Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Things I Cleaned!


I thought I'd share more in detail about the things I do and how I manage to keep our home clean.  Some of you may be interested in this post and some may just want to skip it, no hurt feelings.  Housework is hardly exciting.  But it is a necessity and when you are busy like we are it doesn't take much for things to quickly get out of control.  Fortunately it doesn't take much to keep house either!

Sometimes I make it a party!

As I've share before I spend 15 minutes a day on concentrated housekeeping and I've been doing this for quite awhile now.  It really does work!  I have divided my home into zones and scheduled each zone for one day each week, including the laundry.  Then I spend 15 minutes a day working on that zone.  This is similar to the Fly Lady method, only I do daily zone cleaning and she does weekly zone cleaning.  And I don't do a "home blessing" hour on the weekends.  Mainly because I don't want to.  This is what I ended up doing in the last four weeks:

Sunday - Vacuum/Dust/Laundry

Week 1 - I vacuum and dusted the entire downstairs; 2 loads of laundry (clothes & winter coats)
Week 2 - I vacuumed the entire downstairs; 1 load of laundry; girls vacuumed/dusted upstairs
Week 3 - I vacuumed and dusted the entire downstairs; 1 load of laundry
Week 4 - I vacuumed and dusted the entire downstairs, 1 load of laundry; girls vacuum/dusted upstairs


Monday - Half Bath/Laundry Room (swish the bowl every other day; wipe down surfaces daily)

Week 1 - I cleaned mirrors & medicine cabinet
Week 2 - Cobwebs; washed walls, cleaned light fixture over sink
Week 3 -Wiped down washer/dryer & shelf
Week 4 - Scrubbed toilet & sink; washed down vanity (actually did this Tuesday morning)


Tuesday - Dining Room

Week 1 - Dusted shelves, wiped down cabinetry and artwork; spot mopped the tile floors
Week 2 - Washed the mini blind
Week 3 - Washed window and walls; spot mopped the tile floors
Week 4 - Cleaned ceiling fan, washed down table and chairs


Wednesday - Laundry

Week 1 - 1 load of laundry
Week 2 - 1 load of laundry
Week 3 - 1 load of laundry
Week 4 - 1 load of laundry; washed the artwork in the downstairs hallway

Magic erasers work really well to get smudges off the doors

Thursday - Kitchen/Entry Way

Week 1 - Wiped down all of the cabinetry
Week 2 - Cobwebs, washed the kitchen walls
Week 3 - Cleaned the doors; cobwebs, washed entry walls
Week 4 - Cleaned the appliances


Friday - Bedrooms

Week 1 - Dusted, light fixture; girls tidied up theirs
Week 2 - I did nothing in mine, girls tidied up theirs
Week 3 - I slacked off again; girls tidied up theirs
Week 4 - Cleaned my window & artwork; girls tidied up theirs

Yes, that is a pile of crap on the dryer!  I was decluttering and
this was my place to set things until I was done and took them out to
the garage where the collection bag is set up

Saturday - Upstairs Bathroom/Laundry

Week 1 - I did a load of laundry; girls cleaned the bathroom
Week 2 - I did a load of laundry; girls cleaned the bathroom
Week 3 - I did a load of laundry; oldest mopped the tile floors; youngest cleaned the bathroom
Week 4 - I did a load of laundry; oldest cleaned the bathroom; youngest had a different chore outside


My bedroom is rarely messy so I am able to skip some weeks and it gets vacuumed every Sunday regardless.  The girls work mostly on the weekends and often switch off chores depending on their schedules.  I focus most of my cleaning efforts on the weekdays and Sunday morning while they sleep in.


Sometimes our schedule is so tight I have to push a zone onto the next day and when this happens I will usually do the missed zone in the morning before I go to work or ahead of time if know a certain day is jam packed.  I try to stick to the schedule as much as possible though so I don't fall behind or get overwhelmed.


Every night we do a walk through and I'll spot mop the floors or grab the vacuum and give the carpet and floors a quick once over a couple times a week as needed.  We dump trash as needed, usually as part of our nightly kitchen routine after supper.  I'll go over our kitchen routine in another post later on.

I had all the stuff set our for dinner + our fruit pile
We really do live here!

This schedule really works and I feel like I actually clean more things more often so we manage to really stay on top of stuff.  For instance, I no longer wait to clean the ceiling fan in our dining room until it is thoroughly disgusting.  Now it gets cleaned once a month and it hardly seems dirty when I do it.  That's a big win!

My toilet brush sits in a soap solution
I change it out every week

I encourage you to map out your home by zones and give it a try.  For those of you with much larger houses 15 minutes may not be practical, but 30 minutes will be more than enough.  When you first get started you'll need to declutter your homes as you go.  My recommendation is to schedule an hour once a week devoted to decluttering.  Do this until you have made it all the way through your house and are comfortable with what you have.  For those of you with larger homes you may need to schedule an hour and a half.  Once you are done decluttering you'll only need about 15 minutes a week to walk through and maintain your decluttered house.

Make sure your chickens wipe their feet when they come in and yes
that is another pile of crap - another project I'm starting this month

If you have any questions let me know.  The idea here is to simply keep up on the housework and not become overwhelmed and enslaved to housekeeping.  Housework should not consume our lives.  The best part of this is that you always have a neat and tidy home and you don't have to be afraid of having company stop by.




14 comments:

  1. Great advice for sure. I am always amazed at what can be done in 15 minutes.

    What type of soapy solution do you use for your toilet brush?

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    1. I will be putting up a post about my bathroom routine and I'll be sharing more about that very soon. So look for that post!

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  2. YOu are so organized. Years ago I kept to a schedule with cleaning. Now I just make daily lists and do what I can that day. Whatever does not get done just moves to the next day. My hubby will look at my list on the days that I am having a flare and will pick a few items to do as tim allows.

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    1. We just do what we can, right? Sometimes I don't get stuff done and it gets pushed off and my girls help me out when I need it.

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  3. I love this schedule. I am unmotivated to make it through my house in one day like I used to. I am going to try to do something like this at my house. A little bit every day. Nannie

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  4. When I was in school, I cleaned the bathroom all week--sink one day, commode the next, tub the next. floors the next. I started over the next week. I cleaned house between semesters--hey, I was busy and it worked. The bedroom got one day a week where I did various things. The kitchen pretty much stayed clean because I was not cooking lots, but I cleaned up messes as I went. As for cleaning cobwebs, I just did them as I saw them and then had to clean all the ones in that room. Little dabs of cleaning gets it all done. I wasn't as organized as you are.

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure you did just great! It's hard when we have full schedules, so you just do what you can. :)

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  5. The nice thing is that your girls are learning all this and it just becomes a way of life for them. Life skills that most parents neglect to teach their kids. My boys were responsible for their laundry, rooms and picking up in the common areas (everyone including me picked up our own messes) from an early age. I never remember my mom "cleaning" yet the house was always clean - 750 square feet and 3 kids, mom, dad and a dog and cat. No clutter out or even hidden. She just did a bit of something everyday and still does that and she will be 79 this year. She kept to a routine /schedule. Good example. You are such a good example to your girls and they are way ahead of the game right now and really seem to be sweet super responsible young ladies. Good job mom!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Crystal. My parents were really good about teaching us important life skills. When we headed off on our own we knew how to cook, clean and even take care of our vehicles. Now I get to pass it along to my kids. Sounds like you had a great mom too!

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    2. Love your schedule.. I totally agree , keeping it done instead of waiting until everything is out of order, makes it so much more work.

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    3. I like not having to devote a whole weekend or even a day to housework.

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  6. We moved into a way bigger home this year so our family can visit and have a place to stay. I am noticing the size change on my cleaning schedule... but I have learned that it is the easiest to do a little bit each day. Makes me feel good to go to sleep at night with a clean home!

    When all 4 kids were home everyone had their responsibilities, too! To help keep the clutter down, everyone put their important papers at "their spots" on the dining room table. When it was supper time, all papers needed to be taken care of and moved off the table. Win Win for everyone. Then if they needed permission slips signed they put them at my spot, and I returned them to their spot...

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