Moms with clean houses

Boo0512 · July 2014

Teach me your ways! Housekeeping has been brought up in a couple discussions and there may be a few moms other than me that would welcome the advice. I am a disorganized person, always have been. Couple this with a busy toddler and major sleep deprivation and you have a home in chaos.

What do you do every day to keep your house in order? What are your most effective cleaning/organizing tips?

My husband literally does nothing in the house so it's all on me and its been a big struggle.

Help me!

coffeeandbooks · July 2014

Hey Boo...so the main thing for me is getting rid of clutter and being a minimalist when it comes to things I own and decorate with.   We moved a few times in the past couple of years and each time I moved I cleared out a lot of stuff we had...threw it out...gave it a way, donated it. It's basically like if I don't love it or really need it, it goes.
Our house just automatically looks so much more put together not having a lot of stuff around.   I am the same way with LOs toys, we have a couple of baskets for him, and if the baskets start to over flow I put toys he doesn't play with aside for a garage sale or donate it.
The decluttering is an on going thing but there is so much less to neaten up and it is easier to clean surfaces etc, when there isn't a lot around.
Also another tip is...when you clean, don't feel like you have to clean a whole bathroom, or a whole kitchen. On one day clean just one toilet or one sink.   If you do one thing a day, by weeks end the place is clean.

jesselayne8 · July 2014

I have a cleaning service come 2x a month. Cleaning one toilet etc a day made me crazy because I never had a clean house. Daily I clean up toys, wash dishes and do at least one load of laundry including putting the laundry away.

kelseyhh · July 2014

@Boo0512‌, I feel the same way as you. I've always been very disorganized and I don't really mind a little clutter, so having a LO now has made things much worse. My DH needs a clean, organized house, so it's been causing some friction in our marriage.

Something I am going to try is a chore chart. It's sounds kind of silly, but I think it night help us. I made one on Shutterfly that has our pictures on it, and our most commonly needed chores. I am going to ask DH which chores he would prefer to do, and I'll take the others. Then, when we've completed our chore, we mark it off.

Hopefully this will help because in the past, neither of us has really had any chores that were "ours". Then, we started to feel resentful when they weren't done and our house like messy or cluttered.

smg2302 · July 2014

I am considering hiring someone once a month for deep cleaning, because I get housekeeping ADD. I start on one task and then I'm off on another before the first is complete. That said, here are my strategies based on a daily, weekly, monthly schedule.

Daily is split up into AM and PM. AM is clearing out the dishwasher/drainboard and putting dishes away. Spraying the shower after we're finished with it. Wiping down all surfaces. PM is a quick sweep of the floors (especially in the areas LO eats), another wipe down of counters, and washing dishes from the day.

Weekly is on a 5 day rotation (I do M-F). Monday is dusting. Tuesday is a more thorough cleaning of floors (vacuuming and mopping). Wednesday is toilets and showers. Thursday is take out trash and clean out fridge. Friday is filing and decluttering. We also do laundry weekly (usually on Sunday)

Monthly is the deeper stuff, and usually done on weekends. Like wiping down baseboards, cleaning the patio, garage work, etc.

When we follow this system, it's no more than 10 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening to keep the house tidy. It's worth noting, we often fall off the house work wagon. I keep this chart on our fridge as a reminder. DH and I take turns on different chores/attending to DD. For example, I have dust allergies so he does that part. He hates bathrooms so I do that one.

pnutg · July 2014

Like @coffeeandbooks‌, I'm pretty minimalist. I don't like a lot of stuff so that definitely helps with dusting, vacuuming, etc. I do dishes, a load of laundry (start to finish), sweep and swiffer the kitchen floor and usually one other thing every day.

Others include vacuuming, toilets, bathroom floors and sinks, etc. My biggest thing is not falling behind. If all 3 bathrooms are filthy I feel overwhelmed. One at a time is easy to tackle. And at the end of every day I throw all the toys in a big basket. But again, we are pretty minimalist and C probably doesn't have as many toys as most toddlers.

Boo0512 · July 2014

Thanks for the feedback!
I too would consider myself more of a minimalist but H's parents are what I would consider "clean hoarders" so he doesn't get rid of ANYTHING. That makes it hard to keep our place organized especially when we currently live in a small house with very little storage. Seriously, he has no idea how much stuff I've donated or thrown away and we still have way too much crap.

I think my biggest problem is that I try to do the entire house at once which would take a few hours and with a toddler running around its impossible to get a large task done start to finish. I need to be more diligent about doing things bit by bit. I'm going to try!

I will check out that website too, thanks @mishy2011

telicious2 · July 2014

I can't give much advice since my house is cluttered. But I have been wanting to print out a cleaning schedule from Pinterest. I have also read that even if you spend 15 mins cleaning/decluttering it could make a difference. Maybe i can extend this to spending 5-10 mins daily on each room. Also, check out videos on YouTube by AlejandraCostello. She has super OCD and really knows how to organize.

BananaLettuce · July 2014

What? These exist?

caden1206 · July 2014

Someone posted the 15 minute challenge and I thought it was a great idea. Apparently, you set a timer for 15 minutes and you do as much as you can in the 15 minutes. I have thought it would be great if I could do 15 minutes a day focusing on one room each day. I bet I would be more organized. Now, I just gotta start this habit.

jedimindtrick · July 2014

caden1206 said:

Someone posted the 15 minute challenge and I thought it was a great idea. Apparently, you set a timer for 15 minutes and you do as much as you can in the 15 minutes. I have thought it would be great if I could do 15 minutes a day focusing on one room each day. I bet I would be more organized. Now, I just gotta start this habit.

Thats a great idea!

Lolalipsy · July 2014

I clear things away on an evening and I give a quick Hoover then so that when I get up in the morning it's just the beds and mopping to do. Eliza is usually having a yogurt pouch then and watching tv when I do this (gasp) or with her Dad if he's finished work then.

I'm afraid I'm terrible at laundry so although it's washed it's in piles waiting to be ironed. When I'm a bit more cash rich I will get someone to iron for me again.

I'm going to add that it's exhausting keeping things tidy and as you have read I utilise the tv for 20 mins which wasn't part of my ideals when I set out to be a parent but this works for us. Also, if I were still getting up every few hours through the night I would struggle to keep up at this pace. I also make sure I nap when she does through the day because I'm much less stressed by any mess that I have to tackle then.

Don't be so hard on yourself. You're a great mama and you will get your bearings soon enough. It's hard to muster up the energy when you're so exhausted. Also, as you can see in my case that there is a trade off between keeping up with the housework and letting her watch the one thing I swore I wouldn't.

Blueyed228 · July 2014

Rose is worth every penny...

caden1206 · July 2014

I am getting my housekeeper back:) I think my SO has realized I am just not the housekeeper he thought I might be. I'd rather go to the park.

BananaLettuce · July 2014

I've decided the only way I will ever own a bigger house is if I can afford a maid to clean it. Our current house is only 300 sq ft larger than our old house, and I find myself missing the smaller house.

Boo0512 · August 2014

Yeah, I'd love to have a housekeeper but being that I WFH/SAH no way would H go for that. I don't blame him especially considering most of the moms I know work full-time and clean the house.

I'm just a really shitty housekeeper, being neat and organized is not in my nature. I've always had to work at it.

I know in many ways moving to our new house will create challenges because its quite a bit bigger than our current house but it will have advantages too. We'll have much more storage space and E's bedroom will be on the 2nd floor so I should be able to get more cleaning done when she is sleeping. Time will tell! In the meantime I need to focus on doing a few tasks a day instead of trying to clean everything at once.

Thanks again for the feedback!

jedimindtrick · August 2014

I definitely think come fall I'm going to hire a house keeper at least once a month to help me with the big stuff.

caden1206 · August 2014

Boo0512 said:

Yeah, I'd love to have a housekeeper but being that I WFH/SAH no way would H go for that. I don't blame him especially considering most of the moms I know work full-time and clean the house. I'm just a really shitty housekeeper, being neat and organized is not in my nature. I've always had to work at it. I know in many ways moving to our new house will create challenges because its quite a bit bigger than our current house but it will have advantages too. We'll have much more storage space and E's bedroom will be on the 2nd floor so I should be able to get more cleaning done when she is sleeping. Time will tell! In the meantime I need to focus on doing a few tasks a day instead of trying to clean everything at once. Thanks again for the feedback!

the bold is why I am getting my housekeeper back:)

LaxMOM44 · August 2014

I just close my eyes as soon as I get in the house and don't open them until I am in someone else's clean house.

huzzahuzza · August 2014

There's a part of me that thinks I could drop Jonathan off at daycare for a day and clean the housebut then I realize I would just sit on my butt and watch TV

TradeMama · August 2014

I've struggled with this in the past but finally feel as though I have a good system. The most important thing for me is to do a little every day and to be realistic. So every day I do dishes, wipe my counters down, and sweep the kitchen floor. I do laundry every other day or so. I pick up toys and put them in the toy box at the end of the day. But more importantly, I do the little things throughout the day... Wipe up spills, put dirty dishes in the sink, etc. I also have a very low tolerance for junk... If it breaks, I throw it away. If it doesn't fit or get stained, I get rid of it. I used to try to save things but they just piled up so that stopped. As far as the rest of the house, I have a rotation. Kitchen-- daily. One day a week-- bathrooms. Another day-- hallways. Another day--basement. Another day--bedrooms. Etc. At the end of the day, I set a timer for 30 minutes and everyone (including DH) tidies up what's left. I don't do much additional cleaning on the weekends since I try to leave that for family time, but sometimes we do yard work. If I stay on top of it I spend about an hour per day cleaning.

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