(I am currently battling cancer and so family members have taken over cooking, groceries etc etc. The load on them is immense. So, I would cut everyone who is working, going to school, have kids, have pets, eldercare, sick relative etc etc - a whole lot of slack. Do what you can do. Seriously. This is not deep.).

All I know that having a cleaner does not mean a clean house. The cleaner is not coming every single day, but you are living in the house every single day. My cleaner comes once in 2 weeks.
Some things need to be done - every single day. I try and do laundry, dishes, trash, paperwork and beds.

- Make beds (which basically means just straightening the comforter, fluffing the pillows, folding blankets - if family have not done so already).

- Laundry (2 loads).
a) 1 load is only bed-linen from one bedroom, wash, make bed again. I have 4 bedrooms and I am able to change sheets once a week for all of them.
b) 1 load of either towels, bathrugs, fleece, undies&socks, darks, whites, denims. I also fold it and put it away. I have dual washers so I can also do smaller loads simultaneously that I am not counting - delicates, gym clothes, woolens, kitchen towels, cleaning microfibers etc.

- Dishes (2 loads)
Everything gets washed, everything gets loaded. If there is space, I will throw in hood exhaust filters to be washed too.

- Paperwork
Try and get through as much as we can together. Bills, invites, etc etc. We have a space where I keep all the mail that comes and DH and I sit together and just do it. Also, we put everything on our shared calendar so I can manage invites, checkups, infusions, to-dos.

- Trash
We have wastepaper baskets in all rooms. So, we make sure that empty containers, used tissue, makeup stuff etc - are put in them and not on other surfaces. Every few days, I will go and empty out the bins in a trashbag. Also, we have vacuums in all levels. So, I will vacuum often, and empty out the canisters in the trashbag.

These are my 5 daily essentials. However, the amount of work that working parents need to do is immense. Hats off.

It's really quite affordable to hire a cleaning service. The only people on our street that don't use one are the old people (70s) who also are so controlling they insist on doing their own yard work too. Dude is going to fall off a ladder one day

I had a cleaner for years and do it myself now as a weekly cleaner wasn't really getting things clean.

So like a PP, it takes me longer and the rooms are never all clean at once, but they are cleaner overall.

Just one example is that my floors aren't all clean after the weekly cleaner, but now I run the robo vac frequently and deep clean different areas so my floors are really clean in general. Before when I wiped up spills, the paper towels were black. Now, even with less frequent cleaning, wiping up spills and it's just the spill on the paper towel.

Same with the bathrooms. If I'm cleaning showers, I get in there with limex and descale the fixtures, clean the grout so nothing can build up- even if it's a less frequent overall clean. It's just cleaner.

I have cleaners who come twice a month, but I have a dog. I just Swiffered the house a couple days after they left and I am disgusted. So much dust and dog hair.

I used to vacuum every other day, now I will Swiffer one level of the house every day.

Deep clean and then daily maintenance cleaning—particularly in the kitchen, bathrooms, and floors in high-traffic areas.

Then determine a rhythm for less used areas (living room, dining room, dusting in general, etc.).

Kids are responsible for their bedrooms and bathroom, and parents supervise a periodic deep clean.

Signed,

Working mother of a handful of kids who never had a cleaning service

Anonymous wrote: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.

Wait are you the OP?
I thought you had cleaners before…..

Oh maybe I am getting people mixed up.
Sorry!

Daily chores would include:

• Making sure all dirty clothing are put in hampers vs. leaving them laying around.
Also any clean clothing should be removed promptly from the washer or dryer & folded, then put away.

• Sink must be emptied nightly - - all dirty dishes should be loaded into the dishwasher or drying in the dish rack.

• All garbage 🗑️s should be emptied.

• Mail should be sorted out ➕ properly disposed of too.

Weekly:

• Carpets/Area rugs vacuumed > Kitchen & bathroom floors swept and wet mopped.

• Shelves dusted.

• Appliance exterior wiped down, kitchen sink scoured + counters scrubbed down.

• Bed linens changed.

• Bathrooms completely scoured and disinfected.
I.e., toilet/sink/bathtub/shower.

Every Few Months:

• Vacuum under furniture

• Clean out interior of refrigerator, microwave and stove/oven.

• Clean grout from tile.

• Organize cupboards and closets.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

PP who said we don't have a routine and you're reminding me that we sort of do. Two shedding dogs, so the main floor is vacuumed with the cordless vac most days (they don't go on the 2nd floor and the basement is largely the kid zone, so don't bother with that as frequently).

But in terms of cleaning bathrooms, dusting, stuff like that--no routine. Sometimes we have more time on the weekend, sometimes it's before work on a WFH day. It varies. Not perfect, but far from a pigsty.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Sadly this scramble is a big reason I need to keep the cleaners. It was nearly impossible get my family members to motivate without it. I hate it, though. I feel like an utter failure of a human being every two weeks.

Obviously this means we need better systems and clutter control. And maybe a different DH because when he's out of town for business, things stay manageable.

Uh, I clean when things smell or are so filthy I can't stand it anymore. Pretty sure there's mold in my shower.

Anonymous wrote: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.

💩

I'm a single mom with 2 kids, a dog that sheds like CRAZY, work FT, and a house that is much too big for us. Here's what has worked for me:

- Declutter like crazy. It'll take months, but most of the problem is that clutter gets everywhere and makes it impossible to clean. I throw away probably a garbage bag full of stuff every weekend.

- Every evening, the basics need to be done. All dishes washed and put away, counters, stove, and tables wiped down, floors vacuumed with the robot vacuum, any clutter that has accumulated on the dining room table or catch-all counter must be put away or it gets trashed. All dirty laundry put in the hamper, all kids toys picked up.

- For shedding, a robot vacuum designed for pet-hair is a must. I run mine once a day, often twice. If I run it daily, I only have to go through with the regular vacuum once a week or so.

We also got the Uproot pet vacuum (that you use to vacuum your pet, not the floor). It has a brush attached to a vacuum that gets the shed hair off your dog before it gets on the floor. I use this on the dog a couple times a week.

- Kids take on a lot of the chores. They are responsible for helping to wipe down table/counters, mopping the floors on the weekend, cleaning bathrooms on the weekend, folding all their laundry and putting it away, and cleaning up their messes.

Kids are also responsible for ALL pet care aside from walks. Feeding, brushing, cleaning up shed hair, etc. If they don't do it, pets go to a new home.

- Cooking simpler meals helps so that there are fewer dishes. My xH used to cook these elaborate meals that left dirty dishes, pans, pots, etc all over the counters and it took forever to clean up. I typically keep it to 1-2 pots/pans total.

- Run dishwasher every night, no matter how few dishes there are. Unload in the morning. Having a schedule is easier than doing it randomly, which gets you into situations where there's a pile of dirty dishes at the end of the day so you can't cook.

By the time the weekend rolls around, all we really need to do is laundry, a quick vacuum and mop, and the bathrooms. It takes us less than an hour.

Also, a huge tip - when you're cleaning, put on music! I find it much more enjoyable with good music.

Anonymous wrote: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.

This. Life happens and we are not able to stick to a routine (like “clean bathrooms on Wednesdays” or whatever.

We try to put clutter away, do all the dishes and run one load of laundry (including folding and putting away every day.) Then on one of the weekend days we generally try to tackle one floor of the house for dusting/vacuuming/bathrooms. We just pick whatever is dirtiest or feels most pressing. I try to wash towels weekly and sheets biweekly and if it slips a bit I don’t beat myself up. My husband certainly doesn’t beat himself up about it!

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.

I get ALOT done in really short spurts. While on the phone, you can wipe out bathroom sinks, fold laundry, etc. After working for an hour, I set the timer for 10 minutes and get as much done as I can in that time (also gets me up from sitting), etc.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My cat died recently and I'm really, really sad about it and miss him a lot, but I have also discovered that I really only need to vacuum once a week when we don't have a pet, whereas before I used to vacuum certain areas daily. And I'm not like some obsessive cleaner, he just shed a lot and his food area got messy very quickly and I also stayed vigilant about the part of the hallway where he'd walk after using the litter in the garage because I didn't want to have litter tracked in the house and he couldn't help it.