How do you clean your house? Any tips.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am motivated to clean. With working overtime, taking on a second job at home doing some typing, and an accident (twisted up the knee and hip, so I have to take it a bit easy), things got a bit out of hand and beyond my reach. It’s one of those warm days in the 70s, sunny, pleasant days where I look around the house and go, BLEAH!!! So I have the Jimmy Buffet on the stereo, a bottle of Diet Coke in the fridge, and don’t worry, I plan to check the boards only after bathroom breaks.

I ask for your tips and motivations.

Where do you usually start?

Any particular order (dust before vacuuming, floors before walls)?

What do you do the big stuff (for example, washing walls & windows) during a blitz, or do you save it for later?

I also have R.P.S. (rotating pileofstuff syndrome): move stuff off the dining room table, it ends up on the couch, move the stuff off the couch, it ends up on the desk, move the stuff off the desk, it ends up on the floor, move the stuff off the floor, etc. What do you do to avoid this?

I am also weeding out everything I do not need. What sort of organization system do you have. I do have a file drawer in the desk, but ironically, I need to move stuff to the dining room table to get to it (re-starting R.P.S.). What is your organization system for papers, books, etc?

I’m really looking forward to that wonderful feeling of ‘damn, my personal domain is clean’ (a clean house is the best aphrodisiac). Wish me luck and help me out, fellow millions.

2

Sigh. And here I am littering up the wrong forum. Would a Mod please move this to IMHO?

3

The first step is to get dressed to the shoes. Then go make your sink shiny. Then follow Flylady’s system for dealing with R.P.S. Good luck ! :slight_smile:

4

I have a little ritual :slight_smile:

  1. Wait for day off work
  2. Light scented candle or incense
  3. Open window if weather permits
  4. Put on favourite music (currently AfroCelt Sound System)
  5. Make a list and try to do everything on it

I am a bit obsessive about lists. There is something really nice about checking off the things you’ve done, so at the end of the day you can say, “Look what I did!” You can also organize tasks - like cleaning the bedroom while doing laundry. Or cleaning the bathroom (laundry tends to pile up there in my house blush).

My goal for 2004 is to clean the house out really well. It’ll probably take me until 2005. One thing I’ve learned - trash bags are your friend. Put the good stuff in them for charity, and the trash in them for the dump.

5

Remember everything has a place. If you look at your coffee table and it has newspapers, magazines, day old pizza, nyquil, and dirty glasses. You should look at it and figure out where your papers go, throw the pizza away, put the nyquil in the medicine cabinet, and wash the dirty glasses. Dust that bad boy and your well on your way to a good cleaning. Everything has a place. It is up to you to figure out where that place is.

I get motivated when I watch that show Clean Sweep on TLC. I like how they sort a room. You take everything out. You have 3 piles in the yard. A Keep, Toss and Sell pile. And remember the word purge. Its very important. Sort thru figure out what you want. If you haven’t used it in 6 months chances are you don’t need it. You have a rumage sell with all things in the Sell pile and what you don’t sell, go ahead and donate the rest to charity. You have to get rid off things. Thats where the purge comes in. If you have a collection of something then respect it. Throwing it in a corner to collect dust isn’t an option. If your going to keep it then respect it and take care of it. Hope this helps. Just a few pointers and lord knows I need to take some myself. :smiley:

6

I take one room at a time. Thinking about the whole house is just too much. I usually start in the kitchen (our messiest place) and set a limit on how much time I will spend there. Cleaning up messes can be a never ending project and setting a limit of, say 15 minutes, makes it seem more manageable.

I have a permanant junk pile, too, but I put it all in a basket and go through it about once every week or two. I try to keep it confined to one basket, but it frequently spills over. At least it’s all in one place.

I hate spending the whole weekend cleaning, so I trained myself to do a little each day.

I’m teaching my kids (6 and 8) to do things in bites, too. They were on spring break this week and we had a party planned for Saturday. On Wednesday we cleanued up outside, on Thursday we cleaned inside. Friday we shopped for party food, etc.

A little every day makes a very big difference.

7

I don’t think you’re anywhere near me or I’d be happy to clean your house for you next week. Seriously.

Anyway, I’d start with whichever room you most want cleaned, maybe your bedroom or bathroom. Definitely dust before vaccuuming, in fact clean everything in a room before you clean the floors. That way as you’re cleaning the other stuff and it gets on the floor you won’t get distracted by it. You should have the right tools to do the job, and set a system for each room. Pick a logical starting point in the room and then clean sections in order, top to bottom, left to right. That way you know where you started, what’s clean, what’s not. If I were you I’d organize before cleaning, since if you clean around your clutter then it’s really not going to seem clean in the end. I’m NOT an expert on removing clutter, so I’ll let someone else advise you on how to do that. Finally, depending on the size of your place and the amount of current mess you might end up getting half way through, running out of gas, and then just stopping altogether (I think the Flylady site referenced gets into that). So break the work down into manageable chunks where you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment when you’re done and not get discouraged.

If you have specific questions on how to clean something in particular let us know, can answer those as well.

8

Am I the only one who thought ‘Maid Service!’?

Seriously…am I?

9

I pick up every day so it doesn’t get too out of hand. When I super - clean everything, I start at the top and work my way down.

In any room I am in, I work on the walls ( get webs out of the corners if there are any ) then the light fixtures, then the base board. I work on putting things where they belong. I then dust and clean glass. Finally, I vacuum. The last thing I do before I leave a clean room is spray some pleasant smelling room deodorizer. I love walking in to a clean room that smells good.

The rolling pile of stuff used to bug me. It seemed like my kids never put stuff away where it belonged. I have a laundry basket in the kitchen and dining room. When I find a toy or book or something on the floor that the kids did not put away, I toss it into the baskets. Once a week, the kids have to go through the baskets and put their stuff away. If it’s left in the basket for more than a week it gets tossed into the garbage.
I have mastered the out of control laundry with a system as well. I have three hampers, one for jeans, one for colors and one for whites. I taught the kids how to separate their own laundry. If they have questions, they ask which basket things go in. My seven year old daughter is awesome at this. Often, she tells her brother and sister which baskets their clothes go in. My next project is going to be to get them to put away their own clothes - with out just shoving them into the drawers.

10

I do the opposite of the one-room-at-a-time approach.
First, I make a list (with stuff like “do dishes”, “dust”, “vacuum”). I put a little box next to each item.
Then, I do items on a whole-house basis. I’ll go around and collect all the clothes laying around, stick them in the hamper, and put a load of laundry on.
Next, I’ll collect all the dishes, put them in the sink, and wash them all.
Then, I’ll collect everything that needs to be thrown away (newspapers, etc.).
I go through my whole list like that, checking off the little boxes as I go.

This system works for me, but whatever system you use, you must first GET OFF THE INTERNET! That’s the very hardest part for me, because I’m a huge procrastinator.

(Also, I vacuum before I dust, in the tradition of my mother. Her logic was that the vacuum kicks up all sorts of dust, but the dust adheres to the dust cloth. I think the dust before vacuum school posits that when you dust, you’re pushing stuff onto the floor, which you should then vacuum up. Hmmmm, maybe an experiment should be performed?)

11

Pay a housekeeper…

OK, helpful advice. Motivational music.

Pick up the whole house. Don’t clean, just get everything off the floor and surfaces that doesn’t belong. Don’t stop to organize, but try and get the stuff approximately where it belongs.

Strip beds and wash them while you do other things.

Dust

Vaccuum.

Wipe walls and woodwork.

Now you know all that picking up you started. Pick a room and start to go through everything with a trash bag handy. I like to start in bathrooms, because it takes a full day to do the kitchen, but I can get a bathroom done in an hour. And NEVER EVER start in a room where you keep books and photos, you’ll never get done - I tend not to be sentamentally attached to things in my bathroom. Take everything out of the room (except heavy furniture). If you are going to keep in, wipe it off and put it away neatly. Otherwise pitch it or give it away. Treat closets and dressers as their own room.

You’ll never get everything done in a day or a week, so next week, pick up, dust and vaccuum again, and start your purge and organize where you left off.

12

Okay, just skimmed through the list up to the post by misstee. Great ideas, and this is keeping me going!

  1. Mostly fully dressed - weaning my ‘cleaning the house’ clothes, since I will be using bleach and chemicals (windows are open, don’t worry) and don’t want to ruin anything. No shoes, but I have little comfy footie socks, so I do not slip on the tiles.
  2. Shib - when will you be in Florida - I’m in the central area.
  3. One-time maid service would be great, but after the accident, the budget is a bit tight til I can get everything straightened out.
  4. I’d love to use the yard, but the neighbors’ dogs use it too (communal yard for the complex). They are usually good at picking up after the dogs, but they have missed a few spots, not to mention the lawn is scheduled to be mowed sometime today, and I don’t want to have to tote everything back in. Great idea though - I’ll do that when I do the “charity or trash” blitz.

[ul]
[li] Spot cleaned the bathroom. Floor and tub to be done with all the heavy-duty work later.[/li][li] Cleaned up all old boxes and soda cans/bottles.[/li][li] Got all newspapers in recycle bin (except for the comics & crossword puzzles - treat to myself for later) and some for the birdcage[/li][li] Totally changed cat litterbox (she’s happy)[/li][li] Cleaned out old stuff out of fridge.[/li][li] Put catnip on scratching pad - HyperKitty was getting underfoot.[/li][/ul]

The bedroom needs the most attention (I read books and drop them next to the bed - bad owl, no biscuit!). Next is the living room / dining room - natural habitat of the RPS. Kitchen is passable for now (lower priority than bedroom), and the bathroom tub and floor will be the last.

Thanks again folks, and see you after the next relief break.

13

Go through your closets and get rid of everything you don’t wear. Donate what’s still good and pitch what isn’t fit to give away. Bite the bullet! If it’s too small or too big to wear, get rid of it! Don’t wait to “diet” back into clothes unless it’s a REALLY important item to you, like a wedding dress or something.

Then go tackle your laundry room and put away each load as it’s finished. Now you have somewhere to hang stuff up :slight_smile:

14

Get used to the idea of tossing things and keep plenty of trash cans around. I have one in just about every room. If it sitsaround for more than a week, it gets tossed our.

I usually start with the dishes. Don’t know why. Maybe it’s the almost instant gratification of the project.

I agree with the above idea of doing one room at a time. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and you aren’t overwhelmed.

Oh, I go top down. Windows, walls, then floor. Afterall, things fall down.

Put on some music, unplug the phone and go.

15

C3, that old tradition of vacuuming first is from the days when vacuuming really did kick up a lot of dust and get furniture dusty. Nowadays, if your vacuum is working properly, you should do it the other way round, because your vacuum ought not to be squirting dust all over the place.

I believe I read the definitive research on that in Home comforts, a book everyone should have.

16

…the knee gave out. I’m sitting here, waiting for the painkillers to kick in, and folding some laundry, to boot. But til that happened, I managed to:
[ul]
[li] Hang up the shirts and pants[/li][li] Put away all the books on the floor[/li][li] Dust the candles and photos on the headboard shelf[/li][li] Wax the headboard and clean the mirror[/li][li] Change the sheets[/li][li] Dust the nightstands[/li][li] Wipe off the lampshades[/li][/ul]

It’s amazing how much dust you don’t see until you actually look for it. :eek:

Anyway, I am here folding a bag of clean socks I forgot about. Thanks to everyone for the advice and the help. I’ll keep you posted as things get better.

I am really, really looking forward the magical smell of a clean house - Murphy’s Oil Soap, Lysol, Windex, and Dollar-Store carpet cleaner. Yeah, major chemical intrusion, but to me it’s one heck of an aphrodisiac and the sign of a job well done.

And ironically, I found books on ‘organizing your life’ and ‘clutter control’ under all the books next to the bed!

17

No, Jonathan Chance, you weren’t the only one. Keep fighting the good fight screetch-owl!

18

My girlfriend usually takes the kitchen and I take the bathroom. I start with the tub. I softscrub all the tile, spray it with some of the Mildew Killer and soap scum remover spray, then get out to let the chemicals work. Usually to open the window before I choke on fumes. Then I go back in and do the toilet with Soft Scrub and the toilet brush. Then we do floors with our Swiffer. After that, we pick up/straighten up, then vacuum the whole place. We have a bagless vacuum, which gives me a sense of accomplishment, since I know all the dirt in the container will be gone forever. We don’t dust, since we both hate dusting stuff. Then I spend the day being miserable because of all the dust I kicked up pissing off my allergies.

Course we only do this once every 4-6 months, so it’s not so bad.

19

Well, I only have an apartment, but I still need a mathod for cleaning.

I do little cleanings throughout the week, but the place is still trashed come Saturday (my Cleaning Day).

I alternate my nasty rooms. Nasty, not too bad, really nasty. Start with the kicthen - dishes, counters, floor. Then the bathroom - floor, shower, sink. Like a little break. Then on to the living room - floors, tables, Windexing, vacuuming.

One thing I finaaally learned the hard way was to THROW THINGS AWAY. If it’s not a bill, video, or a book, and it’s in the living room, toss it. Well, not dishes, but you know what I mean.

Do laundry as a break. It’s easier the scrubbing floors.

I do a Deep Cleaning about once a month. Walls (I’m a smoker, so I actually wash my walls), dusting lamps, cleaning fans, stuff that doesn’t get dirty enough to clean once a week.

Keep an interesting movie or radio station on, so you don’t get bored out of your mind. I tend to pop in one of my cartoon DVDs, heh.

I never thought I’d be giving advice on how to clean. Seems sooooo strange.
Let me hijack with a little story.

I have a spare bedroom that I use as a spare closet. There are a lot of boxes and bags of crap from when I clean my car. I still have boxes of stuff from my frequent moves (I’ve moved 4 times in the past 2 years, and about to do another. From my mom’s house to a duplex with The Cody, to my first apartment, to my dad’s in MI, to this apartment, and soon back to Texas.). I’ve never gone through/unpacked them, since I know I’'m about to move again. Finally, I decided that I wanted to know what the hell was in those umpteen boxes I was moving around.

Well, Saturday, I got a box of trashbags, some colored paper, and a black marker and got to work. I went through all the stuff that was in boxes. I’m now down to 7 boxes and ended up with TWELVE bags of trash. I moved that crap around FOUR times.

I taped colored construction paper onto the tops of the boxes depending on what was in it, and listed everything. Now I know what’s in the boxes. I loooooove color coding.

Sigh. Tonight, I suppose I need to go through the piles of crap.

20

A tip from Peg Bracken: whenever you set out to clean the entire house, start in a different room each time. Otherwise, you’ll peter out at about the same room every time, and eventually you’ll have to saw it off.

This brought to you by a person who is seriously considering moving boxes full of dirty dishes, in order to just use the dishwasher in the new house.

(This thread has inspired me to hire a maid service to clean up the empty house after I leave. Why the hell not? My time is worth it.)