With 900 services under her belt, Nikita Gridley recently showcased both her tenacity and technical cleaning skills at the VIVA House of Spills – in an attempt to win $5000 and the title of Australia’s Fastest Cleaner. The event saw Nikita join former Bachelor and Host Matty J and four other finalists – including eventual winner, 22-year-old Jason Shipway – to compete in an all-white display home. Tarnished with unforgiving common spills like coffee and red wine to create a manically messy environment. The challenge was a true test of their cleaning capabilities – with contestants armed with only a roll of paper towel and a commitment to wiping the (literal!) slate clean! Priding herself on offering her own clients simple cleaning advice to keep their homes maintained between visits,  here are Nikita’s five easy cleaning tips for those who loathe laundering, detest dusting and despise disinfecting. But, know that it needs to be done!

1. Do lots of little things

If you do your tasks on the go, you won’t notice them nearly as much. Maybe you can put away some clutter while you pass by your living room! Or you can drop a cleaning bomb into the toilet while you take a shower. Wipe down your kitchen benchtop and sink after you load the dishwasher. Keep a squeegee in your shower. It’ll only take a minute or two of your time, but it’ll help keep the dirt at bay.

2. Stash cleaning tools where you’ll use them

See if you can keep a caddy of bathroom cleaning products somewhere in your bathroom. Keep multi-purpose cleaner or a spray bottle of vinegar handy in the kitchen. Stash some VIVA paper towels in areas where you might make a mess, so you can use the fast-absorbing product to get to any spills, ASAP.

3. Set timers – in any way you can

It’s a great way to trick your brain! Set a 10-minute timer, play a podcast episode, or put on a YouTube video. Then tell yourself that you’ll do whatever you can get done in that time – wash the dishes, scrub the oven, vacuum the floors. Often, the timer will ring and you’ll keep going through sheer momentum. But even if you don’t, you’ve still done a good amount of cleaning!

4. Do the annoying stuff first

That way, the easier or more “fun” chores will feel like a reward. You can also do just the annoying stuff and treat yourself in a different way, like having a small dessert or watching a quick episode of Netflix. There’s a lot of psychological power behind getting the hard stuff done, and eventually, that stuff might stop feeling as hard to do.

5. Minimise the hurdles

Find the things that make it hard for you to start and work around them. Simplify your cleaning arsenal so you don’t need to dig up that one specific product for one task. Try setting a schedule – put vacuuming on Friday, so that when Friday rolls around, you know it’s vacuum day. Stack tasks so that when you start doing one thing (wiping the benchtop) you can transition to another (wiping appliances). The idea is to lower the barriers and make it easier for you to get going.

And if nothing else, plan for some people to come over in a few days. Nothing motivates someone to clean like the thought of a guest physically entering your space!