Cleaning Q: Doing one cleaning job each weekday instead of leaving most cleaning for weekend?

vvvvvfee · May 2014

Hi everyone- Frequent lurker, infrequent poster here.

DH and I both work F/T and have 1 kid, 21-month old DS. We currently do most major cleaning/chores over the weekend (laundry, vacuuming, floors, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, plus I try to make as many meals as I can for us to eat during the week). We would like to feel less tied down to chores over the weekend, especially now that the weather is getting nicer. I've heard of people assigning one cleaning task to each weekday instead of leaving most things for the weekend (for instance, Monday: Floors, Tuesday: Bathrooms, etc.). Does anyone currently use a system like this? How does it work for you? Which chore do you do each day? And how do you work meal prep into it?

Thanks so much for your input!

Mustardseed2007 · May 2014

We have a house cleaner and a lawn guy right now. This is the most outside help I've ever had in my entire life, but while we TRIED to assign a chore for each day, it really didn't happen.

Now we do dishes every night, clean the counters when they get gross, pick up DSs toys each day, do laundry as needed (usually every other day but it varies) and then on Wednesdays we do a big pick of clutter b/c Thursday is when the maid comes. Thursday AM we strip the beds and set out clean sheets so the maid can wash the old sheets and put the new ones on the bed. She leaves us a nice, neat folded pile of clean sheets and towels.

When we didn't do outside help, anything not listed above truly only got done on weekends anyway and so that meant the floors and bathrooms would go far to long, etc.

emberlee3 · May 2014

We do laundry all week, and I am getting in the habit of folding and putting it away immediately.

We wash all the dishes and clean up the kitchen each evening. I try to do any meal prep for the next day while I am cooking or cleaning up. I tidy up the living room and entry each night.

I don't have a set schedule for bathrooms or floors, but that's my next goal. I think if I stick with tidying each night, the "bigger" chores will take less time. Currently, I often end up doing these on the weekend.

I grocery shop on Sunday mornings and try to prep or batch cook something for the week during nap time on Sunday.

AZ123 · May 2014

We have a housecleaner but I really like the Fly Lady website blog. I think she has some good tips there.

BabyHope2013 · May 2014

Wish I could help you. My best friend has a schedule where she does one thing each day so that she has more time on the weekends. I tried this a few months ago---but I don't get home until after 6 p.m. and by the time my focus goes into getting dinner on the table and then starting our bedtime routine for DS then I never got my "one nightly chore" done. I think that this method works great for some people, but just didn't work for us.

I try to clean the house as quick as possible on the weekends during naptime, along with prepping a meal or two for the week. Then DS goes grocery shopping with me so we get some extra time together to hang out.

Allison546 · May 2014

Good post-- I wish we had more of a set schedule. I'm in the same boat as others that by the time getting home from work, feeding DS, some playtime, putting him to bed, sometimes finishing up cooking dinner for DH and I, then cleaning the kitchen, it's often 8pm and we're too beat to do many chores.

We don't have a cleaning lady but something I definitely want to look into when we have a little more room in the budget. I think it'd be totally worth it. My house is usually a mess, and with a dog (yellow lab) that sheds everywhere, we are always losing the dust/dog hair battle. Ugh.

And on the subject of grocery shopping, we've started getting groceries delivered most weeks. It's awesome, worth it, and a huge timesaver-- I usually meal plan and order them Sunday night for delivery on Monday after work.

khaze · May 2014

I do the 1 chore/night method and I don't really have a schedule, I just do whatever chore I have the time/energy for.

As far as meal planning, my boss's wife has the "cook once, eat twice" motto so on a night she cooks, she'll double the recipe and freeze one of the batches. Once I can get a second freezer I will be trying to do that more often.

vvvvvfee · May 2014

BabyHope2013 said:

I tried this a few months ago---but I don't get home until after 6 p.m. and by the time my focus goes into getting dinner on the table and then starting our bedtime routine for DS then I never got my "one nightly chore" done. I think that this method works great for some people, but just didn't work for us.

ack, good point. i don't get home until 6:30-6:45 either so it's always kind of a frantic rush each evening. although i guess getting up earlier in the morning is a possibility, too.

i am not against having a cleaning person, but we just can't make it work in our budget right now.

thanks for the suggestions so far!

ss265 · May 2014

Honestly it sounds like you are trying to do too much in one week. Either that or I am just a slob. Do you really clean your bathrooms every week? We have a cleaning lady come once a month and that is the only time the bathrooms and floors get done. Obviously if there is a mess on the floor or if the bathrooms get especially dirty we clean them but most of the time, they are tolerable until the cleaning lady gets there.

We keep up with the dishes daily, cook about twice a week and do laundry every week. Otherwise my house almost always has some clutter lying around. Maybe consider decreasing the frequency of some of your chores.

vvvvvfee · May 2014

ss265 said:

Honestly it sounds like you are trying to do too much in one week. Either that or I am just a slob. Do you really clean your bathrooms every week? We have a cleaning lady come once a month and that is the only time the bathrooms and floors get done. Obviously if there is a mess on the floor or if the bathrooms get especially dirty we clean them but most of the time, they are tolerable until the cleaning lady gets there.
We keep up with the dishes daily, cook about twice a week and do laundry every week. Otherwise my house almost always has some clutter lying around. Maybe consider decreasing the frequency of some of your chores.

well, we have 2 bathrooms, and we only clean the upstairs one (that gets the most use) every week. we don't get to dusting every week, and we don't change our sheets every week. the kitchen floor we have to do every week, because DS makes a god-awful mess. the other floors (we have wood) only get done every couple of weeks. we have cats, so we have to vacuum and sweep weekly. and there's definitely clutter around all the time.

i do get what you're saying. i don't think our standards are very stringent at all, post-kid. i get that there's going to be clutter and dirt. i just already feel like we're at the bare minimum chore level before things get disgusting. it's hard to counteract the effects of a toddler and 3 cats.

ss265 · May 2014

vvvvvfee said:

ss265 said:

Honestly it sounds like you are trying to do too much in one week. Either that or I am just a slob. Do you really clean your bathrooms every week? We have a cleaning lady come once a month and that is the only time the bathrooms and floors get done. Obviously if there is a mess on the floor or if the bathrooms get especially dirty we clean them but most of the time, they are tolerable until the cleaning lady gets there.
We keep up with the dishes daily, cook about twice a week and do laundry every week. Otherwise my house almost always has some clutter lying around. Maybe consider decreasing the frequency of some of your chores.

well, we have 2 bathrooms, and we only clean the upstairs one (that gets the most use) every week. we don't get to dusting every week, and we don't change our sheets every week. the kitchen floor we have to do every week, because DS makes a god-awful mess. the other floors (we have wood) only get done every couple of weeks. we have cats, so we have to vacuum and sweep weekly. and there's definitely clutter around all the time.

i do get what you're saying. i don't think our standards are very stringent at all, post-kid. i get that there's going to be clutter and dirt. i just already feel like we're at the bare minimum chore level before things get disgusting. it's hard to counteract the effects of a toddler and 3 cats.

And I will freely admit that DH and I are probably not the neatest people and we probably have a higher tolerance for mess than most people.

I also live in a LCOL area and have a pretty big house though which takes forever to clean if I do all the bathrooms and the floors.

shannm · May 2014

I've been planning to start this for months, haha.

groovygrl · May 2014

Someone already mentioned it but I know a lot of ppl like the Fly Lady's method or tips or whatever, worth checking out her website.

We also have an e/o week cleaning service so I don't really do bathrooms, full house vacuuming or major kitchen deep cleaning on our own. However, if we have guests or friends over we end up doing a full kitchen clean, vacuum of first floor, wipedown of 1st floor bathrooms & mopping of hardwoods in between the day of or day before. I do make sure the dishes are done before bed every night for the most part, I sweep the kitchen every night (up to 3 times a day on weekends) b/c we have dark wood floors and they always look terrible, DS is a hugely sloppy eater and when I cook I get crumbs & whatnot on the floor. I wanted to get in the habit of straightening/picking up every night before bed but unless it is a total disaster, I can't usually motivate to do it.
I'm not a super neat/clean freak person in general so it doesn't bother me to not have hte house spic & span all the time. The kitchen counters tend to get cluttered by week's end so we try on the weekend to declutter a little bit. Laundry happens on the weekend at our house, and is the one area I think we could work on a little better, by throwing a load in once or twice a week when we get home, then into the dryer before bed and fold the next day, assuming it is stuff that can sit in the dryer all night/no wrinkle issues.

skibunny59 · May 2014

Honestly, I'm not sure how people fit in actual cleaning on the weeknights. By the time DD is in bed it is 8:30 or so. At that time DH has to get ready for the next day (pack his lunch, pick out clothes, shower, etc.) because he has to wake up at 4AM every morning for work so he really can't help me much at night.

Once DD is in bed I pack my lunch and DD's, walk the dog if he hasn't already been walked, go through mail, tidy up the house, pay bills, prep dinner for the next day, etc. By the time I'm done it's between 9:30-10:00 and I'm ready for bed. I'm pregnant and my 2 year old still gets up once or twice a night so I need my rest.

Laundry is easy. DD usually helps us with that and we do a little each night. Tidying up is easy. The actual cleaning part is hard. Vacuuming we do twice a week because of the dog and even that is hard to squeeze in. On the weekends we are always running around doing something. Honestly, I've just learned to live with a not so clean house. A little bit of dirt never hurt anyone. We try to have company over once a month to force us to do a good cleaning.

emberlee3 · May 2014

K3am said:

We keep the house cleaned up on a daily basis, and laundry as necessary. I run the dishwasher every night, whether or not it's full (drought? what drought?), and empty it in the mornings. Sometimes, it gets away from us, but it never seems to get too terrible. On Saturday mornings, I send MH and baby out for a park trip and know that I have 1 hour to get it all done. If it doesn't get done in the hour, it doesn't get done that week. I've found that as long as we've done a decent job keeping it neat, it's not so terrible. It's never immaculate, but it's good enough for me.

I just can't justify spending $150 a week on a cleaning person who cleans about as thoroughly as me when I'm just rushing it.

ITA, but how do you clean your whole house in an hour? I think I could get the bathrooms and vacuuming done in an hour, but there's no way I could do the floors.

Mustardseed2007 · May 2014

K3am said:

We keep the house cleaned up on a daily basis, and laundry as necessary. I run the dishwasher every night, whether or not it's full (drought? what drought?), and empty it in the mornings. Sometimes, it gets away from us, but it never seems to get too terrible. On Saturday mornings, I send MH and baby out for a park trip and know that I have 1 hour to get it all done. If it doesn't get done in the hour, it doesn't get done that week. I've found that as long as we've done a decent job keeping it neat, it's not so terrible. It's never immaculate, but it's good enough for me.

I just can't justify spending $150 a week on a cleaning person who cleans about as thoroughly as me when I'm just rushing it.

150/wk?! Yeah I wouldn't spend that either. But that's another post I guess.

SunAndRain · May 2014

Fly lady has a brilliant plan for keeping your house clean on a daily basis and rotating deep cleans. I say it is brilliant and I'm not kidding!
She even tells you how to ease in to a routine so it isn't overwhelming.
Her plan is easily adopted for working moms.

litzo27 · May 2014

emberlee3 said:

K3am said:

On Saturday mornings, I send MH and baby out for a park trip and know that I have 1 hour to get it all done. If it doesn't get done in the hour, it doesn't get done that week.div>
I just can't justify spending $150 a week on a cleaning person who cleans about as thoroughly as me when I'm just rushing it.

ITA, but how do you clean your whole house in an hour? I think I could get the bathrooms and vacuuming done in an hour, but there's no way I could do the floors.

In 1 hour I would only get the 3 bathrooms done and maybe the kitchen. I do indeed spend 150 but every 2 weeks and for 6 hours of labor (and they work fast). In between cleaners i do both daily things: dishwasher, litter box, kitchen counters and alternate deeper things like wipe down sinks and toilets one day, laundry another day. I have a Mint (robot swifter) and I set it to run in different rooms every day.

emberlee3 · May 2014

Why have I never heard of a Mint before???? I just looked it up on Amazon. @litzo27 which one do you have?

litzo27 · May 2014

@emberlee3 - it's the forgotten stepchild of the Roomba

I did have a Roomba before, it lasted about 3 years and given that the new generation cost about $600 I thought I would try something cheaper first. I bought the basic Mint - 4200. Although I think I paid less than $190 - maybe it was on sale? Like I said, it's a swiffer not a vacuum which means it won't pick up as much of a real mess but actually does a pretty good job with crumbs, hair, etc. It is "smarter" than Roomba - doesn't randomly determine the path but does a systematic sweep so that it really does cover every inch of a room. Battery life is enough to cover about 2 rooms and it takes several hours to fully charge. I don't like the wash function where it goes back and forth so just use the sweep function although sometimes I'll spray the Bona cleaner on the floor where it will be going so it's a semi-wash. And of course you can't have any rugs (it will just go around them) or any steps.
It did break once after six months or so - just stopped working and after trouble-shooting over the phone unsuccessfully the manufacturers replaced it with a new one. And since then it's been going strong for 2 years.

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Cleaning Q: Doing one cleaning job each weekday instead of leaving most cleaning for weekend?

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