Personal cleaning up methods

[PrincessFiona]

How do you personally tackle cleaning up your house? I was gone for the weekend, and came home to a giant mess. Organizing my cleaning has always been an issue for me, so I thought I'd ask the smartest people I know to tell me how to clean up my stinkin' house. Feel free to come over and show me!

I generally pick the main level to start in, toss stuff that doesn't belong there in a laundry basket and then go from there. I clean the kitchen last because I figure all of my efforts in that room are wasted. I clean it so much. I noticed after being gone for awhile that I have dust and some dirt on my kitchen cabinets etc that I hadn't seen while living here day in and day out. Also, there is dirt on some of the walls.

I know that restaurants have a cleaning order for how they rotate cleaning things. I think I need to come up with one myself to make sure I'm also hitting stuff like cabinet fronts, walls and light switches too.....

Do any of you have a specific rotation of cleaning tasks? How do you get it done?

Kris

[alotofyarn]

Pinterest has a bunch of schedules that you might check out. Honestly, I pay people to do most of my cleaning. Since we started that, I've been working on doing a better job at picking up the house. I run the dishwasher at least every other night, and I try to make sure I go to bed with an empty sink by loading it each night. I try to pick up after myself (and hubby, who is still working on learning this) as much as I can. Otherwise I just try to do a little bit each day, like maybe picking up one room. We're still pretty terrible at it though - I envy people who have an immaculate, clutter-free house. I'm not sure mine will ever be that way.

[Meenah]

I need a paper fairy to come in and do something / anything with all of the paper piles in this house. Sorry, that was no help.

[Vanquisher]

I need a paper fairy to come in and do something / anything with all of the paper piles in this house. Sorry, that was no help.

Yes! Paper is an insane issue at our house.

I don't have a system, really. I tend to start in the kitchen because it makes the most immediate and overwhelming impact on what you can see. I go room by room.

[Ladybug]

I go room by room too. My house is never entirely clean. Just parts of it. I would have to clean all.the.time to keep it feeling organized and clean, but then I get resentful and angry because it's not how I want to spend all my free time. I have the kids pick up their stuff, even if it means not feeding them until it's done sometimes. The deep cleaning I do in parts and spurts right now.

[spotty_dog]

I have each room or specific cleaning task in an event in my iCal. I just got home from vacation, and strategically spaced all the previously undone chores across a week or so. So yesterday I failed to clean the master bathroom, and so far today I have not yet vacuumed and tidied the upstairs bedrooms, or cleaned the kids' bathroom.

When it's "cleaning time", I tackle the rooms on my list by working dry to wet and top to bottom. Rooms without sinks before rooms with sinks. Upstairs rooms before downstairs rooms. When I get to a room, I also work dry to wet and top to bottom and inside to outside. Walls and counters before sinks and tubs, if I'm ambitious enough to tackle the inside of the fridge or organize a drawer I do that before wiping the outside, etc. I try only to worry about tidying the stuff in my "chore rooms" and just toss stuff that belongs elsewhere into its appropriate room, trusting that I will get to that room within a week (or *cough* two or three *cough*).

Within a week or two, hopefully the house will be back to its usual cycle of mess and containment!

[Bittersweet]

I can't handle a cleaning schedule anymore. I just can't. With two young toddlers at home I can't predict whether a day will be happy and productive or if I'll be busy just putting out fires and keeping everyone alive.

With that said, I prioritize cleaning based on embarrassment potential: i.e. "would I die of embarrassment if someone stopped by." This means I keep the kitchen, half bath and living room acceptable. Nothing is pristine but it looks presentable. The rest of the house there's no telling. I work on it when I can.

[ladymoreta]

Bittersweet, you described my cleaning strategy perfectly!

[PrincessFiona]

LOL Bittersweet described mine too. I aspire to Alison, but .... I'm just not disciplined enough. Today has been a snow day. The kids are busy on their devices and I've had all day, really, to just clean up. I've done an okay job of getting the main surfaces, but nothing really inspiring has happened with my cleaning despite a promise I made to myself to clean cabinet faces (didn't happen).

My cleaning system is literally: unload dishwasher, check facebook, load dishwasher, check imsn, clean floor, check email, vacuum stairs, check facebook and imsn, make bed, sit on bed and check facebook, imsn, email, and news......

I embarrass myself.

[Ladybug]

Snow days are not cleaning days! Kids are crawling all over the house. Survival. When I'm stressed I start judging myself and my house against my imaginary standards.

Winters suck. We had one mild, sunny day here this week and I felt amazing. Like anything was possible. My house was so cozy and adorable, my kids were amazing and I was definitely going to write a NYT best seller. Then it started raining again, today. I hate February. But at least it's honest. I really hate march's empty promises.

No one else in this house cares about its organization or present ability. It's a losing battle.

[spotty_dog]

Mmm, I aspire to my own system too. The kids' bathroom I mentioned Weds that I hadn't yet done since getting home from vacation the previous Fri? Still haven't done it yet, but have been on my butt in front of the computer for a couple of hours. When the kids get to bed around 9pm, I will sit on my butt for one more hour, then run around frantically getting clutter off of surfaces before DH gets home (between 10 and midnight). Before that is anyone's guess.

Anyway, it's getting cold again. I was moderately productive when it was in the 50s. Now it's in the 40s and slated to snow tomorrow...MOAR SWEATERS. Hot tea. Hunkering.

However, this thread did make me look at my chore list, and also to realize how poorly I'm doing on Fitbit steps for today...I'm thinking I can crank out a couple of bathrooms before I sit back down again. That'll give the internet time to generate new content for me.

[mommax3]

I pay someone to come twice a month and do the basics. I clean up as needed in between. It's enough!

[OrionGrad]

I pay someone to come twice a month and do the basics. I clean up as needed in between. It's enough!

This is my dream. If we could hire someone just to do the basics (toilets, floors, etc), I'd be so happy.

[SoonerTexan]

Daily picking up the entire house works
Best for me. There is a tipping point where it just goes to hell and is the point of no return. I hate it when we get there because it is a huge effort to clean up. Clutter is the big deal...toys especially. My husband will pick them up but fails to understand why it is important to put them away as a set, so I prefer to do it.

Floors and other major cleaning happen once a month if I'm lucky. I'm usually not. If I get to continue working we are hiring someone to come once a month to do those things.

[Thirteen]

We do dishes, laundry, and toy pick up daily. Right now, I vacuum every other day, and sweep every day.

I would love someone to come once or twice a month to deep clean our kitchen and bathrooms. Bathrooms (especially ours) seem to fall last as a priority. :/



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