When you invite guests into your home you’re immediately ready to greet them with a smile and warm welcome, because you have the house clean and ready for them! Right? Well, we all know that our homes are not always visitor ready, especially if you’re a busy family with messy kids. And this is OK! We are human after all. But here at @GoCleanCo, we have methods to help you prepare for your guests without exhausting yourself in the process.
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Whether it’s short notice or a planned visit, be kind to yourself – you don’t need to do a full house clean. Focus on the areas and rooms that matter most! Other rooms can be cleaned after they leave.
Most rooms can be tackled with these 4 things so have them ready and let’s get to work:
- Water, Bleach and Tide® recipe (1 gallon of HOT water, 1 tsp of powdered Tide®, and ¼ cup of bleach)
- Microfiber or polish cloths
- Swiffer duster (Canada) (USA)
- Vacuum (Canada) (USA)


General Best Practices for Quick Cleans
When you have a guest coming over on short notice (or when you’ve neglected to prepare for an expected guest), you’ll be working on a limited time frame and with potentially limited resources. To make the most of your time, and make the best impression possible, there are a few best practices you’ll want to follow.
For starters, if you’re overwhelmed by the idea of cleaning your house to perfection, take a step back and realize that any amount of cleaning you do is going to be beneficial. Even if you can only clean one room or tidy up slightly, your house will end up in better condition than it was when you started. You don’t have to be perfect to make a good impression.
Next, understand how to prioritize. Different areas of your house have different levels of impact and different levels of dirtiness, so it’s important to focus on the dirtiest and most impactful rooms first. Everything else can wait.
Also, try to see your house through the eyes of a guest. This can be difficult, especially if you’re used to your house the way it is, but it’s important if you want to optimize for the guest experience. What would you think about this environment if you saw it in someone else’s house when you were visiting?
Finally, consider recruiting other people to help the cause. If you live with family members, divvy up responsibilities so everyone participates in the house cleaning event.
The First Impression
The front entry and hallways should be some of the first places you clean. Not only is it the first impression of your home to your guests, but it is also high traffic and gets dirty and messy quickly. Vacuum and mop (Canada) (USA) the floors, wipe baseboards, walls, and doors, and make sure there’s room for your guests’ coats and shoes. Don’t forget to clean underneath your entry rug and wash it as well. A great way to make a first impression is to have a candle burning so your home smells warm and inviting right when your guests walk in.

Kitchen Party!
The party often ends up in the kitchen, right? It’s where everyone gravitates for food and drinks. So make sure there is room in your fridge(s) for the extra food you will have prepared and for dishes guests will bring. Give it a quick purge and wipedown. Limp carrots and slimy produce aren’t appetizing to anyone. Have tableware easily accessible for people to grab when needed. Empty and clean all garbage bins. Have corkscrews/bottle openers and a cooler ready with ice for beverages. A stocked coffee station goes a long way for early risers if they’re staying the night. And finally, check out our Kitchen Deep Clean article if you have time to do a deep cleaning.

That Hotel Feel for your Bathrooms and Bedrooms
OK, you may not want your guests to stay forever, but you can at least make their stay comfortable and free from messes! Aim for that hotel feel and not a room with your crap lying around.
Bathroom checklist:
- Full bathroom clean so it’s ready for your guests to use
- Freshly washed towels hanging neatly and extras rolled (for that spa feel) on a shelf or in a cupboard
- Full toilet paper roll + extras under the sink. (Add a fancy point to the end so they really think you have your shit together)
- Full soap dispenser
- Declutter/organize your shower products
- Put away any personal hygiene products
- Freshly-washed bath mat
Bedroom checklist:
- Dust and vacuum the whole room
- Freshly-cleaned sheets
- Make the bed like a fancy hotel would for ultimate comfort
- Leave wrapped chocolates on the pillow if you really want to impress
- Empty out the closet and dresser so there’s room for your guests’ belongings (leave some empty hangers for them too)

And if your guests plan to stay a while and need to do laundry, have your detergents handy if your guests would like to do a load or two. If you have time, Organize Your Laundry Room the @GoCleanCo Way. If not, that’s ok! Just have a quick look to make sure your machines are empty and no intimates are hanging around.
Chill out and play areas
As for the rest of the house, such as the living room or playrooms, tidy them up. Give the rooms a good once over with a Swiffer® duster, wipe off tables using a cloth and the water, bleach and Tide® recipe, and then vacuum. Organize any toys or set up gaming devices if kids are on the guest list. See if TV screens or devices need cleaning.
Should you have an outdoor party, have the space ready by cleaning off any tables and chairs – again with the water, bleach and Tide® recipe. Clean and organize around your BBQ. Use a shop vac (Canada) (USA) or leaf blower to remove unwanted dirt and leaves. Consider outdoor tableware and decor (Canada) (USA) to dress up the area. Have a hot tub? Check the water and add chemicals if needed. Have towels ready if your guests will be jumpin’ in. And have a cooler ready with ice for beverages and garbage bins accessible.
The Finishing Touches
If you want to make an even better impression with your guests, focus on the following finishing touches to improve the environment:
· Music. Choose the right music for the environment you want to establish.
· Lighting. Consider adjusting your lighting as well. Dim lights feel comfy and cozy, while bright lights feel upbeat and liven up the room.
· Snacks and beverages. If you have plenty of delicious food and drinks in reach of your guests, they probably aren’t going to care about any messes they happen to see.
Other Considerations
If you can, enlist your family members to help! Divide and conquer. Stock your Cleaning Caddy and have it at the ready. You never know what will happen while your visitors are staying with you and you have an accidental mess to clean up. Be sure to have our Cleaning Army Handbook handy as a quick reference.
For more cleaning recipes check out this article. Or check out our Basic Training Course for more in-depth methods of cleaning the @GoCleanCo way.
Here are some other blogs if you need some extra help along the way:
Organize Under Your Sink the @GoCleanCo Way
9 Steps to a Sparkling Bathroom
Closets – How to Clean and Organize Your Closet in 4 Easy Steps
Bye Bye Fingerprints and Streaks
For a list of our favorite products, click here.
- Denise @gocleanco
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gocleanco
Sep 22
It’s Kitchen week of the Fall Cleaning Challenge and I can finally share my new kitchen sink from BLANCO that everyone has been asking about. I am very excited to be working with @blancoamerica1 they are THE kitchen experts and a global brand with over 95 years of experience. Head to my stories to see how I care for this beauty on the daily and how easy it is to treat stains. BLANCO is more than just sinks; they also have faucets and organizational systems (like the BOTTON) that work together as an integrated UNIT. #ad
gocleanco
Sep 19
We kicked off the Fall Cleaning Challenge by flying to Burnaby, British Columbia and cleaning our Spring Cleaning Challenge (2023) winners house! We had so much fun doing this clean. Lots of team work, planning and love was poured into this project! Getting cheered on by you folks makes it all worth it! Being able to pay our good fortune forward to our followers makes us all warm and fuzzy. Big thanks to our brand partners who generously hooked us up with so much gifted stuff for the winner. We all need to go nap for 3 days now 😂 Did you enter the Fall Cleaning Challenge so that this can be you Spring 2024?! Link in our bio or head to our website to enter. #cleaning Special thanks to @ruggable @bollandbranch @oceansalesltd @proctergamble @amazoninfluencerprogram 💕
gocleanco
Sep 15
Want to open your front door and see our smiling faces coming to clean your house? Then you better get over to bleachpraylove.com on Monday, September 18th and join the Fall Cleaning Challenge! That’s right, the Grand Prize is a house clean by yours truly and my crew. We fly to you and give your house a top to bottom clean like only we can. How does the Fall Cleaning Challenge work? Each week for four weeks follow along and clean your house with me! Plus we have soooo cool many prizes! Each week we will be giving away some of my favorite things like @bollandbranch @ruggable @sharkbeauty blow dryers, and my personal fav cold hard 💰 to help you catch up on bills, buy a new vacuum or hire someone to help you with your looming House Work if you can’t get caught up! If you want to see more of our adventure at the Spring Cleaning Challenge winners house stay tuned in stories for the next few days PLUS we are filming it all for YouTube and you can watch it all the behind the scenes dirty laundry…The good, the bad…the filthy. Love you folks. For reals. 💕 Thank you for making our job so fun! #cleaningmotivation
gocleanco
Aug 25
No visit from @hellohairhouse is complete without a kitchen haircut! #fallhairtrends
gocleanco
Aug 24
The Fall Cleaning Challenge starts on Monday Sept 18th, 2023. Y’all ready? The download will be available on September 18th and the grand prize is a house clean by yours truly! We also have some new vacuum testing coming your way 😈 My garage is FULL of suckers baby and I’m not mad about it. #fallcleaning
gocleanco
Aug 19
Update: It’s a damn ice box in here and I’ve been sleeping like a baby. #airconditioning
gocleanco
Aug 8
Perfect example that cleaning 👏🏻 is 👏🏻 home 👏🏻 maintenance 👏🏻 Take care of your stuff and it will last longer. This little handy-dandy-doo-dad scrubber is linked in my Amazon Storefront. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Aug 3
Had fun in the angels’ city chasing fortune and fame 😎 Thanks @amazoninfluencerprogram for #hosting me. And no I didn’t get tickets to any shows this weekend but for the rest of you—take the moment and taste it. 🫶🏼
gocleanco
Jul 19
To the Salon!!!!!! (Or in this case, the laundry room.) Saved these fabulous scuffed up pumps with some @tidelaundrystainremover a cloth and some patience. Just in time for @barbiethemovie premiere! Have fun @lauren_lally always happy to be of service 🫡 #barbiethemovie
gocleanco
Jul 12
Bathroom organization top picks! Everything is in my storefront to 🛍️ #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jul 11
Summer is here! Clean up your space so you actually want to hangout in it. That hot tub…it’s not mine…k🤦🏼♀️ Link in bio for these products, some are on sale for Prime Day, just check the albums for your country.
gocleanco
Jul 11
Robot Vacuum Fight Club! 💪🏻 Things we threw on the floor: Shreddies, Powdered Tide, (clean) Cat Litter, A crumbled up loaf of sourdough and good old dirt! Stay tuned for the results. 🧐 #thiswasmorefunthaniexpected
gocleanco
Jul 8
Spent my morning making a very aesthetically pleasing Raspberry Pie Reel for y’all but it ended up being a Raspberry Scramble 🥴💀 Wasn’t gonna post it BUT when life feels like a scramble it can still be delicious. 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 Please consider this my official petition to bring @jello back as a dessert staple.
gocleanco
Jul 7
Shower tracked destroyed with built up hard water minerals? Here’s an easy solution with a simple house hold ingredient and elbow grease. Still gonna take some scrubbing friends, good results take work. #cleaningtips
gocleanco
Jul 6
Is pressure washing considered a form of therapy? Asking for a friend. #backupvocalsduuuuuuuuupe
gocleanco
Jun 29
Years in the making…it’s FINALLY here…and it’s a masterpiece. Over the years I have received thousands of DM’s asking what to pick when renovating your home. What is the easiest to clean? What will survive the test of time? So I compiled it all here in our Home Renovation Guide. Apologies for taking so long but we kept adding and it kept getting longer and longer. This has been a labour of love. Link in bio to purchase or tap to shop! #itsbeenalongtimecoming
gocleanco
Jun 21
Sounds like a lot of you have slime problems. Here’s how we got it out! Sprinkle baking soda on the slime and smush it down into the carpet fibres so it gets in deep. Add straight vinegar and let it sit for about 30 mins. Scrub it with a brush. Repeat until it’s gone! When you repeat, you need to let it sit each time for 30 mins so it starts to break down the slime. We scrubbed for 30 mins too, don’t give up! Think about how expensive the damn carpet is to replace and that will give you lots of energy! As always: It is a good idea to test an inconspicuous spot first (like in a closet) before try you so this because all carpets are different. Try at your own risk but also if you have dried slime all over your carpet I think you are screwed anyways. GOOD LUCK and report back. #slime #slimetoturial
gocleanco
Jun 18
I’m a simple creature. Here’s the haul I promised from the viral sweater set. Yellow usually isn’t my colour but I’m feeling it the most! Wearing a medium, it’s machine washable but I have been laying it flat to dry. Everything is linked in my bio and up in my stories. #amazonfinds
gocleanco
Jun 17
If you thought I was going to miss an opportunity to use this bop, you were wrong. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there, reminder that a clean tractor is a sexy tractor. @kubotacanada if you wanna detail this thing next year LMK. 🚜 🧽 🫧😎
gocleanco
Jun 16
5 days left to get in that spring clean!! 😂💪🏻 Here’s a round up of all the stuff we’ve cleaned with @mrclean if you need some inspiration! It’s been quite the journey 😵💫🤢What else do y’all use @mrclean for? #mrcleanpartner #sponsored