House cleaning, deep thoughts

[Anonymous]

Thoughts on doing a big house cleaning job quickly when I have the desire, burst of energy (like I do this afternoon)?

I have put a lot of thought into this, but does anyone have any more suggestions for me? Has anyone else put thought into this/ love project efficiency and have any tips?

We have a house that’s a little too big for me and it’s been a challenge to clean it quickly if I ever wanna do a nice quick efficient job.

I gain a lot of efficiency by doing the following. Start with the machines: get the dishwasher, the laundry, and the robot vacuum going.

Then work on putting stuff away and spraying down various surfaces moving around the house clockwise. Trying not to walk all over the house and lose time.

What else can I do? Besides being Mary Poppins.

I have flexible hourly work, so I can opt sometimes to do a big cleaning job (like I want to do this afternoon!). Kids aren’t really an option. They help but .. like 15 minutes and I have to appreciate that much. My husband does his part too.

House cleaners, I don’t want to spend on that right now. I can explain that later but that’s my choice for the moment.

[Anonymous]

Op here again, I’ve had these debates with friends. A boring reality.

I had one friend say her rule is always put something away first touch. I have tried this and you gain time in one way, lose it in another. More walking. But she has a point, if there are 100 things to put away, you touch 100 things. (Instead of putting it halfway close then touching it again—now you’ve put away 200 things.)

Please only respond if you care about this stuff. If you don’t, walk away!!!

[Anonymous]

Get off the internet and stay off until your house is clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here again, I’ve had these debates with friends. A boring reality.

I had one friend say her rule is always put something away first touch. I have tried this and you gain time in one way, lose it in another. More walking. But she has a point, if there are 100 things to put away, you touch 100 things. (Instead of putting it halfway close then touching it again—now you’ve put away 200 things.)

Please only respond if you care about this stuff. If you don’t, walk away!!!

One touch would drive me crazy, up the stairs down the stairs over and over. I do more herding, I’ll use a laundry basket to collect up stairs (or basement) stuff, of if there is enough one for the kids to deal with. I’m not neat but trying to improve. I always have a audiobook going to keep me not board

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here again, I’ve had these debates with friends. A boring reality.

I had one friend say her rule is always put something away first touch. I have tried this and you gain time in one way, lose it in another. More walking. But she has a point, if there are 100 things to put away, you touch 100 things. (Instead of putting it halfway close then touching it again—now you’ve put away 200 things.)

Please only respond if you care about this stuff. If you don’t, walk away!!!

I prefer what I call the Pony Express method: just keep things moving in the direction they're going. If I'm working in a room, everything that doesn't belong in that room goes by the door. When it's time to leave the room, everything going to another floor goes by the stairs.

[Anonymous]

For me, the most important thing is having a place for everything. If I am organized, all art supplies here, all paper goods here, etc, that really helps me maintain

[Anonymous]

I just want to whine that I f€£&ing hate cleaning my house and I’m losing the war against my possessions right now and all my other family members are horrible.

I hate it so much.


FURTHERMORE. Why are bathroom trash cans so low to the ground? I appreciate why they are small and lidded, but why aren’t they on some sort of stand? Or like, a funnel? Is everybody but me just better at tossing stuff in there? A piece of floss is hard to aim.

[Anonymous]

This reminds me when I had really little kids, I would “broom” everything into my mudroom/laundry room which I could close.

I’d sweep everything on my hardwood floors into that one spot. It was sort of gross!! I’d remove trash and recycling. Then sort by the room of the house. Then put away.

I could “clean” the whole house in like 5 minutes. And then deal with that room in 15 minutes or less.

[Anonymous]

Op here, sometimes I do this thing where I work in a clockwise way around the house, but I pick up and put away. Then wherever I put the item away, I start cleaning from there. It’s almost dizzying but it keeps me going and not giving up.

The way this helps is — alternatively if I put 30 minutes into my dining room room in 30 minutes into my kitchen and then something interrupts me…. I don’t have the problem of now in the living room and the breakfast area have not had any cleaning.

Helps me clean the entire level (halfway) at once.

[Anonymous]

Have you checked out GoCleanCo? She blew up during covid for her cleaning. She suggests to go room by room. Top to bottom, left to right. Leave the floors for the end, vacuum the floor first (no sweeping), mop last.

Obviously decluttering is a huge help for this! I know for me, I spend the most time just putting crap away. I'm looking around right now - jackets and hoodies left on dining room chairs, a purse on the table, a shopping bag on the floor, amazon boxes on the counter, etc. Ugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here again, I’ve had these debates with friends. A boring reality.

I had one friend say her rule is always put something away first touch. I have tried this and you gain time in one way, lose it in another. More walking. But she has a point, if there are 100 things to put away, you touch 100 things. (Instead of putting it halfway close then touching it again—now you’ve put away 200 things.)

Please only respond if you care about this stuff. If you don’t, walk away!!!

One touch would drive me crazy, up the stairs down the stairs over and over. I do more herding, I’ll use a laundry basket to collect up stairs (or basement) stuff, of if there is enough one for the kids to deal with. I’m not neat but trying to improve. I always have a audiobook going to keep me not board

Lol - I am the person that stacks everything on the stairs and then when I head up I can bring everything up at once. No way am I walking up and down 20x (though my ass and heart would probably appreciate it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you checked out GoCleanCo? She blew up during covid for her cleaning. She suggests to go room by room. Top to bottom, left to right. Leave the floors for the end, vacuum the floor first (no sweeping), mop last.

Obviously decluttering is a huge help for this! I know for me, I spend the most time just putting crap away. I'm looking around right now - jackets and hoodies left on dining room chairs, a purse on the table, a shopping bag on the floor, amazon boxes on the counter, etc. Ugh.

This is why I almost can’t hire a house cleaner. Because the biggest issue is putting the stuff away and I find that I still have to dedicate three or more hours to cleaning the entire house before the house cleaner comes, so I don’t get any work done anyway I might as well do the spraying and wiping down of surfaces as I go.

In fact, I had a housekeeper I was using about once a month and she kept canceling days on me. In my life that is no big deal except I was preparing for her and sacrificing my flexible work time so when she didn’t come, I meant that my preparation was for nothing and I had to do it again.

[Anonymous]

I'll also say, when I get a burst of energy, I tend to focus on one area and go REALLY hard at that area. Idk if it's practical or not, but I feel better about it vs half-assing.

For example, when I was putting up my outdoor xmas lights I had to grab a few things from the junk drawer (a DEEP drawer). I got fed up and ended up dumping out the drawer, throwing a bunch of stuff out, organizing the batteries, wiping out the drawer etc. Same thing with the pantry, take everything out, throw out stuff, group like with like, clean, put back.

That's more decluttering/organzing, but wow does it make a difference.

[Anonymous]

I get annoyed that the best thing that I wanna do is get the house smelling nice. And the best way to do that is wiping everything down and mopping.

But to mop, I need to vacuum. And to vacuum I need to put the crap away.

And to wipe everything down like counters and tables, I need to put everything away.

Can my kids just put their stuff away?!?!

[Anonymous]

If you're spending all your time putting stuff away and spraying surfaces you are not doing a deep clean. You need to buckle down an actually clean the whole room. It's going to take longer.