How do you clean your house?

[lisateaches]

I have a Master's Degree...I am a teacher. I do not choose to spend my limited funds on a housekeeper, although it is tempting. I sweep less than needed. I'd say about 2-3 times a week. I cook, husband cleans dishes. He also does laundry. My dd and I get the bathroom clean. The four yr. old usually folds socks and towels. They take on more chores during the summer. I get dusting and mopping in about once every week. Less often if extremely busy. We share shopping.

 

[Patience]

I have a BA and a professional degree and my husband has a BS plus professional certifications. We used to have a cleaning service come in every other week but we now choose to only have one come in occasionally to do a deep clean (windows, blinds, baseboards, etc.). We hate clutter and tidy the house every night before bed so it's nice and neat for the next day. This only takes a few minutes. As for cleaning, we prefer to do one or two things each day rather than spend all day Saturday cleaning. So I will dust one day, swiffer the hardwoods a different day, and so forth. Laundry is done on the weekends and I usually leave bathrooms for Saturday.

 

[Southernmiss]

Hate to think of someone else cleaning my house. My standards are pretty high and I would probably clean behind them.

Laundry is done about 3 times per week-everyother day or so.

Thursday is my cleaning day. Kitchen is deep cleaned. Surfaces are dusted. Bathrooms are deep cleaned. Floors vacuumed and mopped. We are barefoot/sock feet people in the house, so floors don't get really gross.

Daily, I pick up the house and wipe down the kid's bathroom and kitchen counters with vinegar and water before leaving for work.

Dishes are done throughout the day. No dishes in sink when I leave and no new meal is started until the sink is clear. Kids rotate dish night.

Kids are responsible for their own bedrooms.

Each week I do at least 1 extra task-dusting baseboards, shampooing carpet or dusting ceiling fans and blinds depending on what I notice that needs to be done.

 

[snapppyd]

WOW, I really think you need to stop. Who really gives a cr*p how much you make, how big your house is, or how house cleaning is "beneath you". You may think you are the "princess", but you are sounding more like an arrogant, pompous (I don't want to say the last word I'm thinking because I don't want to be reported). This post was about how people clean their houses. If you don't clean your own house, then don't post. I think you wanted to post so that you could brag about your life. In your mind, you where probably thinking that everyone would be jealous of you. "Oh, you have such a big house, you make so much money, you are so lucky I wish I was you." <rolleyes>

My wife and I are college educated and make really good money and we do have a cleaner come in twice a month. This is not because cleaning is beneath us, it is because time issues. My wife and I work full time and we want more time to spend with the kids. We do our own cooking and laundry though. We have college educated friends that can afford a cleaner, but they choose to do the cleaning themselves.

Some people don't realize that others on these boards could "buy and sell them" and yet *we* never brag.

 

[clarkshel]

Some people don't realize that others on these boards could "buy and sell them" and yet *we* never brag.

Lol, so true. I really see no point in divulging this information to anyone. It should be private. I also think that if someone is bragging they are making this much money, then they most likely are stretching the truth quite a bit.

I'm also wonder where princess is hiding? She seemed to have disappeared when she didn't get the praise she was hoping to get. Lol. She must be swimming in a pool filled with all her money.

 

[prncess674]

Lol, so true. I really see no point in divulging this information to anyone. It should be private. I also think that if someone is bragging they are making this much money, then they most likely are stretching the truth quite a bit.

I'm also wonder where princess is hiding? She seemed to have disappeared when she didn't get the praise she was hoping to get. Lol. She must be swimming in a pool filled with all her money.

Or maybe i have a life and don't sit in front of a computer all day waiting for you guys to respond. I will formulate a response when I have time to respond with facts

 

[snapppyd]

Or maybe i have a life and don't sit in front of a computer all day waiting for you guys to respond. I will formulate a response when I have time to respond with facts

Classic!

 

[Disney Doll]

So what if you went to college and got a degree and part of your job involves cleaning? (People and the occasional medical instrument or floor if I spill something or body fluids fly...I am an RN).

Where does that put me? I went to college, but I'm cleaning....
Uh oh...Now we have a conundrum.

As far as the house, I try to pick up daily...I find that if it's not cluttered it looks OK. I use baskets or decorative boxes to control clutter...DH is a clutterer...his papers and stuff get spread all over the house so I have baskets in his "spots" and the stuff goes in there. That way it looks better and nothing gets lost.

I'm a wiper. I wipe counters, spots on floors, mirrors all the time.

Vacuum probably 1-2x/week. Used to be more when we had the dog, but without him dragging in all sorts of stuff from outside, it's not as frequent.

Dust...not enough. I hate dusting, so you will usually find my house to be somewhat dusty. Usually no one can write their name in it though.

Dishes....I throw those in the dishwasher and run it when it's full...usually 2-3x/week for the 2 of us. Dishes that need to be handwashed get done after dinner, air dry overnite and put away the next day. I have a double sink in the kitchen so one side for washing and one side for air dry.

Laundry...I do it any time of the day or night any day of the week. Basically when the hamper starts to look full, I say "Hmm...time to do the laundry".

Big cleaning or deep cleaning (like a Spring or Fall type cleaning) ...done in the Spring or Fall....move the big heavy furniture to get under it, clean the windows inside & out, de-clutter, wipe down kitchen cabinets & all baseboards with orange oil cleaner/wood refresher, wash the outside (vinyl siding)...you know...the REALLY BIG stuff.

I don't have particular days wen I do this, like "wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday" etc. I just do it as I have time.

Oh, and I don't iron. If something comes out of the dryer wrinkled, I wash it again and put it back in to see if it comes out better the 2nd time.

I will also say that if you come looking for dust in my house, you probably will find it...

 

[talulabelle]

We used to live in chaos all the time no matter how long I cleaned the house. SO I started looking at my friends who have those houses the OP described that are always company ready and I realized a couple things. 1. They spent very little time cleaning in a day. and 2. The reason they didn't have kids toys and crap scattered everywhere was not because the kids were really good about putting things way, it was becasue they didn't own the toys and crap to start with. Their kids played outside, played with pots and pans, played video games etc...but no plastic crap.

The reason for #1 (little time spent cleaning) was because unlike me who let it build and then spent all day cleaning, they just donlt let thier houses get dirty in the first place. They had fine tuned habits of wiping a handprint as it happened, putting something away rather than sitting it down. Wiping out a toothpaste coversink with a wash cloth and tossing it in the hamper...but they weren't getting out the disinfecting chemicals and doing a hard clean all the time.

I figured out I was being really OCD in my thinking that cleaning had to involve chemicals everytime. I so dreaded it...that I rarely did it...and the place was almost always dirty. It has taken me a long time to get really good at just not letting things get dirty to start with...but I'm doing pretty well. If I see dust under my dresser...I don't feel as though it has to be put off until I feel like getting out the heavy vacuum, and the damp mop nad doing hte whole room. I simply wiped it up with the shirt I just worked out in and toss it in the hamper. Done, room looks clean, I didn't really clean. I'm way happier now.

 

[NHdisneylover]

We used to live in chaos all the time no matter how long I cleaned the house. SO I started looking at my friends who have those houses the OP described that are always company ready and I realized a couple things. 1. They spent very little time cleaning in a day. and 2. The reason they didn't have kids toys and crap scattered everywhere was not because the kids were really good about putting things way, it was becasue they didn't own the toys and crap to start with. Their kids played outside, played with pots and pans, played video games etc...but no plastic crap.

The reason for #1 (little time spent cleaning) was because unlike me who let it build and then spent all day cleaning, they just donlt let thier houses get dirty in the first place. They had fine tuned habits of wiping a handprint as it happened, putting something away rather than sitting it down. Wiping out a toothpaste coversink with a wash cloth and tossing it in the hamper...but they weren't getting out the disinfecting chemicals and doing a hard clean all the time.

I figured out I was being really OCD in my thinking that cleaning had to involve chemicals everytime. I so dreaded it...that I rarely did it...and the place was almost always dirty. It has taken me a long time to get really good at just not letting things get dirty to start with...but I'm doing pretty well. If I see dust under my dresser...I don't feel as though it has to be put off until I feel like getting out the heavy vacuum, and the damp mop nad doing hte whole room. I simply wiped it up with the shirt I just worked out in and toss it in the hamper. Done, room looks clean, I didn't really clean. I'm way happier now.

You know--that kind of describes me--I guess that is what I meant by not having a schedule but just cleaning tings as needed.

I usually wipe down the bathroom for about 30 seconds whenever i am in there.
If I notice the coffee table looks dusty, I will grab the spray bottle next time I go in the kitchen for some water or something and spend a minute and dust all the surfaces in the living room. It really only takes a minute (okay, we have virtually no knick knacks ). If I see something on the floor, I grab the broom then and sweep for a minute--or grab a washcloth and wipe the area.
I VERY rarely spend more than 5 minutes at a time cleaning--and often less than a minute.

 

[Julylady]

I have a masters degree and (mostly) clean my own house. I usually wake up early on Sat and give the kitchen a good cleaning including moping the floors. I loosely follow Flylady's schedule of focusing on one area each week. For example, this week is bathrooms so I plan to clean bathroom drawers this week. I use her plan to clean the bathroom in about three minutes 2-3 times per week. I also do one load of laundry on Thursday morning and then another 2-3 loads on Sunday. I absolutely HATE vacuuming so I bartered with my sis in law to vacuum my house each week. She cleans houses for a living and always has her vacuum in the car. She also cleans my window blinds for me. I also make a point of decluttering each night so the house always looks in order. I do a winter cleaning rather than spring cleaning. I seem to have more weekend time in the winter since I am not into winter sports. I keep a running list of things I want to get done.

 

[punkin]

We used to live in chaos all the time no matter how long I cleaned the house. SO I started looking at my friends who have those houses the OP described that are always company ready and I realized a couple things. 1. They spent very little time cleaning in a day. and 2. The reason they didn't have kids toys and crap scattered everywhere was not because the kids were really good about putting things way, it was becasue they didn't own the toys and crap to start with. Their kids played outside, played with pots and pans, played video games etc...but no plastic crap.

The reason for #1 (little time spent cleaning) was because unlike me who let it build and then spent all day cleaning, they just donlt let thier houses get dirty in the first place. They had fine tuned habits of wiping a handprint as it happened, putting something away rather than sitting it down. Wiping out a toothpaste coversink with a wash cloth and tossing it in the hamper...but they weren't getting out the disinfecting chemicals and doing a hard clean all the time.

I figured out I was being really OCD in my thinking that cleaning had to involve chemicals everytime. I so dreaded it...that I rarely did it...and the place was almost always dirty. It has taken me a long time to get really good at just not letting things get dirty to start with...but I'm doing pretty well. If I see dust under my dresser...I don't feel as though it has to be put off until I feel like getting out the heavy vacuum, and the damp mop nad doing hte whole room. I simply wiped it up with the shirt I just worked out in and toss it in the hamper. Done, room looks clean, I didn't really clean. I'm way happier now.

I am not naturally a neat person, but I find it difficult to live among dirt and clutter because I was raised in an extremely clean house. Both my mother and grandmother had houses that were company ready almost all the time (and they both worked) but they were not OCD about cleaning. They just put everything away and constantly tidied as you have described. I try to do the same with a twice a year deep cleaning.

My husband's mother, OTOH, kept a horrible house and he thinks nothing of leaving whatever he is using wherever he last used it. He also doesn't care if the house has 3 inches of dust all over and dog hair in every corner. So I and (in the past several years since they are old enough) my girls are either yelling at him to pick up after himself or just picking his stuff up. He gets (very occasionally) the urge to clean and just deep cleans everything with heavy chemicals (which he proceeds to leave out).

 

[Sorsha]

So what if you went to college and got a degree and part of your job involves cleaning? (People and the occasional medical instrument or floor if I spill something or body fluids fly...I am an RN).

Where does that put me? I went to college, but I'm cleaning....
Uh oh...Now we have a conundrum.

As far as the house, I try to pick up daily...I find that if it's not cluttered it looks OK. I use baskets or decorative boxes to control clutter...DH is a clutterer...his papers and stuff get spread all over the house so I have baskets in his "spots" and the stuff goes in there. That way it looks better and nothing gets lost.

I'm a wiper. I wipe counters, spots on floors, mirrors all the time.

Vacuum probably 1-2x/week. Used to be more when we had the dog, but without him dragging in all sorts of stuff from outside, it's not as frequent.

Dust...not enough. I hate dusting, so you will usually find my house to be somewhat dusty. Usually no one can write their name in it though.

Dishes....I throw those in the dishwasher and run it when it's full...usually 2-3x/week for the 2 of us. Dishes that need to be handwashed get done after dinner, air dry overnite and put away the next day. I have a double sink in the kitchen so one side for washing and one side for air dry.

Laundry...I do it any time of the day or night any day of the week. Basically when the hamper starts to look full, I say "Hmm...time to do the laundry".

Big cleaning or deep cleaning (like a Spring or Fall type cleaning) ...done in the Spring or Fall....move the big heavy furniture to get under it, clean the windows inside & out, de-clutter, wipe down kitchen cabinets & all baseboards with orange oil cleaner/wood refresher, wash the outside (vinyl siding)...you know...the REALLY BIG stuff.

I don't have particular days wen I do this, like "wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday" etc. I just do it as I have time.

Oh, and I don't iron. If something comes out of the dryer wrinkled, I wash it again and put it back in to see if it comes out better the 2nd time.

I will also say that if you come looking for dust in my house, you probably will find it...

I could have written this post with just a few minor changes. (One of them being that I am NOT an RN )

I don't vacuum, because we have no carpets in the entire house, but I do sweep/Swiffer a few times a week. Dog sheds a lot, and if I wait too long it looks like I could craft a new dog out the amount of hair I sweep up.

Dishes get washed every day, and I have to do a LOT more laundry, but that's because there are 5 of us and DH works in a "dirty" job.

I am a constant de-clutterer as well - can't stand it when people pile things all over - and also a "wiper"; I should probably buy stock in those Clorox disposable wipes thingies (I like the lemon scented ones! )

Bathrooms get cleaned once a week, and once a month or so things get a "deep cleaning" - whenever we all have time to help out and do it together, because I am NOT doing it alone.

Like you, I don't dust nearly as often as I should - in fact I was just looking up at the ceiling fan blades and thinking it was about time to do something about that - ick. And I also NEVER iron - I don't even own an ironing board, and my iron only gets used for quilting/crafting. If something is wrinkly, it goes back in the dryer or washer, and we own a lot of non-wrinkling clothes.

I am firm believer in that sign you always see that says something along the lines of "20 years from now my kids won't remember if the house was perfectly clean, but they will remember the times we spent together."

 

[clarkshel]

Or maybe i have a life and don't sit in front of a computer all day waiting for you guys to respond. I will formulate a response when I have time to respond with facts

I am also wondering if you even type your own responses? Might break a nail doing so. Princesses don't like broken nails. Lol. So does your house cleaner also type for you, or is this someone else you hired? Sound like you are rolling in the money. Seems I me that typing would also be beneath you. <confused>

 

[disykat]

We used to live in chaos all the time no matter how long I cleaned the house. SO I started looking at my friends who have those houses the OP described that are always company ready and I realized a couple things. 1. They spent very little time cleaning in a day. and 2. The reason they didn't have kids toys and crap scattered everywhere was not because the kids were really good about putting things way, it was becasue they didn't own the toys and crap to start with. Their kids played outside, played with pots and pans, played video games etc...but no plastic crap.

The reason for #1 (little time spent cleaning) was because unlike me who let it build and then spent all day cleaning, they just donlt let thier houses get dirty in the first place. They had fine tuned habits of wiping a handprint as it happened, putting something away rather than sitting it down. Wiping out a toothpaste coversink with a wash cloth and tossing it in the hamper...but they weren't getting out the disinfecting chemicals and doing a hard clean all the time.

I figured out I was being really OCD in my thinking that cleaning had to involve chemicals everytime. I so dreaded it...that I rarely did it...and the place was almost always dirty. It has taken me a long time to get really good at just not letting things get dirty to start with...but I'm doing pretty well. If I see dust under my dresser...I don't feel as though it has to be put off until I feel like getting out the heavy vacuum, and the damp mop nad doing hte whole room. I simply wiped it up with the shirt I just worked out in and toss it in the hamper. Done, room looks clean, I didn't really clean. I'm way happier now.

Great post! People are always telling me my house is so clean and I'm always surprised that people think so because I feel like I rarely clean. I DO keep things tidy though as I go along though. When I do get around to cleaning, it takes me less than two hours to do a pretty good job of it because eveything is already in it's place.

 

[disneymarie]

I try to do the flylady.com stuff. She gives you a handle on a routine that you customize for you to hit all the highlights, then work on those areas that otherwise might not see the light of day.

I like her, because she starts you off in small babysteps, and it's up to you to move forward.

She uses "zones" and missions of the day, etc. Unfortunately time on the disboards isn't covered....

I like fly lady too.... all I need it physical help and time.

 

[dawnball]

Badly?

Really, my house is usually fairly decent. I got injured and the house was the easiest thing to let slide. So on Tuesday someone will come and give the place a deep cleaning - then it'll be up to me to keep it clean from day to day again. The doctors keep telling me "6 more months before you're back to normal" - but they've been telling me that for four months now, so I'll probably plan to have a housekeeping crew come in about quarterly to get all the stuff I just can't.

I don't do well with flylady - she just annoys me. Instead I keep lists. I'm not allowed to do much at a time, so I have incredibly detailed lists, sometimes with reminders about what the workaround is. When I have a few minutes, I take my list into a room, pick something that hasn't been done yet that week and do it. If I can do more, I do. If I can't, I give myself credit for doing -something-, or for trying if I didn't manage to do the first thing before my body gave out. When I notice things that need doing that aren't on my list, they go on the list. Things that are hard for me to do get put on the list in bold. If my husband has a few minutes, he can look at the list and do something that's in bold.

So far, it's kept the house from being filthy. Hopefully it can keep the house reasonably clean between deep cleanings. If not, I'll just give up and let someone come to help out more frequently.