Elusive housecleaning goals - we're fine with the surface, I want to actually plan an attack of the depths

[Soror]

"Maybe it would help if you prioritized the things that bother you the most?"

 

I want rules, lists, schedules.  I think that's what I'm missing.  I'm relying on my brain and at this stage of life, that's just not cutting it.  I tried Flylady but those emails were ... insane.

Can you do Flylady without the emails?  Does she have a list.  I'll go check her site out.  Maybe things have changed - it was so annoying, but maybe that was the point.  Be annoyed or get off the computer and go clean, lol.

 

Requesting S.H.E. from library.  And Home Comforts.  I need getting whites "white" again help as well.  I need a maid...

 

Alice.  I need the Brady Bunch's "Alice"!!!

I did Motivated Moms years ago and it was perfect for me. It had a daily list to check that automatically rotated through monthly, weekly, seasonal tasks. 

 

These days I do the extras when I've got time and energy. I usually deep clean the whole house 2-4 times a year. I go through phases where I just ignore little things and then when they drive me crazy(as mentioned above). 

 

Having the house cleared of clutter and organized is the biggest thing b/c when you've got it cleared out it is a whole lot faster to do those deep cleaning jobs. 

 

My house isn't perfect but I'm not aiming for perfect, generally as clean as we need/want it to be.

Edited July 10, 2016 by soror

[Julie Smith]

This topic loooked much funnier when I thought it was about those, "Elusive housecleaning GOATS". 

 

If you find out about those, please start a new thread. :p The idea of a housecleaning goat sounds unique. 

[kwickimom]

Ok, look at the picture of the bed. Is that her real bed?! She has 10 pillows on her bed! 10! That right there, imo, is a waste of time taken to move and arrange those pillows every day. 10 pillows. Does anyone here have that many pillows? I have 4 on my king size bed and that is almost too many for me.

 

Ok, I went to her videos. Yes, she does have 10 pillows on her bed.She also has a video on how to simplify your life. I'm sorry, I will show my prejudice here, but I'm not going to take advice on how to simplify my life from someone who has 10 pillows on their bed. 

 

 

Her simplifying your life video is actually pretty good. She doesn't have a lot of stuff otherwise- I wouldn't judge her on her pillows LOL

[momee]

Pillows are nice.  I have quite a few.

 

just fyi - I'm not judging :)

[Zinnia]

This is a great thread.

 

I used to do Motivated Moms, and I loved it.  Then I started homschooling, and it is so hard for me to keep up.  This year, however, my 4th grader, who is my hardest student is going to school.  I'll just have a preschooler, K, and 2nd grader at home, and I hope that I can get back to some more deep cleaning.  I loved it when I kept up with MM.  I felt so on top of things.

[Ausmumof3]

Maybe the pillows bring her joy.

 

I did the home routines app for a while. It is the most customisable app I've found for home stuff I even put school planning on there.

 

The downside was it was on my phone.

[Mom-ninja.]

*sheepishly raises hand*

 

I admit to having 12 pillows on my bed, 10 of which are decorative. But it is not my fault!

 

Growing up, my Mum always grumbled about my bed not being made and insisted I go make it. I thought it was a waste of time.

 

I moved out over twenty years ago and she is still passive-agressively determined that I make my bed. For Christmas she bought me a bedding set that is completely decorative. The quilt is not usable, but is just for looks. Ten decorative pillows and a throw blanket complete the set. It takes me forever to make the bed and I think about how much of a waste of time it is every time I make it. I also only make it about half the time. The other days I have a decorative cover, throw blanket, and ten pillows covering the floor of my room.

My mom used to gift me things to passive-aggressively decorate my house like she wanted or to give my kids things I didn't want them to have. At first I grumbled and muttered under my breath about it every time I saw whatever it was she had purchased. I finally, read in a cleaning/organizing book that you are never obligated to keep something someone gives you. Ever. Oh, my goodness that was like a huge epiphany for me. So, I get rid of everything I wanted to, and I warned her that would not keep things she gives me if I don't want it. She still tried a few times but I followed through. She has stopped trying to decorate my house now. 

 

If you like the bedding set keep it. If you don't like it don't keep it.

 

 I wouldn't judge her on her pillows LOL

 

I bet you never thought you'd say that sentence ever.  :lol:

 

Maybe the pillows bring her joy.

 

True enough. Maybe I'm just prejudiced against pillows. They are a bane for me due to the never ending impossible battle with dust mites so my kids can breath. The thought of washing all those pillows every single week....The thought of moving them to get into bed and then putting them back.....  Reminds me of the scene from that movie, Something About Polly. 

[minuway]

The point I was trying to share with the video is the zones - like fly lady but personalized -  but if the images of multiple pillows is a deal killer, I get it. I take the inspiration where I can get it, ymmv.

[LucyStoner]

Is that piece of baseboard behind the toilet in your master bathroom clean right now? What about your sheets, did you wash them this week? And clean towels, are they hanging ready for company to use, lol. My bedroom windows are just, dirty. Not filthy embarrassing, but dirty from the seasonal pollen and summer junk floating about.

 

I want friends to talk to me about housecleaning...I've been a homemaker 21 years but the discipline, the regularity. It eludes me. Maybe I need an ironing day, bathroom day, etc like the old days.

 

Care to share with me how you are so thorough - who taught you, how long does it take to clean your house at that level? Do you hire someone, lol?!

 

I do well with the surface, we have eliminated all knick knacks and junk from the main living level of our home.

 

 

The floor and what passes for a bathroom baseboard behind the toilet in an apartment (so a vinyl strip) is clean for both bathrooms. I clean the bathrooms except for inside the cabinets top to bottom about 1x a week. Sheets were changed yesterday, which is something I do 1-2x a week (2 is mostly in the summer). Clean towels hanging for company to use? Nope. We have towels for each member of the family and I hang a clean towel by the hall bathroom sink (hopefully, if I remember) when there is a guest coming. Presently most of our bath towels are in a basket waiting for my son to fold them. The inside windows and window frame are wiped clean every 1-2 weeks. I let the apartment manager deal with the exterior windows, which they do about 2x a year.

 

I taught myself to keep house in so far as cleaning goes by reading Home Comforts and jiggering around with my system. We have had paid help in the past but it's been just us for 4 years.

 

I occasionally fall off the wagon cleaning wise so please don't read the answers above and think that I have all my shit together all of the time. While my apartment is clean, there is a not insignificant amount of laundry to do today and a tremendous mess in my sons' room that will take them more than their usual 15 minute clean to tidy. There's also a perma pile of kid art and papers on the piano and about 20 pictures I want to rehang. I don't make my bed, I just air it and throw the covers back on. If I'm feeling fancy, I will retuck the sheet at the bottom of the bed. I never tuck the sides. My storage closet needs serious attention. I need to cull books and homeschool stuff as I have one pile of books that is being stored in a corner of the living room and another than is living next to the full homeschool bookcases. I am generally clean but I am so not hot stuff or laboring under the delusion that it's perfect or needs to be perfect.

 

I have a general list of daily, biweekly, weekly, bimonthly, monthly and less frequent seasonal task list I work through. When I was first getting the hang of it when we got married almost 15 years ago (I grew up in something just short of a pigsty and didn't want my bad habits to send him packing, lol) I had an exact schedule. Now for the most part I have it as a general rhythm. If I get off track, I will occasionally put myself back on the schedule, either by posting a list or by setting phone reminders. I still have some of those reminders pop up on my phone because I haven't deleted all of them. I have a visual image of what each space looks like clean and what goes there and where and I just try to recreate that as is reasonable.

 

When we are cleaning as a family we divvy it up on the large white board in the hall and race through it a bit.

 

Another book I can reccomend is the SideTracked Home Executive.