S/O cleaning: If you don't have a house keeper....

[RoxMonster]

How do you go about cleaning your house?

Do you buckle down and do the whole thing at once in one day? Do you have a set cleaning schedule and do a little at a time? Do you do it whenever it looks dirty?

H and I are trying out a new way of keeping up with the cleaning because I am tired of clutter and also tired of having to spend 3-4 hours on a Sunday cleaning the whole house at once.

We're divvying up the parts of the house and doing a little each day. We have the schedule written on our fridge. So, for instance today, we're touching up/cleaning the living room and kitchen. Tomorrow is the upstairs bedrooms and offices, etc.

We schedule bathrooms twice weekly because I think they need it twice. And we still will pick up when something gets dirty or is necessary, like we technically clean the kitchen every day after we finish eating dinner, but do deep cleaning only twice weekly.

[genet313]

I try to de-clutter regularly when I get home from work. 

We do a deep clean every other week (though now that DH hasn't been working as much and I make him participate, he's starting to bitch!)   That consists of: dusting, vacuuming, wet and dry mopping/swiftering, kitchen cleaning and bathroom.  If we do it together, it takes 2-3 hours for a 900 square foot NYC apartment.   DH does the dusting and mopping, I do vacuuming, kitchen and bathroom.  

In the in-between weeks, I do a lighter clean in the bathroom and kitchen if it needs it.  

[Susie]

It's pretty much all done on the weekends, and all on a triaged, as-needed basis. That is not good enough, but that's why I'm thinking it's time for a housekeeper.

[orangeblossom]

Right now I'm not working, so I'm trying to get on a schedule:

1. Monday - Change the sheets and towels (may do it sooner based on need)
2. Wednesday - Laundry, including dogs beds, front door rug, bathroom rugs, deep clean bathrooms, mop kitchen floor
3. Thursday - Finish Laundry (normally clothes)
4. Friday - Finish whatever I didn't do during the week

Daily (at least attempt to): wipe down bathrooms, vacuum downstairs, sweep kitchen floors,

I'm decent at cleaning, but horrible at decluttering. I need to work on that.

When I start working again, I will try to do more intense stuff daily. I don't want my weekend to be consumed with cleaning.

[bostonmichelle]

We do a bit every day about 15-30 mins and we focus on one room/area of the house. We also try and do laundry as soon as we hit a load and do dishes on a daily basis. I found its a lot easier than doing a crazy clean on Saturdays/Sundays.

Monday - Kitchen / Dining Room
Tuesday - Bathrooms
Wednesday - Bedrooms
Thursday - Downstairs areas
Friday - 2nd Living Room/garage

[jentervention]

SD16 cleans her bedroom and bathroom/guest bathroom. We each do our own laundry, and I take care of sheets and towels every Saturday. We all pitch in to make sure our open-concept main living area is clean before we go to bed every night.

That leaves our home office (I keep it clean since I use it the most), master bedroom (one of us makes the bed daily, and I dust the furniture weekly), and the master bathroom (daily wipe down and a thorough cleaning on the weekends). H helps maintain the living room & kitchen and handles all outside stuff.

The key for us is having minimal clutter coming into the home in the first place.

[Deleted]

I'm with Susie. My only real motivator is if guests are coming. Otherwise we keep things fairly picked up but not necessarily deep cleaned. Luckily we only regularly use about 40% of the space in our house.

[natsnow]

I try to do maintenance stuff during the week, like making sure dishes/pots/pans are washed and put away, wiping down the counter, making the bed, etc. I usually dust, vacuum and clean the bathrooms on the weekends. I do most laundry on the weekends too.

[Deleted]

It usually gets done on one of our days off---all in one day. Though we only have 1200 square ft and don't hardly use 2 of the bedrooms so there isn't a lot to clean.

We do have 4 animals so we will vacuum more often but the major cleaning usually gets done once a week-ish.

[msmerymac]

Since I work at home, I do the majority of the routine stuff during the week (vacuuming, laundry, bathrooms). H pitches in when he gets home by folding laundry and cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. We have a schedule for the litter boxes.

This frees up time on the weekends to actually enjoy time together. If we have a weekend at home, though, I often do some organizational stuff.

When we were both working out of the house 9-10 hours a day, we did little pick up stuff on weeknights (like sorting mail, cleaning up the kitchen), but on Wednesdays we had a big cleaning night where we cleaned the litter, mopped the floors and did a load of laundry. Then we did bathrooms plus floors, laundry, etc on Saturday morning as well.

[mlvmd]

I deep clean once a week and straighten and do light cleaning every day. My daily cleaning means that there is very little dirt to clean, just things like dusting all of the books, washing windows and floors, baseboards, and scrubbing bathtubs/showers that are usually only done once a week. We don't wear shoes in the house and don't open windows (I have terrible allergies) so the house is pretty easy to clean. I want a housekeeper but feel unless they came at least weekly I would still end up doing a lot of in between cleaning because I like it to always be clean.

DH vacuums but I do all the other cleaning. He mows the lawn and prunes as a trade off. We both do laundry and dishes daily.

[Deleted]

De-clutter on a daily basis. Basically clean up the coffe table and the entry hall where we drop all our crap. We try to keep "stuff" to a minimum which helps with organization.

My H keeps the kitchen clean. Dishes are his "thing" so hey more power to him!

Usually we will take an hour or two on Saturday morning to vacuum, wipe down, etc. Bathrooms get cleaned every other week. We have all wood floors and tile so I will steam mop once a month, max. It is just us so no kids or pets to make messes.

[Marmee]

I do the best I can. I tend to be OCD so no way can I clean the entire house at any one time. I spent an hour cleaning the half bath yesterday. I used to be able to be more consistent & scheduled but not anymore.

[wiffle]

Can someone explain what you are wiping down in the bathroom DAILY? No snark. I honestly do not know what that entails. I rinse the toothpaste out of the sink after brushing my teeth...is that what you mean?

[Deleted]

I usually keep up with dishes/wiping down the kitchen during the week, try to declutter as needed, and do laundry as soon as there is a load to do. Beyond that, I typically clean the house all at once on the weekend - dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the whole kitchen, etc. I find it more satisfying to do that because then it's all clean at once. If I did a little bit every day, I'd never have that "wow my house looks great!" feeling since there would always be something that was about ready to clean.

I have a feeling I will clean less often once I move into my own house without a spouse - I used to clean weekly, but I don't think it will be as dirty with just 1 person. I will still probably need to vacuum once a week because of the dogs, I guess.

[Deleted]

We declutter constantly (I have a touch of OCD), and do one room plus the bathrooms each weekend day. It has been working out well. We are both neat freaks so that helps.

I just transferred my $140 monthly cleaning "bill" from when we had maid service into my investment account It makes me feel very self-sufficient!

[smiley]

I really need to get on a daily schedule. I am home from work by 230 everyday so I have 2+ hours before DH gets home. I usually catch up on my shows during this time but I have noticed since DH and I are off together now we don't do any housework on those days.

I am going to work a schedule that rotates days so every room gets touched once a week and laundry doesn't pile up. Our house is never guest ready so anything is better than it currently is.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using proboards

[Deleted]

We have a townhouse condo so every week I rotate dusting/vacuuming upstairs vs. downstairs on the weekends. I usually clean the bathrooms weekly. Laundry is done ever Sunday. It's too much to do it all in one weekend. 

[Deleted]

We have no pets or kids, so I clean the kitchen dishes and counters twice a week and clean everything else every 2-3 weeks when people come over.

My house is cleaner than the houses of pretty much any of my friends and family except my sister who is a bit of a neat freak.

I don't think most people actually have clean houses--my theory.

[thatgirl2478]

I do a little every day.

Whenever I see trash that didn't make it to the garbage (rarely, usually as the result of DH or DD) I toss it.

When I know I'm leaving one room for a while (ie, the master bedroom & bathroom) I take a look around for things that belong in other rooms.  Same goes for the family room at the end of the night.  If there's a LOT that needs to go to another room, I'll take a laundry basket around with me and relocate those items.

I vacuum the floors (we have hardwood & tile w/ area rugs) once a week - usually on Thursday or Friday.

The kitchen gets cleaned daily (counters wiped, dishes cleaned & put away), but the floor only gets swept 1 - 2 times a week and mopped as needed.

Bathrooms get a once over weekly (toilet scrubbed, sink wiped out, mirrors cleaned) - usually Thursday or Friday.

Laundry usually gets done on Friday.

[KaraOrNot]

I try to keep up w/ the dishes during the week (we don't have a dishwasher), but any other cleaning is done on the weekend.

[bostonmichelle]

Jul 1, 2013 17:16:20 GMT -5 wiffle said:

Can someone explain what you are wiping down in the bathroom DAILY? No snark. I honestly do not know what that entails. I rinse the toothpaste out of the sink after brushing my teeth...is that what you mean?

Usually I rinse out my sink and wash off the counter. My makeup seems to get everywhere. If I notice it being dirty I wipe down the mirror.  I also have a sponge brush thing with a soap/vinegar mixture in it in the shower so I clean one side/floor of my shower every day, it takes like 2 seconds since I'm in there and its wet already.

[peachdragon]

I'm a SAHM, and I do something every day. It takes me 20-40 minutes to knock out that chore for the day.

Actually, when I worked, I had a similar system, but I still did most of the cleaning on the weekends.

[drloretta]

I have a set cleaning schedule and I post it on the fridge. M/W/Sat is vacuuming day, M and F are bathrooms, Tu/Th are kitchen floors, etc. I also have once a month things I do, like dusting, cleaning the microwave, or organizing the crap on our kitchen table.

I used to just let it go until I had time or got tired of it, and it wasn't working

[drloretta]

Jul 1, 2013 17:16:20 GMT -5 wiffle said:

Can someone explain what you are wiping down in the bathroom DAILY? No snark. I honestly do not know what that entails. I rinse the toothpaste out of the sink after brushing my teeth...is that what you mean?

DH has an electric toothbrush and seems to think he can just leave it on to splatter toothpaste everywhere. I really should wipe down the sink and the mirror for that reason alone. Not to mention his leftover whiskers. He's a slob, and he'll admit it.