Well if you are living on your own or thinking of buying a property in Malta as you Bachelor’s pad, we’ve provided you some pre-buying ti
ps to prepare you on how you can make life easier for yourself in just 60 minutes a week.
Easy-peasy. Nothing to it. You can sit back, relax most nights, watch your favourite dvd’s, invite the boys over for a jamming session, sleep late, wake up late most weekends, wash all your shirts once a week and do your shopping only when the fridge is empty. Until…. one fine day you realise the room with a view has become a mess to view and you really need to clean up.
Here is the bachelor’s easy housekeeping-in-60-minutes regime that can get you out of the rut fast…
- Switch off the computer, mobile phone and TV. Unhook the landline and don’t answer the front door for the next hour of your life.
- Put a stop-watch on to beep within an hour.
- Arm yourself with two synthetic chammy cloths – one for wiping furniture surfaces, one for the bathroom plus a sponge scrubber to soap down bathroom surfaces.
- Bucket of water, mop, vacuum cleaner must be at hand as well as a large garbage bag.
- Start from the bedroom. Window wide open –let some fresh air in. Stretch those sheets, fluff the pillows. Put the books and magazines in a pile.
- Throw dirty clothes in a pile outside the room.
- Hang or fold anything that is clean and put away. Close drawers, wardrobe doors.
- Shake those curtains.
- Wipe surfaces with the moist but well wrung chammy & rinse it often in clean water.
- Vacuum carpets and window sill, vacuum under and around the bed, and in all the corners.
- Next – the bathroom. Throw dirty clothes & towels in the laundry basket and whilst you’re at it, throw a load in the washing machine.
- Vacuum floor, and carpet if any.
- Spray bath, hand basin and loo with sanitary cleaner, scrub down briskly, taking care to constantly use enough water to rinse properly and dry out with the chammy.
- Wipe all bottles and keep together in a basket. Put medicines in the medicine chest. Put clean towels in their place.
- Mop the floor.
- Kitchen next – wipe down all surfaces plus tables and chairs/stools– yes you can slide all crumbs on the floor.
- Vacuum the floor and any carpets.
- Put dirty dishes in the sink & wash them/stack them in dishwasher.
- Scrub down the sink.
- Throw away old newspapers, old food remains, empties.
- Mop the floor.
- Last is the living room. If you smoke – empty the ashtrays.
- Open window/balcony wide and shake those curtains.
- Remove throw from the couch and give it a shake out of the window. Fluff the pillows on the couch and vacuum it to remove crumbs, cigarette ash. Vacuum carpet.
- Put books/magazines in a pile or on shelves, dvds in a stack.
- Wipe surfaces, music equipment, TV screen
If you kept up the momentum, your stop-watch should beep around this time. Finish off and treat yourself to a beer – you’ve just completed your weekly cleaning marathon. One is going to have to experience living alone before they understand what value this article will give them. Many a time, bachelors make a U-turn and move back to their parents property in Malta because they could not grasp the art of cleaning up after themselves or setting up a system such as this – the other opportunity would be to employ a maid once a week if this is affordable.
Written by Marika Azzopardi
Marika Azzopardi is a freelance writer and journalist. A frequent contributor to national English language papers and magazines, she writes about a bevy of topics including art, people and life in general. She is also the author of children’s books and short stories, delving into adult fiction from time to time.