Any suggestions on keeping your house clean? I feel like I do so much, but it is never clean. Here is a list of what I do. If you can modify it in any way to make things easier, PLEASE do!! I am so tired of feeling like all I do is clean, yet our house never looks very clean.
Every day:
Pick up toys (3xs a day)
Dishes/wipe counters
Vacuum
Every Week:
Sweep
Mop
Bathrooms
Dust
Laundry
Disinfect Trashcan
Sort and organize mail
Bi-Weekly:
Mop on hands and knees
Take everything out of fridge and scrub shelves/walls
Reorganize kitchen pantry and cabinets
Clean bath toys
Weed garden
'Spring-clean' one room
Monthly:
Reorganize daughter's room
Clean toy organizer (12 small baskets collect dust and dog hair over time)
Trim hedges
Go through places that accumulate items (junk drawer, medical paper piles, etc.)
It doesn't seem like much when it is all typed out, but I feel like I am ALWAYS cleaning. Things like dishes and picking up toys take a long time. My daughter is small, but she knows how to go through dishes and toys! ^_^ I'm sure there are things I missed, too, However, I can never sit down at the end of the night and feel good about my house. It drives me insane! I didn't know if there are any other tricks you mommies can pass along to help. Thanks!
EDIT: I would like to add that a lot of my cleaning is done while my daughter is sleeping or occupied someplace else. I do a lot of it after she goes to bed, during her nap if she takes one, and I do the loud chores like vacuuming while she is in the bath (my husband bathes her). So my cleaning does not generally interfere with my time with my daughter.
I also want to add that these chores are an average. I like to vacuum every day, but some days I don't get to it. Sometimes it is 1.5-2 weeks before I get around to dusting instead of every week. I have OCD, so not cleaning is not an option. I literally have anxiety over it. I am SOOO much better than I used to be though and am learning to cope with not having my house as clean as I would like. That is impossible with a 17 month old anyway! ^_^
Thank you for all the great answers I have already received!!
I do one thing a day. Like today was clean the bathrooms day and tomorrow is vacuum day. In addition to the every day pick up, do the dishes stuff, it helps to do one thing a day that keeps on top of it.
Wow....that is so way more than I do. Obviously, I am no help on the "tricks" part of the response. LOL! You wipe down your fridge every other week?? I don't mean to be snarky, but maybe you need to work on adjusting your standards. I know it took me awhile to get to the point where I wasn't stressed out about the toys being a little unorganized or the floors not being mopped......it actually took lots of nagging on my husband's part......but I really am so much less stressed and better able to enjoy my two one year olds. Sure the house is not spotless, but it isn't disgusting by any means, and my family is healthy and happy. It's all good! :)
I am going though a "deep clean" right now. Like you, I cleaned everyday, but didnt seem to "get" anywhere. I am in anti-hoader mode....do I use it? Do I need it? I am throwing things away, left and right.
I am wiping the baseboards and re-organizing....the local thrift store LOVES me!!!!
Makes me happy!!!
M:)
OK, I have to add...I didnt read the posts before....I do NOT get tired from cleaning...its just what I do. The very idea that you have "too much time on your hands" is an insult to me...I am a housewife...I take that job VERY seriously .I have a squeeky clean home and am very proud of it.
Flylady? perhaps you should direct her to me...I could teach her a thing or two.
What you need to do is go to flylady.net/ I've been doing the routines and I never actually have to clean. I pick up, but never have to do any CLEANING anymore. It's wonderful! I love FlyLady! (: My husband is in the Army, and we get random drop ins by his superiors. On one such occasion, my daughter and I both had the flu and my mom and sister had spent the week with us. The house was disgusting! I vowed to NEVER let my house get like that again. And it hasn't. The "trick" to FlyLady is doing 15 minutes per room. Set your timer and do ONE room for ONLY 15 MINUTES!! When the timer beeps, you go to a different room, set your timer for another 15 min. and begin. You also HAVE to take breaks. Also, de-cluttering will make a HUGE difference in your house. I de-clutter my DD's toys at least once a month. I still vacuum every day. I make my bed everyday. I sweep and mop at least twice a week. And I do a load of clothes every day. But I swear to you, FlyLady makes it ALL seem like second nature, like breathing. It comes so natual. Good luck!
Go to flylady.net. Find the Table of Contents, the website is a little overwhelming at first, but it's so wonderful. Please at least take a look at it!
Holy Smokes Lady!!! I got tired just reading this! Honestly, my house is never as clean as yours seems to be because I definitely do not clean that often! (Good for you though...it's something I need to work on.) The only thing I can say is that if your house doesn't look clean after all the work that you are doing, then maybe you need to reorganize and de-clutter. It is amazing to me how nice and neat my house can look when everything is organized and there isn't any clutter around me. Relax and enjoy being Melody's Mommy too...her days being little will only last so long! :)
You know, We all have our pet peeves and seems yours is your house. You have to learn to give in once in awhile and go a day without cleaning. You need a break so you don't feel overwhelmed. So what if the house goes a day without cleaning. Lord knows I do it. I used to be like you until I had kids (I am on our 6th child now). I was a perfectionist. I weighed my options out and figured quality time spent with the kids is worth more than cleaning and stressing over it. After my kids got old enough I just started teaching them good cleaning habits.
Don't knock yourself out if you don't get to it right away, you deserve a break. Do you have someone that would help you out if in turn you help them out sometime?
Besides, people don't judge you on how clean you keep your home----they judge you on being a real person.
I hope this helps,
Take care.
I strongly encourage you to check out www.flylady.net. It's a great resource for just this sort of thing. My best friend introduced me last summer and, although, I wouldn't say my house is as clean as yours, I'm so much more efficient and proud of what I do. So much so, that I threw an impromptu dinner party for 7 last week. For me, that was HUGE since I have an enormous fear of entertaining.
Being a "flybaby" has made all difference regarding how I keep house. It's so much easier, less stressful and, dare I say it? Fun?!
Give it a try...
I think it would be great to maybe talk to your hubby about hiring a cleaning service to come once a week to get the hard stuff like...dusting, mopping, disinfecting, vacuuming, etc. I clean friends houses for like $40-$45 a week, just to get their hard stuff. What I used to do though, is I would pick up and clean around the house in the mornings. (doing laundry, dishes, making beds, straightening up rooms and bathrooms). Then I would relax until about 3 or so, after naptime. Make sure YOU lay down for at least 45 minutes!! Then, once you get up and eat a piece of fruit or a snack with your daughter, then go ahead and go around the house and pick up whatever else needs picking up.
You can still enjoy your day with your daughter and not be cleaning all day. You can clean a little in the morning, and still enjoy time with her. Then, you can go for a walk or go visit grandma or friends...enjoy lunch, then take an afternoon nap. After that, get up and have a snack, and just pick up what is left. I know this sounds a little silly, but, try not to stress so much on the cleaning. Your daughter will be this age only once! Enjoy her first! My daughter will be 16 in two weeks and my son just turned 13! I wish I had those days back. Now, I sit here alone, on my computer typing, looking around at my well-kept house, with my children gone to their friends house or working, wishing they were back here with me. Don't stress over the house. Have your hubby help you more. Hire someone to help once a week. I'm here to help if you need to talk. :-)
Hi Mummy
All you can do is your best,give yourself a break.
I like a clean house too and your house is probally spotless after all that cleaning.
Sit down and have a rest once in a while
Good luck
B.
I have teenagers - let me tell you that it never gets any better. Their toys get smaller and then their junk gets more plentiful.
Enjoy your kids. Don't sweat the small stuff.
My house is perfect one week out of every year - when the kids are at summer camp for 2 weeks and it takes me a full week to get my house to where it should be.
I keep up with the mail, the bills, the laundry, the dishes... the clutter gets taken care of when we have company coming... the bathrooms get cleaned on a regular basis... the rest of it... eh... whenever.
Relax and enjoy your kids.
LBC
Check out www.flylady.net
Short answer: I don't!
Long answer: I never feel good about my house, either. It seems like it takes a week to clean it to the standard I need before I can have anyone over. Even though my oldest is only six and I stay at home, it seems like I am constantly on the run which kills the cleaning time. I have experienced three ways of looking at this: 1) I don't clean much but I get to spend some fun time with my kids; 2) My mom was constantly cleaning, we helped, the house was never clean and I have no memories of her playing with me; and 3) my MIL had (and has) the immaculately clean house that my husband and his brother never had to help clean because she didn't think they could do it the way she wanted - she even cleaned their bedrooms when they were teenagers even though they didn't want her to - and my husband has no memories of her playing with him. I know which of the three I'm most comfortable with.
I'm guessing that the items you've listed comprise your minimum comfort level of cleanliness. Since doing less would make you feel even worse, can you get your daughter to start helping you? Maybe she can carry toys, take her dishes to the sink after meals, put her dishes away from the dishwasher, give her a cloth so she can 'wipe' or 'dust' the table? I have seen kid-size cleaning implements for sale on-line. (For some reason, my son likes to use his toy vacuum when I vacuum - he likes to crash the vacuums.) That way you can still get things done but also feel like you're spending time with your daughter. My son is 3.5 years old and he still thinks it's fun to help Mom clean. My six year old, on the other hand, is of the opinion that less is more...
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LOL - doesn't seem like much? Are you nuts? You vacuum EVERY day? And dust every week? No way.
You need to let go a little - OK - a lot. Here's what I do:
Every day:
Put dishes in dish washer
Sort mail
Every other day:
Clean kitty litter
Every week:
Clean kitchen
Take out trash and recycling
Clean bunny litter
Do laundry
run and empty dishwasher once or twice
In cold weather, weed
Every month:
Vacuum areas used regularly
Sweep floors
Clean bathrooms
In hot weather, weed
Every three months:
Dust
Do thorough house cleaning
Paper piles
Twice a year:
Clean out garbage/recycling containers (spring and fall)
Why do you keep reorganizing your pantry and daughter's room? You need a better system - that should be something that is done once a year.
You mom your floor on hands and knees every other week? Um, yeah, can't remember the last time I did that. The mop is my friend.
Let go! No one's going to come to your house with the white glove on. Seriously, it's just a little dirt and mess. It's very freeing to let things go. It sounds like you are trying to clean all the time so you have a feeling of control. There will always be new messes created. I clean my house and it's that way for a day or two - then the cats make a mess, or the bunnies, etc. You have a house in which you live. Living is messy.
If it is that important to you, what about having a maid come in once a month to do a bigger cleaning and in between, you just do a little upkeep? With the economy, if you go on craigslist, you can find tons of people willing to do anything for $. Just get references.
