How many hours a week

[Excelsior! Academy]

does it take you to clean your house? 

[SparklyUnicorn]

To what level of cleanliness?

 

:lol:

[medawyn]

All of them. Or at least that's how it feels.

[mamaraby]

What Sparkly said, but also who is doing the cleaning? If my kids do it? It's probably faster, but they aren't exactly the most...thorough.

 

If my kids do it, I can go for a long run (2 1/2h) and they'll have the house clean enough for company before I get back with about twenty minutes of me doing finishing touches afterwards. If all five of us are working on it together and I get lost in mom's picky rabbit trails, it could take call day.

Edited April 19, 2017 by mamaraby

[SparklyUnicorn]

And what is included?  Is laundry?  Is dinner?  Are errands? 

 

I suppose those aren't all cleaning, but they are kinda lumped into the same category of "shi* I gotta do".

 

 

[JudoMom]

I can get my house cleaned in 3 hours, 4 if it's unusually cluttered and there's a lot to put away.  That's not a deep clean, but all rooms dusted, all mirrors cleaned, all toilets cleaned, all sinks and counters cleaned, appliances wiped, and all flooring vacuumed, swept, and mopped.

 

ETA:  3 br, 3.5 bath 2 story with a finished basement (playroom and school room).

Edited April 19, 2017 by JudoMom

[OneStepAtATime]

Are we talking basic straightening and the dishes not in the sink?

 

Mopping and vaccuming too?

 

Cleaning the baseboards?

 

Cleaning the windows inside and out?

 

Full blown spic and span scrub from top to bottom including dusting the ceiling fans and the tops of the cabinets and the light switches, etc.?

 

There are many levels of clean.  :)

[Lang Syne Boardie]

3br, 1.5 bath, one story ranch = three hours

 

Cobweb, dust, sweep, vacuum, mop whole house

Thoroughly clean the bathrooms including scrubbing tub and mopping

Baseboards, frames and switches, and inside of the windows in the main rooms

Take out the trash

Thorough kitchen cleaning (not counting insides of cupboards or fridge)

Sweep the front porch and walk

 

Give me another hour and I can change all the sheets, wash the breakfast dishes, and Polish the furniture.

 

If anyone else is home (my boys are teens and adults), add six or seven hours and forget about the mopping. Also, obviously, derail me by sending me to town for yet more groceries.

[Pawz4me]

Not many. I do a little every day and it stays pretty clean. But we're all adults here, the dog is non shedding and the cat is elderly and doesn't move much. It was a LOT more time consuming when the boys were younger.

[Excelsior! Academy]

Are we talking basic straightening and the dishes not in the sink?

 

Mopping and vaccuming too?

 

Cleaning the baseboards?

 

Cleaning the windows inside and out?

 

Full blown spic and span scrub from top to bottom including dusting the ceiling fans and the tops of the cabinets and the light switches, etc.?

 

There are many levels of clean.   :)

 

 

Company level clean.  Not necessarily thoroughly deep cleaned, but toilets, mirrors, floors, etc. 

[Excelsior! Academy]

All of them. Or at least that's how it feels.

 

 

Me too!! Hence the question.

[Excelsior! Academy]

All of them. Or at least that's how it feels.

 

 

Me too!! Hence the question.

[2_girls_mommy]

I don't do it all in one go either. I do the Flylady routines. So I have a few things I clean daily in the mornings and every evening. I do laundry constantly all day every day, but making sure that most is put away immediately. Occasionally some sits, but not a lot and not for long. 

 

I use FlyLady's one hour home blessing as my go to for everyday cleaning. She has 7 steps you are supposed to do in about an hour once a week, then 15 min. in a particular zone each day. I dont' do the 7 steps in one hours most of the time. I usually keep the steps in my mind and do 1 or 2 a day in around 15 minutes. If I do something each day, plus general pick up at the end of each day and as much as possible behind a 3 yr old while homeschooling 2 olders, it doesn't get too bad. Everyone helps with pick up before bed. Then I also don't get to the 15 minutes deep cleaning in the zone every day either, but I try to do something once or twice a week in the zone.  So if the zone is the kitchen, I try to do a little something extra in there that week like throw out leftovers in the fridge and give it a wipeout, or clean the sides of all of the appliances a bit each day as I am putting things away, or even do a 15 minute declutter of the tupperware or silverware drawer or somewhere else bugging me lately. 

In the summers when we aren't schooling I do the full zone cleaning, daily decluttering, plus daily routines and such to start the year out fresh and organized.  When daily decluttering, I will spend 15 minutes a day either decluttering or deep cleaning sections of the zone room. 

 

If someone is coming over, I can get the house good enough in an hour or less. I am not counting baseboards. That would come in if I was doing the 15 minutes in the zone daily like I was supposed to.   But it is counting cleaning windows and glass. That is something I do weekly. 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Kids unload the dishwasher(takes 5 minutes or less, they are quick), Boys take out the trash, everyone does their own laundry. Boys clean the downstairs hall bath every couple weeks, girls take care of their own bathrooms, I clean Dh and I's bathroom about 1X per week... 15-20 minutes. Boys mow the back yard Dh or I mow the front (I'd have the girls take turns too but they're both really short and can't maneuver the mower).

I clean the kitchen daily, 10-20 minutes 2 times a day plus an addition 5-10 minutes 3X per day to load the dishwasher.  I usually have one of the girls pick up the living room 1-2 times a week, takes about 10 minutes. DH or I will end up vacuuming. 2-3 times a month I deep clean the kitchen (hands and knees scrubbing) this usually takes an hour.  DD has to clean the stairs since it's her cat that sheds all over them, 1X per week about 20 minutes. I think that's about all the cleaning and chores we do.  Our house is usually a bit messy, a shirt on the banister, mail on the console table, school stuff on the kitchen table but for the most part we don't make messes so there's no need to spend a lot of time cleaning.... It helps that they're all teenagers. 

 

*I think what helps the most is that I have ample storage and minimal amount of "stuff". 

 

ETA: I forgot, I did clean the entire house top to bottom last year when DD19 brought her then boyfriend down for a visit. Cleaning the entire house really, really good with some help from DS and DD (they picked up the living room and did their own rooms) took about 2 hours. My house is 5 bedroom 3.5 bath about 2300 sq. feet and very minimalistic.

Edited April 19, 2017 by foxbridgeacademy

[Mergath]

Probably two hours a day, five or six days a week. I do the dishes by hand though, and that usually takes around forty-five minutes a day. Then I usually spend ~1 hour cleaning afterwards.

[Garga]

Right now? Foreeeever. But that's because this school year has been bizarre for me and I have very little free time, so my cleaning has been hit or miss. I wouldn't want guests visiting right now at all. It's not ready for guests!

 

Over the summer, I'm going to give it a nice spring cleaning. After that, I'll be giving my boys a long, detailed course in cleaning. And when school hits next year, I'll be ready. And then it will probably take about 7 hours a week to keep the house guest ready.

 

I used to need about 1 hour just before the guests arrived to do the bathrooms and floors and put stray clutter away, if, and only if, I was mainting the home the rest of the week for about an hour each day. That's my norm. This year has blindsided me and I had to stop cleaning except for the bare minimum. I have plans to do things differently next year.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Garga

[Ausmumof3]

If it's relatively tidy a basic clean that involves all readily visible floor surfaces, really obvious cobwebs or dust and the bathrooms takes about four hours. Detailed cleaning with ovens, Windows, tidying etc I basically never achieve.

[Wheres Toto]

It happens so rarely I have no idea?   :blushing:

 

It's rare that my whole house is clean at once.  Certain things - dishes and laundry - get done most days.  Maybe 30-60 minutes a day total, if the laundry is washed, dried, and put away.

 

Kids rooms are deep-cleaned once a month, about 90 minutes each.  They straighten them up in between.

 

Living room straightening, dusting, and vacuuming takes about 60-90 minutes. 

 

Our room is very limited what can be done, there's no floor space it's pretty much all bed.  Changing the sheets takes about 15-20 minutes (bed is against wall on three sides, it's a royal PITA).

 

Bathroom takes about 45-60 minutes to do a really good deep clean.

 

Kitchen takes about 60-90 minutes to do a really good deep clean.  The floors are slate tiles so "mopping" them really means going at them with a scrub brush.

 

We have serious storage issues which makes keeping the house neat an issue.  Straightening up can take a while.

 

I'll be cleaning the majority of the house this weekend while the kids and dh are away for the weekend.  I expect to work an hour or so on Friday, most of Saturday, and a couple hours on Sunday.

[Garga]

It happens so rarely I have no idea? :blushing:

 

It's rare that my whole house is clean at once. Certain things - dishes and laundry - get done most days. Maybe 30-60 minutes a day total, if the laundry is washed, dried, and put away.

 

Kids rooms are deep-cleaned once a month, about 90 minutes each. They straighten them up in between.

 

Living room straightening, dusting, and vacuuming takes about 60-90 minutes.

 

Our room is very limited what can be done, there's no floor space it's pretty much all bed. Changing the sheets takes about 15-20 minutes (bed is against wall on three sides, it's a royal PITA).

 

Bathroom takes about 45-60 minutes to do a really good deep clean.

 

Kitchen takes about 60-90 minutes to do a really good deep clean. The floors are slate tiles so "mopping" them really means going at them with a scrub brush.

 

We have serious storage issues which makes keeping the house neat an issue. Straightening up can take a while.

 

I'll be cleaning the majority of the house this weekend while the kids and dh are away for the weekend. I expect to work an hour or so on Friday, most of Saturday, and a couple hours on Sunday.

 

This is a lot like how it is for me. Well, was, before this year messed up everything and now I rarely clean so we have dozens of dust bunnies everywhere.

[Garga]

Some people seem really fast. In the thread about handwashing dishes, some people said they could wash all their dinner dishes in 5 minutes. I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" It takes me 45 or so.

 

And some people say they can clean an entire house in 2 or 3 hours. And I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" They can't mean that that's the only cleaning that's done for the week, right? I used to work on the house cleaning about 1-2 hours a day, and THEN I could maybe get it ready for guests in a couple of hours. But that was after 7 - 10 hours of cleaning all week.

 

And that was without cleaning windows or lightswitch covers. That was just basic sweeping and mopping and dusting and bathroom cleaning. I must be very slow. :(

[Wheres Toto]

This is a lot like how it is for me. Well, was, before this year messed up everything and now I rarely clean so we have dozens of dust bunnies everywhere.

 

Yeah, this is how it's been for me lately.  That's why I'm planning my whole weekend to be cleaning, the house is beyond the point where I'm comfortable and I don't have high standards at all.  

 

We spent most of February through mid-April sick, last year was crazy with multiple deaths and helping my mother.  I don't feel like I've been able to get a good routine down since I quit my job last March.

[Wheres Toto]

Some people seem really fast. In the thread about handwashing dishes, some people said they could wash all their dinner dishes in 5 minutes. I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" It takes me 45 or so.

 

And some people say they can clean an entire house in 2 or 3 hours. And I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" They can't mean that that's the only cleaning that's done for the week, right? I used to work on the house cleaning about 1-2 hours a day, and THEN I could maybe get it ready for guests in a couple of hours. But that was after 7 - 10 hours of cleaning all week.

 

And that was without cleaning windows or lightswitch covers. That was just basic sweeping and mopping and dusting and bathroom cleaning. I must be very slow. :(

 

I must be slow too.

 

It takes me more than 5 minutes to load my dishwasher.   :tongue_smilie:

 

My estimates didn't even include wiping down walls.  

[Garga]

I must be slow too.

 

It takes me more than 5 minutes to load my dishwasher. :tongue_smilie:

 

My estimates didn't even include wiping down walls.

 

Wiping down walls? Is this a thing?? I've never wiped down walls unless it was 30 minutes before I was going to paint them. I think I must just be a slob and don't know it. :(

[Arcadia]

Company level clean. Not necessarily thoroughly deep cleaned, but toilets, mirrors, floors, etc.

It takes my husband about 3 hours. He is much more particular and the "company" visiting is his relatives. He is also much taller than me and less sensitive to bleach.

 

We have only a bathroom so giving the bath tub and toilet a good scrub takes about 30mins. The sink and the floors take another 30mins.

 

The patio just get swept so 10mins.

 

Putting everything neatly away instead of stacks on the floor takes an hour.

 

Vacuuming the whole house takes 30mins as our home is a small condominium unit.

 

Clearing all the trash bins in the house and dumping them down the complex's thrash chute would take 10mins.

 

Wiping smudges and stains would probably take another 10-20mins.

 

The kitchen area takes me 30mins to clean up. That includes the countertop, tiled floor and stovetop. My kitchen cabinets are mostly too high for me to reach with a wipe so my husband would wipe any smudge above my height.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Some people seem really fast. In the thread about handwashing dishes, some people said they could wash all their dinner dishes in 5 minutes. I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" It takes me 45 or so.

 

And some people say they can clean an entire house in 2 or 3 hours. And I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" They can't mean that that's the only cleaning that's done for the week, right? I used to work on the house cleaning about 1-2 hours a day, and THEN I could maybe get it ready for guests in a couple of hours. But that was after 7 - 10 hours of cleaning all week.

 

And that was without cleaning windows or lightswitch covers. That was just basic sweeping and mopping and dusting and bathroom cleaning. I must be very slow. :(

There are some tricks to the 3 hour, whole house cleaning. I used to clean houses for a living, so I have some systems and shortcuts. Also, I learned to just move fast when I worked for an agency; we got paid the same for a 3br ranch whether we did it in three hours or four, so the company standard was to do it in three.

 

Also, that's just cleaning. It's not even tidying, much. It's not cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, decluttering the desk, organizing recipes, or ironing church clothes for Sunday. Which tasks all fall under the heading of "housework" for mothers if we don't compartmentalize our thinking. I do better with conpartmentalizing, someone else may approach housework as one piece that takes many more hours.

[poppy]

Haven't found out yet but if it ever happens I'll let you know....

[Annie G]

I generally strive for the illusion of clean and can do the downstairs in under an hour.   Normally guests don't go upstairs so I don't focus on that unless we're having overnight guests. But I can do the upstairs in about 2 hours (takes longer because it's not done as often)

 

How much time I spend a week depends on what's included...laundry? dishes?  I spend about ten hours a week doing household chores, not including outside chores.  Like I said...the illusion of clean is good enough for me. 

 

Edited April 20, 2017 by Annie G

[regentrude]

Company level clean.  Not necessarily thoroughly deep cleaned, but toilets, mirrors, floors, etc. 

 

I have no idea. It feels like only a few minutes here and there each day; I do it in small chunks that use scraps of time which would otherwise not go to productive use. Swiff floors while talking on the phone; clean a toilet in the few minutes I have before leaving the house, stuff like that. I never do a big "let's clean the entire house in one go" thing. Always small tasks as I come across them and can fit them.

My house is always company ready. For the past months, we have been having overnight guests for several nights each week.

 

ETA: I did the "clean everything" once and timed myself. 2.5 hours for 3.5 bathrooms (including scrubbing tubs/shower), vacuuming all carpet in the downstairs level, mopping kitchen+bathroom floors. But that's not how I normally clean. 

Edited April 20, 2017 by regentrude

[Peaceseeker]

I think how close you are to company ready probably depends a lot on the normal state of your home and how large it is and how large your family is also. I don't generally have a lot of clutter, so I can do a quick 15 minute tidy of the whole house and just do floors and my bathroom for company. My dishes are generally done or can be done in another 5-10 minutes if there are a few around. I don't have a lot of heavy wooden furniture that collects dust. I have a small house and a small family. I can be company ready in about an hour to an hour and a half if I am mopping floors and scrubbing the bathroom.

 

But I don't feel like anything is really that horrible if someone drops by (most of the time). I might sneak in my bathroom with some paper towels and Lysol and give things a wipe but I wouldn't freak out or anything.

[Wheres Toto]

Okay, I'm reviving this thread because I evidently SERIOUSLY overestimate how long it takes to clean my house.  Just possibly as an excuse to not do it as often (I don't have time!!).   :blushing:   Totally subconsciously of course.  :001_rolleyes:

 

Dh and the little guys are away for the weekend so I was taking the opportunity to get some cleaning done.  I'm meeting my oldest at 5pm to go out to dinner and shopping since her birthday is tomorrow.   

 

So far today (it's 1pm) I've made and eaten breakfast (eggs and tea), done 4 loads of laundry (washed, dried, folded, not put away because I'll do that when it's all done), changed the sheets on every bed and our couch (covered cause of dog), cleaned up the kitchen (except scrubbing the stove, I'll do that later), made the beds, done the dishes, brought a bunch of stuff out to the garage, switched all my winter clothes for summer clothes including culling out anything that doesn't fit/I don't wear, deep cleaned the bathroom, wrote up a lesson plan for Sunday School tomorrow (I'm teaching), watered all the plants, made and eating lunch (rice and salmon).  

 

Once I'm done eatting I'll fold more laundry, straighten/dust/vacuum the living room, shower and be ready to leave at 4:30pm. 

 

I really have no excuse to not keep up on this better.

Edited April 22, 2017 by Where's Toto?

[maize]

All of them. Or at least that's how it feels.

This.

 

Which is why my house is never clean.

[rebbyribs]

This.

 

Which is why my house is never clean.

 

Me too!  I keep on keeping on and it never gets too bad, but it's never very clean either.  I had kind of thought we'd be at the "many hands make light work" stage by now, but we're not yet.

[Spryte]

We had housecleaners for many years. They went fast, faster than I could do it. It sparkled every week.

 

Our house now is larger, and I just take it slow and steady and do some every day. It's never all clean at once, and I miss that.

 

What I find is that when the maids were coming, we'd spend an hour the night before with all of us getting "maid ready." We'd straighten and put things away, and sometimes I'd lay out the linens. For sure I'd make sure they were ready for the next day. Now that we don't have maids, we don't get maid ready. So I'm doing a lot the maids didn't do in their zoom through.

[Guest]

If I was cleaning the whole house, top to bottom, it would take a lot of hours. I don't do it like that, though.

[JudoMom]

Some people seem really fast. In the thread about handwashing dishes, some people said they could wash all their dinner dishes in 5 minutes. I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" It takes me 45 or so.

 

And some people say they can clean an entire house in 2 or 3 hours. And I'm like, "Whaaaa...?" They can't mean that that's the only cleaning that's done for the week, right? I used to work on the house cleaning about 1-2 hours a day, and THEN I could maybe get it ready for guests in a couple of hours. But that was after 7 - 10 hours of cleaning all week.

 

And that was without cleaning windows or lightswitch covers. That was just basic sweeping and mopping and dusting and bathroom cleaning. I must be very slow. :(

 

I read a cleaning article in one of those women's magazines a few years ago and it really helped me.  

 

First, I'll say my main level stays pretty picked up because it's one huge open L shaped room with living room, dining room, and kitchen.  The bedrooms upstairs and the playroom/schoolroom can get fairly messy, so I do have to take time to straighten them before I clean (the boys are responsible for cleaning their spaces, so they're anywhere from pristine to OMG-I'm-raising-a-hoarder, depending on the boy).

 

The article I read said do all like tasks in all the rooms.  This was revolutionary to me, because I was taught to clean one room at a time, top to bottom.  So this is how I clean my house in about 3 hours.

 

1.  Pick up all clutter in the whole house.

2.  Dust everything that needs to be dusted with the swiffer duster in the whole house.

3.  Clean everything that needs windex (mirrors, piano, appliances, back door) in the whole house.

4.  Clean all the surfaces that need Pledge, in the whole house.

5.  Hard surfaces (counters in kitchen and bathrooms, bathtubs) in the whole house.  

6.  All the toilets in the whole house.

7.  Vacuum the whole house.

8.  Mop all the floors that get mopped, in the whole house.

 

The key is to stay focused.  I move as quickly as I can, and it really helps to not be switching between various tasks.  It's also a pretty good workout.

 

Like I said, this isn't a deep, clean the blinds and windows and baseboards and all the other mundane tasks cleaning (I do those as I have time, which, uh, isn't quite as often as it needs to be), it's my once a week, get the house clean, cleaning.

 

In between, I wipe up messes and vacuum.  I keep the dishes done and the kitchen picked up and harp on my boys about not leaving their belongings strewn about.

 

Edited April 22, 2017 by JudoMom

[Garga]

The article I read said do all like tasks in all the rooms.  This was revolutionary to me, because I was taught to clean one room at a time, top to bottom.  

In between, I wipe up messes and vacuum.  I keep the dishes done and the kitchen picked up and harp on my boys about not leaving their belongings strewn about.

 

 

 

This is a good idea!  I mostly clean one room at a time and sometimes will save all the vacuuming till the end but this is a great idea.

 

This thread has inspired me to rethink our cleaning in a number of ways.  I'm going to spend some time this summer timing how long it actually takes to do certain jobs and come up with a better plan for staying on top of it in the next school year because this year has been a disaster.  We're starting to name our dust bunnies, it's so bad. 

Edited April 22, 2017 by Garga