Cleaning schedule

kleigh926 · February 2014

My mom is a neat freak and her house always looks immaculate. I also have high standards for keeping a clean house, but sometimes I think I get too worried about it. I don't really care what other people's houses look like (as long as they're not totally disgusting), I just get stressed out if my house isn't clean and if I don't stick to my cleaning schedule. So, I was just wondering out of curiosity- what does your cleaning schedule look like? How often do you do the following things? I'm hoping this will help me calm down if I miss a day or don't feel like doing something every once in awhile.

Clean the bathroom

Clean the kitchen

Dusting

Vacuuming/mopping the floors

Dishes

Laundry

Anything else you do on a regular basis

kelly321 · February 2014

)

::wipes tears from eyes, sniffs::

Ok, now in all seriousness:

Clean the kitchen: As in, pick up? Every evening because it looks like a bomb went off in there every night, even if I only made frozen pizza for lunch. As in, really clean? Does it count when the DDs spill stuff and I wipe it up? Then, daily. Otherwise? I'm not going to release that information.

Vacuuming: Pretty frequently - like once every other day - because they make so many crumbs it's unbelievable.

Dishes: Daily in the dishwasher, on bad days 2 loads.

Laundry: Depends on the week and how many times DD2's diaper leaks in the night. Anywhere from 2 loads / week to 6 loads / week. Although right now a load is in the washer that has been there since... um... Sunday? oops. I need to get on that.

kleigh926 · February 2014

Clean the bathroom: Once a week

Clean the kitchen: I don't necessarily "clean" my kitchen that often. I wipe down the counters several times a day, and I wipe down the stove after I'm done cooking. Every once in awhile I'll give my sink a good cleaning and wash the stove burners. I also wipe down my fridge occasionally, but I'm talking like, twice a year (unless there's a spill).

Dusting: Once a week

Vacuuming/mopping the floors: I mop once a week and vacuum twice a week at the very least. Often times our laundry room and kitchen need vacuumed more often due to tracking in dirt from the back door and the cats tracking litter outside their box.

Dishes: Every day

Laundry: Twice a week (2 loads at a time, so 4 loads per week)

Meggiemuggins · February 2014

DH cleans the kitchen, usually every night after I go to bed (though last night he didn't, for some reason, and it's a disaster. Sigh).
Bathroom - I do the bathroom, but I must admit that I've been slacking lately. It's not gross, just a little dusty.
Dishes: I'm constantly loading the dishwasher, it's run at least once a day, usually at night.
Laundry: One day per week I do a blitz of however many loads, sometimes only 3, but sometimes more.
Floors: Oh my, I've been slacking here, too. The kitchen gets wiped frequently due to spills, but the rest of the house needs a good Swiffer (hardwood throughout, so no vacuuming).

Puck1182 · February 2014

Clean the bathroom: I aim for once a week, but if it's not too bad I might skip a week on "real" cleaning and just wipe everything down.
Clean the kitchen: This is mostly daily maintenance. I clean up after we're done cooking or eating. If I have free time and things are getting cluttered, I will organize cabinets and clean out the fridge.
Dusting: Usually weekly. This month I was gross. So much has been going on that it's been close to three weeks since I dusted and it's driving me nuuuuuuts. I am determined to do it this weekend!!
Vacuuming/mopping the floors: once or twice a week, depending on whether they get visibly dirty before one week is up.
Dishes: probably run the dishwasher twice a week. Non-dishwasher items are washed daily.
Laundry: Between diapers, clothes, sheets, and towels? Probably daily. At least every other day. But I only do one or two loads at a time. I don't like to let it pile up.

SidraJedi · February 2014

Bathroom: Once a week
Kitchen: Once a day, except the floors which are swept once a day but cleaned/mopped once a week
Dusting: Hardly ever. When I see a layer of filth while I'm doing something else
Floors: All hardwood and linoleum. Sweep all rooms every day, mop/clean once a week
Dishes: at least once a day
Laundry: Once a week. I used to do three times a week when we were all CD, but since we just do the cloth wipes and they seem to be fine with once a week, that's what I do.

Also, all rooms and the front steps/porch/outside get organized once a month (sometimes a room will be broken up over two days, but if I keep up on it it only takes an hour or two) and each car gets cleaned out once a month and washed with each oil change. We go through our clothes and edit each season, except obviously DD is more often than that. My husband has a seperated room where he brews kombucha beer and mead and I let him worry about that, though I usually do his brewing dishes.

That's it.

ETA: we're in an apartment so that edits our outside chores quite a bit.
ETA: I change the bed sheets 2-3 times a week but make the bed daily.

wifeofadam · February 2014

I'm seriously the world's worst housekeeper. I hate cleaning. Hate it. And between laundry, homeschool, working two days a week, cooking, gardening, and the kids' activities - I don't have the time or energy to clean. This is why I decided last December to hire a lady to come clean for me. She does three hours every other week and handles my bathrooms and kitchen for us. She charges $10/hr, so it's only $60/month - best money I ever spent. I am very frugal and save in other places, which is allowing me to splurge on this one thing for myself!! And darn it, I deserve it

Clean the bathroom - it gets done every other week, by the cleaning lady. I will scrub out a toilet, wipe a mirror, or clean a sink, as needed when the kids make messes.

Clean the kitchen - deep cleaning gets done every other week, by the cleaning lady. I sanitize the counters, stove, and kitchen table with vinegar after every meal and also have to sweep the kitchen floor (especially under the table where the kids eat) at least twice a day.

Dusting - when we are having company over or if I visibly notice a layer of dust somewhere. It gets done maybe 1-2 times a month. I'm a slob, I know it.

Vacuuming/mopping the floors - Bathroom and kitchen floors get mopped every other week by the cleaning lady. I vacuum the rooms with carpet once a week.

Dishes - dishes never stop. I spend about 30-40 minutes doing dishes 3-4 times per day. That's just life with a family of six when you cook from scratch three meals a day.

Laundry - laundry also never stops. Every day I do a load of diapers, a load of towels/soiled sheets/cloth napkins, and a load of clothes. I have a pretty stellar laundry system where clean clothes are taken from the dryer to my bedroom, where I have a bunch of laundry baskets on bookshelves. Each kid has a basket and I take the clean clothes and toss them where they need to go or hang them up in the closets if they are mine or DH's. Once one of the kids' baskets get full, I take it to their room and put the stuff away (or now that the boys are getting old enough, I have them put it away). Laundry is the one chore I have actually mastered with a large family. The rest I have yet to figure out.

Anything else you do on a regular basis - toys get cleaned up 1-2 times a day, but the kids help out. I mostly just manage the chaos and point out things they missed, snap my fingers at the lollygaggers, and direct the little ones on where to put stuff.

I used to be such a tidy person. My standards have gotten lower and lower with each kid. I can't imagine what kind of squalor we will live in if we end up with more. But, everything has a season. One day, when the kids are older and can help, my house will get back in order. For now I'm just trying to roll with the punches and not stress about it.

wifeofadam · February 2014

DC2London said:

For real, between meal prep, feeding children and clean up, I am basically constantly in my kitchen. I make so many things from scratch, and I cook 3 meals a day, 7 days a week.

We designed our next house with an open floor plan for this reason. The kitchen is right next to a huge dining room table so I can simultaneously teach school lessons and do my kitchen chores at the same time. The laundry room is also right off of the kitchen area (with a huge family closet in there) so I can do that stuff while teaching school lessons, too.

I literally live in my kitchen. I might as well move my bed in there.

ally2011 · February 2014

I cleaned before people came over for dd's bday.....on February 8

My house is clean enough, I'd like it to always be perfect but not enough to spend tons of time on it. I like to volunteer, do things for others and stay relatively busy... and there are so many hours in the day. I figure when I'm 90 I won't wish I had mopped more, haha. I try to keep it relatively clean and neat enough, but in the last post about this I could not believe how often some people were cleaning....I fall way short based on several of those. I would do nothing else with some of those schedules....maybe I am just slow.

lbonga1 · February 2014

My fiance's comfort level when it comes to what "clean" is, is very low compared to mine. So I'm the one that handles most of the cleaning. Once we move into our own house and have some extra money, I'll likely hire a cleaning person to come every other week to lessen my workload a bit. But here's our routine:

Bathroom: About once a month or if I notice the counters,mirrors, or toilet are looking dirty. We're pretty good about putting toiletries and things away when we're done using them.
Kitchen: Daily maintence, counters and stovetop get a more thorough clean every other week or so. FI takes out the trash when it's full.
Dishes: basically daily. FI is in charge of unloading the dishwasher so if he forgets, I'll wait another day or so to load it.
Living room: we spend most of our time here, so I pick stuff up and organize almost daily.
Laundry: twice a week (cloth diapers), DD's clothes get washed about once a week, same with mine. FI has a lot of clothes, so we do a couple loads for him every other week.
Dusting: when I see a visible layer of dust.
Vaccuuming: I really need to do this more often, but about once a week right now. I do steam clean the carpets about every other month though.
Floors: Swept every couple days and swifter wet jet about once a week.
Bedrooms: We don't spend much time in our rooms other than to sleep, so they don't need to be cleaned often.

Sorry if my format is horrible, I'm mobile bumping.

DublinMama · February 2014

What is this cleaning thing you speak of? We have zero routine. That's not to say our house is a disaster area, but generally things get left to the weekends. We have a small house, so luckily the whole thing can be cleaned fairly well in about an hour. It's very hard to deep clean during the week, because of our opposite shifts. One of us comes home and will sort of mess up what the other one did. If DH cleans the living room during the day, it's guaranteed to be destroyed by 6:00 p.m. after DS has been home and playing for a few hours. If I clean the kitchen at night, DH has wrecked it during his meal prep for the day. And the very last thing I want to do after working all day and solo parenting is then clean with no help. When we have company, it looks nice. But it's not like we live like hoarders in between, either.

tamarar5 · February 2014

You mean we are supposed to schedule this stuff? As in like do some of it every day?!

)

I will be the first to admit my housekeeping skills are, ahem, SERIOUSLY lacking. I attempt to do the dishes daily but that is still my gag/puke trigger this pregnancy.

I wash diapers every other day, and do at least a load of laundry daily. But it seldom makes it out of the basket folded.

My bathroom is the one place I'm religious about cleaning. That gets wiped with windex daily, and deep cleaned weekly. It still looks like crap though because the previous owner in a stroke of brilliant idiocy, carpeted my bathroom. It's not big enough to get a vacuum in. And the carpet is glued to the floor so I can't even rip it out.

My room and the kids rooms occasionally get cleaned, not enough.

The living room gets picked up multiple times a day because it's the primary baby room.

And that is my whole house. 900sq feet of no storage or closet space anywhere. With four people and one dog. Yikes.

wifeofadam · February 2014

DC2London said:

The thing is, your house is empty a good portion of the week. My house requires a lot more cleaning because we are constantly in it making messes. You know? I'm sure your bathroom doesn't need to be cleaned as frequently as mine, because it is probably getting used about 1/3 as much as mine. KWIM? I'm sure your house is plenty clean.

This! People don't understand how messy a house gets when kids are in it 24/7. Three meals a day eaten in the kitchen. Kids peeing all over the toilet all day long. Toys everywhere.

My house generally stays cleaner in the summer because we are out and about more often taking walks, going to the park, stuff like that. But in the winter when we're cooped up inside all day, every day.......forget about it. It's a lost cause here. Why clean when they're undoing all of your work before you even finish?

wells2010 · February 2014

kleigh926 said:

Clean the bathroom: Once a week
Clean the kitchen: I don't necessarily "clean" my kitchen that often. I wipe down the counters several times a day, and I wipe down the stove after I'm done cooking. Every once in awhile I'll give my sink a good cleaning and wash the stove burners. I also wipe down my fridge occasionally, but I'm talking like, twice a year (unless there's a spill).
Dusting: Once a week
Vacuuming/mopping the floors: I mop once a week and vacuum twice a week at the very least. Often times our laundry room and kitchen need vacuumed more often due to tracking in dirt from the back door and the cats tracking litter outside their box.
Dishes: Every day
Laundry: Twice a week (2 loads at a time, so 4 loads per week)

@kleigh926 this is completely unrelated, but did you have to take clomid to get KU for #2? I'm asking because I took it too for #1 (and the side effects were horrible for me).

As for cleaning schedule, on days I'm off I either vacuum/mop or do laundry. I'm really bad about cleaning bathrooms... I do the toilets, but the sink is a lost cause since DH destroys it with his shaving and I refuse to clean up after him. On days I work I literally do nothing in my house. Luckily I only do 3 days a week. Kitchen and living room get picked up/cleaned daily after DD goes to bed.

kleigh926 · February 2014

@wells2010, I actually didn't need Clomid for #2! Right around the time we started TTC again, I read an article about a new study showing that taking an iron supplement daily can help women who have ovulation problems. I thought I may as well try it. I was charting my temps so I could see exactly when I ovulated. After I started taking the iron, I ovulated on day 17, which is really early for me (usually it's close to day 30 or even after). We conceived again on that cycle! I'm pretty convinced the iron is what made that possible. Anyway, hopefully you don't need to take Clomid again!

Felicity86 · February 2014

Laundry: every other day for the babies, twice a week for adults.
The kitchen gets wiped down, tidied every day and dishes are always in the dishwasher. Sheets and dusting get done once a week. I vacuum and mop the floors twice a week, but only since having my twins. This is gross, but I rarely clean our bathroom. I'll wipe down counters and the toilet, but our shower looks gross and stained even after I clean it, so I rarely bother anymore. Maybe every few months. The other bathrooms get cleaned when they start to look gross or if we have company over. Is that disgusting??

kleigh926 · February 2014

Felicity86 said:

Laundry: every other day for the babies, twice a week for adults. The kitchen gets wiped down, tidied every day and dishes are always in the dishwasher. Sheets and dusting get done once a week. I vacuum and mop the floors twice a week, but only since having my twins. This is gross, but I rarely clean our bathroom. I'll wipe down counters and the toilet, but our shower looks gross and stained even after I clean it, so I rarely bother anymore. Maybe every few months. The other bathrooms get cleaned when they start to look gross or if we have company over. Is that disgusting??

Cleaning the bathroom is my least favorite thing to do. I don't even know why, it only takes me like 25 minutes. That's the good thing about only having 1 small bathroom I guess. If my shower looked stained even after I cleaned it, I probably wouldn't do it either, haha.

TarheelMama202 · February 2014

DublinMama said:

What is this cleaning thing you speak of? We have zero routine. That's not to say our house is a disaster area, but generally things get left to the weekends. We have a small house, so luckily the whole thing can be cleaned fairly well in about an hour. It's very hard to deep clean during the week, because of our opposite shifts. One of us comes home and will sort of mess up what the other one did. If DH cleans the living room during the day, it's guaranteed to be destroyed by 6:00 p.m. after DS has been home and playing for a few hours. If I clean the kitchen at night, DH has wrecked it during his meal prep for the day. And the very last thing I want to do after working all day and solo parenting is then clean with no help. When we have company, it looks nice. But it's not like we live like hoarders in between, either.

This, exactly. If something looks particularly disgusting, then either myself or DH clean it. We don't have a specific routine. I will do a deep clean of my entire house maybe every couple of months.

TarheelMama202 · February 2014

kleigh926 said:

@wells2010, I actually didn't need Clomid for #2! Right around the time we started TTC again, I read an article about a new study showing that taking an iron supplement daily can help women who have ovulation problems. I thought I may as well try it. I was charting my temps so I could see exactly when I ovulated. After I started taking the iron, I ovulated on day 17, which is really early for me (usually it's close to day 30 or even after). We conceived again on that cycle! I'm pretty convinced the iron is what made that possible. Anyway, hopefully you don't need to take Clomid again!

Ooooh, thanks for sharing this about the iron! I had no idea! We are currently NTNP....but I'm ready to get knocked up again soon.

a13049 · February 2014

I'll admit I am totally spoiled. We have a cleaning service that comes weekly, and dh takes care of most of the picking up, dishes and laundry. Poor man doesn't know his way around a toolbox or do any yard work. So a lot of the traditional gender roles are reversed in our house. He takes a lot of pride in being the grill master, so when it's nice out I don't cook either and my only job is to sip lemonade and watch dd play while he cooks and cleans. He is also planning to be a stay at home dad when I finish my ph d and get an administrator job.

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