In need of some helpful tips to clean house
Moms View Message Board: Get Organized: In need of some helpful tips to clean house
Not fly lady either. Worked for awhile but.....
It seems to take forever if ever to get my house cleaned. I know there is a quicker easier way besides getting someone else to do it for you! I have 3 ds's and cannot keep up! Any advice?
Thanks.
I think the best advice is just do it. Everyday get up and do it. Make a list of what needs done that week and work on it, so either daily or once a week. As for bathrooms, when my were little I would clean them while they bathed. This was the best time saver for me!
Are your dk's old enough to help? Make them in charge of a certain area of the house, not just their rooms. When I was younger we were responsible for the kitchen, bathroom, & living room each week it changed (which child was responsible for which). My mom of course would do the major cleanning, but we dusted, dishes, & picked our assigned room for that week. Our bedrooms could look however we wanted , but all clean clothing had to put away, dirty clothing had to make it to the basket, & no food. We did have to clean it if we wanted company.
I know you don't like fly lady, but I do use her as sort of a guide (my shoes are not on). I take the zones & try to really do the deep down cleanning in those rooms. I wait to do supper dishes until the next morning, my dd room is right next to the kitchen.
Don't put many expectations on yourself, there is a difference between filth & messy. My dh helps on the weekends. He is also supposed to put away the laundry, take out the trash, & put the dishes away. Granted all but the trash I end up doing the majority of the time, but he does try, I am just quicker I think he does that on purpose.
Maybe my expectations are to high. My oldest ds is 13 and he does help. It just seems I get one job finished and cleaned and by the end of the day it is back to it's messy self. I guess I need to get things a little better organized. 
Well, it's a flylady theme, but just start throwing stuff away...better yet, give it away. Don't wait for a yard sell. Give them with joy, and joy will be returned to you.
My house is so much nicer now without so much clutter. I went closets, drawers, shelves...and just tossed it all away. Found several people in need of things and I felt so good after giving them away.
I clean the bathroom each morning with a quick spray and wipe up. I use whatever wash cloth is sitting in the bathroom and toss it into the washer area when I'm done.
Oh, and the washer area. Don't keep trying to keep your wash clothes and dish rags and towels clean enough to use again. Just keep grabbing a new one and clean up whatever messes are in the way, water spots, spilt coffee spots, drips from whatever. Then toss it into the laundry area. When you have a small load of ONLY dirty kitchen stuff, wash it in hot water and clorox. If you don't have enough rags and towels, go buy a bunch. Biggest time saver I ever made!
Plan to keep just one room in your house really clean. Eventually, you will spread to other rooms. It took me about 4 yrs for this to happen.
I am doing the fly thing again, but mostly just as reference. I do my own thing, but look at her site to see the zone and special mission.
I keep a set of cleaning wipes and toilet bowl cleaner in each of my bathrooms. Every day or every other day, depending on the traffic the bathroom gets, I just pop in and wipe down with Lysol or Clorox wipes and then do the mirrors and shower doors with glass wipes. Five min. and my bathrooms are always clean.
I vacume evey other day, so that it goes quick and I'm not trying to get up a week's worth of dust. Each week I focus on really cleaning a different room (moldings, baseboards, corners etc.)
I clean the kitchen counters afer I prep each meal and try to be neat as I cook.
Dishes do not go in the sink, they go directly to the dishwasher.
As far as clutter goes, I try to go through the mail each day and get rid of the junk right away, before it can pile up. I have file folders for my husband for stuff he might be interested in and for me. Also a folder of stuff we should look at together. Bills go in one spot.
I put magazines in baskest so they're that much closer to being recycled.
Also - a clorox mop or a wetjet are real timesavers! I love my clorox mop. I also use Armstrong Shinekeeper (put n a spray bottle and just spritz and wipe with a clean clorox mop pad) my floors shilne like I spend hours on them rather than minutes.
For hardwood, I use Bona Chemi, put into a second clorox mop.
I guess the best way to decsribe my cleaning is a lot of little licks saves you a huge job.
Ame
I think I will purchase some of these products and yes throw or give more stuff away.
Thanks!
I don't buy one cleanser for each surface in my house. I use a total of 2 cleaners- Comet for the tub, toilet, and sink, and for the kitchen sink, and (get this one!) I use automatic dish washer detergent to mop my floor in the kitchen! Okay, I have old linoleum, so I don't have to be real careful. But, it's cheap (store brand), it has bleach already in it, it's powder, and I dilute it in a bucket of water.
I also keep baby wipes for messy toilets, and I keep the towels and washcloths under the sink in the bathroom for quick access in case of water on the vanity counter. I faithfully use scrubber sponges to wash pots and pans, and when I scrub the bathroom, I grab whatever sponge I have in the kitchen, use it in the bathroom, and then throw it away (always clean the toilet last).
I find it takes 2 days for me to feel as though I have finally completed the housecleaning for another week. However, it is an ongoing project. Every day, I make sure the dishes are put away, either in the dishwasher or the cupboard, and the counters are clean. After all, we have to cook every day, and when the next meal needs to be fixed, you don't need a bunch of dirty dishes hanging around.
I also make sure that toys are picked up every day. This is where you get the kids to help. They don't have to be perfectly organized. I just don't want them all over the house.
I used to vacuum every other day because of dog hair. We have a yellow lab-airdale terrier mix, and her hair got to be 4 inches long on her mane, but then we had her shaved for the summer. She is 3, and this was the first time she had been shaved, and she loves it, too. Now, I don't have to vacuum more than once a week.
If you have a large house, housework can be overwhelming. If you are having difficulty feeling as though you are truly enjoying life, don't stress over it. I did that when I had an outside job to go to, and I was miserable. After all, when your kids are all grown up, do you want to be remembered as the mom who always had a clean house or as the mom who took time out to spend with her kids?
Oh, yeah and laundry. I used to do it every single day. PHPHPHPHLT!
We all have enough towels and underwear etc. to get through 7 days. So what if it takes all day to run the wash? I wait until it is almost all washed and dried until I start folding (be sure to take out any items that wrinkle easily), and in an hour to an hour and a half, I have an entire weeks' worth of laundry folded and put away. I watch my favorite soap while I fold, or I listen to talk radio, anything to break up the monotony of it.
I purchased several large tubs, the ones with rope handles, to sort the laundry out as the week progresses, so that by the time I do the wash, it's ready to throw in.
I do the same thing with laundry Lisa.
I just use laundry hampers(the big plastic ones to put the clean laundry in - get at target or walmart - I have 5 of them that stack). Clothing that can be worn outside(like tee shirts or pants) is draped off the side of the hampers so it won't wrinkle. I don't care if anything else is wrinked. I don't care if my socks or towels are wrinkled. I also put away laundry once a week. Sometimes I hang clothes up early and consolidate hampers.
Takes less then 15-20 minutes to put away 1 hamper of clothes.(Though it feels like forever) I put the tv on and zone out. Two hampers is enough work to put away at a time.
If I have alot of towels while putting clothes away, I put them in a seperate hamper and put those away when I got five minutes of energy.
Well, I don't have a great system down for my own cleaning (yet!), but I found something that really motivates the kids, which are a major source of stuff. We do 'chore points'. I just hand-drew a chart with little pictures of the chores (folded laundry, a made up bed, 'fed' fish etc.) so they could remember what to do (6dd,4ds). I bought a bunch of stickers, little candies, and a few small toys at the dollar store. For each 'point' they get a sticker on the chart. You can either give them prizes along the way (which I do because they're young), or accrue points and save up for something larger.
We usually do something like this:
1pt = sticker or tattoo, 3pts = 1 candy, 5pts = 'tiny toy' grab bag, 10pts = movie night with popcorn,...up to 20 or 30 points being a day-trip, which nobody goes on until everybody earns all their points.
I know your kids are older so you'd want to adjust it, but it WORKS! It's a twist on chores and allowance that makes it seem like more fun. My friend introduced me to it and she had 2 older girls (her chart was really simple - just words and pen - no drawings or stickers). It worked well for her because the girls could SEE the chart and they even got a little competative about it. The result was that she had a neat house and never had to argue with them about helping out!
As a bonus, I found that it cures the 'gimmes' in my kids and when they really want something they ASK what chores they can do!
I know it's not exactly cleaning advice, but it does help to have the kids working FOR you instead of against you! (LOL)
Rina that is a really good idea. I will have to try something like that for my 2 year old.
Thanks - it sounds complicated but it's honestly more of a help than a bother!
Hope it works for you!
-Rina
|
Members
