decided that I was going to time myself when I cleaned. A to keep me honest, so I wasn’t wasting time checking my phone or playing with something that I found, but also so that I could constantly be reminding myself to be more efficient. And the other thing is if you don’t set yourself a timer, it can just feel like cleaning will be a never-ending job. So, if I’m cleaning my kitchen and I give myself 20 minutes, I’m under the gun, if you will. I have 20 minutes to get it looking good. I’m going to work extra hard. If you don’t currently use a timer when you clean, please set yourself 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever the number is and watch how much work you can get done. This is a huge time-saving hack and I promise you once you start, you’re going to use it everywhere. So, now you know the things that you’re doing when you’re cleaning that waste your time, are not efficient, and perhaps waste you money as well. And I’d love to know in the comments down below which one you’re going to try this week. Because honestly, even if you try one, you’re going to notice a difference. And maybe it’ll encourage you to try more. So maybe save this video and come back to it. If these ideas lit a fire under your feet, you’re probably going to love our email newsletter called The Dirty Dish. And I’ve got a link for you to sign up for it down below. I did make a video teaching you how to create your own daily cleaning routine. And I’m going to put a link for it right over here so you can check that out as well. And remember, if you haven’t done so already, make sure that you subscribe to the Clean My Space channel. >>