For those without cleaners- sharing your cleaning routine

[Anonymous]

For the first time in a decade, we will be without a house cleaning service. I don’t mind cleaning, but we are a busy family and I want to keep a clean house as efficiently as possible.

Our house is large-
bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs
Kitchen, bathroom, living, dining and playroom on the main level
Family room, guest room and bathroom in basement

Please share your cleaning schedule/routine if you do not have an outside cleaner come in.

[Anonymous]

Do you both work? Do you both work out of the house? How old are your kids and how many do you have?

[Anonymous]

We both WOH and have never had cleaners. Two tweens.

Perhaps this isn't helpful, but no real routines except that kids are assigned chores as needed and we get to things as we can given busy schedules.

[Anonymous]

We had housekeeping tasks broken down to one item per day - sheets on Sunday, kitchen deep clean Monday, bathrooms Tuesday, etc. DH changed jobs and now works (from home, putting in 6-8 customer orders so lots of downtime between) on Sundays, so we have moved all housekeeping tasks to Sunday. It takes the two of us about an hour and a half to get the active cleaning done, plus the time for sheets to run in the laundry. I keep the more occasional tasks like cleaning windows/sills as a monthly/quarterly reminder on our phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work? Do you both work out of the house? How old are your kids and how many do you have?

We both work- husband travels frequently, wife works from home full time. Kids are 7. We also have a dog that sheds.

[Anonymous]

I've never had a cleaner. I am a pick up as I go person: if it can be cleaned or put away in under 10 mins I do it. Then for the rest I tend to do bathrooms on Tuesdays, a clean up of all areas every evening before I relax (30 mins or so), and a bigger clean up on Saturday ams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work? Do you both work out of the house? How old are your kids and how many do you have?

We both work- husband travels frequently, wife works from home full time. Kids are 7. We also have a dog that sheds.

How could you have a large house, a shedding dog, two full time jobs and no cleaner? It must take an hour to vacuum. When I had a shedding dog we had to vacuum every other day.

[Anonymous]

I've never had a cleaner. I make a list of all cleaning tasks, figure out the frequency they need to be done (bathrooms cleaned once a week, sink scoured daily, stove scoured weekly, vacuum all floors twice a week, mopping once a week, clean out fridge every three months, etc.) and then make a schedule.

My non-deep-cleaning schedule looks like this:

Monday -- strip beds and wash sheets (remake beds), scour sink and stove top, wipe down kitchen and bathroom counters and cabinets

Tuesday -- two loads clothes laundry (folded and put away), scour sink and wipe down kitchen counters, vacuum entire house, light dusting

Wednesday -- wash all towels (folded and put away), scour sink and wipe down kitchen counters, non-kitchen trash collection (bathrooms, office, bedrooms)

Thursday -- one load of laundry (folded and put away), scour sink and wipe down kitchen counters

Friday -- clean bathrooms including showers, sinks, and floors

Saturday - vacuum and mop whole house, sort mail and any boxes or other items that have accumulate over the week, treat wood surfaces (dining table, coffee table, media center)

Sunday -- clean out fridge and pantry (tossing old food, organize items, wipe down any surfaces that need it). Two loads laundry (folded and put away).

Dishes get done daily on an as-needed basis, that is mostly my DH's job since he also does most cooking.

[Anonymous]

We are a no-cleaner family with two busy jobs, two kids, two cats, and a dog. We’re just resigned to never having all rooms clean at the same time. The kitchen and living room are ALWAYS clean, the bathrooms are MOSTLY clean, and the bedrooms are nobody’s business but their occupants’.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never had a cleaner. I make a list of all cleaning tasks, figure out the frequency they need to be done (bathrooms cleaned once a week, sink scoured daily, stove scoured weekly, vacuum all floors twice a week, mopping once a week, clean out fridge every three months, etc.) and then make a schedule.

My non-deep-cleaning schedule looks like this:

Monday -- strip beds and wash sheets (remake beds), scour sink and stove top, wipe down kitchen and bathroom counters and cabinets

Tuesday -- two loads clothes laundry (folded and put away), scour sink and wipe down kitchen counters, vacuum entire house, light dusting

Wednesday -- wash all towels (folded and put away), scour sink and wipe down kitchen counters, non-kitchen trash collection (bathrooms, office, bedrooms)

Thursday -- one load of laundry (folded and put away), scour sink and wipe down kitchen counters

Friday -- clean bathrooms including showers, sinks, and floors

Saturday - vacuum and mop whole house, sort mail and any boxes or other items that have accumulate over the week, treat wood surfaces (dining table, coffee table, media center)

Sunday -- clean out fridge and pantry (tossing old food, organize items, wipe down any surfaces that need it). Two loads laundry (folded and put away).

Dishes get done daily on an as-needed basis, that is mostly my DH's job since he also does most cooking.

I meant to note that DH and I both work, often from home. Most of this is done early in the day or during the pre-dinner hour, on weekends I try to get everything done in the morning so I can relax in the afternoon, whereas DH will relax in the morning and then do groceries/meal prep stuff later in the day.

[Anonymous]

Honestly our standards are just kinda low. We have busy jobs, one tween, and a dog.

Clean kitchen counters and sink every night, microwave as needed.
Floors every weekend. Laundry all weekend.
Bathrooms when I notice, usually on a weekend.
Everything else on the main level gets done in a frantic spurt before people come over.

Some low-impact intermittent things, like wiping blinds or doors/trim, I pay my tween to do on her days off school.

[Anonymous]

11:33 here to add, we used to have a cleaner but I didn't like the scramble to put clutter away so they could clean - to me that's 80% of the work anyway.

[Anonymous]

I actually bought a little booklet as an impulse buy off of instagram that has cleaning schedules because I'm so bad at this.

I don't have a schedule, but would like to make one so following this thread. There are things I'm quite good about (cleaning the bathroom, running the dishwasher, changing the sheets) and things I'm terrible at (the floor, the porch).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work? Do you both work out of the house? How old are your kids and how many do you have?

We both work- husband travels frequently, wife works from home full time. Kids are 7. We also have a dog that sheds.

Pets make it so much harder (I have two dogs). I imagine kids do as well, but I don't have them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually bought a little booklet as an impulse buy off of instagram that has cleaning schedules because I'm so bad at this.

I don't have a schedule, but would like to make one so following this thread. There are things I'm quite good about (cleaning the bathroom, running the dishwasher, changing the sheets) and things I'm terrible at (the floor, the porch).

It's funny because everyone has the stuff they notice and think "I need to clean that" and the stuff they just don't.

One of my DH's blindspots is the top of the toaster. I have learned that if I go out of town or am sick for a few days, the top of the toaster will be covered in crumbs. That's something I wipe down instinctively when I'm cleaning the counter or wiping down the stove, but DH doesn't see it. Once as an experiment I went two weeks to see if he'd notice and he didn't! I wasn't mad, it's a tiny thing and not a big deal, I don't mind being the one who does it.

I am sure I have my blind spots too but I don't know what they are because they are blind spots! I should ask him what random thing he cleans that I never even notice needs to be cleaned. I'm sure he has examples. Probably something car-related, I never pay any attention to what's going on in the car.