8 QUICK TRICKS TO FAKE A CLEAN HOUSE

If unexpected company is on the way, prioritize surface-level tidiness

Surprise! Your friendly neighbor/nosy mother-in-law/neatnik best friend is stopping by your place in 30 minutes. But your entryway is piled with flip-flops, your kitchen sink is stacked with pizza-crusted dishes, and your cat’s hair is blanketing the sofa.

How can you fake a clean house if you’ve got no time — and no live-in help?

“If you’re in a hurry to make things look acceptable, it’s really about perception,” says Becky Rapinchuk, who runs the Clean Mama blog and online housekeeping course. “You want to concentrate on where people will be, not on a whole house cleanup.”

Here are the hacks that she and other experts deploy to fake a sparkling space in a flash.

1Consider who's coming, and why: Before going on a directionless cleaning spree, “think about how you can make your guest comfortable in the space,” says KC Davis, a counselor and author of the book “How to Keep House While Drowning.”

“I worry less about dust on the floor or a ring in the toilet than about getting pet hair off the sofa if someone is going to watch a movie with me,” she says. Keep a lint roller handy to quickly remove cat or dog fuzz from upholstery.

2Cut the clutter: Clutter doesn’t pose a health risk like dirt and grime might, but it can make visitors think your place belongs on a hoarding show. The fastest way to zap it, say cleaning pros, is to grab a laundry basket or other large container and start tossing things in.

“The hot spots are the entryway, the living room and the kitchen,” says Caroline Solomon, a professional organizer in New York City who creates cleaninghack TikToks as @neat.caroline. “You can put everything into a catchall basket in an emergency.”

Davis picks up rooms in her house by grouping clutter into five categories: trash, laundry, dirty dishes, things that have a