Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day

Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day

by Melissa Maker
Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day

Clean My Space: The Secret to Cleaning Better, Faster, and Loving Your Home Every Day

by Melissa Maker

Hardcover

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Overview

The wildly popular YouTube star behind Clean My Space presents the breakthrough solution to cleaning better with less effort
 
Melissa Maker is beloved by fans all over the world for her completely re-engineered approach to cleaning. As the dynamic new authority on home and living, Melissa knows that to invest any of our precious time in cleaning, we need to see big, long-lasting results. So, she developed her method to help us get the most out of our effort and keep our homes fresh and welcoming every dayIn her long-awaited debut bookshe shares her revolutionary 3-step solution:


 • Identify the most important areas (MIAs) in your home that need attention
 • Select the proper products, tools, and techniques (PTT) for the job
 • Implement these new cleaning routines so that they stick
Clean My Space takes the chore out of cleaning with Melissa’s incredible tips and cleaning hacks (the power of pretreating!) her lightning fast 5-10 minute “express clean” routines for every room when time is tightest, and her techniques for cleaning even the most daunting places and spaces. And a big bonus:  Melissa gives guidance on the best non-toxic, eco-conscious cleaning products and offers natural cleaning solution recipes you can make at home using essential oils to soothe and refresh. With Melissa’s simple groundbreaking method you can truly live in a cleaner, more cheerful, and calming home all the time.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780735214668
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/07/2017
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 360,799
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Melissa Maker is an entrepreneur, cleaning expert, founder of Toronto's most popular boutique cleaning service, and star of the Clean My Space channel on YouTube (but she still hates to clean!). Every week, Melissa delivers new videos dishing expert advice on cleaning products, tools, DIY substitutes, and practical, timesaving solutions to everyday problems. Melissa has appeared on the Today Show, and has been featured in InstyleReal Simple, and Better Homes and Gardens.

Read an Excerpt

The reason I know I can transform hopeless cases into spic-and-span home dwellers is that I underwent this transformation myself. I was not born the cleaning maven that I am now. In fact, quite the opposite. My mother used to say that crossing my bedroom floor was an Olympic event. My seventh-grade teacher chose to make an example out of my disorganized self one day and dumped the entire contents of my deskonto the floor. I had to clean it up while my classmates watched (hello, therapy). I hated cleaning, and I didn’t experience the joy or rewards of a clean personal space. I just felt like it took away from valuable sticker trading or Nintendo-playing time.

What I did dream about was being an entrepreneur, from a very young age. So when I graduated from business school, no one was surprised when I decided to start my own business. I didn’t know yet what kind of business, so I kept my eyes and ears open and left it up to the universe to tell me. Imagine my horror, then, when the thing I kept on hearing about was the stress of cleaning house and how hard it was to do it, and for those who wanted to hire it out, how hard it was to find a reliable, trustworthy cleaning person who actually knew what they were doing. I couldn’t avoid this constant barrage of the same message even though it was so contrary to who I was. Me? Start a cleaning company? Do you know who I am?

Nonetheless, I followed the noise and wrote a business plan and took it to my uncle Larry, my trusted mentor. He told me that in orderto be a success, I’d have to start cleaning and learning my business from the ground up. When I got over my initial shock, I decided I’d go into it fully, sleeves rolled up and boots to the ground. After eighteen months of research, practice, and hard-core business building—waiting tables at night and cleaning for clients during the day—I was able to quit my serving job and focus on the business full time.

By this point, I had figured out that I could get more done in less time if I reengineered the way I worked. I went through all the general cleaning tasks that needed to be done at each visit in a home (using my creation, the 59-Point Checklist) and tested many techniques, various products (both homemade and store-bought) and, of course, timed and critiqued myself while doing so. I put a lot of hours, money, and energy into it, and what I came out with were vast improvements on how to get the job done well in the least amount of time. I started to write down these ideas and teach new hires how to clean this way (I even managed to convert seasoned employees who’d occasionally throw me a raised eyebrow—who does she think she is?). It was awkward at times. I was only twenty-four. But they listened!

Our reputation was incredible and my staff performed their jobs impeccably: I had come up with a better way to clean. In 2008, when the economy took a nose-dive, I worried that my business, just eighteen months old at the time, would have to close down. To my surprise, the business grew fivefold that year! People wanted to come home to a clean space, regardless of how the economy was doing. They’d sooner give up dining out or new handbags before they’d say goodbye to a clean, serene home. I knew I was onto something.

In 2011, my then-fiancé, Chad, and I started making YouTube videos about cleaning. We thought it would help grow the service business in Toronto. What we didn’t really consider was how global and prolific YouTube would become, and next thing we knew, we were getting clicks from all over the world. We have since created hundreds of videos that have garnered millions of views. I’m often asked for a whole cleaning routine, or a more holistic approach, that encapsulates all my teachings and simplifications in one place. And that’s why I put together this book. I want to teach you all my secrets and show you how to reform your cleaning habits, no matter if you’re just starting out or are a veteran home-keeper.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Welcome to This Book 1

Chapter 2 The Basics 11

Chapter 3 The Entryway 55

Chapter 4 The Living Room and Dining Room 69

Chapter 5 The Kitchen 85

Chapter 6 The Den 115

Chapter 7 The Bathroom 137

Chapter 8 The Bedroom 155

Chapter 9 The Home office 169

Chapter 10 Hallways, Staircases, and Other Passageways 191

Chapter 11 Storage Spaces 207

Chapter 12 Laundry 231

Chapter 13 Routines and Schedules 253

Acknowledgments 288

Further Reading 291

Index 292

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