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" Does it seem like your family&amp;#039;s made another mess before you&amp;#039;ve cleaned up the first one? These get-it-done-quick tips will cut a whopping 165 minutes from your household chores.   Kitchen   Tackle refrigerator cleaning one shelf at a time. When any shelf is nearly empty, remove the few items, pull out the shelf and take it to the sink for a fast once-over. With quick hits like this, you&amp;#039;ll never have to clean the entire contents of the fridge at once. Time saved: 35 minutes   Stop wringing out a mop Use mops with disposable wet pads to avoid the mess. Don&amp;#039;t want to buy one? Former professional cleaner Mary Findley, coauthor of The Complete Idiot&amp;#039;s Guide to Cleaning, keeps a stash of terry towels for this purpose. &amp;quot;Put a dampened towel over your mop head before mopping. When one side soils, flip it over and keep going.&amp;quot; Then throw it in the wash for next time. Time saved: 15\u201320 minutes per room   Living area   Ditch the dustrag Findley suggests slipping old cotton socks on both hands and spraying them with cleaner. On a table, put a hand at each end and dust in opposing circles until they meet in the middle. With a chair, you can clean spreader bars and all four legs in the time it would take to clean two. Time saved: 5\u20138 minutes per room   Clear cobwebs with a damp towel rubber-banded to a broom handle. A moist towel quickly pulls cobwebs down in one swipe. Time saved: 15\u201320 minutes for house   Vacuum easier by using iRobot&amp;#039;s Roomba. &amp;quot;I turn it on and leave the room,&amp;quot; says Valerie Jackson of Madison, Wisconsin. &amp;quot;When I come back, it&amp;#039;s done, even under the beds.&amp;quot; Time saved: 15 minutes per room   Laundry   Keep a dab-on spot remover in the kitchen to quickly blot food spills when they happen or grass stains when the kids traipse in from outside. You won&amp;#039;t risk forgetting at laundry time (which means extra minutes to treat and rewash), plus you&amp;#039;ll save time sorting through the clothes piles looking for stains to treat. Time saved: 10 minutes   Why sort laundry twice\u2014once when it&amp;#039;s dirty and again after it&amp;#039;s clean? With the exception of fine-washables and clothes that bleed (like new jeans), mother-of-four Meagan Francis has stopped dividing laundry by color. &amp;quot;It saves me time and the clothes come out looking great\u2014even the whites,&amp;quot; says Francis, author of Table for Eight: Raising a Large Family in a Small-Family World. Now she keeps a laundry basket in each family member&amp;#039;s room and does wash when a basket is full. (To keep whites bright, she adds a cup of vinegar to the wash.) Once clean, the laundry and its basket go back to the right room, where Francis quickly folds and puts away the clothes. &amp;quot;I no longer have an enormous mound to fold at one time,&amp;quot; she says. Time saved: 30 minutes   Get your family in on the act Have your kids or husband carry baskets of dirty clothes to the washer and permanently delete that chore from your to-do list. Time saved: 10 minutes   Bathroom   &amp;quot;As you brush your teeth, move objects off the counter and into drawers,&amp;quot; says Findley. It&amp;#039;s one less step when you&amp;#039;re ready to clean. Time saved: 2 minutes   In an old baby wipes container, mix 1 part vinegar and 1 part water. Drop in a few washcloths; tuck it under the sink. While you&amp;#039;re supervising your kids&amp;#039; baths, pop one out to wipe everything down (toilet last!), then toss it in the hamper. &amp;quot;This saves deep-cleaning time later,&amp;quot; says Francis. Time saved: 5\u201310 minutes   After cleaning the shower door, wipe on a thin layer of baby oil (don&amp;#039;t let it drip). It deflects water and mineral deposits, so no scrubbing next time, says Jeff Bredenberg, author of How to Cheat at Cleaning. Time saved: 5 minutes "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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