November 2010 Weddings
LindsMullinix
member
Dear Community,
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.
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.
What's your cleaning schedule?
I have absolutely NO cleaning schedule what so ever. I do a pretty good job of keeping the clutter to a minimum, but dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing the floors - yea that doesnt happen very often. It happens when I "get the urge" which as I mentioned, isnt very often. Same with Laundry - no real "Laundry day." My baby fever has me thinking, I really need to get MY life organized before I can think about bringing a little one into our world. So my next goal is to set a "cleaning schedule" and stick to it.
I'd love to hear your suggestions, schedules, tips etc to keeping things clean and keeping a regular schedule for these "chores". Thanks for your help ladies!!
-Linds
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Re: What's your cleaning schedule?
I don't have a schedule per se, mostly because I feel I'm on top of things and our place is small, so even a big clean isn't that bad. Also, people come over all the time, so I have to keep it clean. I do laundry about every two weeks. We don't have laundry, so doing it more frequently is a burden, DH has enough shirts for that time frame, and the pile doesn't get too large.
It seems like babies generate tons of laundry, so I think he or she would give you a pretty firm schedule on that!
Some other suggestions:
Do small cleanups frequently. After cooking, spend just a couple of minutes to wipe up any mess. After eating, put everything directly in the dishwasher. This way your place is always basically clean and when you do a big clean it's less daunting (so you will do it more often too). I know a lot of people who think that if they're cleaning it has to be super thorough and then they only do it twice a year. If there's nothing out of hand to clean it's easier and takes less time.
Be realistic. If you find it strenuous/horrible/time-consuming to clean, don't plan on doing it all at once. Do a bathroom day, a kitchen day, etc. separately so it's not overwhelming.
Get good tools. I use them more if they help me be efficient and aren't frustrating. Some complaints I've had in the past: too heavy to lift vacuum cleaners; vacuums with no suction; mops that drip; paper towels that dissolve.
I do my big clean Sat. mornings. DH works most of them, so I have the place to myself. I stay in my pajamas and just crank things out. Generally we have to vacuum mid week with the beasts. I also make the bed every monring and do a quick walk thru the living room to pick up glasses, straighten throws etc before I head out the door to work. Each everning I do the dishes right after we eat and generally I'll wipe down the counters then. I found keeping lysol wipes both in the bath and the kitchen makes for super fast maintenance cleaning. If it gets too gross I just swipe it down with that until the weekend. I do the laundry, dusting bath big clean, kitchen big clean and dust each Sat. and it's about 2 hours of time.
I've made myself a big overall list too this spring. Each weekend I take on another mini project for cleaning/organizing. Most of the time I can get DH to help with it so it only takes about an hour. Things like washing all the windows, organizing the pantry, cleaning the fridge, etc. are on the list. The sorts of things that maybe get done once or twice a year.
I actually just put together a cleaning schedule for us because we were not doing a good job keeping things tidy. Also, now DH knows the few tasks that I would like him to do. Big ticket items are laundry on Monday and Friday (sheets and towels), change the sheets Friday, bathroom on Thursday, dusting and floors Saturday, and yard work is slated for Sunday. Daily tasks are dishes, taking out the trash, kitchen counters, and picking up the living room.
I started with this template: http://www.moneycrashers.com/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=1 and then modified it with what we needed. It has actually worked pretty well (This weekend it all went downhill since we spent the entire weekend doing yard work to get ready for the new fence).
http://www.moneycrashers.com/weekly-house-cleaning-schedule-template-checklist-chart-printable/
flylady.com gets really good reviews. I didn't really get into it, but I know a lot of people like her stuff.
I vacuum daily (small apartment and a massively shedding dog). I also pick up the apartment in the morning and before bed. Dishes are done, sink cleaned, and kitchen wiped down every night.
I usually clean the kitchen floors and bathroom (mirror, sink, toilet, floor) on Saturday mornings. We try to do laundry every weekend, too, otherwise it just piles up too much.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
Every day I do the dishes, pick up general clutter, wipe down the kitchen counters, and wipe down the dining room table.
Every Saturday I dust, vacuum, scrub the toilets, and do the litter box.
Other other Saturday I scrub out the tub and sinks.
One Saturday a month I do the kitchen, bathroom, and entry way floors. I try not to have it fall on the same Saturday as tub and sinks.
Every Sunday is church, laundry (sheets & towels included), grocery store, and anything else that didn't get done on the day before.
Because of my work schedule I don't have one set day that I do things every week. On my long stretch of working nights my only day off for that week is Sunday. On those weeks I do the laundry, clean up the kitchen and change the sheets. My long stretch of days off starts on a Thursday and that's when I knock out all of the more taxing chores (mopping, vacuuming, clean bathrooms, etc.), plus all of the other stuff I listed above. I'd rather do it at the beginning of my stretch off than drag it out over several days.
I agree with PP who said try to clean things up as you go about your day (ie. wiping down kitchen counters after cooking) that way it won't be such a huge chore when it comes time to really clean.
Wait, I'm supposed to have a schedule for cleaning? *hangs head sheepishly*
I am going to copy some of PPs suggestions. I've been trying to get on the ball with this for a while now, and it just hasn't happened. I think having a daily to do list will help both me and DH keep things tackled!
Thanks ladies - I'm feeling really motivated for a change and I'm really looking forward to starting a new routine.
I joined flylady today and plan to use some of her tips to do little bits each day to keep things from getting too bad throughout the week, on Saturday I plan to wakeup, throw a load of laundry in, have a cup of coffee, and do the larger cleaning items such as bathrooms, floors, dusting and vacuuming. Once H is up and out of bed I'll strip the bed and wash the sheets. Either H or I do the dishes daily already so that will continue as is.
I really hope I can keep up with this, thanks for all your suggestions ladies!!
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We are still workin' on a cleaning schedule.
One thing my in-laws do that has worked well for us is that we always do the dishes after dinner (or try to haha) so that the kitchen never gets out of hand. So much easier that way.
Saturday during the day or Sunday evenings we clean the bathroom.
Um. Yeah the rest is "when we get around to it". We could use some more structure, for sure.
what is cleaning? JK!
I have no schedule. It depends on everything else going on. I 'pick up' most days. Pretty much do a wipe down in the kitchen after I cook. And I leave clorox wipes in my bathroom to do a quick clean in there too when I get an extra minute. I probably should scrub the shower more but I hate that. H has his own bathroom and I don't even want to go in there much less clean it.
Lately I do at least 1 load of laundry every single day. Or at least rotate a load from washer to dryer morning then night. We have a small stackable unit so it doesn't fit a ton and H's clothes are huge so that's a lot of loads!