This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SpringIntoClean #CollectiveBias

We’ve all gotten the phone call… “Hey, I’m in the neighborhood… mind if I stop by for a chat?” Or the dreaded “Hey! Mom! Can my friends come hang out in a little bit?” only to find out that by “in a little bit,” they mean about 10 minutes… if you’re like me, you’ve looked around your kitchen and had a mild heart attack… how did it even get like this? There’s no way it’ll be clean before people arrive… take a deep breath, mama. You’re going to get this place into shape FAST.

I’ll be honest, for us, the kitchen is the central hub of the house. It’s where we do the bulk of our homeschooling work, it’s where I do quite a bit of my office work, and it’s where all the magic of cooking and eating happens. At any given moment, toys are being dragged about from one room to the next, with a few ending up on the floor of the kitchen from time to time. And honestly, when we walk in the door, shoes and jackets go off and often, they just end up draped over chairs or carelessly thrown by the door.

This is the reality of the kitchen for us– it’s the room we spend the most time in, and it’s the room with the most traffic, which means somehow, it also manages to become a total catch-all.

The first step when quick cleaning the kitchen is to get rid of the clutter! You’ll want to start with your sink first and foremost… if you’ve got clean dishes that are dry, put them away. Still drying? Wipe them down, then put them away. any dirty dishes should be quickly cleaned or popped in the dishwasher. Getting the sink cleaned means the dishwasher can run while you work on the rest of your tidying.

One thing I love to use are Finish Jet-Dry rinsing and drying agents. If you wash a lot of glassware, a Jet-Dry rinse aid will help you have spotless, sparkling dishes that look incredibly clean every time. Otherwise, a Jet-Dry drying agent is perfect for making sure items like plasticware are more dry straight out of the dishwasher, rather than dripping with water post-dishwasher cycles.

Next, file away any sort of bills, receipts, or magazines that have piled up on a tabletop or counter for later. Flip through them and put the most essential items where you’ll see them soon, but put anything non-essential out of sight.

Finally, when tidying, look at your counters for things that can be put away… make space in your cabinet for food like potatoes, so they can stay in the cool, dark spaces they love, and not be stuck on the counters for the world to see.

Find a home for things on the counters that you don’t use… we usually keep a charger cord on the counter for phones and other devices, but when friends are coming over, it’s time to unplug that cord and stick it into the cabinet with our appliances. It’s a perfect way to get it off of the counter, and since we keep the charger in the cabinet closest to the outlet, it’s really never that far away when we need it again.

Even the messiest kitchen usually only takes about 10 minutes to tidy, so then you’ll be able to focus on really cleaning for the next 10.

I love to corral all of my cleaning supplies that i use most in a nice basket with handles, which ensures I’m not trying to juggle a bunch of bottles from the cleaning cabinet to the kitchen… anytime you’re juggling a ton of bottles, it’s just going to delay your progress even more, and that doesn’t do anyone any good. By storing your products in one basket, not only is your cleaning closet or nook going to be more tidy, but cleaning will go so much faster.

When filling a basket, you’ll want to consider a few things:

1. What is going to be multipurpose and multi-room? Key multipurpose cleaners are the Lysol All-Purpose Cleaner, which is perfect for many different surfaces in many different rooms, and the Lysol Bathroom Cleaner, which does all kinds of sinks and tubs, including kitchen sinks! Of course, you can’t go wrong with standbys like classic Lysol, which kills 99.9% of all viruses and bacteria. These are items you’d want to put directly into your basket that goes around the whole house with you.When cleaning the kitchen, after dishes and tidying, I like to spritz down the kitchen sink with Lysol Bathroom cleaner, then let it soak a bit while I spritz the counters with Lysol All-Purpose Cleaner and wipe down counters and the stove top. Once I’ve all finished the counters, I go back to rinse off the sinks. Finally, to wrap it up, I give a quick spritz of Lysol to the highest traffic areas– doorknobs, refrigerator and cabinet handles, and sink handles. These are all areas where germs run rampant that we might forget to wipe down on a regular basis, so a good spritz of germ-killing Lysol is perfect there!

   Finally, I wrap up with my spray of Air Wick Life Scents Mist, which updates the room with an ever-changing fragrance, eliminating odors FAST. It’s always the last step I do before someone comes over for a visit.

2. Also consider which items are going to just be used just in this room specifically? Many great items, like Finish Jet-Dry, are items you primarily use in just one room of the house. Rather than placing it with your other cleaning supplies, giving it it’s own “home” near where you use it can work even better.
3. What cleaners are going to be your go-to for each room of the house? The cleaners pictured are my must-haves when it comes to cleaning… it only takes a few bottles to disinfect and clean the whole house. When you’ve determined your must-haves, it’s much easier to look for sales and stock up when prices are good… like RIGHT NOW.

For me, stocking up on cleaning generally means a trip to Target, where they’re offering some fantastic deals on your favorite Lysol, Air Wick, and Finish Jet-Dry products to make your house clean, your dishes clean, and your place smell AMAZING before company comes over. Through May 14, Lysol products are even Buy 3, Get 1 FREE at Target locations! There are also some great deals when it comes to Target Cartwheel. If you’re a Cartwheel user, be sure to add these deals– 10% off of all Lysol, 5% off of all Air Wick, and 5% off of all Finish products through May 14, 2016!

By tackling tasks in a logical order, it takes only minutes to finish your kitchen and get it looking great. Just remember:

-Start with the sink. Get those dishes, clean or dirty, out of the way, and you’ll already have made a huge dent. It doesn’t matter how clean or messy a kitchen is, a clean, empty sink always makes a house look much neater. If needed, start a load of dishes in the dishwasher that can run while you finish the rest of your kitchen cleanup. Using a Rinsing or Drying agent will save you time at the end of your cleanup when you’re putting dishes away.

-Move from the sink to decluttering the room, putting away anything unnecessary and working through anything that needs immediate attention quickly.

-Once you’ve decluttered, focus on the actual clean– spritz the sinks with Lysol cleaner, then work around the countertop from one end to another with Lysol All-Purpose cleaner, making sure to get the stovetop cleaned, also. Finish with a rinse of the sink and then a disinfectant on high-traffic handles to make sure the germs are toast.

–Right before guests arrive, spray the air with Air Wick for a longer lasting clean scent that will keep changing.

When you have a plan, it’s amazing what you can do in the 20 minutes before guests arrive, but it’s also amazing how only a few minutes before bedtime can leave you waking up to a clean house in the mornings.

What is your kitchen clean routine? Let me know in the comments below, and remember to visit the Lysol, Air Wick, and Finish hub for more great cleaning tips and tricks to save you time and energy!