"While my husband’s idea of slashing housework time is to throw all visible clutter into a less-visible space, my cleaning tip does not compromise quality," says Raymie Wayne, of West Simsbury, Conn., winner of our Speed Cleaning conetst. As an associate professor of social work at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford and mother of a 3-year-old son, Raymie knows she has to pack a lot of cleaning into tiny blocks of time.

“To maximize efficiency, I wear a big apron with a big pocket — the kind men wear when grilling — and carry multipurpose cleaning wipes and a plastic bag for trash. Then I whirl through each room, wiping down and dusting all surfaces,” she explains. Raymie uses the large apron pocket to hold clutter that belongs elsewhere; as she goes from room to room, she returns each item to its correct place. “This way, I have everything I need and can finish each room without ever retracing my steps,” Raymie says. She even turns tidying into a fitness routine: “I wear 5-pound ankle weights on each leg while speed cleaning, so I can save workout time, too!”