Do you have any tips on keeping a clean house?

I came up with a light, weekly cleaning schedule. DH and I work together the get each day's work done, and it really doesn't take more than 30 minutes most days. I'm working on a monthly schedule, which will include deeper cleaning (not just laundry and vaccuming, but scrubbing, etc.).

I am definitely the messy one in our relationship, but we made a deal that we don't do anything fun until housework is done. We want our children (when we decide to have them) to come home, do their homework, then have play time, and the best way to do that is to set that example ourselves.

So, no play (TV, games, etc.) until housework is done! Also, it might be easier to force yourself to get the chores out of the way right after work, so you have more time later in the evening to yourselves.

Originally Posted by Rosiemac

I beg to differ, it's aka a cop out

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I agree with that as well. I'm a spunky gal, and you can eat off my kitchen floor with no problems.

Set your self up on a schedule. Clean and dust one room a week (this should take about a half hour), and then switch it up.

Some tips for regular cleaning:
1. Sweep the kitchen at least once a day right after dinner.
2. Clean as you go while you cook.
3. Keep cleaning products on hand at all times.

Originally Posted by catsallover

One thing they mentioned is called The Ten Minute Tidy (yeah, I know, but it works). Everyday, set the timer for 10 minutes, and rush around and put stuff up, wipe stuff down, whatever needs to be done in a room for 10 minutes

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This is a great tip! 10 minutes may not seem much but if hubby & I both devote 10 min. each day to tidy up, our house will be spotless when weekend comes.

Great thread .

My tips from a neat freak.
Always pick up after yourself, now. Say you are in the bathroom using make-up, hair dryer, other hair products, picking out what earrings to wear, putting together your outfit for the day, and so on clean it up as you go. Don't leave that bathroom messy, it only take a min. to clean so regardless of the time leave it clean. When you are finished with your towel from a shower either hang it up or toss it in the laundry basket, same with your clothes, when you are finished witha jacket, hang it up or when you are changing clothes put the old ones in the basket right then. Dishes are easy, always rinse and put in dishwasher. Hand wash the dishes that need handwashed right then. I never leave the kitchen messy when I go to bed at night, nothing worse than waking up to a nasty messy kitchen. Just make little habits like everyone has suggested in this thread and it will get easier to become a cleaner person. Baby steps ya know.

My Mom's motto was "There's a place for everything and everything in its place." We had a schedule for cleaning and laundry and I was very neat. I was neat in college and grad school. I drove a couple of roommates crazy.

When I met DH, I realized he wasn't the neatest person in the world, to say the least. Early in the relationship I asked if he would mind if I cleaned his bathroom. I kept thinking that something was going to crawl out of the tile. He asked why would he mind if I cleaned the bathroom and I said that he might think I was trying to move in. He said that he thought that I already had (still lived in the dorm, too).

Anyway, my first solution was to hire a maid. Next, I cleaned up after him, because it got too messy in between cleanings. I yelled at him, of course. Time went on. I stopped yelling. I travelled and the mess got worse.

I gave up and joined the club. I am now no neatnick.

Our daughter cannot clean up. I told her to clean up her toys when she was little. She would just sit there and be lost at what to do. Her room is a mess. I would get mad.. Then I read an Ann Landers column where a mother had the same problem. Then she thought that her teen didn't drink, smoke, do drugs, was a good student, etc. So the mother just shut the kid's door. I do that now, too.

If the place is really messy, I give the maid extra that week. That is really not advice. But one piece of advice I have is to not have too many things around. It is really easy to clean if you keep things off the counters and dressers. No clutter then.

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

My personal solution to my intense dislike of cleaning? Living by myself

If I want to be messy, I can be messy

This was actually one of my exes and I's biggest problems, he wanted to complain about how the house wasn't spotless, but didn't want to do anything

At least your guy helps!

One thing that I do though is throw things away or put them away as soon as I am done with them, that cuts down on the clutter at least

I also eat out a lot so there's not a lot of dishes

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I'm with Katie! I tend to be lazy about cleaning, and have to do a ton in one day. All well, I just periodically do a deep cleaning of the house, I've divided it into segments & when I clean I do one segment at a time, then stop & treat myself!

I do the 15 minute timer thing daily. That helps on clutter and wiping down the bathroom daily and dusting one item.

My main rule: keep the bathroom and kitchen clean. If the rest of the place suffers, oh well....

I was a huge slob. I've gotten better. I also dont have high standards. I really do believe where you eat and shower should be clean, so I do it thoroughly often. It takes the pressure off knowing I can slack off on vacuuming for instance since cat hair won't kill anybody.

I'd prefer to have one spare room just for mess though

Dont own a lot of stuff - that's a big one that helps.

I like to multi-task. First thing I do in the morning is start the coffee, while that is happening I make the bed, take care of any dishes from the night before and any other little things that were left out that need to be put away, cloths, books etc. I make it a game, try to beat the coffee maker. For the litter box, its kept next to the toilet so its one of the first things I see. If it needs to be cleaned I do it when I am done before leaving the bathroom. I keep everything I need for it under the sink, plastic bags and the scooper so its right there. My DH does the vacuuming only, I do the rest. He just seems to always have something better to do and I really don't like the way he cleans, he gets it done but not fully. If I have him dust he will miss half the bookcase. So I find its best if I do it all.

For laundry, he always use to just drop his cloths on the floor and walk away. All I had to do was put them all in the hamper once. When he went to find his jeans from the day before where he left them on the floor he freaked and asked what I did with them, I told him "well I thought they were dirty you just left them on the floor" after having to dig through the hamper he learned to always put everything away in its right spot.

The big one for us is dust. He builds skateboards for a living now and does all the sanding in the house. Before we moved he did it all inside but now he can do most of the worst stuff outside but the final sanding and finish polying has to be done inside to prevent bugs from getting in the finish. Its a daily battle for me. Let me tell you its a shock to come home from work and see a layer of colored dust everywhere. Our nice clean white bathroom will become blue or green or whatever color he is using. At least I can see whats dirty.

Before I write a book my best suggestion is make cleaning a game. Time yourself. I use the coffee maker or a tv show, anything that has a set time to it. See how many jobs you can get done in the allotted time and try to beat it everyday. This morning I set the record, I made the bed, wiped down the bathroom and kitchen, did a few dishes and had my cereal all before the coffee was done. You will get faster and more efficient.

I'd like to caution you to stick to your commitment and do your share of the work around the house. Here, it's the opposite. DH is a slob, apparently doesn't notice or care about the mess, and doesn't care if it gets cleaned by either of us. I prefer to live in a clean, orderly house. However, since I'm the only one who's going to be doing it, often it doesn't get done, and I get depressed and very resentful of him sitting on his behind and not caring. So, I don't know if your BF would be inclined to eventually get resentful if he's doing the majority, but it could happen, since I didn't start out that way at first either.

Actually, my mother had the right idea. We always had to tidy up before we could go to bed. That way, nothing every got too far out of hand.

Good luck

My worse habit is letting things build up until they are awful and then doing everything all at once over the weekend. It's really not the best way to do things, especially because it makes it so overwhelming.

I found a great chart on Real Simple's website (http://www.realsimple.com). Obviously you would want to tailor it to your home and needs, but it's a good starting place. Only thing is it doesn't address daily things, like doing dishes and putting things away and making the bed and throwing loads of laundry in.

This is really more for maintenance of a house, a lot of it might not apply:

Weekly:
- Dust all hard surfaces
- Vacuum or mop
- Wipe down appliances
- Wipe down and disinfect counters
- Scrub and disinfect toilet
- Scrub and disinfect kitchen sink
- Clean and scrub down shower and bathtub
- Change and launder sheets

Monthly:
- Vacuum upholstery
- wipe out and disinfect wastebaskets
- wipe down and disinfect doorknobs
- wipe off and dust ceiling fans
- scrub the stove burner grates
- dust moldings
- wipe down front of kitchen cabinets
- clean and deodorize microwave

Every 3 to 6 Months:
- Launder or hand wash curtains
- vacuum mattresses every 3 months, flip every 6
- clean and condition leather furniture
- wash blinds
- deep vacuum drapes
- wash/wipe down baseboards
- clean and descale the coffeemaker
- clean the interior of the fridge
- polish stainless steel appliances
- clean and degrease the stove hood
- wash inside and out of windows

Every 6 to 12 Months:
- clean the oven
- wash/clean lamp shades
- sponge-clean upholstery
- wash or dry clean slipcovers
- launder or dry-clean pillows
- launder or dry-clean comforter
- wash and dry filter on stove
- vacuum or dust condensor coil on fridge
- scrub tile grout
- empty and clean cabinets
- wash fabric shades

Every Year:
- Professionally clean rugs
- touch up wood floors
- have upholstery cleaned every 2 years
- wash the walls
- professionally clean the carpet
- clean out the pantry
- professionally clean fabric shades
- professionally clean every 2 years

I think it depends on what type of house you have, and how many cupboards you have too.

I live in a 40sq apartment that is just two rooms, a tiny kitchen and a tiny bathroom, with a guy and two cats. I don't clean his desk. We dont have any drawers, we have a big but yet small waldrobe. I like my house being clean but in theory when i have guests over, the stuff gets put into the other room, so its always messy, now its better as half of my stuff is shipped to Australia!

The only thing i really need is a dishwasher, another desk and a few drawers and the house would be spotless!

I love this topic. More advice, please! Both of us are terrible procrastinators and we both "hate" cleaning. I never thought that my hatred of cleaning might be tied to perfectionism! But you are right, cleaning is never done, it can never be perfect. Plus it is so boring!

I need to create a routine or a list. I love all the suggestions here. They may really help me!

And I would love to join that Yahoo group, Messies Anonymous. I like having company over and I need to learn to be less messy!!!!

Wow, you all have a ton of great ideas! I'll definitely try the 10 minute timer game thinger as well as tidying up before bed.. Is dusting really so much of a problem? Whenever I did it as a kid I never saw the point. Then again, I see the point at my dad's house..

Already it's better; we didn't have enough space for all of our stuff, and yet somehow this new place has enough storage for BOTH of our houses! I'm stoked.

My issue is that my dad is worse about it than I am (he literally has CORRIDORS in between the stacks and stacks and stacks of stuff) and my mom just hired a maid for us the entire time.. I have no skills. =(

Thanks so much, folks!

First you have to get organized. Do a search in the lounge for past threads on the subject. There were some great tips in the past. You have to figure out what needs to be organized then work on the how before you start. It can be overwhelming at first. I think many people hate cleaning b/c they aren't organized. For instance my DH gets about 5 mags a month. I have a basket under the coffee table for him to stack them. Once they reach the top he has to discard them. Usually he takes them to work.

What I do depends on what room I am in before I start. Usually it's the basement so I start with say the bathroom, then up to the kitchen do to the dishes/sweep the floor, then up to 3rd floor and do the bathroom. Next day I will vacuum the basement and move up the stairs. I try to do all three floors in one day since the furbabies hate the monster.

Dusting is the worst IMO. The minute you finish the fur/dust comes right back. Do a little in each room daily.

Having a laundry basket with sections is a dream. Ours has 3 sections:
cold, warm, towels. I would also recommend having more than one set of sheets.

Here is how to get help from the kitties from Nat:

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=168952

Throw things away! I have a rule that if I haven't used it in 6 months, I don't need it. Clutter is what will make you feel overwhelmed when you go to tidy up. In addition to that, organization. Everything should have a place, because again, you'll be overwhelmed when it comes to tidying up if you can't figure out where to put things.