Tips/ideas for keeping my new home clean

[CandCMommy]

DH and I just purchased our first home together. When we moved in, the house was immaculately clean and I would love to keep it that way. Trouble is I work 3 or 4 days a week and by the time I get home from work and dinner done and play with the boys for a while there isn't enough time left to clean. I'm looking for tips and ideas from those of you that keep your house clean and how you do it. Do you set aside an hour or half hour every day to clean? Do you clean a room a night? What do you do? If it helps I have a family room, kitchen, living room, dining room, 3 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, a garage-plus the outside landscaping and such. I would love to hear your ideas or schedules that you may have.

Last night as I was meticulously cleaning the tile floor and stressing about keeping the house clean I realized I needed to come to you folks for advice. Thanks!

 

[dizluvah]

Congrats on your first home! I clean kitchen daily (dishes, counters, etc) but Kitchen floor & bathroom floors I swiffer twice a week and wash/mop once a week. I clean the bathroom weekly. Laundry I do as needed, couple times a week I toss in a load so it never gets too out of hand. Bedroom doesn't tend to get dirty - i have hubby trained to put dirty clothes in the hamper (took me years to get him to that) and frankly I rarely make the bed

Living room seems to be my downfall - seems like there is always something cluttering it up - shoes left by the door or mail on the table, etc.

You will find a system that works for you, try not to sweat it so much.

 

[jaminmd]

I can't clean on a schedule even though I'm a very organized person. I find keeping up with the daily clutter works well for me. I go through the mail as soon as I bring it in & throw the majority of it in the recycling bin (after I check to make sure that nothing is stuck in it).

When we come home, shoes get put away, coats hung up, etc. Bathrooms get wiped down daily, such as the sink & counter. I don't like that gunk that develops around the faucet so I wipe it up with the old towel & take out a new one.

It's just little things like that that help. I used to think I had to keep my home showroom new. Why? Because that is the way I was raised. Now I'm much more relaxed but still have a clean home. I don't like clutter, so I don't have a lot of knick knacks.

Plus, my home looks immaculate compared to some of my neighbors, lol. Now, dusting is another story. I hate that with a passion & do it as infrequently as I can get away with!

 

[Tuffcookie]

Focus on the kitchen and livingroom. That way if company comes unexpectedly, the livingroom is clean. As time allows on the weekends you can do the other rooms.

Congrats on your new home!

TC

 

[luvavacation]

I don't really have any advice, just a warning to not do what I did!

When our previous home was for sale, I cleaned every single day so it would look spotless. The house was on the market for quite awhile, and I managed to burn out from cleaning so much. With the market being so bad, I thought if I kept my house cleaner than the other homes people walked through, it would sell faster, but it took longer than I really wished it would!

When we moved from that home into our new home, I did not clean for a very long time. The house was so clean to begin with, no soap scum, no marks on the floors or walls, bright shiny fixtures, no prints on window, that I just sat back and enjoyed the cleanliness! Then one day, it hit me - soap scum in the shower! Fingerprints on the walls! Floors that were dirty! I had to clean again, and clean a lot thanks to being so lazy about it at first.

It was nice while it lasted, but if I ever buy another newly built, spotless home, I think I will at least try to keep up on the cleaning so I am not suddenly hit with an awful mess of a home. That is the only word of advice I have!

Or I will just keep buying new homes and moving every month, that might work too.

 

[mickeyboat]

Picking up clutter from your main living areas really helps. I do this daily and never leave a room without checking to see if there is something that needs to be taken with me.

I keep the downstairs (kitchen, bathroom, dining room, living room and mudroom fairly clean, in case company stops by. I do dishes and clean countertops after every meal. Laundry gets done daily.

The bedrooms and playroom upstairs are usually only really cleaned well when someone comes to stay with us. I use the playroom as a catch-all for all the kids' stuff that needs to be put away.

The house gets cleaned well - bathrooms, floors, dusting, kitchen every week. Sometimes if things get bad during the week, I will clean them up a bit, but the main cleaning takes about 2 hours on Saturday mornings.

ETA - luvvacation has a good point. Keep up with the cleaning or it will get out of hand quickly. I make sure to dust my baseboards every week to keep gunk from building up. I walk through the house every once in a while with a magic eraser to clean up scuff marks and fingerprints. Makes the house look a lot cleaner and newer.

It may take a little while, but you will develop a system. I have a friend who likes to do one room every day, but I prefer to have the entire house done at once at least once a week.

 

[dec5girl]

I have taken a few ideas from the flylady. I think it is www.flylady.net. She has some ideas that don't pertain to me and some ideas that I do not like at all. But some of that has really helped me to keep order while working.

Be aware, if you sign up for her emails you will get them all day long. She's like: Where is your laundry? Did you plan dinner yet? Are you wearing shoes? Is your kitchen sink really shiny?

I prefer to read her website, but not get the emails.

 

[Imzadi]

Last night as I was meticulously cleaning the tile floor and stressing about keeping the house clean I realized I needed to come to you folks for advice. Thanks!

There is a big difference in cleaning sufficiently for the job versus surgically cleaning so doctors can operate. Unless you have an infant that crawls all over the tile floor, stop stressing. You'll just end up burning out and then will rebel against your own standards youset and not do much of anything after a while.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Everyone pitches in together! After 20yrs that is my secret weapon. When they have to pitch in all the time they tend to put their stuff away before I bug them.

My sister is a little OCD on her cleaning and she has schedules/routines she follows to keep herself from going crazy.

 

[Disney Doll]

Keep clutter at bay. If you do that, your house will always look OK.

If your bedrooms are upstairs and guests won't really see them, I wouldn't stress about them too much.

Throw things out. If you have to think about whether you need something or not, you don't need it. If it's purpose in your life isn't immediately clear, then you don't need it.

Don't accumulate a lot of knick-knacks. Don't collect anything...collections always get out of hand.

Don't pile things (mail, magazines etc.) up. Deal with stuff immediately. Open your mail over the garbage or recycl;e bin and have a spot where you put bills that need to be paid.

I generally do all of the "same" kind of cleaning at once. If I am dusting, I dust the whole house. If I am vacuuming, I vacuum the whole house. All the floors get washed at the same time, all the bathrooms get cleaned at the same time.The room by room methiod never worked for me.

Once a year I do a really, really good cleaning...taking down venetian blinds and curatins and washing them (vacuum and dust throughout the rest of the year), getting down and oiling the baseboards, washing the kitchen cabinets etc. I use ornage oil on all woodwork and cabinets. makes em shine,s mells nice and adds a little moisture to them so they aren't dried up.

Don't get too crazy with a million different cleaners for each type of cleaning. I do my entire house with basically bleach spray (bathrooms), window cleaner, orange oil, cleanser. I like the Magic Eraser for scuffs.

 

[CandCMommy]

I don't really have any advice, just a warning to not do what I did!

When our previous home was for sale, I cleaned every single day so it would look spotless. The house was on the market for quite awhile, and I managed to burn out from cleaning so much. With the market being so bad, I thought if I kept my house cleaner than the other homes people walked through, it would sell faster, but it took longer than I really wished it would!

When we moved from that home into our new home, I did not clean for a very long time. The house was so clean to begin with, no soap scum, no marks on the floors or walls, bright shiny fixtures, no prints on window, that I just sat back and enjoyed the cleanliness! Then one day, it hit me - soap scum in the shower! Fingerprints on the walls! Floors that were dirty! I had to clean again, and clean a lot thanks to being so lazy about it at first.

It was nice while it lasted, but if I ever buy another newly built, spotless home, I think I will at least try to keep up on the cleaning so I am not suddenly hit with an awful mess of a home. That is the only word of advice I have!

Or I will just keep buying new homes and moving every month, that might work too.

This is exactly what I do NOT want to happen so thanks for sharing that! After moving out of our old place and now going back to clean it up I wonder how in the world did I ever let our house get so dirty. Never ever will I let this happen again that is for sure.

Thanks for all the tips guys, they've been very helpful!

Mickeyboat, how exactly do you dust the baseboards? Do you get down on your hands and knees and wipe them off or what? This is one of the places that I apparently did not do such a good job with on our last house.

Also, what do you all use to keep your showers clean? I've been using Arm & Hammer after shower cleaner and spraying it down after I'm done with my shower each day. Do you know if this is sufficient enough to keep the shower clean or do I need to do more? We have really hard water here but our house has a water softner so hopefully that will keep the lime and stuff at bay.

 

[mickeyboat]

Mickeyboat, how exactly do you dust the baseboards? Do you get down on your hands and knees and wipe them off or what? This is one of the places that I apparently did not do such a good job with on our last house.

I use a swiffer duster - with no dusting spray or anything. I don't need to get on my hands an knees. Sometimes I even have the kids do it. Our baseboards are painted with a semi-"shiny" finish (I don't know what it's called - eggshell, semi-gloss?). If I do it every week, the gunk doesn't build up - except in the bathrooms where I use hairspray.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

Might be too late, but my tip is surfaces & paint colors that don't show that its dirty. Not a fan of white painted baseboards & doors. Over time, any space or crack just gets filled with any grunge when you clean making it look dirty. We prefer wood stained baseboards & doors for this reason. They still look new years after white painted ones do.

Same for light colored floors or cabinets.
And who ever invented the black furniture craze must also sell dusting equipment.