Prevention sure beats cleaning, author says.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Don Aslett has an opinion about cleaning that most of us would be happy to hear:

We do entirely too much of it.

Part of the problem is guilt, he says _ we clean what's not really dirty because we think we should. A big part, though, is inefficiency. We use the wrong equipment and the wrong methods, and we don't take simple steps that would prevent much of the dirt and mess in the first place.

Aslett, the cleaning expert and fast-talking media darling, recently tackled that topic in the book "No Time to Clean! How to Reduce & Prevent Cleaning the Professional Way."

"When people think of clean up, they think of mess up," says Aslett, speaking by phone from his home near Pocatello, Idaho. They'd do better to keep up _ and in some cases, keep ahead of the messes.

That can be as simple as thinking before you act: pouring the juice over the sink instead of the counter, for instance; filling the kids' glasses only partway; switching on the exhaust fan over the stove so greasy smoke doesn't settle on the kitchen cabinets. It can also mean identifying the chronic sources of messes and fixing them.

Wastebaskets are a common repeat offender, Aslett says. They overflow, they spill, they crack. So buy a good-quality trash container that's big enough for your needs and sturdy enough to last, he says. While you're at it, buy several. The more wastebaskets you have around the house, the more likely they'll be used.