"Speed Cleaning"
"...but the organizational and most of the methods outlined in the book are terrific..."
I read that book years ago after I'd moved into a HUGE place and couldn't keep it up using my usual neurotic cleaning methods, and I still use some of what I learned until this day.
I had no intention of wearing an apron or tying up my dirty cleaning cloths into "ragamuffins" for heightened efficiency (please), but going around a room once, left to right, his feather duster method for miniblinds (pull blind out and swipe from the back), the powdered cleanser for inside tubs, basins, toilet bowls, etc., really proved to be good common-sense tips.
On the other hand, he advocates using either ammonia and water or a "Brite"/"Mop and Glo"-type product for cleaning the kitchen floors, and that really doesn't work for me....I also think using the kitchen sink as your mopping pail is kinda gross, but that's just me....
The author is very particular about doing things his way at all times, but I just cherry-picked what I liked, and his methods really worked well for me that way!
BTW....I usually wash pillows, bedcovers, etc. with Persil if I have it, Tide if I don't (and I throw a shot of bleach in for good measure....)...for the comforters, bed skirts, shams, balloon valances, etc. I usually use Cheer liquid to preserve the dyes. I'd been taught by an acquaintance who worked at a laundromat to use 1 part liquid All Stainlifters formula, and 1
part Woolite Gentle Cycle powder for those items, but the Woolite powder is no longer available here, so Cheer has to do (and, in fairness, it does well!)
You have to sort of pull at the pillow ticking at intervals when you dry (like making dumplings!), along with shaking the daylights out of them from one seam to another, without bursting them, in order to shift the stuffing back into shape.
Good Luck!