I'm sure that none of you absolutely love to clean your house. I wish I did. I am just at one of those points where I just want to say f*** it, you might as well call "Hoarders" on me now. It's just so demoralizing. You bust your butt cleaning and five minutes later someone comes charging through the house with sandy sandbox feet, leaving a trail of dirty laundry and goldfish crumbs.
I used to be better at it, but I have noticed myself slipping a LOT lately when it comes to keeping up the house. I've maintained the bare minimum (enough laundry, dishes/kitchen counters every night, major spills/messes cleaned), but unless someone is coming over, I cannot seem to muster up the energy or desire to do much more. I really hate living in a dirty house, I do, but apparently not enough to motivate me to clean! I've also been really struggling with organization, way more than I used to. It's like I've developed adult ADD, if that were possible.
This is a problem because I have two little kids and obviously I want them to have a clean house to live in. I also know that it would make me a lot happier. Luckily I live way out in the country where I don't really have to worry about unexpected guests, but the thought of someone stopping by and seeing this place gives me the willies.
I have also recently started an online craft business and naturally have to spend a good amount of time working on that. The necessary supplies, while all contained to one area, are also creating a lot of disorganization and mess which only adds to the mayhem. I'm a stay at home mom so you'd think I'd be able to squeeze in some cleaning time...
We can't afford a housecleaner, my husband spends most of his off-work hours taking care of all of the outside chores (10 acres) as well as car maintenance, household repairs, caring for livestock, etc, so he doesn't do a whole lot inside besides take out the trash (and while some people would find that not okay, I'm okay with it because he works very hard at all that he does do and I'm not about to get outside and do any of the stuff he does). I do make my son pick up after himself to an extent, but I'd have to be a nazi drill sergeant all. day. long. if I wanted perfection - he's only five and he's a lot like Pig Pen from the Peanuts cartoon. Sometimes he actually has clouds of dust around him. Literally. My daughter is 2 and I have her help me pick up toys, but obviously there is a limit to what she's going to do as well.
So what do you do? Do you have a cleaning schedule? Have you attained a "zen" state and accepted the mess? Do you follow your family around with a trash bag and dustpan all day? The only strategy I've developed thus far is to invite someone over so I have to clean up. But I can't do that twice a week, we live too far from friends to make that feasible. And that doesn't help with cleaning the upstairs where no one sees. Anyway, this turned into a way longer post than I intended, but if you've got some advice, I'd love to hear it! Thanks in advance!
Hang up a sign that says, "My house was clean last week...sorry you missed it." And then be happy! =)
I make a schedule...I actually do it when it's written down so I can cross it off! I do a couple of rooms each day...it's not bad at all...I just have to do it!
It's a temporary state of affairs. Take pics to show to your kids when they grow up and wonder why their kids are so messy.
Keep life simple, dont panic. Keep it sanitary so no one can call cps on ya.. and let it ride.
M. Z, your first paragraph cracked me up...
What do I do? The livable minimum before company comes over. What does this look like?
Maintain the kitchen: dishes done twice a day, floor swept every two-three days.
Do one load of laundry each day. Fold and put away on Weds and Sat/Sun.
Tidy up bathroom every few days. Deep clean once a week (or two.... or three).
Once a month (or two) I insist on wonderful husband carrying the huge, heavy vac upstairs to our attic master bedroom so I can do a good cleanup. Once every few weeks we vacuum the ground floor: Kiddo's room, hall, bathroom, living room/dining room, kitchen.
Do I have magic, perfect advice? I don't think so. I spent from 11- 3 or so yesterday getting the ground floor 'deep clean' because we had company coming. My advice would be to drink a beer while vacuuming the many rooms (I do the walls and curtains too, during this time). My other advice would be to get your own great husband to take the kids out of the house so you can drink that beer while you dust and vac for the nearly 2 hours it takes.
Perhaps this is more rogue than what works for you, but it does work for us!
I hear ya!
Clean is a nice goal, but it can be difficult to keep up with - especially with small kids.
But you know what?
On the last day of my life as I look back over everything I did,
I can guarantee you I will NOT be saying "I should have cleaned more".
Truth: I didn't have an entirely clean house until we started moving. We had to pack about half our stuff into boxes to stage the house, and since then, cleaning has been a lot easier. Everything has a place, and there isn't clutter everywhere.
So I've had a couple of yard sales. And when we move to the new house, we plan to repack everything that doesn't have a place or that we don't use regularly. I love knick-knacks, so my house has always been cluttered even when it was mostly clean. No more. Instead of putting all my beloved knick-knacks out, I'm going to pack up most of them, and then cycle through them when I want a change.
In general, I just concluded that I have too much stuff. And I don't need it all. And yes, I might use those candlesticks some day, but not in the foreseeable future, so I'm not going to keep them. Stuff like that.
Additional tips - I only sweep once a day, and it's after the kids go to sleep. We pick up toys before bed, but clean the kitchen after the kids are asleep, too. We try to only tackle one other thing per day - scrubbing the bathroom, dusting the living room, etc.
Good luck!
Check out the flylady.net. I can't follow all the suggestions but she has great ideas. I hope to follow her holiday plan this year
I love love love to clean!
All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a SAHM/homemaker. I loved having the ability to have a nice clean, welcoming place for DH to come home to. I grew up having a SAHM and I just wanted to do the same. So when I became a mother, I was blessed enough to stay home with the kids. However when my kids started school and my SAHMothering days came to an end, I didn't want to go get a 9-5 job b/c I just didn't want to do anything else. So for the past year I have been cleaning and maintaining other people's homes and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! It just feels so good to be able to give these working mother's an opportunity to come home to a nice clean house and not have to worry about ANYTHING except being with their family! THE EXACT same with my own home. My husband doesn't have to worry about anything INSIDE the home when it comes to cleaning. The way I see it...he works 2 jobs so that our family of 4 can have a nice home and food on the table along with being able to participate in the extra stuff like sports, dates, family nights, etc. The least I can do is give him a place to "Hang His Hat" and sit and relax after being "ON" for hours and hours.
I will admit, since I've been working, my house doesn't get cleaned in detail as much as it used to...however, I still make sure certain things are taken care of like weekly bathroom cleanings, nightly kitchen cleanings, and I always always make sure my home is "company ready", meaning it is always picked up as if company just happens to drop in.
It just is great to look over and not see any clutter engulfing my kitchen table...or I can breathe easier b/c of the lack of dust...or my laundry not getting wrinkly b/c I'm too tired to put it away.
As far as my schedule, since my days during the week are mostly booked up, I make sure when I return home I do what I need to do before DH gets home in order for him to be comfortable...empty/fill dishwasher, vacuum (we have to big dogs that seriously shed...this is a daily chore), beds are made, etc. The weekends are reserved more for the deeper cleaning like dusting, bathrooms, mopping, laundry, etc.
The only thing I can advise you on is to just make it a priority to keep your house cleanliness up there close to the top of your list. Be a good role model to your kids b/c if they see you being a messy/dirty person, more than likely, they will become one too. Do it for your health since dust, dirt, and other nasty debris in the air can cause breathing and health issues. Do it for your husband since he works so hard maintaining everything outside...make the house presentable and welcoming for him after returning from all that hard work. And especially, DO IT FOR YOU!!! I know it's hard and exhausting and frustrating...but, once it's picked up and cleaned, it's MUCH MUCH easier to maintain as opposed to letting it go and then digging in to an even bigger mess. Also, at the end of the day, when you're in bed reading a book having a cup of tea, listening to some Enya, you can look out at your nice clean bedroom and just smile and enjoy!!!
I know exactly how you feel. I think I am finally getting a handle on it. First, I had to get organized. I found a system that finally got my pantry in order. I dumped stuff I wasn't using to clear out clutter and make room. I realized that the pile of papers I keep on our bar wasn't going anywhere, so I bought a pretty basket for them. It's still a pile of papers, but now it's tucked away in a pretty package.
I broke up the major cleaning into days of the week. Thursday is laundry day...that's my only chore. Fridays I deep clean the kitchen. Monday it's the bathrooms. It helps things get really cleaned without making me feel overwhelmed or like every second is spent cleaning.
When hubby is about the leave work he calls. The kids know that when Daddy calls, they have to clean up the toys (my kids are 3 and 6). They walk through the house and pick up random trash and things off the floor. It helps. After dinner my kids help clear the table. THey spend time with Daddy while I get he dishes done, counters wiped down and floors swept.
And I have also embraced parts of it. We don't clean on the weekends, other than obvious. I don't stress if I get busy and get off schedule once in a while. I don't obsess over it. Thankfully, I think I have found some order in the chaos. :) Good luck!
OMG! I had to wonder if I had somehow written this in my sleep! We have parallel lives: 2 kids (mine a little older), bare minimum, SAHM, craft business (you seem further ahead), no housecleaner, husband working a ton... can't wait to hear the answers, since I have none to offer!
Oh my! Flylady.net might be the best piece of advice I've ever gotten on mamapedia! Thanks!
Honestly, what motivates me is having pretty things. When we moved to this house, we didn't have much decoration, but I finally was able to financially get some things to make it pretty: new coffee table, curtains, plants, pictures, etc. I love keeping it clean now because it's pretty. I don't keep it perfect all the time, especially if we are busy, but for the most part, I do. And I recently bought a new vacuum cleaner and it's AWESOME, so our floors have never been cleaner! :)
We invite company over about once a month. That spurs everyone into a deep cleaning mode, and it seems to last for a good 2 weeks. After that point, it's managing major spills, letting the dogs clean up the crumbs, and quick vacum to keep up with the bad areas of dog hair in the meantime.
Frankly, it is a true wonder my house doesn't look worse than it does. I've seen our friends houses 'un-prepped' and I don't feel bad at all anymore. My kids are healthy. so it can't be that bad.
Yes, I have a cleaning schedule, and I fly lady.
I wash the floors on Sunday and Thursday, and vacuum 1 or 2 other times a week after dinner in the main areas as needing. I wipe down the bathroom every morning after the kids are done using it, and I deep cleaning it 1 day a week (usually on Sunday). I dust the bedrooms on Monday, and I vacuum the basement on Monday. I steam mop the basement as needed.
I spent about 60 minutes a day cleaning and my house is in mostly drop in condition.
CHeck out the fly lady.
Some things I've learned to do over the years are:
clean as you go.
clean or pick up one small area when you have 5-10 minutes rather than waiting til you have time to clean the whole room or house which never happens.
clean the one thing you see that bothers you. If one of the kitchen drawers i full of crumbs, I wipe it up right away but don't go looking in all the other drawers to see if they are dirty too.
the dustbuster is my friend. It's amazing how just sucking up the crumbs and cathairballs looks almost as good as getting out the real vaccuum and doing the whole floor.
Everyone has a different level of what they think is "clean". I guess mine is just lower. We both work full time, if I spent an hour a day cleaning, I would have to stop making/eating dinner during the week - there just isn't enough time in the day to do it all.
So here is our schedule: on Saturday mornings we clean: vacuum, mop, clean bathrooms and do laundry...the works, my husband helps as well.
During the week we only "pick up" (putting our toys and other stuff away, washing dishes) and I vacuum once mid-week, but only the upstairs where we spend most of our time.
My house is not "dirty", I don't mind having visitors over, I don't think our friends are uncomfortable in our home. You can tell that we live here though, it is not "spotless", if you come in the afternoon, there will be dishes waiting to be done, maybe crumbs on the table from earlier...it's a home not a hospital, so that's ok with me.
I didn't set out to have a schedule, but I've been home for 6 years now. At first doing childcare in my home full time, then homeschooling, and now with our two little guys. I do laundry and dishes daily (family of 7 so 2 loads of laundry and two dishwasher loads) I vacuum the living room every morning. That's it! Monday I dust (get a swiffer duster for each of the kids and let them help, it's not perfect but it is good enough) tuesday I vacuum the entire house, wednesday I mop, thursday I clean 1 bathroom and friday the other. Essentially the house is always clean, and the cleaning can be done in about 30 minutes.
My house has become near spotless.
50/50 custody.
One of the very, very few benefits of it.
WITH kids? ROFLMAO. Heck, I homeschooled for almost 5 years. I would spend a couple hours a day beating the mess back with a stick. Didn't make a noticeable difference, BUT every day I would:
Sweep & Mop the floors
Start a load of laundry
Clear off all flat surfaces (counters, tables, etc.)
Quick clean flat surfaces (spray cleaner)
- Grand total about 30 minutes -
1 room bottom to top every other day -90 minutes-
(more than 1 room every other day being too demoralizing)
Sheets/ Towels/ Duvets once a week
&
Imagine how much I would MISS my son and the entropy created in his wake when he grew up and moved out.
I make sure the main level is always neat and tidy. That way if someone comes in the front door, it looks great. No embarrassment.
The basement is a toy "free for all" and the upstairs bedrooms are hit and miss.
So far the world is still turning. The bathrooms and kitchen get cleaned practically every time I go in them. Little here, little there.
About a year ago, I made a list of every chore that I would do if I were to completely clean a room (i.e. dust, vacuum, wash sheets, clean windows, etc). Then I divided those individual chores as evenly as I could between 14 days. Yep. 14. I basically do half of a room each day. Some chores get repeated every week (like vacuuming our living room) but most are once every other week. Starting out, I didn't get to everything since I was basically playing catch up. I tried to make sure I got the big things done (vacuuming) and not worry too much if I don't get to the dusting. Eventually, I got all caught up and it's SO much easier to keep up with. HTH!
