House cleaning advice?

[Laurelin]

Okay so I'm just bad at house cleaning and I swear every time I clean, the next couple days it gets just as bad. The past two and a half weeks I've had so much going on after work that I was really bad and put it all off. This afternoon is my 'house cleaning' time and Iw ant to get quite a bit done. and then maybe more tomorrow and Sunday afternoon.

But there's so much! I always seem to clean kind of scatterbrained a little here and a little there, and then get distracted. Then nothing really gets done, just little pieces. Not enough to make me feel like I accomplished anything. Is it best to go room by room and just do a thorough cleaning in each room?

I'm looking around and totally overwhelmed right now. I really need to figure out a method of cleaning that works for me. I'm just so so bad at it.

Do you have any tips to make cleaning more fun? I think I'm going to be cleaning for 3 days straight at this rate.

 

[ACooper]

Really, the best advice about cleaning is to organize things as simple as possible to KEEP organized. Generaly cleaning like vacuuming/dusting/scrubbing are what they are and won't change, LOL When most people say "cleaning" they normally mean picking up all the disorganized mess they've laid around.........so, STOP laying things around. Make things easy for you to toss them where they go the first time around

Do you have mail/papers piled somewhere? Put a basket/bin/tub as close to that spot as you can. You KNOW that's where you like to toss it, so keep it simple and work with what you know, LOL

Dirty clothes. Do you get dressed in a particular area? Bathroom....bedroom......whatever. Place the hamper/basket where you get changed to keep them off the floor. Doesn't matter if the hamper looks lovely in a certain place if it isn't being used! LOL

Etc Etc and on down the line. Look around at what the actual messes are, think of a way to avoid making that happen again..........and most important, work with what you already do and know!

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

Set yourself a schedule...Mon is bathroom, Tues. is kitchen, Wed. is bedroom...etc.
OR Mon is vacumming, Tues is laundry, Wed. is....
You get the idea. Once you get in sync, the actual clean up is minimal--but you focus on only a part of the house instead of the entire house.

 

[Kaydee]

Random hints-
A place for everything and everything back in it's place right after you use it.
Put on some music that gets you moving-dance music is great
Start in one corner and work your way around the room, one or two rooms a day or you'll go nutty.
Or if you like writing lists, write out stuff in detail, not clean the kitchen-mop the floor. clean the countertops and stove. Then you cross off and know you're accomplishing stuff.
Plan a list of chores you do every day on the same day

 

[Lyzelle]

I try to go room by room, at least do every room once a week. Except the laundry room. 'Cause that's never going to be organized in this house, without a dresser or anything.

I try to do dishes in a fell swoop. Same with laundry. I hate vacuuming, because we have stairs so I have to truck the vacuum up and down. Dishes are annoying, because we stay upstairs, so there's dishes all upstairs and it takes a dozen trips to get them back downstairs in the kitchen.

But mostly I focus on one thing and try to get THAT done THAT day. One goal per day seems to be a good schedule for me to keep up with. I don't do by days, because what if the laundry needs done on Tuesday that week, instead of the kitchen? Just pick something, a room or a chore, and focus only on that for the day.

I know personally, once I stray from that one goal...I'm gone. I just clean here, clean there, then I feel like I've been working ALL DAY....but I haven't gotten anything accomplished.

Cheap plastic organizers at Target help me with the clutterbug. I have a horrible habit of finding a place to put things (banister for example) and I shove EVERYTHING there. Or the desk. Or the bar in the kitchen. So I get those cheapy plastic things and put things in them. Does my house look like a plastic bin organizer warehouse? Maybe. But it's clean and mostly clutter free! Except I still have a horrible habit of shoving crap on TOP of them.

ETA: Daily routine! I like doing dishes in the morning when I'm already down there getting coffee and letting Zander out, for example. At night I throw away all the trash upstairs and organize. Things like that, that you can do as-is without deep cleaning.

 

[JessLough]

Do a series of 10 second clean ups?

 

[sassafras]

I try (try being the operative word) to do something like this... every time I move from one room to another, I scan around and see if there's some quick little thing that I can do at the same time. If I've had a snack in front of the TV and I get up to go to the bathroom, I take the dish to the kitchen at the same time. If I'm going upstairs to get something, is there something downstairs that needs to go up I can take at the same time?

If I try to say "oh I'm going to be organized and always put everything away when I'm done with it", I fail. My mind just doesn't work that way. But just always kind of looking for anything little thing I can do keeps things from getting too out of hand most of the time.

Alternatively, I just let clutter build up and then spend a whole **** day cleaning.

 

[Laurelin]

If I try to say "oh I'm going to be organized and always put everything away when I'm done with it", I fail. My mind just doesn't work that way. But just always kind of looking for anything little thing I can do keeps things from getting too out of hand most of the time.

Me too. :/ I fail at cleaning the house.

Right now I'm looking at needing to do a real 'cleaning' of every room. Pick it up, vacuum, mop, do the sheets, laundry, dust, sweep, yardwork. I'm like... Aaaaaahhhhhh!

Oh and I STILL need to empty out the boxes in my garage so that I can put my car in. I'm planning on doing those after vacation next week.

I think I'm going to pick 2 rooms to clean today and then just be done with it until tomorrow.

I think a lot is that I am a clutterbug and hang on to EVERYTHING plus this is a tiny house with not much storage room at all. I have too much stuff and it's everywhere. I use about a tenth of the things in my house though. I'm thinking it may be time to do a donation sweep.

 

[CaliTerp07]

I'm the opposite. I won't do anything during the week. I just won't. I'm so exhausted when I come home from work that even making dinner is an accomplishment. Soooo I do all my cleaning on Saturdays (save loading the dishwasher and/or washing dishes I want to reuse). I make a checklist during the week, and Saturday morning I start tackling it.

I'm fortunate in that I'm not really a messy person (and neither is DH). Straightening up takes maybe 20 minutes, and then vacuuming/mopping takes another 30. While I do that, DH will do laundry and strip sheets off the beds, and then he'll usually do outside stuff (mow the lawn) while I do dishes and dust. We're usually done with everything by lunch time.

I think the key to this is what other people have already stated...don't let the clutter get there in the first place. We ONLY eat in the kitchen or the family room right next to the kitchen, so dishes never end up in weird places. I grab the mail and sort it on the way from the mail box to the house, and dump junk mail in the recycle bin before I even get inside. Blankets are folded each evening before heading upstairs to bed, etc. Then the only real cleaning is cleaning, not straightening.

 

[sassafras]

The other thing I do when I'm feeling overwhelmed is say, "I'm going to clean room A and room B on Friday. Then Room C on Saturday. I'm going to do laundry on Monday morning." and so on. So any given day I don't spend the WHOLE day cleaning (which I HATE, what a waste of a day), but still get stuff done.

 

[CaliTerp07]

I think a lot is that I am a clutterbug and hang on to EVERYTHING plus this is a tiny house with not much storage room at all. I have too much stuff and it's everywhere. I use about a tenth of the things in my house though. I'm thinking it may be time to do a donation sweep.

Yeah, that makes a big difference. DH gets mad at me because I am constantly bugging him to clean his closet out and I make monthly trips to goodwill or post stuff on freecycle, but it makes it soooooo much easier to keep the house clean!

 

[Laurelin]

And the stuff in the garage. Obviously I don't need it because I haven't looked at it since october, when I moved. But I keep thinking there might be something worthwhile in the bottom of one of those boxes.

 

[Romy]

I tried a lot of different strategies, and then someone turned me on to this lady's website:

http://www.flylady.net/

Oh. My. Gosh. It's flippin amazing and now my house is shiny and clean all the time, despite all the kids and dogs doing messy stuff all the time. I like her slogans too, she says don't try to catch up. You're not behind, just start where you are. That by itself took a lot of stress out of cleaning and helped me actually focus on doing things.

The way she does it too is really logical. It took your house a long time to get messy, it's not going to clean up in a day or so without major burnouts and then you relapse and it becomes messy instantly.

Instead it's focused on building good routines and introducing new habits to prevent clutter from accumulating in the first place, and making sure stuff gets done. I love her program because it also allows for breaks and fun stuff.

 

[Bunny82]

I am a Flybaby and really recommend checking out the site and facebook page.

Flylady Bingo if you never played is awesome and productive. We play on facebook. Its been a while since I played since I am usually on a group that was spun off from flybabies.

You make a list of 6 tasks. Someone calls a number and you do that task for 15 minutes. Set your timer! If you finish early you can work on something else. If you dont finish before the time is up save it for later. After the 3rd number is called and completed you take a 15 minute break and then finish with numbers 4-6.

Numbers can be orderly or random depending on whose calling Oh and if rather not play online (it helps me with accountability to be reporting to someone and I like the support system) you can play on your own. Write down your numbers and grab a dice.

 

[swabby]

I love the alternate days, keeps me on schedule.

Alternatively, marry a guy 17 years older..who decides to be pedantic in his old age.


Works for me. :rofl1::rofl1::rofl1:

 

[mollygirl1975]

Definitely check out Flylady. It's totally free and she has wonderful ideas to help people stay organized.

 

[SoCrafty]

This used to happen to me but since I moved into my apartment in February, I found the best thing for me is to pick up after myself after I'm done. I also set an alarm on my iPhone when I first moved in. I set a daily alarm to make my bed, a weekly alarm to vacuum and a daily alarm to do my dishes. After about 3 weeks it was habit and I just remembered to do it.

That way on Saturdays when I am off I only have to do the basics, like bleaching my bathtub, clean the toilet, dust a little and I'm done.