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Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

by | Jun 22, 2017 | Decorating Inspiration

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Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

This post and giveaway is sponsored by FilterEasy

Greetings! Happy first day of summer. We often think about the need for some extra “spring cleaning,” but who wants to do extra cleaning in the summertime? Anyone? Not me. But I do like to keep my house clean if I can, so five minute cleaning is a game changer in the summer!

In the summer our house tends to get dustier. Plus when the sun shines through the windows you can see all the dust and grime more clearly, am I right?

Five minutes might not seem like enough time to clean an entire house, but I’m always amazed by how much fresher everything feels overall if I do a quick five minute dusting on a regular basis. 

If I see a spot that can be dusted or wiped off in five minutes or less, I just do it. On the spot. I also post a list of five minute cleaning task ideas so other members of the family can help, too. Even little ones can help with some of the easier dusting tasks. They may not do it perfectly (hey, I don’t do it perfectly either), but it’s a good opportunity to teach kids about housework (and have some affordable help, too).

Today I’ll share a list of five often overlooked but dusty spots in our house that we clean up in five minutes or less. Add to it or make your own dust-busting list. Divide up some tasks among family members, so you can enjoy a cleaner house AND time off this summer! (Also, be sure to enter the FilterEasy giveaway at the bottom of this post!)

Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

Five 5 Minute Dust Busting Summer Tasks

1. Lamps and lampshades

Lampshades and lamps collect dust and cobwebs. We might remember to dust off the console or end table since it’s so visible, but if we happen to look more closely at the lamps and shades, ACK! Dusty. If your lampshades aren’t easy to dust with a cloth, you might want to vacuum them with a brush attachment. Sometimes I’ll even take a fabric lint roller and run it over the shade to pick up any stubborn lint.

Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

2. Table legs and chair legs

The legs or lower frames of chairs and tables often have a coating of dust. Even though it’s such an easy task, I often forget to dust there so it helps me to remember if I combine this task with vacuuming. Furniture dusting is a great task to give the kids right after you vacuum. Dust is smelly and not good for us, so a good vacuuming of the carpet or area rug followed by a quick dusting of the furniture (tops and bottoms!) every week will keep your house feeling fresh.

Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

3. Cabinet doors

I am a stickler for a clean kitchen. I really don’t like a sticky kitchen :). But if you cook in your kitchen like we do, for a clean kitchen you’ll need to do more than just wash the dishes. Cabinets will become a grimy mess pretty fast.

If you have flat cabinet doors, wiping them off isn’t terribly challenging (so keep cabinet door style in mind if you are adverse to cleaning, ha!). But if I have five minutes I can keep my shaker style doors (with extra trim detail) quite clean. To me, it’s time well spent for the beauty of a shaker door.

To clean cabinet trim, I just grab a dry or sometimes slightly damp rag every now and then and run it around the molding of each cabinet door and the face of the cabinet. I haven’t needed to resort to this yet with my new cabinets, but cotton swabs can help get the corners of the molding cleaner if there is any build up.

Now, don’t tell me trying to keep it clean is why you don’t want a white kitchen. :) My dark cabinets needed those five minute cleanings, too. Cabinets that hide grime can only fool us for so long. I find it’s still best to clean darker cabinet doors just as often as I would the white ones to avoid a build up of hard to clean grime. The more we procrastinate cleaning, the worse it gets.

Related Post: How to Clean a White Sink (3 Secrets – Without Harsh Chemicals)

Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

4. Baseboards

You guys, with two fluffy (but non-shedding, thankfully) dogs plus boys and doors and windows that are often open in the summer, our floors and baseboards need those five minute dustings quite often. The other day when Courtney was moving we pulled that hall cabinet out from the wall and BLECH! Behind the cabinet the moldings were quite a fright. But with less than five minutes, they were clean as a whistle.

Give your kids a summer job keeping up with the baseboard dusting, kids are lower to the ground or at least more agile. :) My kids used to love that job for some reason!

Tip: We also use a Roomba to take care of a lot of the dust in our house and on the floors with minimal effort on our part.

Related Post: How I Keep My House Clean with Dogs

Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

5. Air Filters

I do much less cleaning if I can cut down on dust in the first place. One way I figured out how to dust less is by replacing the filters in our HVAC system (heating, ventilation and air condition system, including the air return vents) regularly. I’ve shared before that to make this process easier and more affordable, we order from a subscription air filter service called FilterEasy.

Five Minute Cleaning Summer Task List + Giveaway

Honestly, before I knew about FilterEasy, I hardly ever would remember to change our filters. Ugh. That photo above was what I found when I opened one of our air return vents years ago. Gah! So embarrassing. I’m sure FilterEasy created this service for people like me :).

You can see how much dust collected in that filter. Dust can cause expensive problems for your HVAC systems, not to mention increasing the allergen and dust levels in your home.

Even on the rare occasions when I would head out to get replacement filters, I wouldn’t remember what size of filters I needed. Trying to guess the right filters wasn’t my favorite way to spend a day.

FilterEasy offers a super convenient ordering process that you only have to set up one time. The subscription service costs less than purchasing filters at the home improvement stores and you can order from home.

You simply add in how many filters you need, the sizes (they even offer custom sizes), what level of allergen protection you need and how often you want to change the filters. It’s recommended that you change filters every three months, but if you have pets or allergies you might want to change them more often. Air filters are then sent directly to your door from FilterEasy on a regular schedule.

It takes about a minute to change a filter once your shipment arrives, so it’s all really easy and convenient. FilterEasy saves energy, money and hassle (and you’ll enjoy a cleaner home, too). I definitely recommend trying out their service (it’s risk free, you can change your order or cancel any time).

What are some other five minute dust-busting tasks that you would add to my list?

What summer jobs do you give your kids?  Let’s share ideas in the comments. 

Happy First Day of Summer!

Related Posts:

How to Clean a White Sink (3 Secrets – Without Harsh Chemicals)

How I Keep My House Clean with Dogs

27 Comments

  1. Rachel - SimpleSouthernLife.com

    What a lovely home! So inspiring!
    You’re making me want to go clean now, which is hard while redoing our farmhouse! But I too can’t stand a messy dirty home! ?

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Oh isn’t remodeling the worst for dust? Ugh I remember that feeling. But it will all be worth it in the end. (Thank you!)

  2. Jo Jo

    I not only love your ideas for quick cleaning, I already subscribe to them! ? I live a clean home & several years ago found a blog called Flylady and it changed my life! ? Another quick cleaning idea to daily would be a He ” swish & swipe of the toilets each day. Very little effort and then when your heavier cleaning day comes around, they’ll be sparkling and fresh! Also keeping the kitchen sink clean as you go helps immensely in keeping your home not only keeps the mist heavily room in your home looking and smelling clean, it is a great psychological lift to your spirits as well! ❤️ Thanks for this post, Melissa. Doing a little every day will keep us &’our homes happy and free us up to enjoy being outside this summer with fun activities.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Yes to all! We want to enjoy summer and our home, too, so those little quick clean ups and keeping up with maintenance are the way to go! Have a great day, Jo Jo. XOXO

  3. Jo Jo

    Uhmm, ” proof read much? lol. Sorry for all the repeats, grammatical & typo errors. Typing on my IPad with one finger tends to cause mucho typos and unwanted and wrong “auto corrections” on my previous post. LOL. ??

    • Carolyn

      What was He” supposed to be? I haven’t been able to figure it out. Is that daily toilet cleaning, inside and out? That is a job I hate when bathroom cleaning…keeping it clean daily is appealing!

      • Jo Jo

        The “He” was a typo. Should have read ” Swish & swipe” and do that to your toilets every day with your toilet brush while you’re in your bathroom in the morning. Just squeeze a little shower gel or even a little liquid soap,in the water and quickly swipe around the bowel daily and then at least once a week clean the entire toilet, seat, outside the bowl with your favorite sanitizing cleaner and your toilets will always look clean & fresher even between heavy cleaning.

  4. Julie

    Wipe the bathroom counter & sink; toss junk mail; empty the dish drainer.

    I’ve declared this the summer when the kids (13-4) will start to do more. They’ve done regular meal related jobs for years, but now they are washing their clothes, sheets & towels, cleaning their own bathrooms and vacuuming the house! Yay!

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      YAY! It’s such a good feeling when they can start to do some of those tasks around the house and learn how to take care of things themselves! Good mama, enjoy!

  5. Carolyn

    This post and the comments are helpful. We’re on a cleaning/tidying kick here right now, which isn’t easy with 3 little boys 4 1/2, 21 months and 4 months old. (I’m livng with my daughter’s family.) We’re starting to enlist their help, even though it sometimes makes the task a little harder and more time-consuming!

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Wow, you have your hands full there with three little ones! I definitely remember many times where it felt easier to just do the jobs myself, but down the road it pays off. Meanwhile, enjoy as much summer fun as you can, they sure grow up fast, don’t they? XOXO

  6. andrea d Ellis

    I love cleaning in bits and bobs!

  7. Liza

    I think the air filter service is made for people like me, too. A smoke alarm was going off today because it’s next to the a/c filter and dust from the filter was getting blown onto the alarm. OOPS!

    Yesterday, I put a list of things to do on my fridge that are all mostly small chores. Starting next week, each of my 3 boys and I will do 2-3 a day. If we can keep up with it, our house should be sparkling in no time.

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Ha, that’s so funny about the alarm. I love dividing up the small chores, you’re so right, that way it will be clean in no time! <3

  8. Rana Durham

    What are some other five minute dust-busting tasks that you would add to my list?
    dusting plants, dusting artificial plants and fruits
    What summer jobs do you give your kids?
    clean up room, lawn care

  9. pamela

    Great post! I was wondering where you found your gray buffet with the glass front. I like that it’s not too deep. I’m on the hunt for one like that. Thank you!

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      It’s from Restoration Hardware. I searched everyone for a shallow cabinet like it that was also longer than most, it wasn’t easy to find! But I sprung for it and another one with closed cabinet doors, without the glass. They were both on sale and more affordable than many of their cabinets (at least they were when I got them). They are great quality, I’m very happy with them!

    • Melissa @ The Inspired Room

      Thank you! It’s from Restoration Hardware called the Hampton Glass Casement cabinet :)

  10. Rebekah

    Hi Melissa,
    Can you tell me your source for the runner picture in your hall? I love it!
    ~Rebekah

  11. Ann C

    Wiping down the window and sill where the dog likes to sit and watch for us to come home. Doesn’t take long and makes me happy when I sit down to relax and look out that same window. I don’t have a dishwasher (except me) so keeping the dishes done is easy and quick if I do them each time I dirty a dish rather than letting them pile up. Making the bed.
    Emptying wastebaskets. When my daughter was small we played a game that we were professional housekeepers. We would knock on a bedroom door and then go in and make the bed and pick up the room talking like adults and complaining about the make believe customer being messy. She tells me now that she is an adult that she thinks it was sneaky of me to play this game. We do what works!

    • MumMom

      hahaha… Professional housekeepers?! That is so funny, you clever fox! I must steal your idea.

  12. amy walker

    The dust attracting cloths. I use them FOR EVERYTHING. daily. I have asthma & two dogs. (neither has a clue of their canine beginnings) they make a huge difference. One & done is great for me!

  13. Melinda Young

    I love Filter Easy! They have great customer service too. Super simple and time saving!!

  14. Gail

    Melissa,
    Do you have a more close-up photo of the corner of your kitchen to show the shiplap detail ?
    I am wondering if your contractor ran a piece of shoe-molding down the corner, as I have seen in some shiplap applications ?
    I’m determined to do shiplap somewhere and I want to get it right.
    Thanks !
    Gail

  15. Kelly

    Can I see a picture of your complete kitchen? I always just see a glimpse of ( your farmhouse sink angle).. I’m redoing my kitchen and I love how you gave no upper cabinets on the sink side

 

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