Cleaning & Organizing
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How to maintain a clean house?
You always see people on TV with super clean houses. Is that realistic? Because if it is, I have no idea how to achieve that. It seems like after we clean our house, within a week it is a disaster, and we don't even have kids! Any tips?
Re: How to maintain a clean house?
Have you read The Fly Lady? She really tells you how to maintain a clean house. When I was single I had a really clean, really orgainzed house. Now? Not so much, but I am spread out between my old house and my DH's house, so once I close on the old house sale I'll be moving all my stuff into DH's house and really cleaning and organizing and (hopefully!) keeping it clean.
Daily or weekly cleaning rituals. I am still working on whole house rituals. But I have three rooms that are almost perfect every day.
I clean my bathroom every morning just a quick once over while I'm getting ready.
I clean the living room once a week usually on saturday before DH gets up.
Every night I clean the kitchen making sure everything is put away. I also pick up the dogs toys every night before bed too.
Shouldn't take more than 10-15 mins out of your day. But it is nice to be able to relax and enjoy more time with DH and the dog instead of stressing about spending a few hours cleaning on my day off.
On a side note. I can be somewhat of a pack rat. I recently downsized alot! This makes cleaning easier. You can't clean clutter! I got that from and amazing website. Flylady.net check it out!
my FI and i dont have kids either, just a room mate and a dog. ive started doing nightly chores for them. i know it sounds bad but its keeping my house cleaner.
the biggest thing with us was dishes though. we all hate doing them but no one minds dirtying them up.
The most important thing in maintaining a clean house is keeping up with clutter. My nightly routine includes: putting all laundry (clean or dirty) away or in the hamper, making sure all the dishes are washed, wiping down the kitchen and bathroom countertops, making the beds.
Weekly chores: vacuum/sweep/mop floors, dust every room, clean shower and tub
A place for everything and everything in its place is truly a good motto to follow. Clutter is what really takes up the time. You go to clean something but spend all that time clearing the surface before you can clean it.
One thing that helped me was to organize and make my cleaning supplies really handy. I bought a nylon shower caddy during back to school time and filled the middle with all the cleaning products I use, then the outside with all the cleaning rags. Once I bring it out, everything is right there and easy to carry from room to room. Sounds silly but since it is so easy, it just seemed to make me get up and do it more.
Yahoo for flylady.net! I am finally organized and decluttered!
Our home is generally very neat and clean. I just do general pick up, fluffing, wiping down, and sweeping on a daily basis. It's all about cleaning little messes, controlling the clutter, putting things in their proper place, etc. Then I save the bigger jobs, (dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing showers and washing floors) for Saturday morning. Then it only takes maybe 2 hours, tops.
A good tip for kitchens: Our dog drools, A LOT, so there are always water spots all over the kitchen floor, and then he walks through them, leaving trails on the ceramic tile. I keep a bottle of vinegar and water under the sink, and wipe up his little mess, along with any other spots, whenever I think it's necessary. That way, the mess isn't as bad by Saturday morning.
A good tip for bathrooms: I keep a canister of Seventh Generation cleaning wipes under the sink. That way you can just do a quick swipe of counters and faucets when they are looking dirty. I don't normally use this type of thing because I find them wasteful, but for quick clean ups you only need one or two wipes. And the Seventh Generation ones are biodegradeable.
Flylady is a fun site, and, as always, Martha has a tip or list for just about everything. Her Homekeeping Handbook is always getting referenced in our house!
Henri and Charlotte, Christmas 2012
There are some things I do in the house every day and it keeps the house looking nice. I do dishes every night before bed, I wipe kitchen and bathroom counters down, pick up in the living room, I do laundry (1 or 2 loads) every day. I don't do more than 2 loads if I didn't fold the loads that I washed, make the bed. I can't think of anything else right now.
I clean a different room of the house one day a week in addition to the daily things. You can pretty much come over any time and the house is fine. There might be a couple of toys in the front but other than that not much else.
I guarantee you their houses don't look like that all time. They super-cleaned & decluttered for TV.
Try to do a few minutes of picking up/cleaning every evening. And don't worry about it if your house isn't perfectly clean 100% of the time - nobody's is and it's an unrealistic expectation.
{Blog: Adventures of AlaskanAlison}
My mental health is a lot better when my house is clean, so I work hard at a maintenance schedule. I HATE letting it get filthy then doing a big clean.
Divide up what needs to be done daily/weekly/monthly/seasonally and make yourself a schedule.
I agree w/ a PP regarding packrat/clutter --- you need to start by going through the entire house and tossing/donating whatever you don't use. It's amazing when you start digging through drawers and closers what you will find!
Daily stuff for us: general pick up, sorting mail completely, quick clean of kitchen (wipe counters and sink, all dishes in DW, etc), quick clean of bathrooms, sweeping floors, cat fur control (rolling furniture etc). Run the dishwasher overnight and empty first thing in AM - I do it while coffee is brewing.
I also do one room/set of rooms thoroughly each day (this is 5 days/week): kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, living/dining rooms, playroom. This includes a thorough cleaning of surfaces, floors, changing sheets, dusting, etc.
Laundry is done a load or two a day, with catch up on the weekends.
Weekends are also left for house projects, monthly chores, outdoor tasks/cleaning, and catch up laundry/etc from what we didn't do that week.
It equals probably 30 minutes of cleaning a day, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, but it keeps the house in good condition all the time.
I'm in such a habit of constantly putting things away, it doesn't get that out of hand. I think some people by nature are more organized or clean, but I think if you just do one or two things every day, it's easier for things not to get too chaotic.