Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Have you cleaned the bathroom yet?

A

1 often   2 right   3 microwave   4 clean   5 their shoes

6 floor   7 to music

B

1   For ten minutes twice a day. Set an alarm on your phone to motivate yourself.

2   Near the place where you need them. If you don’t know where the product is, you don’t want to look for it.

3   Pour a little water into a microwave-safe bowl, slice a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the water. Then, put the two halves of the lemon in the bowl and microwave on high for three minutes. Leave the door closed for another five minutes, and then clean the inside with a cloth.

4   Because you can clean them in the dishwasher.

5   Give them the vacuum cleaner.

6   Hard floors, like wood or stone. Throw your socks in the washing machine when you finish.

7   Ironing and cleaning the bathroom.

I’m lazy, but I like living in a clean tidy home. Maybe you’re the same. It doesn’t matter if you live by yourself, with a partner, or with a group of friends. You’re always going to have to do some housework. Learn a few cleaning tricks and you can have a clean home – and still have plenty of time to relax and do nothing.

Tip one: Clean quickly, but often.

Clean for just ten minutes twice a day. This gives you time to, for example, load the dishwasher and do one other thing like vacuuming. Set an alarm on your phone to motivate yourself.

Tip two: Keep cleaning products in the right place.

Put cleaning products near the place where you need them. Keep bathroom cleaners in the bathroom, keep bin bags by the bin, and keep dishwasher tablets on top of the dishwasher. Sometimes you don’t clean if you can’t immediately see what you need, and you don’t want to look for it.

Tip three: Clean the microwave regularly.

You probably use this every day and it gets dirty quickly, believe me. But cleaning it is super easy. All you need to do is pour a little water into a microwave-safe bowl, slice a lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the water. Then, put the two halves of the lemon in the bowl and microwave on high for three minutes. Leave the door closed for another five minutes, and then clean the inside with a cloth.

Tip four: Use your dishwasher to clean other things.

If you have a dishwasher, it’s probably already your best friend. But did you know that it can clean much more than just kitchen things? You can use it to clean all kinds of things made of plastic like toys, or even flip flops or other plastic shoes, and also for things made of metal like tools, or keys.

Tip five: Tell people to take off their shoes when they come in.

If you hate vacuuming, but you also hate the floor because you don’t do the vacuuming, there’s an easy solution – tell your housemates and guests to take off their shoes at the front door. And if they forget or refuse, give them the vacuum cleaner.

Tip six: Use your socks to clean the floor.

If you have a hard floor, like wood or stone, for example, make your socks work for you. Take your shoes off, and slide across a different part of your floor each time you move across it. It’ll soon be completely clean. Then, just throw your socks in the washing machine.

And finally tip seven: Listen to music while you clean.

Sometimes you really need to do some housework that you hate, like ironing or cleaning the bathroom. Put on your favourite playlist and focus on the music, not the boring housework.

And one last word – many people say that lazy people are often the best employees because they find the most efficient way to complete a task. That’s the way you need to think when you’re cleaning. Good luck!