What's your housecleaning routine?

I find that my emotional/mental state is often linked to the state of the space around me. For example, if my nightstand is cluttered with papers, glasses of water, tissues, what have you, and that's the last thing I see/experience before going to bed and the first thing I see/experience when I wake up - it makes my sleep less restful and my waking more stressful. I find it to be a mental barrier to completing certain tasks as well - cooking in a clean kitchen takes a lot less effort (physically and mentally) than either cooking in a dirty kitchen or cleaning the kitchen and then starting to cook.

I'm trying to solidify a cleaning routine in the house, which I really haven't had since I've moved in. I keep things fairly clean - I can eat at my dining table, sit on my couch, get ready at my bathroom sink, sleep on my bed, sit on all my chairs, walk on my floors, etc. And I like to make sure that anything the cats can climb on is clear of stuff/clutter. But I still usually need a little advance notice before a friend comes over, lol! The kitchen is usually a mess and my laundry is just.... I get dressed out of the dryer. The rest of it is usually in a mountain in my bedroom, lol! My dresser drawers are totally empty except of stuff I don't wear (which I guess I should throw away...).

So I'm going to come up with a short daily routine and also specify certain days for certain tasks. So far all I have is wash clothes on Sundays and wash towels on Wednesdays. I need inspiration! What is your cleaning routine like? Do you have weekly tasks? A daily routine? Organized/neat freaks of TCS, show me the light!

The only routine I have is laundry on Sunday.

I have tried MANY times in the past to try rotating cleaning so I only have to clean one room at a time, but it has just never stuck with me. I hate clutter, so things around me are generally "picked up" at all times, but as for real cleaning... the key for me is just to get started, because once I start, I just go until it's done.

Of course, having recently lived at my mom's, my only responsibilities were the bathroom (toilet and sink, the shower is out of commission ATM), which I cleaned every Saturday, and vacuuming, which I did every two weeks.

I've only been in my new place a week, so I haven't established a cleaning schedule yet, but the place is so small, cleaning will be a breeze!

First of all, cool new siggy . Yes, neat freak here!! But when it comes to kitty toys, they are all over the floor, everywhere. This is my motto: If you take it out, put it away. If it belongs in the garbage, put it in the garbage. If you are done with a dish or glass, put it in the sink or better yet, dishwasher. A dust buster is your best friend, the kind with the brush attachment . Everything has it's place, put it there, organize. Ok, if you look in some of my closets , you will see a bit of a mess. But out of sight, out of looking messy. Shoes in closets, clothes in the hamper. And do the laundry before the clothes bust out of the hamper. I don't have days strictly for cleaning like I used to. I just do a little each day to stay on top of it, that way I don't get overwhelmed with things piling up. I hate that .

Just try to break it down.

Mondays & Thursday: Vacuum/Sweep
Tuesdays & Fridays: Dusting/Wiping things down
Sunday & Wednesday: Laundry
Saturdays: General organizing (anything else that didn't get done through the week).

Litter boxes, dishes (put in dishwasher right after use, or if no dishwasher, wash dishes as you use them) and general disinfecting of household surfaces can be done daily with disinfecting wipes.

Something like that may work for you. When I was growing up, I had certain chores on certain days and our house was always spotless.

My routine is to watch DH do it

I love my weekends and my weekend starts Friday.

My routine starts on Wednesday when l get home from work at 2.p.m. I dust starting from the upstairs down, then on Thursdays l swiff, vacuum and wash the floors along with cleaning the bathroom, again starting from upstairs.

Laundry is done on Thursdays while i'm swiffing, and usually hung straight out to dry.

After that l feel content and relax

Because of the cat hairs l always run the swiffer around when l get home from work, but l hate clutter so l always keep on top of things

I like our house to be neat and everything tidy.

There's no set routine around here. I just tend to pick up things as I go and straighten things up. I do clean the litterboxes twice a day, in the morning and then again after dinner and the kitchen clean-up. I vacuum about three times a week and dust once, sometimes I'll do another quick dusting if we're expecting company. Most of the time I'll do a quick swiffer and then about every two weeks, I actually dust. Kitchen floor is washed twice a week; it's white and everything shows up on that floor.

I usually do a couple loads of laundry on Wednesday nights. The main laundry is done over the weekend. Wednesday is also our trash night, so all the litterboxes are cleaned thoroughly and changed then. The fridge is cleaned out and washed down then, too.

I get up on Saturday mornings and fly through the house. The main vacuuming, dusting, bathroom cleaning, kitchen cleaning, laundry, etc. are all done then. I try to be finished by noon (keep in mind that I'm usually awake around 4:30 -5:00 in the morning because that's the latest the cats will let me sleep in). I change the bedsheets then, too, when DH gets out of bed. I'll wipe down the French doors in the kitchen and the living room windows......the cats leave trails of kitty schnoodle and I have to clean up after them.

Two or three times a year, I clean the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and any wooden furniture (like the kitchen hutch) with Murphy's oil soap, followed a quick rubdown with lemon oil. Usually in the fall, I'll wash down the walls in the kitchen and living room (the kitchen walls get dirty quickly b/c I'm not a neat cook by any stretch). About every four or five months I'll wash the bathrooms window and shower curtains. That's when I move the furniture around to clean well....we'll get the Bissell cleaner out and do the carpets and the furniture.

I do do spring and late fall cleaning, washing curtains or sending them out for dry cleaning.

I always say that our house is as clean as I can keep it. I do what I can. You wouldn't be able to eat off my floors.....but why would you want to?

Like some of the others said, I clean as I go. When I wash my hands I wipe down the sink and counter. I do the toilet 2 or 3 times a week when I'm in there anyway. I run the vacuum quickly around a couple times a week and do a more thoroughly vacuuming about once a month, i.e., baseboards, along the edge of the walls and between crevices like stove and fridge areas.

I do laundry whenever I need to since living alone I don't always have a full or even half a tub full of whites and colours every week but it's no problem since my washer and dryer are just here in my utility room which makes it easy to just pop a load in whenever I need it. I dust a couple times a week as well with the swiffer.

I just find it easier to quickly tidy up as I go and then I don't have any big cleanup. Rather than put dirty dishes in the sink, just put them in the dishwasher to begin with and they are out of sight.

Have a wastebasket beside your bed for your used tissues so they don't collect on your nightstand.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

My routine is to watch DH do it

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In my dreams .......

GOOGLE CALENDAR!!!!

I am telling you, I was the laziest worst procrastinator in the entire world, until I finally saw reason and signed up for the google calendar service.

Every day I am emailed my agenda, and I treat it as the word of God and obey the computer without question.

It reminds me when I need to replace the air, purifier, and water filters, wash cars, clean and refill the cat water fountains, clean the litterboxes and put in entirely fresh litter, reminds me when to vacuum, what workout routine to do, when to go bicycling, when to go on the treadmill and what routine, you name it!

All in all I'll just say that I try to be tidy, and I think the schedule really helps as doing a little bit everyday is so much easier than procrastinating and trying to tackle Mt Everest at once. For example, I HATE running even though I used to do track and cross country back in school. Well, one mile a day seven days a week is 7 miles. But if I had to run 7 miles on one day, or 14 miles at once every two weeks... I'd die.

I do certain chores on different days also. I don't do everything on one day and since I don't work outside the home I can do this. I don't specify which day I will do chores, I just do what has to be done.

Housekeeping!?

I'm not exactly a slob, just an unmotivated accumulator of miscellaneous items. Wait a minute, that makes me sound like a hoarder, doesn't it?

I do have a tiny routine---I get the laundry done over the weekend, I try to vacuum the beginning of the week. Boy, that really is a tiny routine, isn't it?

You have a former neat-freak here. Now with 8 cats living inside with me and my retired husband - I've given up - and the mess IS emotionally draining while I try to cope.

The only routine I have involves caring for the cats, their feeding, their loving, their litter, etc., by the time I've done the morning routine, the afternoon routine begins, then the evening.

Having my husband home and watching TV, playing games on the computer, or email is a real de-motivator. I'm looking for a bed right now.

Don't get me wrong about my husband - he's very supportive and helpful with the cats - it's just strange to me WHY having him here, and not puttering around the house doing things, is such an energy drain on me, I really don't understand it.

So, as for a schedule - I do things only when they need doing. Being retired is very strange, indeed.

Originally Posted by Feralvr

First of all, cool new siggy

. Yes, neat freak here!! But when it comes to kitty toys, they are all over the floor, everywhere. This is my motto: If you take it out, put it away. If it belongs in the garbage, put it in the garbage. If you are done with a dish or glass, put it in the sink or better yet, dishwasher. A dust buster is your best friend, the kind with the brush attachment

. Everything has it's place, put it there, organize. Ok, if you look in some of my closets

, you will see a bit of a mess. But out of sight, out of looking messy. Shoes in closets, clothes in the hamper. And do the laundry before the clothes bust out of the hamper. I don't have days strictly for cleaning like I used to. I just do a little each day to stay on top of it, that way I don't get overwhelmed with things piling up. I hate that

.

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I see we share the same ideas and methods about cleaning.

Originally Posted by GloriaJH

You have a former neat-freak here. Now with 8 cats living inside with me and my retired husband - I've given up - and the mess IS emotionally draining while I try to cope.

The only routine I have involves caring for the cats, their feeding, their loving, their litter, etc., by the time I've done the morning routine, the afternoon routine begins, then the evening.

Having my husband home and watching TV, playing games on the computer, or email is a real de-motivator. I'm looking for a bed right now.

Don't get me wrong about my husband - he's very supportive and helpful with the cats - it's just strange to me WHY having him here, and not puttering around the house doing things, is such an energy drain on me, I really don't understand it.

So, as for a schedule - I do things only when they need doing.

Being retired is very strange, indeed.

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Gary and I are Oscar and Felix, and Oscar won. I was a neat freak, and I'm very organized. Gary can never find anything - unless I found it first and put it away.

We're not retired, but we work from home... and Gary's medical situation means he works when he can, and I fill in the gaps and do everything else. It USED to be like Arlyn, and he'd do just about everything, including the cooking. It's payback, big time now. But with the 8 kitties... I'm lucky we're not living off primarily cat hair.

It's funny - the RV is not large. But it is not easy to clean. There are so many corners, surfaces, and hard to access places.

I keep the small cordless vac charged and use it on something at least once a day. I clean the counters as I go, and I keep the dishes done, and I do the entire kitchen area at least once a week. (Everything gets SO dusty around here so quickly). The bathroom - again, do the counter as I go, but remove everything from the surfaces and floor and clean it once a week. Gary does the shower, and we bleach the showerhead at least once a month.

The vacuum is a PIA to use in here. It's large, the space is small. And the electricity in the RV park sucks, so I can't run the vacuum and the air conditioner at the same time - so I can only vacuum when we don't need the air for at least an hour and when the electricity is good enough that I know I'm not ruining the vacuum cleaner. So given there's so little floor space...

I use one of those wire curry comb brushes on the carpet and cat trees! It takes me only a few minutes, and picks up so much hair it's not funny, and the little hand vac picks up any litter the cats have kicked out or any dirt we've tracked in. This I do daily, and it works like a charm. The vacuum I need for the walls, the ceiling, and the furniture. I've found that "dusting" just moves the dust around. And we've got several air filters - need the vacuum to clean those.

We also need to wash our walls, cabinets and ceilings FAR more frequently than we needed to in a house. The cabinets I try to get to every couple of weeks. The ceilings I can't comfortably get. Gary does those, and it's probably only about every 4 - 6 months now.

With 9 cats, every day is a cleaning routine!

I try to use it as extra exercise each night. I vacuum the stairs, downstairs floors, and sweep the kitchen floor every day. I also sweep the garage (where the litter boxes are kept, except the 1 in the house--for Marge. Don't worry--the cats are safe--we never park cars in the garage; it's a cat room). They make an awful litter mess there--it's as if a cat used a backhoe in the boxes! I also clean the kitchen up each day. I also change many of the litter boxes each day; the inside one gets changed at least twice a day. This involves removing the liners, and scrubbing the boxes out in the laundry sink (only used for litter boxes), drying them, and re-lining them. I keep 20+ empty boxes stacked up, ready to fill.

My main cleaning (ha-ha) is on Thursday & Friday nights: (I also do twice-yearly heavy cleaning, and in-between as needed--things such as doors, etc.):

1. Repeat paragraph #1, above, and add:

2. In addition to the downstairs sweep-a-thon, I need to vacuum the area rugs, and mop the laminate floor around them, and dust.

3. Clean 3 bathrooms: sink, mirror, tub/shower, toilet, vanity surfaces, sweep & mop the floors.

4. Dust and vac the master bedroom.

5. Dust, sweep, and mop the guest room (cats use it every day).

6. Landing: dust the bookcase and pictures; sweep and mop the laminate floor; disinfect the light switches.

7. Kitchen: wipe down appliances, clean sink and counters (this is also done daily). Sweep & mop floor.

8. Sweep laundry room, mop floor; wipe down washer & drier.

9. Dust foyer furniture, sweep and mop floor.

10. I usually do the laundry while doing this.

11. There must be other stuff I do, but I can't remember!

12. Collapse into bed around midnight, happy that the housework is "done" for "the weekend". Yeah, right. Don't I wish?

And people wonder why I don't have a social life...

Originally Posted by Ducman69

GOOGLE CALENDAR!!!!

I am telling you, I was the laziest worst procrastinator in the entire world, until I finally saw reason and signed up for the google calendar service.

Every day I am emailed my agenda, and I treat it as the word of God and obey the computer without question.

It reminds me when I need to replace the air, purifier, and water filters, wash cars, clean and refill the cat water fountains, clean the litterboxes and put in entirely fresh litter, reminds me when to vacuum, what workout routine to do, when to go bicycling, when to go on the treadmill and what routine, you name it!

All in all I'll just say that I try to be tidy, and I think the schedule really helps as doing a little bit everyday is so much easier than procrastinating and trying to tackle Mt Everest at once. For example, I HATE running even though I used to do track and cross country back in school. Well, one mile a day seven days a week is 7 miles. But if I had to run 7 miles on one day, or 14 miles at once every two weeks... I'd die.

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I'm gonna look at that! Can they email my kids to pick up their underwear, and do the dishes?

With 6 cats and 2 dogs, all inside, yeah, we have to have a routine.

FLOORS
DH uses the lightweight, electric vacuum throughout the week and then uses the Dyson at least once a week. We mop or steam vac once a week. Spot mop at the back door as needed from the dogs coming in and out.

Laundry
Trying to save electricity so I only do laundry at night so my schedule is:
Monday: Darks. Usually 2 loads.
Tuesday: Whites and towels
Wednesday: people bedding and animal bedding
Thursday: darks again.
Friday and Saturday, no laundry
Sunday: Anything laying around that didn't get done during the rest of the week

Dusting
I hate dusting. I don't do it nearly enough. DH is more likely to do it after vacuuming than I am to do it at all.

Pets
Wash cat/dog dishes daily
Scoop boxes twice a day
Pick up dog toys nightly (Abby, the puppy) loves to drag them all out in the am
Give medications
Clean cat tree once a week
Scoop yard 3 times a week
Brush all cats daily, some, multiple times a day as they are addicted to it

Kitchen
Wipe down counters daily
Load/unload dishwasher daily
Organize the amazing piles of paper that accumulate on the counter daily

Bathrooms
I wipe down my bathroom weekly. Usually on the weekend.

The animal chores take up most of my nights. By staying on top of the chores daily, it makes the weekend big clean go sooo much faster.

DF likes things hospital sterile and I like things functionally disorganized. We have a happy medium. Our house being so small that it only takes about 2 hours for a hard core cleaning which I spread out over the week. I have to do all the floors in one day so I will start from the kitchen and work my way to the back where the sweeper and mop are stored so I end up in the room and can just put them away. My dishes are done after dinner everynight with the exception of if we eat out because then we dont use dishes except for silverware and our coffee cups from the morning. Litter boxes are daily and the bathroom is wiped down every other day or if Im feeling frisky daily. Its hard to keep the sink clean since DF is always dirty and greasey from work.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

My routine is to watch DH do it

Click to expand...

I should adopt that one

I do a full clean on Saturdays and then just keep it up during the week I work so I do my washing each night dishes and kitchen each night floors I have lino so I dry mop before work during the week and loos and showers are done every other day before work it stays nice and clean and there all small jobs easy to do.