Rating: 
Summary: My house cleaning bible
Review: I thought I knew how to clean a house. What I didn't know was I was making it all up. I had never really learned how to clean a house. Speed Cleaning taught me how to clean the house fast and completely. I said "Duh!" a lot while reading this book. I have bought the other books as well. Good Stuff!
Rating:
Summary: Sanity Saving 101
Review: I thought this book was too good to be true until I read it and tried it. WOW! I also bought some of their products that are recommended in the back of the book and DOUBLE WOW! I am loyal and commited to the Clean Team forever. I cannot get over this. I live in a brand new house and have always prided myself on having a clean home, even with a husband, two kids, a puppy and two birds and an endless stream of neighborhood kids. Add to that the countless activities I spend chauffering my children to. I never had time for me because in my 'spare' time I was cleaning house. NO MORE! I have never cleaned my home more quickly, efficiently or cleaner before. Hat's off to Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team and their products. You are wasting your precious time, money and sanity if you do not read this book. Anyone can learn their techniques. It so simple and if you have the time and desire, the book is readable in one day. I will also use their products forever. This book has helped change my lifestyle and I will never go back to the 'old way'.
Rating:
Summary: Speed Cleaning
Review: I used to think house-cleaning is a never-ending job with a husband, two kids, a dog and a bird...the living room today, the bathrooms tomorrow, the bedrooms the day after tomorrow, the kitchen the following day... Then this book came along. WOW! I could not believe how efficiently and effectively the entire house can be cleaned! I wholeheartedly thank the author for sharing the method he developed over the years of experience. I always liked a clean house, and tried my best, but my house never looked like the house you see in interior magazines. But now, thanks to his tips, yes, my house does look sparklling clean, and I am actually excited about cleaning the house!
Rating: 
Summary: My house is much cleaner, much faster. :-)
Review: I was a clueless housecleaner, absentmindedly pushing a sponge or rag, without much thought as to where to start, which cleaning tools to use, when to use powders vs. liquids, how to economize motion, etc. I knew there had someone who figured all this stuff out, so I picked up Jeff Campbell's "Speed Cleaning" book. Jeff runs a cleaning service and is an efficiency expert, who has cleaning down to an economy-of-motion science. His book is an easy, entertaining read, with well-explained instructions and many helpful diagrams. He makes a good case for his methods, although he does come across with the attitude that his is the only and right way to clean. I decided I would give his system a try, so I bought the cleaning apron, cleaning cloths, small cleaning tools, and Jeff's own brand of non-toxic, cleaning agents (free of animal products and not tested on animals) available on his website. Then I put on my cleaning apron and followed the book nearly to the letter. I'm delighted to report that his system absolutely works! My bathrooms and kitchen especially are cleaner than before, and his system is much faster and easier than what I was doing. It is not necessary to use a cleaning apron or Jeff's cleaning agents to improve one's results, but I do find the apron convenient, and the two cleaning agent bottles that hang from it are the 16 ounce size, so they're not heavy even when full. I have several issues with the book that prevent me from giving it 5 stars:
1) He often tells to reader to only clean what is dirty--not to clean phantom dust nor wipe surfaces where you don't see dirt. However, not all dirt is visible, such as germs and dust (complete with dustmites) that builds up before it's visible to the naked eye. So it's actually a good idea to wipe and where appropriate disinfect surfaces that don't look dirty. Why not be proactive and prevent visible dust? 2) Jeff encourages people to dust with an ostrich feather duster, which only moves dust around. He reasons that you move the dust to a lower level & vacuum it later. I disagree that this is the most effective system for removing dust. Also ostrich farming is a very cruel industry where the feathers are removed with pliers or electric shears from the birds *before* they are slaughtered, to protect the commercial value of the hide, which makes expensive leather. 3) Twenty pages of the book (10%) is a Spanish summary. Like many non-Spanish-speaking readers, this part of the book is useless to me. Why not publish a Spanish-speaking version of the book or sell the summary separately as a booklet? Overall however, I'm very happy with this book and cleaning system, and have a cleaner home and more time on my hands to show for it. :-)
Rating:
Summary: From Total Spazz to Cleaning Goddess!
Review: I was embarassed to have to buy a book to teach me how to clean my house, but it was well worth it! My house is cleaner than it's ever been, and the process is close to painless. I highly recommend this book to anyone who does their own housework.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Hype, But Less Real Substance
Review: I was very excited about this book and the idea of learning to clean my house more quickly and efficiently. When I read the author's intro and the comments included in the book [as well as the positive reviews here] I just knew I'd hit on a great cleaning solution. Unfortunately, in reading the book, I found it really didn't live up to the author's build up. For starters, the method really ISN'T very efficient. The author strongly recommends a whole arsenal of cleaning solutions and cleaning devices/tools. I just don't think the average home owner really needs all that stuff to do a quick and good job cleaning. [I'd be lost just trying to keep up with all those things!] I will note however, that all of these cleaning items are offered for sale on their website and catalog - a fact that is mentioned NUMEROUS times throughout the book ["buy our stuff!"]. The first time or two I read about their catalog in the book, I thought "how cool - one place to pick up all this stuff!". By the 10th mention of it I was feeling a little like I'd paid for a book that was really just advertising for their company and products. ["No, really, BUY OUR STUFF!"] I also thought the prices on the website were pretty ridiculous [way higher than I would pay to get the same stuff at Home Depot or someplace like that]. You would *easily* spend well over $$$ to buy all the products they tell you that you MUST have from their website/catalog. Another example of why I don't feel this method is very quick or efficient - many long years ago I read a Don Aslet book [who I recommend!]. In that book he said something that has stuck with me for almost a decade - "don't scrub anything you can soak" [or something to that effect]. Practically speaking, this means that when I begin to clean, I soak things first. If there are spills of food on the stove that have turned to rock, I pour a bit of water on it and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes while I clean something else. The same with dishes, etc. I *NEVER* have to scrub - when I come back, I am able to wipe up the mess in one or two swipes with a paper towel. VERY QUICK and energy and time efficient. In contrast, Mr. Campbell spends pages and pages on how to scrub and scrape up a similar hardened spill/mess. He recommends beginning with one scrubbing utensil and working up to another and then yet another and then moving to a putty knife type instrument and then an actual RAZOR blade [which would damage my kitchen surfaces to no end...]. Never once does he even mention the idea of just soaking the stuff so it wipes up easily. I don't think that's very efficient personally. Other things that bugged me about the book were that it seems really written more for commercial cleaning teams. It claims to be written for the average homeowner, but most of the methods are truly suited to a professional "team" approach. He spends a great deal of time describing how the team should split up the work, etc. [I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have a set of friends that show up at my house every weekend to help me clean it...]. He runs a cleaning service in San Francisco, which he mentions repeatedly - I feel this book was really written for professional cleaners like him. I also didn't like the constant high pressure sales pitch; and I agree with another reviewer that the "spanish summary" at the end seemed kind of useless - why not publish the whole thing in spanish? Much more useful. There WERE good things about this book - while I found most of the better suggestions to be "common sense", they might be really helpful to someone who has never done a lot of cleaning [maybe a young person out on their own for the first time] or for someone who doesn't feel that they are very "efficient" in general. I also LOVED the chapter on the environmental impact of the cleaning products and found it very useful. [Worth the price of the book in fact]. There is also a good chapter on hiring a cleaning service/housekeeper - although that chapter seemed very misplaced in this particular book [If I could afford a house cleaner, I *wouldn't* be buying this book to learn to do it myself!]. The book was also very easy and quick to read. Overall I'd say it was worth the money, but not NEARLY as wonderful as it is hyped up to be!
Rating:
Summary: Lots of Hype, But Less Real Substance
Review: I was very excited about this book and the idea of learning to clean my house more quickly and efficiently. When I read the author's intro and the comments included in the book [as well as the positive reviews here] I just knew I'd hit on a great cleaning solution. Unfortunately, in reading the book, I found it really didn't live up to the author's build up. For starters, the method really ISN'T very efficient. The author strongly recommends a whole arsenal of cleaning solutions and cleaning devices/tools. I just don't think the average home owner really needs all that stuff to do a quick and good job cleaning. [I'd be lost just trying to keep up with all those things!] I will note however, that all of these cleaning items are offered for sale on their website and catalog - a fact that is mentioned NUMEROUS times throughout the book ["buy our stuff!"]. The first time or two I read about their catalog in the book, I thought "how cool - one place to pick up all this stuff!". By the 10th mention of it I was feeling a little like I'd paid for a book that was really just advertising for their company and products. ["No, really, BUY OUR STUFF!"] I also thought the prices on the website were pretty ridiculous [way higher than I would pay to get the same stuff at Home Depot or someplace like that]. You would *easily* spend well over $$$ to buy all the products they tell you that you MUST have from their website/catalog. Another example of why I don't feel this method is very quick or efficient - many long years ago I read a Don Aslet book [who I recommend!]. In that book he said something that has stuck with me for almost a decade - "don't scrub anything you can soak" [or something to that effect]. Practically speaking, this means that when I begin to clean, I soak things first. If there are spills of food on the stove that have turned to rock, I pour a bit of water on it and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes while I clean something else. The same with dishes, etc. I *NEVER* have to scrub - when I come back, I am able to wipe up the mess in one or two swipes with a paper towel. VERY QUICK and energy and time efficient. In contrast, Mr. Campbell spends pages and pages on how to scrub and scrape up a similar hardened spill/mess. He recommends beginning with one scrubbing utensil and working up to another and then yet another and then moving to a putty knife type instrument and then an actual RAZOR blade [which would damage my kitchen surfaces to no end...]. Never once does he even mention the idea of just soaking the stuff so it wipes up easily. I don't think that's very efficient personally. Other things that bugged me about the book were that it seems really written more for commercial cleaning teams. It claims to be written for the average homeowner, but most of the methods are truly suited to a professional "team" approach. He spends a great deal of time describing how the team should split up the work, etc. [I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have a set of friends that show up at my house every weekend to help me clean it...]. He runs a cleaning service in San Francisco, which he mentions repeatedly - I feel this book was really written for professional cleaners like him. I also didn't like the constant high pressure sales pitch; and I agree with another reviewer that the "spanish summary" at the end seemed kind of useless - why not publish the whole thing in spanish? Much more useful. There WERE good things about this book - while I found most of the better suggestions to be "common sense", they might be really helpful to someone who has never done a lot of cleaning [maybe a young person out on their own for the first time] or for someone who doesn't feel that they are very "efficient" in general. I also LOVED the chapter on the environmental impact of the cleaning products and found it very useful. [Worth the price of the book in fact]. There is also a good chapter on hiring a cleaning service/housekeeper - although that chapter seemed very misplaced in this particular book [If I could afford a house cleaner, I *wouldn't* be buying this book to learn to do it myself!]. The book was also very easy and quick to read. Overall I'd say it was worth the money, but not NEARLY as wonderful as it is hyped up to be!
Rating:
Summary: My house has never been cleaner!
Review: I've always tried to keep a fairly clean (2,600 sq. ft.) house. My friends thought I was successful, too. But after the first "Speed Cleaning" pass through my house, I can honestly say that my house has never been cleaner. Yes, it took over 5 hours to complete the job the first time. But I can see that once the initial "baseline" cleaning job is done, the weekly trip through the house will be much faster. There are great tips in here for how to clean things, what tools and cleaning agents to use, how to enlist help from your family and more. If you want to buy the "right" tools, you can obtain reasonable facsimiles of the recommended products at Home Depot and Target/Wal-Mart for a lot less dough. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a cleaner house, but is overwhelmed at the prospect of attacking the cobwebs in the corners or the dustbunnies under the beds. You'll learn the fastest, easiest, most effective ways to conquer these areas in addition to the basics (scrubbing the bathrooms, kitchen, dusting EVERYTHING, etc.) This book is not for ridding your house of too much stuff. In fact, if clutter is a problem that needs to be attacked before the real cleaning begins, I recommend Campbell's other book, "Clutter Control" or "How Not to be a Messie" by Sandra Felton. Both give detailed instructions and guidelines on how to reduce the amount of stuff in your home. If this is a problem for you, you will be amazed at how freeing it is to discard things. The more you discard, the more you will want to discard, so motivation to complete the project is sort of self-perpetuating.
Rating:
Summary: My house has never been cleaner!
Review: I've always tried to keep a fairly clean (2,600 sq. ft.) house. My friends thought I was successful, too. But after the first "Speed Cleaning" pass through my house, I can honestly say that my house has never been cleaner. Yes, it took over 5 hours to complete the job the first time. But I can see that once the initial "baseline" cleaning job is done, the weekly trip through the house will be much faster. There are great tips in here for how to clean things, what tools and cleaning agents to use, how to enlist help from your family and more. If you want to buy the "right" tools, you can obtain reasonable facsimiles of the recommended products at Home Depot and Target/Wal-Mart for a lot less dough. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a cleaner house, but is overwhelmed at the prospect of attacking the cobwebs in the corners or the dustbunnies under the beds. You'll learn the fastest, easiest, most effective ways to conquer these areas in addition to the basics (scrubbing the bathrooms, kitchen, dusting EVERYTHING, etc.) This book is not for ridding your house of too much stuff. In fact, if clutter is a problem that needs to be attacked before the real cleaning begins, I recommend Campbell's other book, "Clutter Control" or "How Not to be a Messie" by Sandra Felton. Both give detailed instructions and guidelines on how to reduce the amount of stuff in your home. If this is a problem for you, you will be amazed at how freeing it is to discard things. The more you discard, the more you will want to discard, so motivation to complete the project is sort of self-perpetuating.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of good tips, but very specific requirements
Review: The author readily admits that this is no democracy, you have to do it his way or possibly miss the benefits. However, following these methods really works. It changed my approach to the dreaded tasks, from a scattershot, lick and a promise, whenever-I-van-squeeze-it-in style to a more regimented style, but I get more done in less time and my house really seems cleaner.
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