Tips needed!

[GreyhoundsRUs]

How do you keep your house (or parts of your house) clean? I mean my mom was NEVER one of those people who always had the house "company ready". My place is very cyclical! - the apartment will look nice for a few weeks, then all hell will break loose for a while :jumpsofa:

My biggest fear is that whenever we have kids, things will go from bad to worse! Also, I want to raise my kids to think of a clean house as the standard, not the exception. I can't tell you how many times we ran around like crazy people to try and "clean" before someone stopped over!

So...what do you do (short of hired help!) to keep the main parts of your place clean?

[spotty_dog]

Re: Tips needed!

Over the past couple of months I finally feel like I'm getting a system in place. I've drawn from the book Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson; flylady.net (the podcasts are particularly interesting, hearing real people solve real problems, though the music she plays is gawdawful!); and various home productivity sites and home management binders and such.

So far I have a morning routine and an evening routine and daily chores. I also have a flexible weekly schedule of chores that I sketch out each week depending on DH's schedule. So for instance I like to do a deep cleaning around the weekend sometime, and DH was going to be free to hang out with us on Sunday, so I cleaned yesterday. Each week I also try to work out a good day for mini-cleaning, errands, laundry catch-up, major cooking, etc. It's been running pretty smoothly for a month or so! Fingers crossed!

[DCJenn]

Re: Tips needed!

I try to do a load of laundry every day. We run the dishwasher almost every day and force ourselves to empty it. Vacuum A LOT.

I need to dust more because the house is old and drafty and dirt goes everywhere.

I would really like a maid but that's not gonna happen for a while.

Jenn

[migirl]

Re: Tips needed!

I have a loose weekly schedule where I try to do one thing per day. So one day I'll do laundry, the next I sweep and dust, the next I do bathrooms, etc. I try to kind of pick up as I go along during the day so it doesn't get too overwhelming, which seems to help. I do dishes after every meal so things don't get piled up in the sink (which I hate). And before I go to bed every night I try to organize and put things away as best I can, it does wonders for my mood when I get up the next morning!

[MrsK]

Re: Tips needed!

I'm an OCD neat freak. DrK is an ADD clutter freak (and he is ashamed of that so don't tell him I told you). Keeping a clean house has probably been the biggest dispute of our marriage thus far -- and that says a lot considering that we've had some incredible challenges including off-cycle internship and my bi-weekly commuting schedule.

The weeks I'm away, he hires help. When I'm here, things are put away after use and that they are put in designated spots. Otherwise, I hear "where's my. . . " endlessly not to mention that I go nuts when I'm trying to cook and can't find a measuring cup or whatever. I clean the fridge and buy groceries Sunday morning, put the groceries away when I get home, and cook and freeze meals all week. DrK washes the dishes after dinner (assuming he's home for dinner). We run the dishwasher at night and I put away the dishes in the morning. I clear and wash the kitchen and bathroom counters before I go to bed. I make the bed in the morning and wash and fold a load of laundry almost every day. DrK helps me get the house swept and mopped weeky as I *hate* doing floors. I change the bed linens weekly. DrK does the traditional husband chores -- taking out the trash, salting the driveway, yardwork. We tag-team washing the dog weekly (He bathes her. I brush, dry and groom her hair.)

[alison]

Re: Tips needed!

The dishwasher is the white noise that I need to fall asleep at night. Dh always loads and turns it on before we go to sleep. Zzzzzzzzz.

[houseelf]

Re: Tips needed!

I am not a neat freak by any stretch, but I do like to have a sense of order to some small degree. I will tell you that having kids necessitate letting a LOT go. My current house is set up exactly how we live as a family. It is a five level split, and the main level is the level that MUST be presentable. The rest is gravy. This means no dishes in the sink and the counters get wiped down most days.

A load of laundry is thrown in every morning and switched to the dryer before we leave for school. The dryer gets turned on immediately in the afternoon when we come home. I can't stand for laundry to be backed up. Bed linens get laundered and replaced in the same day to eliminate folding.

Extra garbage bags are kept below the current bag in use in the trash can. When the trash gets taken out, just pull the next one up.

Things that need to get put away are set by the door or on the stairs. Don't go up the stairs without taking a load.

The biggest help, however, is enlisting the kids. One has to windex the table after dinner and the other has to sweep. Everyone carries their own dishes to the sink and helps put leftovers away. An allowance motivates my son to keep his room clean (well...clean to the standards of an eight year old boy). My four year old makes* her bed. (*Term used very liberally). I will tell you that it takes a heck of a lot longer and is more work to involve them in the process rather than to do it myself. I will say that even I need to enlist the kids more. It's time for the oldest to start putting his own laundry away. I do have the kids "help" a bit with the vacuuming and even the youngest helps transfer laundry from the washer to dryer. Obviously, I always have to go back over these things. Still, I don't want to send my kids off to college without some basic life skills.

My biggest challenge is clutter. I swear that stuff multiplies in the dark. When this really starts getting to me, I start committing to taking out one box of junk a week. Anyone can commit to getting rid of one box of junk a week.

That's all I've got. I always love these threads. The one that talked about using Rain-X on glass shower doors was absolutely brillant.

Kelly

[DCJenn]

Re: Tips needed!

The other thing I do is deal with the mail immediately-

any bills are immediately added to the online pay schedule (90% already are online), junk is recycled, bills and credit card offers go in the shred pile (which is done when the pile gets annoyingly large)

Magazines go in the living room on the coffee table and are recycled at the gym often- usually once a month but sometimes more.

I make my own cleansers from water, vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing liquid to clean the surface areas of the kitchen. I like spotless counters but I hate the idea of caustic chemicals touching my food. And I have silestone counters so I have to be careful anyway. If I can't eat it and not die, I'm not using it in my house. Double negative but you all know what I mean.

I do the bathrooms on an as needed basis- they get vacuumed often just because I'm constantly vacuuming- (and I just discovered that filter in the Dyson that was supposed to be washed every six months...and how long have I had that Dyson and it was just now getting a little moody! Let me tell you that it's a sucking rockstar now) When the tub looks gross, I clean it. When the sinks are gunky, I clean them. Toilets get done often as the big boy and the little boy can make some messes.

Mirrors are cleaned when I remember to clean them. and I use only Bon Ami as my scouring powder (again, nothing in there that can really kill you) and my infamous vinegar stuff. I'm also not putting my private parts near a potty that might have nasty chemical remains.

Sheets are washed and the whole set is all stuffed into one of the pillow cases so that all of the parts stay together. Blankets are rotated often as my bedpartners are one human, one dog and two cats.

Ironing is done all at one time. I hate ironing and the environmentally friendly dry cleaners is WAY out of my way (as evidenced by the stuff that has now been there for months.) I won't use a regular dry cleaner anymore because the smell of the chemicals makes me nuts. I took a comforter and when I got it home and on the bed, it smelled like dry cleaning fluids for weeks. Nasty.

Cars are washed- never. I wash my car when the bird poop becomes embarrassing. (I park under the pecan tree).

Jenn

[houseelf]

Re: Tips needed!

I always find cleaning schedules so interesting because I can not seem to stick to them for the life of me. I usually take an hour and clean like a Tasmanian devil to knock it out when the mood strikes.

Kelly

[MrsK]

Re: Tips needed!

I make my own cleansers from water, vinegar and a few drops of dishwashing liquid to clean the surface areas of the kitchen. I like spotless counters but I hate the idea of caustic chemicals touching my food. And I have silestone counters so I have to be careful anyway. If I can't eat it and not die, I'm not using it in my house. Double negative but you all know what I mean.

I love the idea of having one all-purpose cleanser. Having a million bottles of different cleaners seems unnecessary. I mean, they are all soap, right?

Also, ITA about the use of non-toxic cleaners (though I have not yet converted I hate to dispose of the stuff I have.) My dog poisoned herself with Lysol a couple years ago and I was really shocked at how she burned her tounge and face -- though Lysol denies it is corrosive! At the time, my vet also told me a scary story of her having drank Pinesol as a child. For now, we keep all cleansers on a very high shelf, no more Lysol/Pinesol in the house, and once the cleansers are used up, they are replased with water/vinegar or non-toxic solutions.