How to clean my own house and actually get it done.

Anonymous
I just clean all the time at a low level. The deep clean isn’t happening so often, but house is picked up, dishes washed, laundry always going, trash taken out. Decluttering USA nonstop chore, but I’ve also come to love the happy clutter of having a family. I aim for picked up and put away, beds done, and dishes washed for an every day clean. Fresh air helps the clean feeling too so open windows. But mirrors, floors, sinks, sheets aren’t being cleaned as much as others seem to be doing on this thread.
Anonymous
Mine is:
Monday: bathrooms (keep cleaning stuff in each one)
Tuesday: change and launder sheets and towels
Wednesday: dust, de clutter/tidy
Thursday: vacuum
Friday: mop kitchen and clean appliances

If I miss a day, I don’t come back to it - I just get it the next week.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Mine is:
Monday: bathrooms (keep cleaning stuff in each one)
Tuesday: change and launder sheets and towels
Wednesday: dust, de clutter/tidy
Thursday: vacuum
Friday: mop kitchen and clean appliances

If I miss a day, I don’t come back to it - I just get it the next week.


I forgot, I clean the shower and bath while I am in them. That makes bathroom day much easier. I use a nylon scrubbie sponge and dish soap with a cup to rinse. Also, squeegee the shower glass every day.
Anonymous
My house used to be a complete mess, but now I use the Flylady system and it is almost always clean. She can be annoying and I ignore her missions and messages, but the basic principles are good and she eases you into routines.

With Flylady, you do dishes and laundry, make your bed, and wipe down your bathroom every day so that things don't pile up. Every Saturday I do my "weekly home blessing" which is a quick feather dust, vacuum, mop, cleaning windows and mirrors, emptying all trash, changing sheets, and dealing with mail. This takes me about 45 minutes now that I'm used to it and the house isn't cluttered. She also has a detailed cleaning list for 1-2 rooms every week. I just do whatever I have time to do from the list during the week (e.g. polish furniture, wipe marks off walls, wash curtains, declutter a drawer, vacuum under furniture). Sometimes I only get 1 or 2 things done and sometimes I nearly finish the list. I like this method because if I am busy I just do it the next month and the house still stays reasonably clean with the light weekly cleaning.
Anonymous
You take your kids' phone away until they've cleaned whatever area to your satisfaction. They will resist at first, but they need to learn that they live in the house and therefore have to help maintain it. They have to pitch in, as does your spouse. Everyone needs to be a good citizen. Or else tell them that you're going to start selling their stuff to pay for a cleaner to come do it for you.
Anonymous
This is going to sound weird...but I listen to a cleaning podcast in order to motivate myself to get stuff done. She literally walks you through cleaning your house. She has different podcasts depending on how much time you have.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:This is going to sound weird...but I listen to a cleaning podcast in order to motivate myself to get stuff done. She literally walks you through cleaning your house. She has different podcasts depending on how much time you have.


For the love of all things good and right, please share a link.
Anonymous
What works for us:

Daily:
-AM unload clean dishwasher
-laundry if there is a full load (there usually is)
-clean the kitchen fully after dinner (sweep floor, wipe appliances, wet swiffer floor, polish counters)
-load and run dishwasher
-about 20 minutes of power tidying before bed

Mid-week dry swiffer or sweep if floors look gross

Weekly:
-change all towels and bed linens, every week. Even if it takes me days to wash them, they get changed on the weekend.
-weekend morning one day DH vacuums upholstered items and rugs, then does hard floors with an attachment that doesn't damage them. After, I mop floors (vacuuming the dust and hair is way better than sweeping). I do the bathrooms. Kids have to get everything off the floor in their rooms for dad to vacuum, strip their bedding and towels
-on weekends I do a big grocery shop and fully clean out the fridge before I put new stuff in.

Maybe once a month:
-dust fixtures, random shelves/dust hotspots
-baseboards, light switches and door knobs get cleaned
-walk around with a Mr. Clean Eraser or sponge and look for random weird marks and spots that have appeared on surfaces, walls, etc.
-walk around with windex for finger marks on mirrors and windows other than the bathroom
Anonymous
Secret Slob changed my life. Such an easy program. It is fly lady without the naggy old rag salesman.
Anonymous
I prefer to assign specific chores for each day. For example, on Monday, I clean all bathrooms. This way, when the bathrooms are completed, I have no guilt.

I do suggest getting kids involved, no matter how little they accomplish when they are young. They need to spend time doing a household chore vs playing a video game while you clean. If a child gets to the age of 10 and thinks it is only YOUR JOB to clean the house, you have missed an opportunity.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is going to sound weird...but I listen to a cleaning podcast in order to motivate myself to get stuff done. She literally walks you through cleaning your house. She has different podcasts depending on how much time you have.


For the love of all things good and right, please share a link.


haha it's called Clean With Me: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clean-with-me/id1437964950

I especially recommend this for any mama's here who have ADHD. It forces you to focus on your tasks and moves you through at a good pace.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Secret Slob changed my life. Such an easy program. It is fly lady without the naggy old rag salesman.


PP who uses flylady here. I agree Secret Slob is much less annoying and sometimes I put her Youtube videos on when I clean. She does have a few weird habits though, like collecting all the laundry from her kids floor and then trying to sort it to figure out what is clean and dirty. Since you are doing laundry every day anyway, isn't it easier to just throw it all in the machine?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:For simplicity just assume I will mostly be doing it on my own. Family will put their stuff away but it’s too much drama to get their help cleaning. I’m tired of fighting about it. Standard 3 story, 4br house.

Do I break it up by floor? By type of room (ie: bathrooms day)? Do I do tiny bits every day (and how do I motivate myself for this) or do a big push a few times a month (what I’ve been doing.)

I know HOW to clean. I’m more looking for a schedule or way to divy up the tasks so that I don’t keep procrastinating and getting way behind. Also, if you have suggestions on small discreet tasks I can have others do, I’m all ears. Things like “clean your bathroom today” cause way too much drama and I’d rather just do it myself. Yes I’ve failed as a parent.

Thanks in advance.


Who do you live with? If you live with kids old enough that you think they should clean their bathrooms, then I think with just as much effort, you can move them *toward* cleaning their bathrooms. Also, do you have a spouse?

I totally hear you on needing discrete tasks, especially for kids. "Clean the bathroom" is overwhelming. Maybe start with one week showing a kid how to wipe down the sink, then making that their task for the next few weeks. Once they have that down, add in the next bit.

We do a family blitz clean once a week. Start out with tidying -- everyone is responsible for picking up the living room. If you have sulky teens it might take a bit of doing this to get them going, but for me the key is routine. We do this every Sunday morning. The first few times it will be painful because nobody will want to do it. You gotta push through until it becomes habit for them. A reward system might work -- fifteen minutes of tidying every week for a month and we get XXX.

After that, kids pick up bedrooms. I do the kitchen, spouse does the bathroom. I dust; I might enlist a kid to help with that, or with taking out trash or recycling. Spouse vacuums. Takes us maybe 90 minutes total (and we are not all working full bore for all of that time). But we have a smallish house.




Anonymous
I can relate OP.

My kids, who in the past have not wanted to clean (or required a lot of nagging and redirection to clean), LOVE having a spray bottle and a paper towel. They fight over what areas they want to clean. We also have contests to see who has the dirtiest paper towel after cleaning a spot. You might want to try this with yours.

Anonymous
This is one of those awesome, useful threads that tricks me into justifying my DCUM addiction!

I see some cool things in here, like that cleaning podcast.

I have ADHD and have struggled with this my entire life. What's weird is that I don't *mind* cleaning per se-- even enjoy it when I get into a groove-- but it's extremely hard to get started, to prioritize, to not get overwhelmed (as with a lot of things in life, for someone like me).

The things that have been most helpful for me were, in chronological order...

-Organizing from the Inside Out (I read this in ~2001?) Lots of good bits in here.

https://amzn.to/3sY2pgE

I found one of my comments from DCUM where I talk about it a little bit--

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/941440.page#19015246

-FlyLady (I think I did this in 2010 or so) Lots of people have discussed already. I think UFYH is similar but less Christian-y and so on.

-KonMari (The book, not the show-- I did about 85% of the whole process in maybe 2015) VERY HELPFUL.

I kept tons of things that sparked joy, but got rid of SO MUCH STUFF. And I feel like I have to say-- we had been married a long time (plenty of time to accumulate stuff) AND we had moved a million times (so already got rid of lots of things) AND we lived in 900 square feet with a kid (so obviously couldn't have "that much" stuff). And I still got rid of so many things.

We're not remotely minimalists-- especially the kid-- but if I could pare down significanly with KonMari, anyone could. At the time, we had the 900 sq ft apartment which DH WFH in, and we had one modest (5'x10') and actually very well organized storage unit of stuff. We got completely rid of the storage unit and still/also had less clutter in the apartment. Meaning that I definitely kept 25% or more of the storage unit stuff (wedding album, books, etc.) but I also got rid of so much apartment stuff that our living space was less cluttered after we combined everything.

The really useful part of KonMari is that I definitely accumulate less stuff since I did it-- I rarely buy things just because they are on sale, or things that are just okay but a little off (leggings that are black and soft but cut me a little in the waist, etc.) And I automatically, perpetually notice when things have lost their usefulness and put them in a donation basket. It sort of keeps things at a more manageable level without as much need for a single big purge.

I know that's all about getting rid of or organizing things, but that makes an ENORMOUS difference in how much there is to clean, and how easy it is to clean.

-More recently, just the concept of "Tiny Habits"

https://tinyhabits.com/

I haven't bought the book, but for someone w/ADHD who easily gets overwhelmed, it's really really helpful to make habits (especially cleaning) invisible/automatic so that I don't have to THINK about them at all. And they don't feel like "extra work" or yet another box on my to-do list. The more I can do this, the better. Tiny Habits basically connects new habits/tasks to old existing ones and goes from there.

I also try to automate things, like having an automatic toilet cleaner and so on.

Note that all of these things aren't too much about how to actually clean-- which we know how to do-- but how to GET OURSELVES to clean and keep things clean with minimal effort.


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