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October 27, 2024 12 mins
Hey, Team TOM! Ever feel like you're making cleaning harder than it needs to be? Sometimes, we’re our own worst enemy when it comes to keeping things clean and tidy! In this episode, I’m breaking down the most common cleaning habits that might be working *against* you—and sharing how to make life a whole lot easier.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, welcome back. How are you? We're almost almost

(00:04):
that Hallow Clean Week.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
We don't know what we're talking about, then make sure
you go and check on my socials next week, So
week commencing the twenty eighth of October, because Monday through
Friday Friday inclusive of next week, we are going to
be spinning the wicked wheel of Fortune over on the
Tom Rocks guided cleaning Sessions and you're either going to
get a cleaning trick or a cleaning tree. And it's
so popular we do it every year and it's just

(00:26):
a really fun way of getting some cleaning done. And
I'm going to fool you all and pretend that we're
playing a game, So be sure to check out Hollow
Clean Weeks. We'round about Halloween. It's half term time, isn't
it got better time to talk about the things that
you might be doing right now that is wasting your time,
that you're wasting time. We're already pushed for time, especially

(00:47):
when the kids are off school. Things are getting busier,
aren't they, in terms of like as we're getting towards Christmas,
things always get busier. So is there anything that you're
doing that's slowing the cleaning down. So we're going to
have a chat about the most common culprits today in
this episode. Maybe it also sparks a bit of light
bulb moment and you're thinking, oh my gosh, I do

(01:08):
X y Z. It always creates an issue, or I
do that and that just creates a create more work
for myself. So that's what we are going to be
talking about today.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
We always talk.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
About cleaning smarter, not harder, don't we And we know
we know this is why cleaning routines, like you know,
Tom work, They help us to be efficient because there's
a plan. It guides you, It slowly leads you through
an eight week cleaning cycle. You're not missing anything, you're
not doubling up anything, you're not wasting time, and you're
being efficient. And like when you're following Tom, the more

(01:38):
you do, the longer you follow the cleaning your house
is going to get, which means you are switching from
reactive cleaning, where that means like you just sort of
like on the fly the whole time doing this that
oh my god, I need to do this, Oh my god.
Is that you're switching from reactive cleaning to proactive cleaning
where you're staying one step ahead, you're being your future friend,
and therefore you are not creating work for yourself. You're
making things quicker and more of it. But when you're

(02:01):
thinking about like the daily stuff, the day to day
actual work of the cleaning, these are what I identify
is the most common things that people do that you're
just wasting your time. You're creating work for yourself. The
first one being not working from the top down.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
So think about it.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
You enter a room and you just start randomly vacuuming.
I'm going to vacuum first. And it can be really
tempting to vacuum first, can't it. But if you think
about it like this, right when you dust a surface,
will you clean a surface, or maybe you've got a
feather duster or a microfiber dust or whatever, and you're
up there doing the cob webs, or maybe you're doing
the skirting boards, the baseboards, that sort of thing. You

(02:42):
are flying dust. You're distributing dust into the air and
then it falls and it lands on the floor, right, So.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Then it would make sense to vacuum last.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So one of the big mistakes that I see people
making is that they vacuum first. There's no real strategy
to how they're cleaning the room. If you work from
the top down, it means that any dust or dirt
that you disturb from the top surfaces falls down to
the next one. And that's fine because you're going to
clean it next, and then eventually the last and final
thing that you're going to clean is the floor. I

(03:14):
promise you it saves time. It is the most efficient
way to clean a room if you are tackling a
whole room at once. Another thing, big thing, a big
time sucker, is laundry. So much on it, especially at
this time. The everything's covered in mud, all this sort
of thing, right, and it can be really tempting just
to stick a load in the tumble dryer. Forget about it,

(03:34):
forget about it, walk away, I don't think about it.
But you are going to be creating so much work
for yourself if you are not getting it out quickly enough.
And by that I mean we've all been there, haven't we.
You put a load in the washing machine, you forget
about it, You go to it the next day and
musty smell. You have to re wash it, wasting time,
wasting energy, wasting wasting money, wasting everything, to waste time. Right,

(03:56):
So when you stick a washing load in the washing machine,
you have to commit I'm going to get this as
soon as it's done, right, shake it, flick it, get
the creases out. Either get it straight on the line
outside if you're blessed to have nice weather, or get
it on the heated era, or if he wants you,
get it in the tumble dryer.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Now, if you've got it in.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
The tumble dryer, what else must you commit to? Yes,
getting it out as soon as it's dry. Otherwise you're
going to leave it in there and it's going to
almost bake the creases in. So when you do get
the stuff out, you're going to be ironing more. Everything's
just going to be a creased mess. Definition of insanity
is doing the same thing but expecting a different result. Okay,
what we do now is that if you leave you're

(04:33):
washing in the washing machine, it will go smelly and
musty and you will have to resh it. What do
we also know if you leave your drying in the
tumble dryer, it will be full of creases and you
might end up having to iron it. So no, when
to fold, No, when to hang out to dry and
you are going to save yourself so much time and
also like that feeling of ugh, save yourself, that earth

(04:55):
feeling because horrible, no one wants to do.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Another thing that I see is it says that hand
being really bod.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Another thing that I see is people cleaning windows on
sunny days, right, not ideal.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
And we're going to tell you why. So when you
the irony.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
The irony of this is that you are more likely
to see that a window needs cleaning when the sun
is streaming in and then you can see all the
finger marks and all the streaks from the past attempts
to clean it up. But if you clean a window
on a sunny day, you are likely to get streaks
on that window. Why because the heat from the sun

(05:32):
dries the product faster than you're able to actually get
it cleaned off. It's going to leave streaks and it's
going to if you fill in why do I even
bother chrome will work for yourself. So this is why again,
you are in a good cleaning routine. You do something
like Tom, you know when to clean your windows, and
you are proactively cleaning those windows on the dull days.

(05:53):
You're not reactively cleaning it when it's nice and bright
and sunny, and all of a sudden you can see
the streaks because you're going to have to wear a
really fast before the sun and the light dries that
product out too quickly for you to work with it,
and then all of a sudden you've got streets again.
Another really big thing is neglecting the tools that you

(06:13):
use to clean. I think dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer,
vacuum cleaner. All of these things need maintaining. To Betty maps,
vacuum cleaner, bags that need emptying. Means to the appliances
or the equipment whatever it is you're using, aren't going
to do the job properly. Just think, when was the

(06:34):
last time you cleaned your mop head? When was the
last time you cleaned your swiffer like the microfiber flat pop? Okay,
when was the last time you put your washing machine
through a cleaning maintenance cycle? When was the last time
you did that for your dishwasher? When was the last
time you replace the salts in the dishwasher? All of
these things you need to maintain your cleaning equipment regularly

(06:56):
so that they work as efficiently as possible. So that
you was saving yourself time and you're not storing up
problems for later. On dishwasher Another big one loading your dishwasher,
getting it.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Jam packed full.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
As much as I get it, just like, let's just
get as much clean as we possibly can. You overload
your dishwasher. You've got plates too sack stacked too close together,
all all of the cutleries just bunged up together. The
water and everything is not going to be able to
get to all of the individual things that need cleaning.
So not only do you need to make sure that

(07:29):
you're loading your dishwasher correctly. And I know this is
a conversation for like the rest of the family as well.
Maybe like Jen, I load it fine, babe, it's the
other people that are causing the issue.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Maybe you have a dishwasher.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Orientation day, mate? Do you want me to film that
fore you? Do you want me to film a or
record an episode where I'm like, this is how to
use your dishwasher so that you give it to the
people that need it. Mike and I have genuine like
discussions about this. He has his way.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
I have my way my elf. See, I think my
way is the better way.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
He thinks his way is the better way, right anyway, anyway,
you need to make sure that you are loading it
in a way that everything's going to get cleaned efficiently.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
And also are you wasting time pre washing the dishes,
pre rinsing. You don't need to do that.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Scrape the food off, yes, debris food off into the
bin down the waist disposal, but you don't need to
be rensing necessarily under the tap unless it's like baked on.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
But the reason is is because modern dishwashers are designed
to handle dirty dishes. As long as you're following the instruction,
you're using a decent dishwasher tablet, your salt is good,
you got your inside in if you want it, and
the filter's not clogged, you should be going good to go.
And also a lot of dishwashers can actually sense, they
have like senses, and they can auto adjust to how

(08:52):
dirty the dishes are and they will adjust the cleaning
load accordingly. So no need to wash first, it's just
a scrape and loading properly. A lot of making sure
that you're not wasting time and creating work for yourself
with the cleaning are is preventative. And we know that
when we switch to proactive cleaning, like when you following TOM,
that is a really good way to do preventative cleaning.

(09:14):
But also something really simple like really good doormats at
your door, having a no shoes policy in the house,
slippers only, because you are going to stop that mud
and that dirt being trodden into the house, which is
why on the level one jobs of TOM, we always
do a vacuum or a sweep of the main traffic
areas every single day because we're keeping on top of

(09:35):
that dirt, because we don't want to create more work
for ourself. Because if you let that dirt sit, it
gets trapped into the fibers of the carpet, they get
look grubby, they get harder to clean. Then you have
to do a faf of getting a carpet cleaner and
all that sort of stuff. So staying on top of
your flooring is a really good way of making sure
that you are keeping your houseworkload as small as possible.

(09:56):
And finally, I will go go to my grave saying
this read the labels. This is a recorded message.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
There is a.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Difference between cleaning your surfaces like with I don't know,
maybe you're damp dusting. You're literally just using a microfiber
duster and water and disinfecting them or using an antibacterial
on them. Now, disinfectants and antibacterials are slightly different. Disinfectants
usually have a broader scope, they kill more generally, right,

(10:32):
But whether you're using an antibacteria, antibacterial spray, or a disinfectant,
go after you finished listener watching this episode, read the back. Okay,
I guarantee you that product in ninety nine point nine
percent of cases requires you to leave it to sit.
You should leave to see it on the surface, sometimes
five minutes, and then.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Wipe it off.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
So if you are using your zo flora spray or
maybe you know just a general antipac material kitchen and
you're just wiping it's not doing the job. You may
as well just be spraying water on it. You need
to follow the instructions because you're not doing what you
think it's doing. So just take a little bit of
a time. How do I use this That is going
to help you clean more efficiently and it's going to

(11:16):
stop problems cropping up A little bit later on, I
would love to know, like what are your blockages, what
are your hot spots? When it comes to clean that
you know, you know, I am not my future friend
when I do that germ, and it always creates extra work.
A key one I forgot to mention this actually is
your ovens is your ovens And an oven clean did go.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
Live on tom Rocks. I think it was last week,
maybe the week before.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Because your oven, we leave it and we leave it
and we leave it until it becomes such a massive
job that you just like can't even, can't even. And
that paying someone to do your oven is great, especially
if you want like a clean start, like a fresh start,
But it's not necessarily always practical, is it to get
someone in to clean your oven, because it's not always
budget it friendly. Right, But if you are your future friend,

(12:03):
and if you clean your oven little and often wait
for it's to call ever so slightly after you've finished
cooking and then go in there and just give it
a quick white down, use oven liners, all of that stuff,
you are going to save yourself a big job. So
for some of you might mean, yeah, it's definitely oven,
it's definitely the oven. But let me know, what are
the things that you do that you know you're not
being your future friend and you know it's actually creating

(12:26):
more problems for you in the long run. Let me
know if you're watching this on YouTube, and don't forget
to join in for Hallo.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Clean Week and I will see you in another episode. Bye.
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