Please help me with daily maintenance! How do you keep it up?

Scooter74

I find that once I start to let things go everything gets to be such a mess. I then do a huge cleaning of the house and promise myself I will be better at the daily maintenance of everything... ie: making the bed, doing laundry, putting clothes away nightly, eating healthy... I find that eventually I always start to slack off and again everything just goes to crap.... I am looking for how to motivate myself to keep up with these daily things! Any advice???

VTbride05

I give myself a goal everyday.... today was to dust and change the sheets. I usually try and get it done in the AM when Henry is happy to play by himself for a bit. I also try and do one thing after he goes to bed, change the trash, mop, etc. Then once a week I do all the laundry.

GL!

mavis3

I have the same problem so I'm not much help! But we have a condo and I still can't get things done! DS is 5 months and still needs to be held constantly so I just give in. I manage to get dishes done and put some things away, but when it comes to mopping and things like that, forget it!

ithadtobeyou

Ok these are the things I try to do daily. Every night after DS is asleep, I put in a load of laundry. When he is in his highchair eating breakfast I start that load. After he's done eating (every meal) I roll the highchair to the kitchen and let him watch me clean up after the meal and I also will wash bottles or do whatever needs to be done to keep it maintained in the kitchen. I sing songs to him while I do it if he is bored, or just talk to him. He actually loves it. Every late afternoon before DH comes home, I make a game of picking up the toys and whatever mess has accumulated during the day and again, sing a song about picking up. DS loves it!!! He helps now that he is older and can do that.

As far as major cleaning, I do that on wknds when DH can watch DS, especially vaccumming because DS is terrified of it, and it is a nightmare to do it while DS is around.

For eating healthy, I eat when DS eats. So I fix his food first, sit him in his chair and get him started and fix myself a plate. Usually of leftovers or a frozen lean cuisine, which I know is not as healthy as it could be, but better than not eating or eating something really bad for me. I usually will eat fruit with lunch and yogurt for dessert. For dinnertime, DH watches DS so I can cook healthy meals. (well, most nights..sometimes he works late and then I am not eating so healthy..)

Anyway you can do it. Just try to find ways to incorporate your little one into the plan and you will get it done.

cville-rn

Thanks to the ladies on this Board I now have a new system. I used to try to do a big cleaning day too but that was not working out for me. I usually couldn't get it all done at once and then the rest of the week the house was a wreck.

Now I do these every day: sweep, wipe the kitchen counters, clean the sink, feed cats, feed chickens, scoop litter box, do baby's laundry. I usually can do them while he naps for a bit, otherwise when DH gets home.

Then every day I assigned a bigger task like Tuesday I clean the bathroom,Wednesday is dusting, Friday is sterilizing bottles and pump parts, etc. 

So far it is working and DH commented how clean things are right now. Its nice to just have on big task to accomplish a day. Plus every day something is really clean, so even if the whole house isn't it still makes me feel better. 

citygirl_

I wake up, make the bed, make breakfast, vacuum, dust, and straighten up.  I do that every day.  I also give the bathroom a quick cleaning almost daily and keep on top of laundry (every 1 - 2 days, as needed).  I literally clean EVERY SINGLE DAY - I never take a day off and therefore, my hosue is never unmanagable!

citygirl_

Also, I mop 1 - 2x a week and do cleaning projects at least oncea  week.  Today, I plan to pull out the couch and vacuum it/behind it.  I do that about every 2 weeks.  Sometimes I organize closets or drawers.  Sometimes I do a deep cleaning of the kitchen (as needed).

aka.melisha

Here's how I manage it:

Every night (somewhere between dinner and going to bed), I run the dishwasher and wash any hand-wash dishes.  I also spend like 3 minutes picking up the living room (toys, dishes, etc.)

Every other day, I sweep the kitchen floor -- really, I should do this every day and I'm working on getting there...

Then, for the five weekdays, I spend 15 minutes in one room of the house and tackle that room's task.  I sat down once and wrote down everything that needed to happen to fully clean a room.  Then during my 15 minutes, I start at the top of the list and work down.  After 15 minutes, I quit and then the next week when it's that room's "turn", i pick up where I left off.  For example, Mondays is the living/dining room, Tuesday is the kitchen, Wednesday is the bathroom, Thursday is our bedroom, and Friday is DC's bedroom.  That way, I get weekends off :-)

I usually tackle that 15 focused minutes of cleaning during DC's nap.  I'm surprised how much I can get done...and I find that things not only stay picked up and cleaned, but more 'detail' cleaning gets done this way than when I used to tackle "cleaning the whole house".

 Just an idea that has worked for me that might help you out, too.

mandymack

You can do it, you just have to make yourself a daily/weekly plan and stick to it, no excuses! 

Things are so much easier for me now that Emily takes one long nap during the day (she's 2 years old) and can play without 100% constant supervision so, keep that in mind when you read my cleaning routine as I know it's harder when you have an infant that takes several short naps and requires you to almost always be in the same room with:

 

Every day while Emily is eating her breakfast, lunch and dinner in her highchair, I eat, clean up all the dishes/mess, wipe down the counters, wipe down the sink, sweep (you have to get a Swiffer Sweeper Vac!!!) and Mop (using my Swiffer Mop).  When Emily's done, I clean her off and get her down so she can go play.  This way, the kitchen is completely clean and really easy to take care of because I do it three times a day.

While she plays during the day (if we are at home), I use my Swiffer 360 Dusters (gotta LOVE Swiffer!!!) to dust the baseboards all around the house, the furniture and TVs, the photo frames, fireplace, built-ins, clocks, etc., etc.... I can do the whole house in about 20 minutes if I do it every other day because dust doesn't build up!  I also clean up the clutter (take shoes upstairs, hang up jackets, put toys back in their correct bins, place mail on desk etc.) throughout the day, rather than waiting until Emily goes down for her nap or at bedtime so that it's not so overwhelming!

During her 2-3 hour nap, I take time for ME - I don't do any cleaning/organizing, I just nap, check email, pay bills, Nest, shop online, update my blog, watch all my favorite DVR-ed shows, read, knot, scrapbook, etc.  I need a break, too and I am MUCH MORE PRODUCTIVE and happy during the rest of my day when I do this.

While Emily is in the tub every night, I use Lysol Wipes and wipe down the entire bathroom - toilet, counter, shelves, sink, mirror and I sweep & mop the floor.  I can keep my eye on her and the bathroom is clean every day, as it should be!

That's it, that's all I do!

On weekends, DH does all our laundry, sweeps & mops our Master Bedroom, changes the sheets and takes out all the trash (pick up is Monday mornings so, he puts the cans on the curb, too).  I do all our grocery/Target shopping and normally scrub the shower/tub.  I also use a hand-vac on our couch & chair/ottoman and shake out our rugs.  In total, it takes us both about 2 hours.