Carrie Sue Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) My kids think we are the only ones in the world who take a couple hours (usually on the weekend) and clean as a family. And I'm not even talking deep cleaning...just sweeping under couches/tables and the rest of the floor, vacuuming carpets, dusting (maybe), wiping surfaces, folding clothes, and picking up/putting away. Now we may be different just because M-F we are never together...Dh works 2nd, I work 1st shift, kids go to 1/2 day classical school. But I wondered if other people have a better system than this...my kids are starting to say, "I HATE weekends!" Maybe we should get them busier every day? :) (ETA...we do do some things during the week, of course...the kids have an area to sweep almost every day, they clear table/counters and clean after meals and generally do little things as needed). Edited January 20, 2012 by Carrie Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 There wasn't an option for more than one, but we do daily and weekendly. :D Daily we have chore time first thing in the morning. Everyone gets up, makes their bed, gets dressed, tidies their room and bathroom, and then comes down for breakfast. On the weekends we all pitch in for about an hour or two to do the deeper cleaning - extra laundry, dusting, collecting trash, yardwork, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Togo Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We clean as a family on Saturday morning. We are all just too busy during the week for anything except dishes and laundry. We've got a routine and division of labor and knock it out in a few hours. It's not the most fun way to start the weekend, but we all like a clean house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathymuggle Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We do daily - for a grand total of 15 minutes, and we all do it at the same time. If I let people do it when they want to during the day, I end up nagging and waiting around for the job to be done. I also get a lot of "she only worked for 5 minutes and I worked for 15!" or peopel who promise to do it later - only to be invited out or something:glare: I find it easier on me to be drill sergeant around cleaning once a day for a period of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I have a set of chores that I do daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly. My children have chores as well. They are clearly printed on cards in their own slots for each day next to my dc's names. They earn tickets for each chore they do and get to spend their tickets every Saturday morning when I open up the reward boxes. My children have to make their beds, brush their teeth, get dressed, put laundry away, and spend 20 minutes each weekday reading. IF these are completed without being told they earn a ticket. If they are reminded to do any of these chores they are to still do the task but don't earn a ticket. We don't spend any alloted time cleaning together as a family. We don't have to since we do our daily chores. There will be times we all are picking up rooms and doing a quick tidy, so I guess you could call that family cleaning time. My kids are to have their bedrooms cleaned before bed each evening AND if they want extra computer, tv, or outside play time they have to have their rooms picked up before any of that takes place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We clean as a family on Saturday morning. We are all just too busy during the week for anything except dishes and laundry. We've got a routine and division of labor and knock it out in a few hours. It's not the most fun way to start the weekend, but we all like a clean house. This is our routine, too. I'm glad to be able to show this thread to my kids, too. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~FireFly~ Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Can I say "all the above"? We keep up with things daily/ hourly and do deep cleaning on weekends or as needed. Once upon a time, I had set chores posted in the kitchen with detailed intructions, now we just clean after ourselves and when something extra needs to be done -we do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newbie Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 family=momma does it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We do have a family cleaning time on Saturday mornings. We rotate the areas of the house on a weekly basis, so each area gets cleaned by an adult every 2 weeks. We call it Saturday chores, and everyone knows what they need to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We have A and B. We do a family clean up time after dinner. We get the kitchen tidy along with the rest of the house. Once a week we all participate in cleaning - dusting, vacuuming, floors, etc. It is a great thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in TN Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We do it all - everyone has daily chores, but we also have family cleaning time - this isn't scheduled, exactly, but it happens once or twice a week when things are getting out of hand. Everyone is designated an area to "whip into shape" for 20 minutes or so. Everyone is supposed to do "after-meal" clean-up, but we're having a hard time getting into that habit. :glare: We haven't tackled deep cleaning much - although we are slowly adding it in. I bought a long-handled duster to get the ceiling fans/lights and corner cobwebs. I'm telling everyone that if we go through each room once every 2 weeks or so, things will stay fairly dust-free. I think sometimes when you have lots of kids and/or little ones, it just takes longer to be able to fit those things into your "schedule" because just making and keeping ANY kind of schedule is a challenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
higginszoo Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 About half of the time, it's everybody all at the same time. The other half of the time, people do their set of cleaning jobs, but not at the same time, but usually Friday (required of children Scout camping on the weekend) or on the weekend. The dc have a weekly rotating schedule of household tasks that covers a majority of what needs to be done with cleaning (and cooking). Dh does most of the grocery shopping and laundry (there is a dc-assigned task to bring it down from the bedroom hampers and to help sort, and everyone puts away their own folded clothes, but dh washes, dries, folds). I pick up the slack in any area, especially with the youngest, and handle the heavier/nonweekly cleaning. There are some tasks on the kids' lists like cooking and dishes which need to get done daily, but for the most part, the cleanliness of the house degenerates during the week and then we whip it back into shape on the weekend. We don't have any neatnicks and only one truly messy person, so this generally works well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Sort of weekly. :) Small family, small house in the city = not all that much cleaning required. I did major cleaning on Fridays--laundry, bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming (in addition to any daily vacuuming), clean the car, everything. On Friday, because I wanted our weekends free for goofing off, and because I like easing into the week on Monday rather than having to worry about laundry and whatnot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I do most of the weekly/seasonal work, but the children keep things going on a daily basis. Actually I ended up using the same system as Mom and Dad used with us. Shortly before dinner is 'evening tidy up'. The house gets picked up, swept, vacuumed, trash and recycling taken out, and dirty laundry taken to the laundry room. The kids also help clean the kitchen after meals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenangelcat Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Several times a day. Once in the morning, again in the afternoon and after supper. Everyone helps gets everything done so it gets done faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6packofun Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 For the poll, the family time cleaning AND daily chores apply for us. Daily there are dishes and cleaning up the living room (and school stuff) before dad comes home. During the week but usually not daily, there is garbage to take out, bathrooms to tidy up, floors to sweep, etc. Our Saturday family clean consists of bathroom deep cleaning, vacuuming, yard work in warmer weather, dusting, and cleaning bedrooms. It doesn't take too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
---- Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 :lol: Please tell your kids they are NOT alone! We have always have a 'team' chore time every day AND on the weekends, because it means everything gets done and everyone helps. The kids also are responsible for their own bedrooms, a few regular chores like trash and pet feeding that don't get done as a team, their own laundry, and they each have small areas of the house that are their responsibility (ds4 has the strip of floor where the pet food and water dishes are, he has to keep that area clean. dd8 has the laundry room, ect). I think that having their own responsibilities that they complete when they need to be done is great for building up the habit of being responsible and reliable. I also think that it is great for the kids to learn to work as part of a team, and I think that it is important that the kids learn that it is everyone's responsibility to make the home a pleasant place to be and not just mom's job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamrachelle Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I definitely do more around the house than my DC do... but they help out. Daily. I'm a little bit of a neat freak and there is no way I could keep up with everything without their help. Plus, I think if they know they're going to have to put their things away, sweep the floors, etc they're a lot more likely to help keep things picked up and clean in the first place, KWIM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Oh, come on, someone join me in the "let it go until we can't stand it" category. :D We do keep things tidyish and dh and I do the dishes and everyone clears plates and so forth, but for the sweeping, dusting, bathroom cleaning, tidying of things that have built up cleaning, we just do it when it reaches some critical mass or when we're about to have company. But when that happens, I usually make the kids pitch in and they're very good about helping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebeccaS Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I chose weekly, all family, but it's more than that. :) My kids all have chores to do each day. For my girls that includes their laundry, cleaning their bathroom (they have a 1/2 bath in their basement bedroom), animal poo duty and more. They work on those lists M-Th, the days we school. Friday is "Family Cleaning Day" and the kids and I work on cleaning the house-sweeping floors, vacuuming, dusting, tidying main rooms, etc. I don't do cleaning days on Saturday because I want a day "off", too. Sundays are taken up with church. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I voted daily chore time for all, but my kids are still pretty little so I still do most of it. They help with general tidying and picking up of their own toys and things. Oldest dd puts away her own clothes after I sort them out. Older ds and younger dd are starting to help with their clothes a little. DH and I do most of the rest, though I think dd's ready to start learning a few more things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We do at least one 15 minute speed clean together every single day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 daily and weekends. I constantly am decluttering. I have found that if I am very diligent, especially on Friday afternoons, Saturday morning cleaning takes very little time, like less than an hour. If the house is decluttered and straightened, then it takes very little time to scrub bathrooms, mop floors, vacuum and mop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweiss Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I didn't know how to answer. My girls do have daily chores that they do (making their beds, putting away their own laundry that I've folded, refilling toilet paper in all of the bathrooms, sweeping the hardwood floors with the central vacuum, setting and clearing the table, etc.). I also ask them to do various small tasks daily. Also, our house is picked up daily. We aim for very little clutter. Then, once a week, we all work together to make sure that the house is perfectly ready for our two cleaning ladies to come. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Yes, we have a weekly family cleaning time. I do most of the work, but the kids are also cleaning (under dh's supervision). I could probably get the house clean quicker on my own, but I know it's good for them to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfunnybunch Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I couldn't vote because each of us has daily chores and we do a Saturday Family Cleaning. :) Cat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 family=momma does it In our case it is mom and dad. Kids are responsible for their own rooms, bathrooms and picking up their own clutter from around the house but that is about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I didn't vote. We used to clean as a family on Saturday mornings when the boys were small. We still had some daily chores, but knocked out the bigger stuff then. (We rocked out to the Beatles...:D) When we moved here 10 years ago, dh started to work Saturdays, and I just couldn't seem to follow thru with a family cleaning. We only do individual chores now, unless someone is coming over (like this weekend--parents are coming and we need to spruce up the place, so we'll be working together tonight). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNC Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) You want to see ours? It takes an hour every Saturday morning. I can cut and paste from Evernote. :) 14yo - with special needs: Strip bed of sheets and place in laundry room Empty all trash bins into large trash bag, carry to garage bin 10yob: Dust all downstairs baseboards and moldings Dust bedroom/straighten up Take off sheets and place in laundry room Dust special needs brother's room including baseboards Clean kid’s bathroom with sister 12yog: Dust chairs downstairs Dust stairs and upstairs hallway baseboards Dust Dad and Mom’s bedroom Take off sheets and place in laundry room Dust bedroom/straighten up Take off sheets and place in laundry room Clean kid’s bathroom with brother Mom: Deep clean kitchen Dust downstairs furniture, windowsills Organize closets/tidy up desks, paperwork, drawers and cabinets in kitchen and schoolroom Clean master and downstairs bathrooms Wash all sheets and towels in house! Dad: Clean out cars and garage Lawn care Sweep/dampmop hardwoods downstairs before Sun afternoon small group My Daily: laundry, all cooking and cleanup with help from kids, and tidying Edited January 20, 2012 by LNC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 There wasn't an option for more than one, but we do daily and weekendly. :D Daily we have chore time first thing in the morning. Everyone gets up, makes their bed, gets dressed, tidies their room and bathroom, and then comes down for breakfast. On the weekends we all pitch in for about an hour or two to do the deeper cleaning - extra laundry, dusting, collecting trash, yardwork, etc. This is how we do it. We all have daily chores, the kids have special Weds. chores, then Sat. we all pitch in with what needs to get done. I do mopping/vacuuming on Thurs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TammyinTN Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We all pitch in and clean bathrooms, vacuum, dust and mop on Friday evening/night. We get all bedding done on Saturday morning and towels. I hate cleaning on the weekend. During the week we just make sure at bedtime everything is put away and tidy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 I voted weekly family clean, but we actually do both that and daily chores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedClams Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 We are a both - daily chores, speed clean up daily while I prep dinner, and a weekly time. Our weekly time is Sunday (I know, horrors) but I can't start school mo day in a sloppy house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We do daily - for a grand total of 15 minutes, and we all do it at the same time. If I let people do it when they want to during the day, I end up nagging and waiting around for the job to be done. I also get a lot of "she only worked for 5 minutes and I worked for 15!" or peopel who promise to do it later - only to be invited out or something:glare: I find it easier on me to be drill sergeant around cleaning once a day for a period of time. This is what we do. There is no way I could keep my kids motivated for 2 hours in one day. Part of that is my dislike for cleaning rubbing off on them. We can do 15 or 20 minutes a day though, and there is very little complaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I coudn't pick two. We try to have a weekly family cleaning time. Includes, changing beds, vacuum, dusting, kitchen, bathrooms, & basic tidying. But, we also try to do a 10min cleanup every few days. This is mostly a basic clean up and tidying...whatever we can do in 10. It's amazing how much we can spiff in 10 min. But, it is getting harder to do the weekly cleanup because my kids are older and often busy on the weekends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virg Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We have a daily big and a daily small chore for each child. It rotates each week. They can do their chore whenever they like during the day as long as it is done before they play. (Twins get up and do it before school and the other two wait until after school generally.) On Saturday everyone can relax until 10, but then they need to get around and eat. After everyone is done eating there is a family cleaning time. I may or may not help depending on what I have left to do. My chores are cooking, laundry and folding, and homeschooling/correcting/planning. If I don't have any planning or financial stuff to work on then I help. Some Saturdays I spend the entire day catching up on planning or trying to implement new accommodations for the kids' special needs other Saturdays I do deep cleaning that the kids just can't do right :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalknot Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We don't have a big weekly clean. Our lifestyle is too hectic, and there are too many people living here for that to be as -or more- effective. I can see that working well for a mid-size, traditional family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceful Isle Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I do most of the cleaning around the house during the week. The kids take care of their own rooms etc.. Sat. is altogether different :) My kids each have a few chores that they specifically know how to do, - dishes, vacuum , bathrooms, etc.. that they help me with, and I usually reward them with something if they go over and above their regular jobs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieJ Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We cleaned on Fridays. Half day of whatever school/book work needed to be done. Then we cleaned. I called it Lifeskills class. They were not amused or fooled, but it got done and then we had the weekends to relax, sleep in on Saturday, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 My kids think we are the only ones in the world who take a couple hours (usually on the weekend) and clean as a family. And I'm not even talking deep cleaning...just sweeping under couches/tables and the rest of the floor, vacuuming carpets, dusting (maybe), wiping surfaces, folding clothes, and picking up/putting away. Now we may be different just because M-F we are never together...Dh works 2nd, I work 1st shift, kids go to 1/2 day classical school. But I wondered if other people have a better system than this...my kids are starting to say, "I HATE weekends!" Maybe we should get them busier every day? :) (ETA...we do do some things during the week, of course...the kids have an area to sweep almost every day, they clear table/counters and clean after meals and generally do little things as needed). We do it daily, but that is because there are so many of us and it would be a disaster to only do it on the weekends. Add my husband's unpredictable schedule to that. However, when I was growing up, we had our daily chore and we spent EVERY Saturday morning cleaning as a family. Laundry, sweeping, mopping, bedrooms, bathrooms, yard work...you name it. Mom and Stepdad worked M-F. Kids were at school M-F. Sunday, kids were sent off to church and parents got a break. So Saturday it was! After our chores, we could go off an play or wander the town to our hearts' content.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMomof4 Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We do weekend deep cleaning on Sat. morning before we do anything else. Vacuum, bathrooms, dusting, towels, bath mats - all the things I don't want to do during the week. We've convinced all our neighbors its a great thing so the kids don't feel too persecuted - all their friends are cleaning too. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We play "the clean up game". My aunts and I grew up playing it too. All the jobs are written on individual slips of paper, take turns drawing, and trade jobs if you want. We put on some good music and get to it. You can be free for the weekend as soon as you've done all of your jobs, (each task has to pass inspection). I like it because it's a little fun in the beginning, everyone knows exactly what they need to do, and mom gets to make sure some of the little things that needed to get done, get done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 We clean as a family on Saturday morning. We are all just too busy during the week for anything except dishes and laundry. We've got a routine and division of labor and knock it out in a few hours. It's not the most fun way to start the weekend, but we all like a clean house. this is what we do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 We do a few different things. Our morning routine includes me cleaning the toilet while the kids clean the bathroom, also they clean the dining room while I (and sometimes dh) do the washing up and quick kitchen wipe/tidy. Most days we also have one or two sessions of "chores" which can be anything I think needs doing the most. I try to vary this so it's sometimes everyday stuff (eg folding and putting away clean clothes, vacuuming) and sometimes a bit different (eg polish all the shoes, declutter a cupboard). Every so often we'll do a Bedroom blitz, which is where we take an hour or so to clean up all the bedrooms together, one after the other. Then we have buckets full of occasional tasks, and every so often we get to draw a job from those. With the job buckets we have one called Family Fun, which is full of activities that we schedule after the jobs are done. Apart from the above, we're trying to cultivate the habit of cleaning up after oneself, which is great in theory but a challenge for adults and kids alike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Daily-because it would be unlivable if I left it to weekly. When dh and I were just married and working we did it weekly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.