 Written by a professional cleaning firm in San Franscisco, Speed Cleaning is for people who have much better things to do with their time than clean house. (Our Life Balance™ customers immediately pop to mind.)
For many years my own style of house cleaning was reminiscent of a Whirling Dervish wielding a bottle of Fantastik in one hand and a roll of paper towels in the other. I would pop the Pointer Sisters into the box and Jump my way through my "camelflaging" routine to mask the clutter. (Llamas are members of the camelid family.) Left to my own devices, my spring cleaning theory is that one pile of mail is much better than two piles of mail, at least until it collapses under its own weight. Many years ago, the electric company sent a fellow out to our house to wrap the water heater in an effort to save energy. Looking up at us earnestly he said, "You know, your house is messy, but it isn't messy like other people's houses. It's messy like people's offices are messy." It was an insight into my particular household problem that I have always appreciated.
Still, I do like a tidy house, because it seems like the one thing that always makes me feel like a millionaire. I have heard tales that some millionaires have their own household squalor problems, but my Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous fantasy of a house free of clutter is still a powerful motivator for me to get in gear when the kicked-off shoes start to pile up in the living room. One thing to keep in mind is that Speed Cleaning is not really about straightening. It is mostly about cleaning surfaces and the (more or less) weekly scrubdown. It will be up to you to find those surfaces first. Jeff Campbell has a book on Clutter Control too, but for my taste I prefer Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern which we reviewed in 12/98.
Speed Cleaning is excellent at pointing you to the right kind of product for tackling different kinds of household grime, so that you don't waste time being ineffective. It has enormously helpful diagrams that show you the anatomy of the stove for cleaning purposes, and sample floor plans that show you how to plan the flow of work so that you don't backtrack needlessly. If you want to get out there planting posies this spring instead of scrubbing the kitchen floor, this book will help you finish up your household chores in record time.
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