Last Minute Holiday Cleaning Tips that will Save You

This post was sponsored by GOJO, the makers of PURELL® Multi Surface Disinfectant, as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Holiday cleaning can be seriously stress-inducing, especially if you have guests planning on visiting for the holidays. These last minute holiday cleaning tips will save you (and your sanity) and help you get back to enjoying the things that are important this holiday season.

There are very few things that cause me as much stress during the holidays as trying to get my house clean, while the small people living in it are continuously trying to mess it up.

I tell my family that literally the only thing I want for Christmas is a clean house. I have yet to get it, so that’s one of those Christmas gifts I give myself.

The stress level goes up insurmountably if we’ll have guests in the house for the holidays.

Forget having to clean the main living areas — with guests, I have to clean every nook and cranny.

Before the panic sets in, we have some last minute holiday cleaning tips that will help you survive the season (hopefully without driving your family crazy).

First of all, take a deep breath. 

You’ve got this.

Start from the front door. Take a good look at what your holiday guests will see first. Try and see your home as a guest would then tackle the most obvious messes first.

Focus on floors and flat surfaces. Keeping these areas clear of clutter make your house look instantly cleaner. I like to start with floors (since that is usually toy mess or shoes in our house) because that is generally fast to clean up.

Pick up the clutter, then wipe everything down. If you are tight on time, you could even throw everything that doesn’t belong in a laundr

I’m picky about cleaning products because I want my house to be clean but I hate overwhelming smells. I typically make most of my own cleaning supplies, but sometimes you just need a deeper clean or a faster solution. The new PURELL® Multi Surface Disinfectant has a light scent and is worry-free around kids, pets and food. I grabbed a few bottles for Amazon and had a deep cleaning solution I didn’t have to worry about using around my family.

That’s a holiday win.

There’s no harsh fumes, no toxic residue, no harsh chemicals, no bleach. I’m super sensitive to smells and this didn’t bother me. It smelled like a lighter version of Purell hand sanitizer.

I love that it kills 99.99% of germs so I can feel confident that my kitchen is clean for holiday cooking (and it is approved for food prep surfaces).

 

 

Let your kids play “Race the Vacuum” I’m probably a mean mom but I LOVE doing this with my kids. They refuse to clean 9 times out of 10 when I ask them (at least the little kids do), but when I pull out the vacuum and tell them they need to pick up their toys before the vacuum gets them, they run. Seriously. You’ve never seen kids clean so fast.

The first few times I pulled that, they freaked out. Now it’s a game to them and my house gets cleaned quickly.

Wipe down everything in the main bathroom. I feel like holiday guests can forgive a lot of things as long as the bathroom is clean. Have your kids take a first run at this to save you some time, then go over it to give it a more detailed cleaning.

Use the “crumb coat” method. I’m not much of a baker, but when I first heard about the idea of frosting cakes with a crumb coat, or a really rough layer before you get the final layer on, I loved the idea. This applies to so many things in life. The first pass through things doesn’t have to be perfect. With your holiday cleaning, start with a “crumb coat” pass at your house. Clean up the major stuff. Make things look mostly presentable. You’ll feel better as you see progress and if you are worried about any surprise guests, you’ll have a head start.

Once you have the first, rough clean done, you can go back and give a more detailed cleaning to anything that you see that needs more attention.

What tips do you have to get your house ready for the holidays?