cleaning (someone else's) house

[athomeontheprairie]

A good friend is a...poor... housekeeper. She lives on a working hobby farm and over the past two years we've traded goods (clothes, outgrown bike, babysitting services, homeschool classes, etc) for farm goods. It's worked out well for both of us.

Yesterday she approached me about coming and cleaning her house in exchange for goods. I would love to help her. And I would be glad to help her without the exchange, because she seems to genuinely need it. The problem for me is: I dont' have a clue where to start. There is STUFF everywhere. Good stuff, Bad stuff, Stuff to be donated.

Do you start in the kitchen? So that when you make it into the family room you have a place to put the dirty dishes that have wandered off? Do you start with the play room? Sorting the toys in there and cleaning up that room so that toys from the family room/kitchen have a place to go? Even if it's out of the way? Do you start with the family room and then when it is cleaned up deal with the mess you've added to the other rooms?

If I'm cleaning, how should I handle "Keep this, get rid of this, donate this" (For the record she KNOWS she has items in each of these categories)

Please walk me through cleaning someone else's home? I would like to be able to help her. I know that when my house is a disaster I can't think straight. Neither can my husband. I think she is INCREDIBLY brave to ask for help, and am humbled that she was willing to ask. (Maybe you don't think so, but asking for this type of personal help would be so hard for me)

 

Thanks Hive!

[Flowing Brook]

I would start in the kitchen. My whole house can be a disaster area but if the kitchen is clean it does not bother me so much. Then I would focus on the bathrooms.  I would personally just stack her stuff up neatly and do the cleaning. If you wanted to help her with the organizing I would offer to come over and do it with her its next to impossible to organize and declutter for someone else. Bless you for your kindness.

[momto10blessings]

I would start in the kitchen. My whole house can be a disaster area but if the kitchen is clean it does not bother me so much. Then I would focus on the bathrooms. I would personally just stack her stuff up neatly and do the cleaning. If you wanted to help her with the organizing I would offer to come over and do it with her its next to impossible to organize and declutter for someone else. Bless you for your kindness.

This sounds like a plan. I'd probably bring boxes a and just put all stuff in them. I doubt you'll know where to put her stuff and what is stuff to be kept, thrown away or donated.

[Farrar]

I think starting with the kitchen is the best plan too, because while there are personal things in a kitchen, it's much easier to know as a general cook what someone really needs and doesn't and what makes an organized kitchen space. It's a more universal thing than someone's living room or certainly than bedrooms or offices. And then hopefully from there you can work up a rhythm of you cleaning out and presenting trash and donation piles for her to approve by doing it with extra garlic presses and out of date food before you're doing it with more personal stuff like books and files and toys.

[Miss Tick]

I agree that she is brave, and how awesome you can help! Is this s one-time thing, or something on going? I would suggest starting in the kitchen because it is easier to make a nice large "clean spot", start the dishwasher, hand wash the rest, clear off the counters, clear off the table, sweep (and wash?) the floor. Then work out into the family room, but leave time to come back and clean up the things that collect anew in the kitchen.

 

Sooo much easier to theoretically clean someone else's house than my own!

[Garga]

Before doing a lick of cleaning, I'd do a major, painful, no sentiment-allowed decluttering. You can NOT keep something clean if there is clutter.

 

She needs to declutter to the point that every drawer and every closet has blank spaces in it. For off season stuff she needs a bunch of plastic bins to store things in wherever she has space (attic, basement, garage, etc.)

 

Actually, she'll/you'll probably have to declutter the attic/basement/garage first so that as you move through the house decluttering there's somewhere to store the off season stuff.

 

I learned this lesson this summer. I spent 6-7 weeks decluttering the house for about 3 hours a day (because it was boiling hot after 11:00 a.m.) That was about 100 hours of decluttering. Before decluttering, even with trying to keep up with it, my house would turn into a distaster within a week and a level from Dante's hell within 2 weeks. It would take 10-12 hours to clean it back up.

 

After decluttering, even if I barely lift a finger to clean it the house looks a little messy within a week. After two weeks it's looking a bit embarrassing, but not too bad. And I can get the whole thing done (excluding the kitchen--that's a different story) in about 4 hours.

 

On the weeks where I keep up with the house, it stays just beautiful all week long. It's like a dream come true for me. I'm 41 and this is the first time it's almost effortless to clean the house.

 

DECLUTTER FIRST.

[hornblower]

Use laundry baskets or large Rubbermaid bins to sort: stuff to throw out, give away & the "I don't know" and also use bins for things that need to go to another room.

 

You can use a row of bins with paper labels stuck to the wall above them.

 

To help her declutter and organize, try to just put similar things together. Toys, books, stacks of paperwork, laundry.

 

I'd probably start with kitchen and then living areas.

[AmyontheFarm]

Kitchen first.  Peel it back like an onion. 

Clear the sink.

Empty the garbage can

Start dishwasher

Handwash any pots, etc.  Immediately put them away.

Clear the counter to the right of the sink.  Wash, Toss, Put away

Clear the counter to the left of the sink. Wash, Toss, Put away

Never peal back more that 2 linear feet of counter at a time.  Take baby steps.

Have plenty of garbage bags.

Toss a load into the washing machine of clothes, rags, etc.

Once all the flat surfaces are cleared, go after anything on the floor.

 

I've spent an entire day with one woman just in her kitchen. I could tell the mice had never made it into the upper cupboards, so I left those for last.  The bottom cupboards where cleared out, everything washed and put back in.  She was a pile builder.  I did wash the outside of the cupboard doors, the fridge inside and out was cleaned.  The appliances on the counters were cleaned.  We basically bleached everything because she had a mouse problem.  We found were they were living also. 

 

My kitchen is large but I try to keep very little stuff in it because of how I was raised.  I was surprised that I could spend 10 hours just in one room cleaning and not be done it all!  It helped her but after a few years she was back in the same state.  She likes my kitchen but won't understand that the reason she likes mine is because I try to keep very little stuff in it.

 

 

[StephanieZ]

Having boxes with labels is hugely helpful. I think the post above about the benefit of decluttering first is very insightful. Of course, you can't do that without her input, so if she can work along side you sorting things at least, that'd be great. "Donate" "Keep/Use" "Keep/Store" and "Garbage" seem like obvious labels to me. If she can't work along side you, then you'll have limited success cleaning up since you can't unilaterally trash stuff, and you won't know where things go, so that seems rather hopeless. If she can help you sort things, then you can help her immensely by leading the process and doing much of the manual labor of moving/storing/cleaning. 

 

I'd want to start with at least a dozen large clear plastic bins and at least a dozen cardboard boxes and plenty of garbage bags.

 

I agree with prioritizing the kitchen. Personally, I'd start with the kitchen. Make it "Just so" and put any excess into stacked boxes (ideally stacked in a corner of the garage or some other out of the way place) to be re-homed as you proceed. Label the excess as to what room it belongs in or by some other logical category (toys, knickknacks, etc.) 

 

Then I'd move into the family room, etc. One room at a time. 
 

[bolt.]

I'd start at the dishwasher and kitchen sink, but I wouldn't do the complete kitchen first. Instead I'd hold off on most of the kitchen (beyond sink, dishwasher, and every-day dishware) until after I had done the main eating area and the area beside the door the family uses to enter/exit the home.

 

These 3 "primary areas" (very-daily-use places in the kitchen, eating zone, family-use entryway) are the ones that make the house "feel clean" to live in. "Secondary areas" are toilets, showers and bed/bedside. The basic idea of my set of priorities is to clean areas based on how often they are used, and how much their look-and-feel actually matters to the life that goes on, and also kind-of based on the order in which you encounter them in a day.

 

If she is messy, having various rooms cluttered and various countertops, corners and closets that are being ignored because they have been made useless is "normal" to her. What bothers her is when the mess actually makes life difficult. Focusing on frequency-of-use makes the most sense.

[Lawana]

If this is going to be an ongoing thing, I also would have to declutter first. But unlike others, I would start in the places that things are put away, such as closets. Use the 3 category approach. Keep, trash/donate, can't decide. That would of course need her input. I am assuming she can work beside you during the declutter.

 

I just personally can't stand trying to clean a hopelessly cluttered area. And if there is no place to put stuff away, then you are just shifting it about. I would tackle a kid's closet first, emptying it completely, then only returning the definite keep stuff. Completely remove any trash/donate stuff from the house, so you have more breathing room. Then clean the bedroom, again getting rid of unused/unneeded stuff. Now any kid belongings anywhere else in the house can be put away. Do all the kids' rooms, then the master bedroom. If there is an office area, do that. From there I would move to the living room and family room, first putting away items that belong in bedrooms before declutttering the remaining items. Only then would I do the bathrooms and kitchen.

 

I would guess a badly cluttered house would take weeks of work. Whew! What a project!

[Guest]

She needs to declutter to the point that every drawer and every closet has blank spaces in it. For off season stuff she needs a bunch of plastic bins to store things in wherever she has space (attic, basement, garage, etc.)

This is what I recommend, too. When there is clutter as well as dirt, I think it is best to start with a closet, especially a linen closet, or front closet. If you start in the kitchen, it gets messy again so fast, it's discouraging. Also, getting a kitchen cleaned up, as an "emergency" measure makes it then easier to fail to get around to the rest of the house. Even starting with a bedroom is better than the kitchen, because the results are longer-lasting and easier to stay on top of while you start new habits.

[athomeontheprairie]

Thank you everyone! You've given me things to consider as we start on this journey.

 

This is what I recommend, too. When there is clutter as well as dirt, I think it is best to start with a closet, especially a linen closet, or front closet. If you start in the kitchen, it gets messy again so fast, it's discouraging. Also, getting a kitchen cleaned up, as an "emergency" measure makes it then easier to fail to get around to the rest of the house. Even starting with a bedroom is better than the kitchen, because the results are longer-lasting and easier to stay on top of while you start new habits.

For this reason, I'm a little surprised so many people recommended the kitchen first. it is always the very last room in my house that I work on, always. if I can get stuck in there for so long and then by tomorrow you would never know it...

[Storygirl]

I don't think I'd start in the kitchen, either. You can spend hours cleaning in there, and the next day, it will be a mess again, unless there is no cooking or eating going on. I'd work on the clutter/closets.

[Garga]

I agree with the others about NOT starting in the kitchen. I, too, was surprised that so many people suggested it. Just today, my dh and I cleaned the kitchen 4 times. We cooked three meals, my son made some homemade bread, and I made a stew to take to a party. The first cleaning was just as messy as the 4th. It was like we didn't touch it each and every time. A kitchen is terribly difficult to keep clean. It's always the last room I work on because it's just so discouraging.

 

I still maintain that the storage places need to be cleaned out first, and then when you have actual storage space, start cleaning up. I agree with others about starting in little used rooms first, like bedrooms or offices, or whichever room they use the least. It will stay clean longer since people aren't in it as much and will be encouraging.