fly lady, motivated moms, or other ready made chore system?

[ktgrok]

With the new house I am determined not to get behind on cleaning. Seeing how gross the old one was was shocking, once the furniture was gone and you could see what the clutter was hiding. I do not have the mental bandwith to come up with my own system right now - I've got decision fatigue from deciding where to put everything as we unpack. I need a checklist - I can modify, but need a starting point. Something that is adaptable to having a living area, family room, and a school room (suppose a cleaning list might call it a den, office, etc). 

Anyway, suggestions?

[Spryte]

I’ve tried a lot over the years—flylady and motivated moms included—but finally settled on an app called Home Routines. I tried the free version a few years ago, and then bought it pretty quickly. I’ve been using it for years now. 

It’s customizable, and has reminders. You get gold stars for completing tasks. Plus, it’s on the phone and easy to manage.

[Beth S]

Secret Slob!  She uses her version of Fly Lady.  She's realistic, has 3 young kids, and cleans very quickly (almost like it's exercise)!

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Beth S

[Katy]

I started with flylady but end up re-doing it for every house I’m in. I divide the house into 5 zones, the first and last week smaller than the others because they cover partial weeks at the beginning & end of the month. 

If you want something a bit simpler, Dana White’s How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind is easier. She now has a housekeeper come twice a month to do deep cleaning, so she focuses on daily stuff that she says is “common sense to normal people” because she doesn’t think she is normal.

[fairfarmhand]

I have a Google Sheets checklist I can share by PM if you are interested.

[Carol in Cal.]

It depends on what you are after.  Tidying up?  Decluttering?  Actual physical cleaning?

A Slob Comes Clean, recommended here, is good about decluttering.  Really, excellent.  Flylady is good overall, and uses an atomic habits approach to adding maintenance gradually, which I like.  Actual physical cleaning I am really not all that interested in, so I don’t have a rec for that.  

There are two mindset shifts that have been most helpful to me in the decluttering phase.  One is “I value this space more than these items that are cluttering it.”  The other is “I enjoy a visually clear area—it’s not just for company.”

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

I need a checklist

Fwiw, for me having new tools is even more important than the checklist. My dh, bless his heart, has taken to finding vacuums he's willing to use. He found this cordless Miele vac that functions almost like a shop vac, which he loves, haha. We use a roomba, so I have some internal rules about not having more on the floor than what I can easily pick up to run the roomba. It's very handy to be able to tell your kids to go pick up their rooms till they're clean enough to run the roomba. 😄 

You can also consider mess or hotspot prevention. (entry rugs, baskets, etc.) 

For me, it's the tidying that gets in the way of the cleaning. If you can't see the floor, you can't vac it. So mess prevention and then tools to make it easier. The roomba makes me double powered, because I swiffer dust the room before (yes I cheat) or after I run the roomba and use the rest of the time to tidy/prep the next room, which means I'm getting twice as much done. 

I also keep cleaning tools at point of use, so a swiffer for the floor in my master bath and a little swiffer duster under the sink for the trim. Paper towel dispenser at every bathroom sink so people can clean up, etc. I tend to use Flylady's "you can do anything for 10 minutes" so having tools right there ready to go makes that easy. No hunting or hauling, just go in and work a few minutes and something happens. 

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by PeterPan

[ktgrok]

22 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

It depends on what you are after.  Tidying up?  Decluttering?  Actual physical cleaning?

 

I'm good at decluttering. This is more the stuff like wiping things  down, dusting, baseboards, vacuuming regularly, stuff like that. 

[Carol in Cal.]

31 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

I'm good at decluttering. This is more the stuff like wiping things  down, dusting, baseboards, vacuuming regularly, stuff like that. 

I’ve heard that Home Comforts is the best book around for that.  Martha Stewart has a newer one that is also popular with friends.

[Amethyst]

I use my phone's calendar. 

I have tasks assigned with a statement of how often I want to do it. As I complete it, I move it to the appropriate next date.

Examples:

Wash sheets (q Tuesday), Wash valences (q 6 months), neaten linen closet (q 8 months), water plants (q 15 days), wash range hood (q 40 days), vacuum upstairs carpeting (q 4 days).

So, let's say I don't get to the valences on the assigned day because I work that day. Then I just move it to the following day, and complete the task on my day off. If it keeps showing up, I feel like I'm nagging myself and just do the darn job already!

I check my calendar every morning to see what I need to accomplish. Also, every evening, I cross off (really, reschedule for next time) items I completed. I also peek ahead to tomorrow to see what is in store for me. 

This system is something I developed during the shutdown and has worked well for me. It keeps me from putting off tasks until they are dreadful. For instance, now I sweep out the shoe closet at the downstairs entryway every 3 months, not after the grass and dirt and snow/salt have made the bottom of the closet look horrendous. And I don't think I ever washed the valances since I put them up until I started this method.

[Tenaj]

I've used motivated mom's for years.  Not everything always gets done because our busy schedule but it all repeats often enough that even if it gets skipped, nothing gets really out of hand.  I use the paper schedule, not the app as I tend to draw arrows or assign jobs to various kids

[ktgrok]

Ok, so just bought home routines, not sure how I feel about it. About to print out the Secret Slob lists, that may be the winner. Sort of a less militant Fly Lady, lol. Plus, she has freckles, lol. As a freckled person I love people with freckles, lol. 

[PinkTulip]

I use an app called Tody, which gives lists of things to do in each room, but you can also customize. You can put in how often you want to do something (every 5 days, every 3 months, etc) and then you just look at the list for the day and check it off. It takes some time to get it set up, but once you do, it’s really intuitive and tells you what to do when it needs to be done. 
 

I also follow GoCleanCo on Instagram - she has good videos of how to really clean various areas of your house. Watching her feed has helped me up my cleaning game. 

[cbollin]

I've used this list for my "zones"

https://www.addsaltandserve.com/daily-reminder-task-list/

had seasons where I did 1 zone a week, and some seasons with 1 zone a day.

made each zone on that list with tasks into a one page printed sheet and put it in plastic cover near the area.

[Laura Corin]

I like to clean in equipment zones. Monday is mopping - so kitchen and bathrooms plus other rooms occasionally, Tuesday is hard floor vacuuming,  Wednesday is carpet vacuuming,  Thursday and Friday are whatever else needs doing this week, as I notice things. Husband does the daily and weekly kitchen and bathroom cleaning. 

[carriede]

I love Flylady and use my own, evolved version. I also like Clean Mama which has a planner/schedule you can buy if you need a lot of hand holding.

[porque?]

Another Motivated Moms user here.  If I fall behind and things feel overwhelming and I am unsure where to start I can just go to that day and get started! I also swish and swipe every morning ala Flylady!