Tell me about your house cleaning routine

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have noticed a wide variety in the cleaning habits of people I know, from very anal and germophobic to downright nasty slobbish housekeeping habits. I would say I fall in between. I am generally neat, tidy and organized and I like to clean. I especially like a clean bathroom. If I had more time, I would probably clean a little more often.

1)OK, first tell me if you are a guy or gal, how big your abode is and how many people live in your household. If you are married, tell me how you divide up the duties.

  1. Bathrooms: How often do you clean the toilet; shower/bathtub; sink; how often so you sweep/mop the floors? What cleaning products do you use? How often do you wash your bath towels?

  2. Kitchen: How often do you sweep/mop your floors? Do you ever let dishes sit in the sink for more than one day? How do you clean the surface areas In the kitchen? Sink? Counters? Stovetop? Ever clean the refrigerator or oven?

  3. Common areas: How often do you vacuum the carpets and/or furniture? What kind of vacuum do you have? How often do you dust the furniture? What product/method do you use?

  4. Bedroom: How often do you change and wash your sheets?

  5. How often do you do laundry? Do you separate colors? What detergent do you use? Do you use fabric softener?

Ok I’ll go first:

  1. I am a single female and live alone. I have a one bedroom apartment.

  2. I clean the toilet once every few weeks. Being a girl, it never gets very dirty. When I loved with my ex-boyfriend, I had to clean it more often. I use one of those new drop-in fizzy toilet tablets and scrub it with a stiff toilet brush. Then I clean the rest with Clorox flushable toilet wipes. I sweep with a broom, then with Swiffer dry cloths and mop with Swiffer wet cloths. I clean the shower with a bleach/water solution so it doesn’t get mildewy. I use Scrubbing Bubbles for the sink and for the shower. I wash my towels once every two weeks.

  3. I don’t mop my kitchen as much as I should, because of the color of the tile, you can’t see the dirt! But I follow the same routine for my kitchen floor: sweep, Swiffer dry then Swiffer wet. I don’t have a dishwasher or garbage disposal, so it’s hard, but I try not to let dishes sit in the sink for more than a day. Then again, I live alone, so I can do what I want :wink: Any time I cook, I clean all the counters and surfaces. I keep the sink very clean and bleach it every so often (it’s white porcelain). I haven’t ever cleaned the fridge or oven yet, but I don’t think they need a cleaning quite yet.

  4. I try to vacuum at least once every two weeks. I wish I had a better vaccum, I have an old one that uses those annoying bags. I dust every time I vacuum with Pledge and a cloth.

  5. I try to wash my sheets every two weeks. If I am having, ahem, a sleepover guest, maybe more often. It sucks not having a washer and dryer though, I have to go to my brothers or my parents’ house to do laundry.

  6. See #5 above. I manage to get to my brother’s or parents’ once a week for laundry. I don’t separate my colors because i don’t really have any white, and I use Tide with bleach and fabric softener sheets. Warm water for clothes, and hot water for towels and sheets.

2

Here’s a follow-up question. For those who are married or living with an SO, tell me about your experiences sharing cleaning duties. Do any of you find that the female half of the pair usually does most of the cleaning? If so, why do you think that is?

When I lived with my boyfriend, I did 99% of the cleaning. He was a tidy person, but he didn’t clean. If I didn’t do it, the toilet would never be cleaned, floors would never be mopped or vacuumed. I doubt he has ever cleaned a toilet in his life. Ugh, you should have seen his house in college! :eek: Nasty! When I came to visit, I would bring cleaning supplies with me so I could use the bathroom.

3

Female, living with SO, single family house on the large size.

Cleaning lady comes in once a week, does everything. :smiley:

4

I don’t know that I could trust a stranger (or anyone who isn’t me) to do it The Right Way. :wink:

5

Every Saturday is cleaning day for me. The entire house gets the once over of straightening up and cleaned. So if you come over Friday evening the house may be a wreck. You have been warned! :smiley:

  1. Married, no kids, 3 cats and a golden retriever. We live in a 3 bedroom house, 2 full bathrooms. I normally do 90 percent of the housework.

  2. Bathrooms get cleaned once a week top to bottom. Towels are washed once a week. Shower curtain, depends on any mildew. We live in Texas so this can vary depending on the humidity.

  3. Kitchen gets cleaned once a week top to bottom. Sweep, mop etc. We never leave dirty dishes in the sink for more than 12 hours let alone 24. Counter tops, stove top and sink get wiped down after every meal prep.

  4. House gets vaccumed once a week, or more often depending on the cat hair. Dusting once every 2 weeks or depending on if things look dusty. We own a dirt devil upright canister.

  5. All laundry including bed sheets get washed every Saturday.

  6. Yes, I seperate colors. I even change water temps depending on the load. I use liquid fabric softener.

All the cleaning supplies I use are from Melaleuca. They are environmentally friendly and I found that my allergies are not as bad using them as what you buy out of the grocery store.

Cardsfan will help with folding laundry, and putting it away. He also takes out the trash and helps with the dishes. He works and goes to school so he doesn’t have much time to do housework but he does help out when he can. He will also vaccum if he notices the cat hair on the white carpets.

6
  1. guy, 4 bed/3 bath house, with wife, baby and dog
  2. cleaning lady, once a week. I guess that counts as my contribution, since I’m the wage earner :slight_smile:
  3. cleaning lady sweeps/mops once/week. I usually do dishes and wash counters nightly. I clean the fridge once/month or when it gets too full of crap.
  4. Cleaning lady, once/week. Wife as necessary due to dog hair and crap the dog hauls in from the yard that the baby wishes to immediately put into his mouth.
  5. Laundry gets done as needed. I usually haul it up and down the stairs, she washes it usually, we both do folding as we get to it.
  6. Of course we separate colors. Who wants to wear pink socks?

-lv

7

That annoying cat in Mutts?

8

1)…guy or gal, how big your abode is and how many people live in your household. If you are married, tell me how you divide up the duties.
Female, a house of almost 2000 sq. ft., four people (mom, dad, 3-yo and baby). As a SAHM, I do most of the housework except for: cleaning tubs/showers, half the dishes, some of the laundry, trash (but I do recycling), anything to do with grass (I do the gardening side), certain repairs, and carwashing, which is a dad/daughter activity. This allows us to relax more in the evenings and on weekends.

Also, DangerGirl helps me and is actually useful now. She strips beds and helps make them, takes out the small trashcans and relines them, matches and puts away socks, and is a general gofer.

2) Bathrooms: How often do you clean the toilet; shower/bathtub; sink; how often so you sweep/mop the floors? What cleaning products do you use? How often do you wash your bath towels?
Once a week for all that. I use Lysol, Simple Green, Comet, and blue toilet stuff. Towels are changed twice a week.

3) Kitchen: How often do you sweep/mop your floors? Do you ever let dishes sit in the sink for more than one day? How do you clean the surface areas In the kitchen? Sink? Counters? Stovetop? Ever clean the refrigerator or oven?
I sweep frequently with two small kids around, and mop when needed (a lot under the table, not so much in other places). Crumbs everywhere! Dishes sometimes sit for more than one day, but rarely longer than that. Simple Green on counters and cabinets and small stove spills. That bubbling stuff for serious stovetop work. I really hate cleaning the stovetop. I clean the fridge by taking the shelves out and washing them, and using dilute Simple Green on the rest. The oven I keep clean by putting a sheet of foil on the bottom rack, so I hardly ever have to clean it.

4) Common areas: How often do you vacuum the carpets and/or furniture? What kind of vacuum do you have? How often do you dust the furniture? What product/method do you use?
Once a week, and we just got a purple Kenmore vacuum, which is a huge improvement. I dust right before vacuuming with a lambswool duster. DangerGirl helps me with her own yellow duster. I don’t dust everything every week, but just try to get a majority of the house, and a different area every week.

5) Bedroom: How often do you change and wash your sheets?
Once a week.

6) How often do you do laundry? Do you separate colors? What detergent do you use? Do you use fabric softener?
Monday is the big laundry day, and sometimes a load gets done at other times. I separate colors and use one of the Tide variants (DangerDad’s choice, on grounds of dissolving issues). We have some dryer sheets that I always forget to use–I think I’ve used one–but I mostly use the clothesline anyway. In a day with 5-6 loads (lights, darks, kids, whites, sheets, towels), I’ll run 2 dryer loads.
I’m now a better housekeeper than I was 18 months ago; I’ve got a schedule now and am more organized. I’m by no means a wonderful one, though–I’m happy to let people in the door, but they sure know that my first priority isn’t a pristine home. I do like things to be clean and comfortable, and am happy and competent when I’ve got things the way I want them.

Oh, and the followup. Well, it’s pretty obvious; I do the majority, and it’s because I’m at home full-time, and he isn’t. Housekeeping is part of my job. When we were both working, we shared more of the housework. Also, DangerDad doesn’t see mess the way I do, even though it weighs on him nearly as much. He’ll do pretty much whatever I ask him to do, but it doesn’t necessarily occur to him to do a job because it needs to be done–he just doesn’t see it. But he’s improved on that over the past couple of years. And, when I went on my campaign for becoming more organized, I took on more work, and that was my project. At the same time as I started that, his job started getting more and more demanding–so I’ve still got the easier load IMO. I’m pretty happy with our arrangement; since I’m not a princess, I don’t think I get to ask for more. :slight_smile:

9

  1. I am a female graduate student, single, living in an 800-square-foot apartment (two bedrooms, bath, living room, eat-in kitchen).

  2. Bathrooms: I have very hard water, so I know it’s time to clean my bathroom when there is limescale in the sink and/or rust in the toilet. I Swiffer Dry then Swiffer WetJet the linoleum floor, scrub the sink and counter (as well as the surfaces of the toilet) with a spray-on antibacterial cleaner, use glass cleaner on the mirror, nasty thick blue liquid in the toilet bowl. I do not clean my shower-bath very often, but I’m always very happy after I do. For that, I use a Tub & Tile cleaner and a heavy-duty scrub brush. Sometimes I touch up the tile grout with Clorox CleanUp.
    I have had serious problems with chronic yeast infections, so I am very particular about my bath towels. They are all white. I use a new washcloth every time I shower. I put piles of twelve washcloths on my bathroom cabinet, and every time I’ve used six, I put out fresh towels. I wash my underwear with them–very hot water, lots of detergent, and lots of chlorine bleach.

  3. Kitchen: I vacuum/Swiffer Dry/Swiffer WetJet my kitchen floor whenever I’m doing the bathroom floor. I wipe up spills and spatters when they happen, with the dishcloth. Once every month or two, I fill my sink with bleach solution, soak my cutting boards in it, and flood the countertop with it. When too much burned stuff is on the stovetop, I use SoftScrub to get it off. Very rarely, I use a wet sudsy cloth to clean the outsides of appliances.
    I have a dishwasher, into which I deposit all glasses, mugs, plates, and cereal bowls. Other dishes I try to wash once a day, but usually wait until there is a good sinkful to be done.

  4. Common areas: My vacuum has a HEPA filter. I try to vacuum once a week. At the same time I vacuum, I dust with a Swiffer cloth. Once every three to six months, I rub all of my wood furniture with Orange Glo.

  5. Bedroom: My sheets are scheduled with my towels, though they are separate loads. So, I change my sheets once every twelve days. I wash the pillow covers (cotton covers, under the cases) every two cycles, or every 24 days. I wash the blankets and duvet cover whenever I begin to wake up in the morning with a stuffy nose; more frequently in the summer.

  6. I use Tide detergent and Bounce dryer sheets. I have a two-compartment laundry organizer for my clothes, one for darks and one for lights. I run a load when either section gets full. I wash my sweaters by hand with Woolite, and spread them on racks to dry. I use Dryel on my wool skirts and pants… I should probably send them to a real drycleaners sometime.

10

1)…guy or gal, how big your abode is and how many people live in your household. If you are married, tell me how you divide up the duties.

Female, living alone in a two bedroom, one bath apt. Maybe a 1000 square feet.

  1. Bathrooms: How often do you clean the toilet; shower/bathtub; sink; how often so you sweep/mop the floors? What cleaning products do you use? How often do you wash your bath towels?

Toilet, every couple of weeks. I use Comet and a toilet brush. Same for the sink but it’s Comet and a sponge. Towels every couple of weeks as well. I only clean the shower every four months or so, it’s doesn’t really seem to get dirty and I’m just standing in it anyway.

  1. Kitchen: How often do you sweep/mop your floors? Do you ever let dishes sit in the sink for more than one day? How do you clean the surface areas In the kitchen? Sink? Counters? Stovetop? Ever clean the refrigerator or oven?

I sweep every week or so. Mop maybe every month. Never clean the oven (which I’ve used twice in two years) or fridge unless something spills. I used to let the dishes sit in the sink until I ran out but, lately, I’ve been trying to wash them as I use them,

  1. Common areas: How often do you vacuum the carpets and/or furniture? What kind of vacuum do you have? How often do you dust the furniture? What product/method do you use?

I vacuum every couple of days 'cause I have two cats. I’ve got a Kenmore canister vac which rocks. The furniture I only do before company comes over although it needs it more frequently. Same for dusting.

  1. Bedroom: How often do you change and wash your sheets?

Every couple of weeks, same time I do towels.

  1. How often do you do laundry? Do you separate colors? What detergent do you use? Do you use fabric softener?

I don’t wear colors or whites so I never seperate anything. I use whatever detergent is on sale and never use fabric softener.

I think I fall on the more slovenly side of the scale. I’ve gotten better, I used to be a complete slob and woudl only clean before moving. But I’m trying to train myself to just do little bits of cleaning so it doesn’t need a massive two day effort…

11

Sorry; I meant to make this point in my last post but I got back from abroad yesterday and am stupid from jetlag: washing bedding and vacuuming around the bed is DAMNED IMPORTANT. I cannot do justice to the difference it makes, in quality of life. Generally, I say that moving furniture to vacuum under it is something only my grandmothers do, but vacuuming under the bed is absolutely necessary. I also forgot to add that I wash the mattress pad, with the blankets and duvet cover.

And I need to replace my pillows. That will be expensive.

12

Sattua: Because of your allergies?

13

Single female, no pets.

I try to keep my place (1 bedroom, 1 bath, plus living room, den, and large kitchen) clean, but it’s always cluttered. My clutter problem is mostly media-related: newspapers and magazines pile up, and for me it’s like pulling teeth to toss any non-newsweekly magazines out, so they just keep accumulating. OTOH, I keep all that stuff in generally differentiated (if not always neatly stacked) piles in the living room. :smiley: Recyclables get taken out weekly.

Cleaning-wise, I’m admittedly inconsistent. I take out the trash as needed (if I’m cooking, usually same day, before it stinks up the place) but clean the stovetop only if it’s visibly grease-spattered. Otherwise, I’ll keep cooking and wipe/scrub it when necessary. OTOH, I thoroughly wipe down and degrease the entire kitchen (walls, cabinetry, fridge exterior, etc.) annually. (Unfortunately, my stove isn’t equipped with a ventilating hood.) I have to hand-wash dishes, so I usually let them accumulate until I have enough to fill up half of the drying rack (and I never dry anything; let the air do that!).

I keep the bathroom floor very neat, spot-dusting and picking up hairs virtually daily. I wipe down the sink area 1-2 times weekly and clean the tub drain weekly, thoroughly clean the shower curtain, tile, and tub about once every three weeks (relying on more-frequent spot cleaning), and give the toilet a thorough cleaning only about once a month (or when I think it needs it). I even wipe down the tiled and painted walls several times a year. Bath rugs get washed 2-3 times a year – including the one that has to be hand-washed. (I put it in the tub and do the old grape-stomping routine on it.)

I clean all my windows and sills, inside and out, several times a year, and the screens too. I’m a stickler for clean windows! Drapes get laundered annually.

I do laundry (separated into whites, reds, and blues, and detergent only) once every three weeks, at a friend’s place. Sheets get changed weekly, but I change my pillowcase every night. (I have a lot of pillowcases!)

I don’t vacuum often enough – about once a month, or even less – but when I do, it’s usually a thorough job, including the bedspread and sometimes the upholstered furniture. I’m much better about keeping the kitchen linoleum and foyer’s wood parquetry clean and dusted – on average, weekly, but with frequent spot-cleaning.

I clean the inside of the fridge when necessary – once or twice a year. Air conditioner filters get cleaned every 1-2 months when in use.

Most surfaces and knicknacks get dusted every one or two weeks on average – but some things, like the tops of my books, get vacuumed every other year, or two, or three… (don’t ask).

14

No, I’m not a person who can claim to have allergies in general, but when my bedding has gone unwashed for 3-4 months, I can tell. I wake up with a stuffy nose, which goes away very quickly once I’m out of bed. I only realized what the problem was a few months ago; I did a no-holds-barred bedroom cleaning and washing, and the very next morning woke up without the stuffiness. It was incredible.

15

1)Female, married, two kids, (and 2 cats and 1 dog who all shed a lot) House is 3 bedrooms, den, living room, dining room, basement family room, 2 bathrooms, kitchen. I do most of the inside stuff because I only work part-time, and only during the schoolyear. I’m teaching my 15-yo daughter to do some stuff, and let my 7-yo son “help” with some stuff.

  1. Bathrooms: I use those drop-in bleach tablets in the tank. I also clean the toilet every couple of days. I squirt toilet cleaner in and use a toilet brush. I also use those pre-moistened towelettes in the pop-up container everyday if the sink (toothpaste gobs) or potty look dirty or if someone of the male persuasion ‘misses.’ I use them on the floor, too (it’s a small bathroom). I have no real brand loyalty, but like stuff with a lemon scent and/or bleach. NEVER MIX AMONIA AND BLEACH! I use bathroom cleaner in the tub and sink and have a separate scrub brush for the tub. I spray the tub and scrub it once a week. I also use that “Clean Shower” stuff. I wash towels once a week in hot water.

  2. Kitchen: I Swiffer the floor when it needs it, every couple of days. I use a dry Swiffer first, then spray the floor with Windex and mop it up with the dry Swiffer. I don’t have a dishwasher, so I do the disher by hand. I never let them sit for more than a few hours. I CANNOT go to bed if there are dishes in the sink. I use an SOS pad for the stovetop, once a week, and Windex (or some sort of multi-purpose glass & surface cleaner) on counters and the fridge. I use Easy-Off for inside the stove when it needs it.

  3. Common areas: I vacuum every couple of days. I have a Hoover vac with a hepa filter. Like I said, I have 2 cats and a dog, and all three shed and my husband is somewhat allergic. The pet hair I pick up is just amazing. I could make a whole new animal out of the hair I vacuum up. I vacuum the furniture, because the animals are under the impression that they’re allowed on the furniture, so their hair is all over it. Dust first, vacuum second is my rule. I’ve been having my daughter vacuum lately.

  4. Bedroom: I change all the sheets every week, and wash them in hot water.

  5. I do laundry every couple of days, or as needed. This week is different, as my son is at Cub Scout Day Camp, and needs his shirt washed every day when he comes home, so I’ll just do a quick small load every afternoon. (I was cheap and chose not to buy him an extra shirt.) I separate colors and lights and whites. Sheets and towels are washed in hot, kitchen towels are washed in hot with bleach, undies and white socks are washed in hot, jeans and darks in cold, medium colors in warm. I use whatever detergent is on sale or cheap, but I always buy Spray & Wash brand stain stuff. I think Borax works pretty well, too. I use store-brand Bounce-style sheets in the dryer. I also use that home dry-cleaning kit - Dryell (I think?), for freshening up sweaters and things. I take my husbands dress shirts to the dry cleaners. I can’t get them clean in the neck and cuffs, and I hate ironing. For $1.00, I get them back clean and perfectly pressed.

16

1)OK, first tell me if you are a guy or gal, how big your abode is and how many people live in your household. If you are married, tell me how you divide up the duties.

I’m a gal. Two bedroom house, 2 bathrooms, LR, kitchen, utility room, no big whoop. There’s 3 of us, me and DH and the squirt. DH is good for general picking up; I almost exclusively do the laundry, bathrooms, vacuuming and dusting. I also do the kitchen about 70% of the time. Overall I do about 80% of the cleaning, but DH helps by entertaining the kid while I’m cleaning. He also takes care of all repairs and does all of the lawn care, and most of the car stuff.

2) Bathrooms: How often do you clean the toilet; shower/bathtub; sink; how often so you sweep/mop the floors? What cleaning products do you use? How often do you wash your bath towels?

Toilet as needed, boils down to maybe every 10 days or so. Shower/tub as needed. Sweeping and mopping in the bathrooms, not very often, they’re as needed. Sink as needed. I use Fantastik orange cleaner. Towels are washed after 2 or 3 uses at the very most, usually they end up in the basket after 1 use.

3) Kitchen: How often do you sweep/mop your floors? Do you ever let dishes sit in the sink for more than one day? How do you clean the surface areas In the kitchen? Sink? Counters? Stovetop? Ever clean the refrigerator or oven?

Sweep the kitchen well at least once a week. I try not to let dishes sit in the sink overnight but sometimes it happens. Surfaces are cleaned by either bleach water or my orange stuff. Sink cleaned with a brillo pad. Stovetop with my orange cleaner. Just cleaned the oven last week. Clean the refrigerator thoroughly about every 3 months with minor touchups as needed.

4) Common areas: How often do you vacuum the carpets and/or furniture? What kind of vacuum do you have? How often do you dust the furniture? What product/method do you use?

Vacuum carpets thoroughly every other week or so. Touchups as needed (are we seeing a pattern?). Febreze furniture once a week. Crappy vaccuum from Wal Mart. Dust rarely; whenever it starts to bug me. I use Pledge orange polish and paper towels.

5) Bedroom: How often do you change and wash your sheets?

Here lately once or twice a month. Just depends on how much we are at home during that particular month (we go out of town a lot).

6) How often do you do laundry? Do you separate colors? What detergent do you use? Do you use fabric softener?

I do an average of at least 1 load a day. No separating colors. Lately we’ve been using Tide mountain spring. I use fabric softener on our clothes but not on the bed stuff and not on the towels. Fabric softener messes with how absorbant bath towels are. The softener I use is whatever’s on sale.

17

1)OK, first tell me if you are a guy or gal, how big your abode is and how many people live in your household. If you are married, tell me how you divide up the duties.
Five people in my home. Me, dh, three daughters ages 17, 13, 4. House is about 1200 sq. ft. three bedrooms, small living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room. I do 90% of the housework. Oldest daughter does next to nothing, because it’s so hard to get her to do anything (feel free to search for one of the 19 million threads I’ve started about her in MPSIMS); 13-year-old helps as needed. Hubby helps when I’m sick, or entirely overwhelmed, then will do what I assign to him.

2) Bathrooms: How often do you clean the toilet; shower/bathtub; sink; how often so you sweep/mop the floors? What cleaning products do you use? How often do you wash your bath towels?
I swish out the toilet every day with a little bleach; I wipe down the sink every day with yesterday’s washcloth (which then goes in the laundry hamper). We don’t have a tub, just a shower; I wash and condition my hair about every three days, so I wipe down the shower (with a scrubby sponge and shower gel) while the conditioner is soaking into my hair. I use my Euro-Pro Stick Shark mini-vacuum on the floor (in fact, in all the upstairs rooms, cuz my dirt devil is too darned awkward to carry upstairs once a week) weekly.

3) Kitchen: How often do you sweep/mop your floors? Do you ever let dishes sit in the sink for more than one day? How do you clean the surface areas In the kitchen? Sink? Counters? Stovetop? Ever clean the refrigerator or oven?
I don’t sweep my floors, I use my Stick Vac. I do this at least once a week, and mop once a week, too; I fill my sink with some PineSol and very hot water, and mop right from the sink. I wipe up surfaces and stove daily with Lysol disinfectant kitchen cleaner. Wipe out fridge as needed. Oven is self-cleaning.

4) Common areas: How often do you vacuum the carpets and/or furniture? What kind of vacuum do you have? How often do you dust the furniture? What product/method do you use?
I have a Dirt Devil bagless with hepa filter. I vacuum the rugs at least weekly (spot vacuum as needed); I use a carpet freshener (sprinkle down vacuum up type) about once a month; I probably vacuum the furniture about once a month. I dust with an ostrich feather feather duster that really picks up the dust instead of spreading it around.

5) Bedroom: How often do you change and wash your sheets?
We have two sets of sheets for our bed, but one set is our favorite, so I usually take them off, wash them and put them right back on. I do this once a week. I wash the comforter about every two months.

6) How often do you do laundry? Do you separate colors? What detergent do you use? Do you use fabric softener?
Every single freakin’ day! I don’t separate colors unless we have something new that’s red and I’m afraid it might bleed. We usually use Ajax detergent; store brand fabric softener sheets.

I used to be a horrible house keeper, but read somewhere on this very MB about flylady.net. It’s really helped me to clean up my act, so to speak.

18

In general, I like to say that my house is very clean, but you would never know it because it’s hard to see under all the clutter.

1)Female, our household is Mr. Del and I and the cat. I should have listed the cat first, because he is in charge of the house. We live in a one bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, NY. It is big by NYC standards, not so big for everyone else.

  1. Bathrooms: The bathroom is the most important thing to be cleaned, IMHO. I also like to clean the bathroom because it is the easiest room for me to clean, having few distractions. (As opposed to say, the living room, where I will start to dust the bookshelves and end up looking at all of our photo albums.) I give the bathroom a thorough cleaning once a week. After years of using the “soft scrub” types of spray on cleansers, I recently switched back to old fashioned Ajax. I had run out of the spray on type, and used the Ajax and was amazed at how much more clean the results were.

  2. Kitchen: The cat is not a tidy eater, so there area where his cat food is gets cleaned quite often. The rest of the floor is mopped maybe once a week. I am not real picky about that. Dishes might sit for more than a day, mostly because we eat out a lot, and the sitting dishes might consist of a coffee mug and a spoon. The counters are wiped down nightly. The deathknell for the kitchen is the fact that I loathe cleaning out the fridge.

  3. Living Room: We have hardwood floors, they get swept about twice a week. I neglect the dusting something fierce, maybe only once a month, and if I’m pressed for time, longer. This is the room with the most clutter. It piles up a lot.

  4. Bedroom: Sheets are changed once a week. Clean laundry never seems to get put away promptly, it forms large piles. Also not too good on the clutter in this room.

  5. How often do you do laundry? Laundry is sent out to be done two times a week. I don’t ask too much about how they do it, I think it’s best not to know.

On the sharing, I do almost all of it, mostly because I LIKE IT CLEANED MY WAY. Yes, I’m crazy. Mr. Del does anything I ask him to, if given explicit instructions. He would do more if I asked more. I usually don’t ask very much because it is quicker to do it myself than to provide the detailed instructions. He is also in charge of the garbage and other “heavy lifting” type chores. The cat does nothing.

19

b]1)OK, first tell me if you are a guy or gal, how big your abode is and how many people live in your household. If you are married, tell me how you divide up the duties.**

I’m a gal. 4 bedroom, 2900 sq feet 3 full baths, LR, kitchen, dining room and giant loft upstairs taken over by husband who makes movies and 3 kids that destroy and throw toys around. My husband does tons of cleaning- all of the laundry- except sheets - no pets I do the vacuuming and putting things away about 15 % of the time- the rest is all DH.

2) Bathrooms: How often do you clean the toilet; shower/bathtub; sink; how often so you sweep/mop the floors? What cleaning products do you use? How often do you wash your bath towels?

Our toilet gets cleaned every 10 days- the kids bathroom needs to be sandblasted about every two weeks. The downstairs guest bathroom is the one that is probably the cleanest at all since we have to keep it nice for visitors and no one ever visits- good thing too because my house is jacked!!
I like using the liquid comet for the toilets and use orange scented fantastik for the counters and bleach for the floors.
3) Kitchen: How often do you sweep/mop your floors? Do you ever let dishes sit in the sink for more than one day? How do you clean the surface areas In the kitchen? Sink? Counters? Stovetop? Ever clean the refrigerator or oven?

Kitchen is swept every other day- dishes get done at least once a day because they pile up quickly in our house since both of us cook. My stove top is horrendous. Totally disgusting. Counters I love to clean the counters are black granite.

4) Common areas: How often do you vacuum the carpets and/or furniture? What kind of vacuum do you have? How often do you dust the furniture? What product/method do you use?

Vacuum carpets thoroughly every Sunday Have one of those dirt devils and a steam cleaning vacuum- we have a child that likes to throw raw eggs around and drags food out of the fridge every once in a while- our stairs are also a mess.

5) Bedroom: How often do you change and wash your sheets?

Sheets every Saturday-I need to replace our pillows.

6) How often do you do laundry? Do you separate colors? What detergent do you use? Do you use fabric softener?

My husband does laundry about every 10 days big loads- we use fabric softener sheets and whatever detergent is on sale.

I would love a maid-

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1)Female, married, 1200sq.ft house, two cats, two medium-haired dogs. He does most of his own laundry, cooks sometimes, does dishes sometimes, and takes out the trash once in a while. Otherwise, it’s me or the cleaning lady. I get custody of the house for the same reason I get custody of the pets and the yard–he works 80 hours a week most months, so I’m the one with more time, energy, and inclination to do such things.

  1. I give the toilet a quick swish with the brush and the sink/tub a quick swipe with a damp cloth most days, which is enough to keep it in decent shape between deep cleanings. Masako does the real cleaning every other week. She also does the floors then, and I sweep in there once in between cleanings. I’ll reuse the same bath towel for a couple days, but Dr.J generally doesn’t. We do a load of towels every…10 days or so, I guess.

  2. Kitchen is swept a minimum of once a week, just how often depends on how badly the critters are shedding, how much we’re home, etc. When we’re not home much and there’s not a lot of hair floating around, it doesn’t get swept much. I try to mop up spills, muddy pawprints, etc. as they happen, otherwise mopping is left for Masako. I try to keep up with the dishes, but sometimes they’ll sit there for three or four days. Everything in the kitchen is scrubbed down with soapy water–sink, counters, stovetop-- or Murphy’s oil soap–cabinets, fridge front, inside of microwave. Fridge is dejunked at least once a month, but I don’t remember the last time I did the oven.

  3. Masako vaccuums and dusts every other week. I think she’s got an Orek Excel; whatever it is, it’s got a backpack thingy that’s pretty cool. She also cleans the glass tabletops then. I get the noseprints off the windows every three-four weeks, usually. I move the furniture and sweep, mop, etc. a few times a year.

  4. I do the sheets every couple-three weeks and the quilt every couple of months.

  5. I try to do a load of laundry every day, to keep it from piling up. I split the laundry into scrubs, lights, darks, reds, and whites. We use whatever detergent was on sale, and we usually don’t bother with fabric softener.