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How do you clean your house?
I know I sound like a total bimbo asking this, but Im pretty inefficient at cleaning my house. DH and I are moving into a new house in a couple weeks and Im taking this opportunity to revamp my cleaning technique. Currently I have probably 6 different vaccuums, mops, brooms etc that I switch out for each floor type, 5 different cleaning solutions under every sink and I use way too many paper towels!
Its hard to get DH and I on the same page because Im an environmentalist who would pour white vinegar on everything if it were up to me, but hes in the "if it doesnt smell like bleach or pine sol its not clean" camp. So apparently the compromise is some kind of earth friendly solutions that still leave a nose-hair burning stench to make him happy? I dont know.
So what are your processes, tools, tricks, solutions etc? Whats your feeling on a steam mop for wood and linoleum? How liberally do you use bleach or have you found a good substitute for it? Can you help me simplify my cleaning life so I dont have to push a cart around my house like hotel housekeeping?
Re: How do you clean your house?
My husband is the better cleaner then I, but we use white vinegar on everything, natural glass cleaner on windows/mirrors/stainless steel, and meyer's on our floors and furniture when we don't use vinegar.
For carpets, we vacuum them and do nothing else.
Our hardwood and tile, we sweep, vacuum, and then clean it hands and knees style with rags. We have a small house so this has never been an issue and we think it goes pretty quickly.
Our furniture gets dusted with either meyer's or w. vinegar.
Bathroom toilet only gets bleach once in a great while, we mostly use vinegar. We scrub our bathtub with a scrub brush and white vinegar.
We don't use paper towels we use all reusable rags. We use flat diapers to clean with. We have one roll of 7th generation paper towels just in case.
I bet you're excited to move into your new place!
We have a cleaning service that comes once a month...best $80 I'll ever spend. They do the deep cleaning (every shelf, floor, toilet/shower, etc.). Then every week or so, it's just upkeep.
We use our dyson and then a rag with vinegar or 7th generation cleaner on the hardwood and kitchen. Our house now is so small that we can easily do this on our hands and knees in 15 minutes. We've also used Meyers and Method products. We do use paper towels for some things...I buy bounty "huge" rolls, though, b/c they last so much longer than other brands. It takes me at least 2 weeks to go through a roll.
Now that we're moving to the burbs, we'll be doing the cleaning on our own since our mortgage/bills are higher. Plus, our cleaner doesn't go out to Ardmore. I feel like a spoiled brat saying this, but we're not looking forward to cleaning my own house. I want my weekends to be spent with Oliver, not scrubbing a toilet.
Method is a non-toxic line of cleaning products found at Target, online, and at various other stores in the Philly area (Target is your best bet though). They are reasonably priced, and many of their products serve dual purposes. Personally, I love their Squirt + Mop Hard Floor or Wood Floor cleaner. You can use either one on all of your flooring, so no need to switch between the two (actually says it on the bottle somewhere). Plus, there's no rinsing required. Like the name implies, just squirt it on the floor and mop. Every now and then, I'll break out the mop & pinesol, but I generally just use the Squirt + Mop.
And I stopped messing around with brooms. Our Hoover vaccuum has a bare floor setting that I use on hardwood floors, kitchen, and bathroom. To get under cabinets or in tight corners, I just use the hose attachment. So much easier than fiddling about with brooms and dust pans.
I also use a glass + multisurface cleaner (by Method, of course, lol). I keep one upstairs in the linen closet, and one downstairs in the kitchen. I can wipe down, glass, mirrors, cabinets, etc. I use paper towels for the mirrors & glass, but rewasahable microfiber rags for everything else. Same goes for furniture. I use Pledge multisurface on a rewashable microfiber rag on our wood stuff, and if something else looks a little dusty, I give it a swipe too.
And finally, I keep a rool of Clorex wipes in the bathrooms and one in the kitchen. They are really good for quick cleanups. Yes, they are a little pricey, but they are sooo convenient.
My cleaning techniques and cleaners are similar to lachute's. I've switched over to all homemade and a couple natural cleaners in the house. Mr.D was fussy at first that I wasn't buying his lemon-scented 409 but I just didn't buy it anymore and he had to deal. I use either straight vinegar or vinegar/water mix with some tea tree essential oil for it's antibacterial properties and some lemon essential oil so Mr.D gets his lemon scent. Vinegar is an excellent grease cutter so it works great on the stove and microwave.
We have hardwood floors with two area rugs that get vacuumed once a week. I'll only mop them with Murphy's oil/water if Mr.D or the dog has dragged in a lot of dirt but that may only be once every two months.
We use reusable rags for wiping down the counters, appliances and for dusting. The bathroom sinktop gets the vinegar treatment and the toilet and tub gets a baking soda and vinegar scrub.
If you'd like an alternative to bleach, try oxygen bleach - much less toxic.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
E, I totally understand. We had a cleaner twice a month at our old house too and it was fabulous and well worth the money even though I too felt like a spolied brat! But our new house is twice as big and its likely that the budget will not allow a cleaning person so I need to get this down to a science thats efficient, affordable, and earth friendly. I probably should have just wrote that one sentence instead of my three-paragraph post huh!?! Almost moving day for you too!! Exciting.
Also, it's easier said than done, but try not to let it all pile up. For instance, I mopped the kitchen floor last night with vinegar. Took me 1 minute to sweep and about 5 minutes to mop. Besides sweeping once a week, I won't mop it again for another 2-3 weeks. Mr.D will take 10 minutes on a weeknight to clean the toilet, bathroom sink and mirror. We try and split chores up during the week so it's not so overwhelming on the weekend.
I'm not sure how much housework that your husband does but I am so very grateful that Mr.D shares the work equally.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
I sign a check for $90 every two weeks.
Yeah that's right my name's Yauch!
I feel like a slob right now.
I must get better at this. I'm embarrassed to share my cleaning habits with you all.
Like lachute, we use reusable rags and mrs meyers only in our house. Glass and hard surfaces are cleaned with Sun and Earth glass cleaner or multipurpose cleaner. The bathroom is cleaned with Barkeeper's Friend and baking soda. Our carpets and upholstery are vacuumed weekly and we have a microfiber wet/dry mop that can be thrown in the washing machine.
We take care of housework like it is weekend homework--jump right in on Friday night after work. It takes the two of us about an hour to clean (dust, vacuum, swiffer/mop) our entire house and get the laundry started.
With Maren toddling around, I would recommend reading the ingredients and making your choices from there. We started to pay more attention to our cleaning products when we added Julia to our house. I didn't want any emergency trips to the vet from her licking something that was toxic.
Exactly. I was on a good run for awhile making my own solutions primarily out of white vinegar but then DH got laid off and started picking up cleaning duty and slowly the toxic chemicals made their way back into our house. Im using the new house as my excuse to start over and find something we can both live with. I use a lot of seventh generation at the moment but Ill have to check out Meyers too--their bottles always catch my eye but with a baby monster wiggling and kicking items off the shelf or throwing toilet plungers around the aisle, I never have time to read through my options. I need to go to Target alone just once.
so since we're on this topic-we have 2 cats and I feel like our place is always dirty, and I should be vacuuming every day.
cat owners: how often do you vacuum/sweep/whatever you need to do to get rid of hair and whatnot?
i brush ours everyday since she is in shedding season. but we vacuum our couches once a week.
Have you explained to your DH the reasons why you prefer natural cleaners? Like I mentioned before, Mr.D was having a fit over me not buying the cleaners we used to regularly use because he liked the "clean" smell. But because of my asthma and the new baby, I stressed the importance of not having toxic chemicals in the house. In addition to ingesting them, they give off harmful vapors and remain on surfaces that your baby will put their mouth and hands. When I actually showed him information in books and online that showed that homemade natural cleaners are just as effective as the toxic ones, it finally started clicking.
I just recently read this book and it gave me a lot of great cleaner recipes and lists all of the best natural and non-toxic brands for cleaning and personal use:
http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Green-Living-Ultimate-Eco-Friendly/dp/B001UE71FC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308151871&sr=8-1
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Watching Food Inc is exactly what turned around Mr.D. He wouldn't really listen to anything I said about it, but as soon as he saw that documentary! It's like he didn't want to admit I knew what I was talking about! Now he'll read the labels at the supermarket with me, when before, he could care less.
If you like watching documentaries, I just saw Bag It. It's about plastic and was really eye-opening. Oil consumption an demand (and therefore, costs) would go down if we stopped being such a disposable society (not to mention the amount of garbage).
On a side note, it's amazing to me that there haven't been more connections being made between the antibiotics and hormones in meat and dairy and higher rates of cancer and other diseases, infertility, autism and early puberty in kids.
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Me too. And my go-to are Mr. Clean Magic Erasers...for everything.
Although I recently reignited my love affair with baking soda. I scrubbed my sink and it looks brand freaking new.
Jess, I only started changing everything over a few months ago so you can definitely do it. Instead of getting rid of everything at once, try replacing stuff with either homemade or good natural cleaners from a store as you run out. Then it won't seem so overwhelming.
For anyone not interested in making their own, good natural cleaner brands found at the store include:
Biokleen, Citra-Solv, Ecover, Method, Mrs. Meyer's and 7th Generation.
ETA: Forgot Sun and Earth products too!
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
Visit www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org. Talks about the "pinkwashing" of the breast cancer cause. There is a section specifically dedicated to the connection of hormones in milk, breast cancer and the large corporations that are involved in manufacturing rBGH. http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/?page_id=2
I mostly avoid hormones in food for fear that my daughter will have breasts bigger than my own by age 4. Its good motivation to keep it natural!
I did buy a Green Works cleaner (it's a line from Clorox) recently, and we use Method hand soap. So I guess I'm not ENTIRELY an earth killer. I'll have to work on it.
And that is made locally--in King of Prussia!!!