Cleaning House - How Do You Do It?

[Haven]

(And if you have a cleaning service, then I don''t want to hear about it unless it''s an offer to share!

)

I''m adjusting to keeping an entire house clean instead of a small condo, and it takes so much more time, so I''d love to hear how other homeowners/dwellers do it.

What''s your cleaning schedule? Do you do the entire house one day a week, or do you break everything up throughout the week? Any tips?

Oh, and how do you clean your wood floors? Our entire house is wood floors (real wood, not laminate) except for the family room, which has carpeting. I find myself sweeping a whole lot, and I''m getting sick of it!

Thanks!

 

[VegasAngel]

Do you have a Roomba? You might like having one.

That is all I have, lol. I cannot keep up with a messy husband & toddler.

 

[moremoremore]

Does that actually work? I too have all hardwoods except for two small rooms..cat litter and crumbs show up everywhere...

 

[Haven]

Thanks for your responses, ladies. I''m just getting so overwhelmed with keeping this house clean, and I''m not even working yet! (The school year starts two weeks from today, though.) I''ve spent the entire day cleaning, taking breaks and posting on PS, cleaning more, and posting again. And then I thought: How am I going to do this when I''m back to working 70 hours a week?!?!?! (And did I mention that our house is only somthing like 1400 square feet?)

Anyway . . .

VegasAngel--We don''t have a Roomba, but I''m looking into it!

SDL--Yes, I''m curious about what everyone''s cleaning schedule looks like. I''m probably going to have to do bits on different days because I won''t have full days to clean everything. I hate spreading cleaning out throughout the week, though! Ugh.
We''ll also check out the Swiffer, too.
Yes==I''m always sweeping the floors but I love hardwood, I do!

 

[Skippy123]

I have days I do certain things so I don't feel so overwhelmed and hubby helps too since he is a neat freak. My sister loves the spray swiffer for her floors! The microdust heads help too, and you can get those from Home Trends. I love your new house!

My schedule is
Bathrooms one day during the week, watering plants once a week
Sat = dusting and laundry
Sunday = mop and vacuum
Everyday = dishes

 

[VegasAngel]

The newer model Roombas are a lot better. Less noise, better battery life, dont get caught on rugs etc. They arent good for deep down cleaning in my opinion but for dust bunnies, litter, pet hair, getting under beds they are great. It's nice to push a button & send it on its way.

Mostly I make sure the bathrooms & family room is clean & get dishes washed. Seems like I do laundry every single day.

 

[somethingshiny]

DH and I do the house together in around an hour one day a week. We work hard and fast; dust, floors, tubs, toilets, clean out the fridge, big laundry like sheets. The rest of the week is really easy for us. DH helps quite a bit though. We load the dishwasher as we eat so the kitchen is clean with a swipe of the Chlorox wipe. Same with the bathroom, swipe the wipe. The playroom is well-organized so it only takes a few minutes to clean up. With the living room, we try to pick up after ourselves, and once a day JT helps me put away his things. I sweep almost every day and I do laundry pretty much every day and run the dishwasher every day. Things like, walls, windows, porches get done when they look like they need it. So basically, after the once a week big cleaning, I spend a few minutes here and there throughout the day picking stuff up, and I usually spend about 15 minutes cleaning up right before bed.

btw- Our house is 3 bedroom, 2 bath, living room, den, kitchen, dining and play rooms.

I''ve always believed ORGANIZATION IS KEY! If everything has a place, it''ll be easier and quicker for you to put it there.

If you''re a clutterer, take a basket with you from room to room to pick things up that don''t belong and immediately put them away.

For my hardwood floors, I use a Swiffer (which is great) and when I clean them I use a scrub brush and bucket with Mr Clean floor stuff. Because I have real wood too, which means a few spaces between boards, I run the vaccuum over it once a week, too. I just set it at the lowest setting so it can suck up the junk from the .

 

[2Artists]

I do Flylady.net-I am an artist and I have ADHD and was a born piglet in addition but it really works for me. I also keep things very minimal and uncluttered which really helps me personally.

Mrs.2Artists

 

[UCLABelle]

My husband and I both clean. In fact, we are a bit of clean freaks. However, we have an adorable small condo that is super easy to clean!

 

[miraclesrule]

I live alone, so I don''t care. When I finally get sick of my mess, or I am having someone over, then I go on a cleaning binge. Otherwise, I hire someone to do it. I''m lazy.

 

[Kaleigh]

I would break it down into what is manageable for you. Vacume and clean the bathrooms one day. Do the mopping, dusting and laundry another. You''ll figure it out. Make things easier, those MR. Clean things that attach to a wand to clean the toilet are amazing. They have great tools for the shower now, quick and easy. Doing something each day, will help. I''d hate to see you spend your days off cleaning all day.

 

[diamondfan]

I think you can have a system, i.e. change sheets Mon''s and Thurs, do bathrooms Tues and Fir, vacuum and dust and mop floors Wed and Sat, etc...but that can need modification depending how you live.

To me, (and yes my housekeeper does this but this is what I used to do)...I swept kitchen/high traffic floors every night, damp mop floor if need be. Surface clean daily as well as do laundry daily so it does not pile up.

Bathrooms are spot cleaned daily if need be, and a couple of times a week do the scrubbing. I would put something in the toilet tanks if you can to keep them clean, as long as it is not chemically or what not.

I think sheets should be changed twice a week but it is a huge pain.

Vacuuming can be a couple times a week and then get a little easy sweeper thing for the little messes in between.

 

[dani13]

I clean one full day a wk....but its easy for me b/c I only work 3 days per week, and I have a condo. Even so, it takes me 3+ hrs to totally clean this place, and I mean everything from changing sheets to dusting to bathrooms to mopping. If I had a larger home, like you, I would probably break it up like the pp's mentioned. Like dusting/vacuuming one day, change sheets/bathrooms another day, etc. Can your hubs help you at all? That would definitely make it easier!!!

 

[Sabine]

DH and I split most of the chores, and do the cleaning whenever we get a chance on the weekends. I clean the bathrooms every week and do the laundry of things like sheets/towels and I change sheets. Laundry is my favorite chore because when I''m grading papers on weekends, I like to take a break to fold/put in a new load (although I put all the clean laundry on the bed upstairs and don''t put it away until bedtime). I also do a really thorough vacuuming and mop only once a month. DH dusts once a week, and vacuums around things once a week. Then we both do our own clothes laundry (don''t know why, but this seems to work well for us), and we both try to keep the kitchen clean daily.

 

[aprilcait]

Good question, Haven! DH and I are mvoing into a house soon and I am not looking forward to the adjustment in the cleaning regiment. Right now we live in a two bedroom/two bathroom condo and it takes us 2-3 hours to give the place a good scrubbing. I can''t even imagine what it will be in the new house... yikes! I plan on doing a surface per day just too keep up with the dust and grim - flat surfaces one day (i.e.: kitchen and bathroom counters and table tops), floors another day, bathroom fixtures another day, etc.). Hopefully that will work. DH is a big help though... yay fo teamwork!

 

[Sha]

I usually clean on Saturdays or Sundays since it does take a couple hours. Usually I do it room by room - working from the front of house - e.g the porch and living room down to the bedrooms. My pattern is tidying;picking up loose items/rearranging/scrubbing, then sweeping, the dusting - then maybe mopping if necessary. Our house is 3 bedrooms, but small, so it's manageable. I like cleaning, though.

 

[zhuzhu]

We usually clean on trash pick up day - so I guess that''s just one night a week. Luckily since we plan on ripping out the carpet and put in a new floor one day I am not too anal about "truly cleaning it". For the rooms we do not use regularly we keep doors closed so cats can not go in and leave their fur all over.

SDL, I thought you like your pergo floor??? What don''t you like about them?

 

[scarlet16]

Date: 7/28/2008 7:59:34 PM
Author: VegasAngel
Do you have a Roomba? You might like having one.


That is all I have, lol. I cannot keep up with a messy husband & toddler.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our Roomba! We''ve found it''s much less dusty in the apartment. Basically we set it before we''re going out and it runs for about an hour at a time.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We have a dog, so I have to vacuum every day (all hardwoods). I use the orange glo hardwood cleaner on my floors once a week and it keeps them looking shiny. I used to clean the whole house on Sundays (aside from vacuuming every day, trash, dishes and laundry, etc.), but now that D is home, he cleans and it really helps me out on the weekends.

 

[fieryred33143]

I do minor stuff every day…making sure no dishes in sink, cleaning the living room/dining room daily, and mopping kitchen floor daily (mainly because we are in Florida and if you leave anything out…ants everywhere

). I do not make the bed on a daily basis because there’s no point. We have a huge comforter set and it takes about 15 minutes to get everything nice and pretty in the morning so that’s 15 minutes of my morning gone just so that all the pillows end up on the floor at night.

Once a week, I tackle the entire house. That includes laundry, vacuuming, patio, and the bedroom/bathroom. It takes me a good 4 hours sometimes to do it all but I put on my music and time flies.

 

[blondie23]

For our hardwood floors which are on the entire first floor of our house we use the Bona cleaning system (you can buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) and the Swiffer Vac. We use the swiffer vac to get the major dust, etc and then spray on the Bona hardwood floor cleaner and then mop it up with the terry cloth that comes with it. Our floors shine like new every time we do it (about 2x a month). Check it out, it''s AMAZING!

In terms of the rest of the house. We do the house in phases and then once a month do a really deep clean.

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 7/28/2008 11:48:47 PM
Author: miraclesrule
I live alone, so I don''t care. When I finally get sick of my mess, or I am having someone over, then I go on a cleaning binge. Otherwise, I hire someone to do it. I''m lazy.

Ditto - but I don''t live alone!

DH and I do the laundry and stack and empty the dishwasher, but I thank the world everyday for my wonderful cleaning lady!

 

[miraclesrule]

Date: 8/2/2008 4:15:46 PM
Author: Pandora II

Date: 7/28/2008 11:48:47 PM
Author: miraclesrule
I live alone, so I don't care. When I finally get sick of my mess, or I am having someone over, then I go on a cleaning binge. Otherwise, I hire someone to do it. I'm lazy.

Ditto - but I don't live alone!

DH and I do the laundry and stack and empty the dishwasher, but I thank the world everyday for my wonderful cleaning lady!

Gotta love 'em! I stopped using mine during my renovation and I really need her back, but I need to teach her how not to ruin the stainless steel appliances. My friend's cleaning lady ruined her refrigerator by putting the wrong product on it. It now look like someone took car wax to it in a swirl pattern and didn't wipe it off.

It's ruined. Nothing can be done except buy a new fridge.

My biggest problem is mail stacks. I think it is because I get so much mail at work that I have to sift through. I mean a ton!! Whenever one is dealing in administrative law there is a ton of paper. Plus, I am so brain dead by the time I get home that I don't want to look at another piece of paper. So I always have a ton of envelope stacks everywhere. I simply pull the bills aside and leave the rest for

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 8/2/2008 4:25:43 PM
Author: miraclesrule

Gotta love ''em! I stopped using mine during my renovation and I really need her back, but I need to teach her how not to ruin the stainless steel appliances. My friend''s cleaning lady ruined her refrigerator by putting the wrong product on it. It now look like someone took car wax to it in a swirl pattern and didn''t wipe it off.

It''s ruined. Nothing can be done except buy a new fridge.

My biggest problem is mail stacks. I think it is because I get so much mail at work that I have to sift through. I mean a ton!! Whenever one is dealing in administrative law there is a ton of paper. Plus, I am so brain dead by the time I get home that I don''t want to look at another piece of paper. So I always have a ton of envelope stacks everywhere. I simply pull the bills aside and leave the rest for

DON''T!

I''m a local politician and every evening they deliver a very large manila envelope known as ''The Drop'' full of letters from constituents, invitations to boring functions, minutes and agendas for committees and other miscellaneous and completely unnecessary dross.

My heart sinks when I hear it hit the floor.

I procrastinate like crazy and hide them so I don''t have to open them. Then I end up doing a week''s worth in one go and it takes hours.

 

[AmberGretchen]

DH and I used to just set aside half of a Saturday every week or two and go at the whole place (2 bed/2 bath apartment), with cleaning in the middle as needed.

It worked pretty well, but given our extremely limited free time, it took up an awful lot of it.

I know you said you didn''t want to hear this, so feel free to ignore it (or think I''m a jerk), but we hired a cleaning service about a month ago. It is heaven on earth. They come every two weeks and give the place a really thorough cleaning. Its not very expensive, and it gets clean up to my (extremely high, asthmatic and allergic with three cats) standards. We still do some spot cleaning in between as necessary, but I honestly think it was one of the best decisions we ever made.

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 8/3/2008 12:18:28 AM
Author: AmberGretchen
DH and I used to just set aside half of a Saturday every week or two and go at the whole place (2 bed/2 bath apartment), with cleaning in the middle as needed.

It worked pretty well, but given our extremely limited free time, it took up an awful lot of it.

I know you said you didn''t want to hear this, so feel free to ignore it (or think I''m a jerk), but we hired a cleaning service about a month ago. It is heaven on earth. They come every two weeks and give the place a really thorough cleaning. Its not very expensive, and it gets clean up to my (extremely high, asthmatic and allergic with three cats) standards. We still do some spot cleaning in between as necessary, but I honestly think it was one of the best decisions we ever made.

We ended up doing the same thing, right before our wedding. In the past, I had refused to hire anyone because I thought that if two of us live here, two of us should be working together to make this a home. That included everything from picking up clutter to doing deep cleaning. My husband had been a typical bachelor for FAR too long, and I was getting REALLY frustrated being the only one to do the thorough cleaning and taking care of clutter. So I caved, and the day before we left for our wedding and honeymoon, we had someone come in and do a really thorough cleaning of our condo. I have to admit, it was nice to have someone else do it, although I still felt guilty. We haven''t had her back yet (haven''t needed to), but I think we might spring for her to come once a month even and do just what she did before. I think I realized that instead of resenting my husband and getting in more arguments over cleaning, it was worth spending a little extra money to have some help -- even if it is occasionally.

Having said all of that, I do still believe that we should be doing it all ourselves (after all, we live in a 1017 sf condo -- not exactly a mansion).

We have berber carpeting throughout our condo, except in the kitchen and bathroom, obviously. I usually set aside time every weekend to vacuum. I try to keep up with the other stuff throughout the week.

One problem we seem to keep running into is trying to stay on top of mail and clutter. We''re working on that though.

 

[Rhea]

We have a very small one-bedroom flat. Right now it''s just done as and when it''s needed.

The floor is vacuumed by DH every couple of days.

We don''t have a dishwasher and take turns washing the dishes about every other day although we need to do it more often.

I wash the laundry and since we don''t have a dryer, hang it out to dry and put it away - laundry is done about once a week, 2-3 loads each week.

The bathroom is cleaned about every week and a half by DH. I sometimes clean the sink more often, it''s easy to do while standing around.

Hard surfaces, table, coffee table, chairs, kitchen counters, are wiped down at least every other day. Usually by me. Window ledges are washed less often and the baseboards and picture rail only every couple of months.

Actual windows are cleaned 3-4 times a year by DH.

Stainless steel - microwave, espresso machine, toaster, kettle, etc - are wiped down only about every couple of week and are properly cleaned by DH every couple of months.

Trash twice a week - DH, recycling once a week - both of us.

Cooking - cook every other day and have leftovers the following day. Mostly alternate cooking, don''t cook together very often at all.

Neither one of us is into cleaning. I don''t need a sparkling house so our schedule works for us. We still fight about it. It''s hard to be out of the house for 12 hours a day and have the energy to get it done while still spending time with each other.