What are your housekeeping routines?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I treated myself to a Kindle edition of Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson. I have the hardcover, which I bought with birthday money back in 2000, when I was living in a dormitory and dreamed of having my own private laundry facilities. It has carried me through two apartments and three houses since then, and I still get it out whenever I need a little housekeeping kick-in-the-ass.

What are your housekeeping routines? I’m curious.

Mine is approximately…

Daily I fix meals for people present in the house, do an afternoon kitchen tidy-up which includes unloading the dishwasher and hand-washing things that need it, and an after-dinner kitchen clean up that involves putting dishes into the dishwasher, putting food away, and sometimes cleaning the kitchen floor.

On Mondays I wash clothes, pick up toys, and do whatever vacuuming and dusting I’m going to get around to that week. On Wednesdays I buy groceries. On Fridays I wash sheets and towels, scrub the bathrooms, and consider scrubbing the kitchen floor.

On solstices and equinoxes I wash under-bedding and shuffle clothes around to be seasonally appropriate, usually ending up with a load of stuff to donate to Goodwill.

Annually I wash all the wood floors and think about whether I want to wash upholstery, carpets, and curtains.

2

About all I have for routines is making sure dishes, laundry, and other potentially urgents get dealt with on Wednesday so I don’t have to deal with them on Thursday (I’m away from home for a very long day on Thursdays, and what time I do have at home, I’m too tired for the house). Otherwise, things tend to happen on either the “ugh, this needs attention” or “guests are coming, need to make this place look like civilized beings live here” plans.

The car does usually get gassed on Wednesday or Thursday because that’s when DH gets paid (well, for about another month before his layoff). He’d probably do alternate weeks just to cut the number of trips to the gas station, I prefer every week to spread out the financial pain. Therefore, I’ve been handling that lately, which is OK with me. I don’t really like pumping gas, but at least I get to decide what station we’re using (I pass one of the least expensive in town a couple of days each week, and AFAICT their gas is perfectly all right quality-wise).

3

Thanks for the reply Seanette. I wonder why there aren’t more people happy to talk about housework routines on the internet on Friday night…? :confused:

4

I have no regular housekeeping routines.

5

Most days, I either cook something or order take-out. Two or three times a week, I’ll stop by the store on the way home from work. We might also do a weekend grocery run or order a produce box. I’ll usually do a little pick-up around the house every day, with a more dedicated on one weekends. Once a week or so, I do my laundry and put it away. I’ll do any dishes hubby hasn’t tackled.

Once a month, we call a housekeeper to do the deep scrubbing. She does a better job than I would even if I applied myself. Once a year or so, I tend to move, which is a good excuse to sort through and get rid of things.

6

Umm, invite people over, then spend the day before frantically cleaning?

I don’t really have routines. I guess the only real routine (that is something that gets done at the same time/day on a regular basis) is that Kiddo does the dishes and cleans up the kitchen after dinner every night. Other stuff gets done regularly, but not with a routine.

7

I move to a new place every few years.

8

I live alone in a 1BR apartment with an in-unit washer/dryer and don’t really have routines. I eat a lot of takeout. I run the dishwasher when it’s full. I do laundry when I start to run out of clothes. I vacuum when the floor looks like it needs it. I clean the bathroom or the kitchen when they look like they need it. I take the trash out when the can is full. I go to the grocery store when I’m low on something necessary.

Sometimes I will do more, sometimes less depending on how lazy I’m feeling or if I have company coming (like this weekend). About the only non-negotiable is the supply of cat food or litter: if I’m out, I’ve gotta go get more immediately. Everything else is flexible.

I’m a bit of a cluttered person, but my apartment looks decent and I manage what I need to do.

9

When I make my first cup of tea, I unload the dishwasher and put in any dishes that have accumulated since yesterday’s dinner. After tea, general pickup. Check to see where the cats have horked lately. Four cats = at least one “yuck!” per day. Scoop cat litter daily, or as needed. Yeah, this means that usually I only have tea for breakfast.

Monday and Thursday evenings are the times that I make a special effort to clean out the fridge, because trash is picked up on Tuesdays and Fridays. Recycling is on Fridays, so Thursday is when I check to make sure that all the recyclable trash is in the bin.

We wash household linens on Sunday, and that’s when we change the sheets (except for the daybed, which doesn’t see much use). My husband does his laundry on Fridays or Saturdays, and I do mine on Mondays.

Generally, grocery shopping is done over the weekend, though I might make a run to get milk or something if we run out between times. I have a whiteboard on the fridge, and I write down stuff as we run low on it. My husband has also seen the wisdom of writing stuff on this list, because otherwise, we’ll forget to buy it. This is also where I write down that a prescription needs to be picked up, and phone messages. I’ve tried to keep a pencil and scratch pad by the phone, but somehow they always wander off to my husband’s desk.

For the most part, I cook dinner at home. We like to eat out, but cooking is so much cheaper, and I don’t have to worry about problem ingredients, because I usually cook from scratch, so I know what’s in the food.

Before serving dinner, I load up the dishwasher as much as possible, and after dinner, fill it, set it going. Spray and wipe down the stove and counters, and see if the fridge needs it.

Other stuff gets done as it’s needed. If I keep stuff picked up, that’s half the battle.

10

I have a very simple housekeeping routine: procrastinate about every little thing until I get tired of going without it, tripping over it, stubbing my toe on it, seeing it filthy, or watching a new species grow in the kitchen sink. And even then, I’ll find any excuse for not doing it.

11

Laundry is on weekends. Dishwasher when it’s full, but that tends to be on weekends.
If I remember to make a big batch of oatmeal for a week’s worth of breakfast, I do it on Sunday. Otherwise, it’s a box cereal week.

I clean the kitchen counters when I get frustrated with the piles of papers, and before and after cooking.

I sweep when I remember to, or the day before company comes over.
And I change the battery in my smoke detectors when I change the clocks for daylight savings time…or when they start whining about low battery. The detectors, that is. My clocks don’t whine.

12

I never wash dishes, As I am preparing food, I rinse things as I go, before anything can get dried on. After eating, I immediately clean up everything, rinsing under hot tapwater, rubbing with a scrubber if necessary. I never use dish soap, it is unnecessary if attacked promptly. You can tell by finger-feel if things are clean, a little patina of grease does no harm. Air dry in the dish drainer.

My apartment has a dishwasher, I store plastic bags in it.

13

I pay the mortgage, I keep the house.

OK, I’ll admit to being a bit obsessive-compulsive about clean dishes. I get in trouble doing dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher, but I feel I get the dishes cleaner. She’s getting me trained to use the dishwasher, but I’ll wash plastic containers, my good pans, and my good knives by hand.

14

I didn’t read this before I posted.

I do the same, and I get accused of ‘selective dishwashing’. It just easier for me to clean as I go. I do use dish soap and a Dobie pad, though. I want no grease or other residue on my dishes. I also feel the dishes as I clean them, to make sure I wash off things I don’t see.

Cooking is one of my hobbies, and I want my tools to be in top shape.

15

We try to do the weekly grocery shopping on Friday night, because it takes half as much time as doing it on Saturday. Lately on Friday morning, I’ve been taking the sourdough starter out of the fridge and feeding it, so I can mix up dough Friday after grocery shopping, let it rise overnight in the fridge, and then bake it before breakfast on Saturday. (I was too tired to do that last night, though.)

Laundry gets done at some point over the weekend. Once in a while there will also be a midweek load if there’s more than usual. Cooking happens almost daily, and we tend to bring leftovers for lunch (or salad, or sometimes I will make up a pot of lentil soup or something for lunches). We clean up as we go along, wipe down the kitchen island and counters after cooking and/or before setting the table. Vacuuming/mopping are somewhat less often than needed, but tonight we’re having company for dinner, so there will be a fair bit of cleaning/decluttering. The dishwasher gets run about once a day, maybe twice today because of all the dinner party cooking.

We cook a lot and eat mostly things we have cooked from scratch. It’s healthier, cheaper, I like it better than most things we could get for quick cheap takeout, and I often feel like restaurant food has vast amounts of salt.

16

Most of my household routines that happen less frequent then weekly, are marked down in my Outlook Calender.

So I get reminders for:

  1. Every three months: let the diswasher and washer run an emply cycle with a product for de-odorizing and decalcifying them so they last longer without repairs.

  2. Every month: replace the vacuum bag.
    My weekly laundry routine is:

Every Saturday morning, I sort laundry and do about four loads. I hang the laundry to dry on basement lines and, in summer, outdoor lines that are sheltered from the rain. Come Thursday, the cleaning lady comes and she irons and folds.

While the first laundry load runs, I clean out the litter box. I’ve got an Omega Paw Rollaway that I turn around every day, works like a charm, a daily clean litterbox in literally 10 seconds. Awesome. But anyway, while the first laundry load runs, I clean the litter box out with hot water and replace the litter, so it won’t stink or dust on the laundry hanging above it on the line.

17

No real routine. If it dirty, clean it, if it’s in the way pick it up. If it isn’t useful, today, throw it away. My grandmother and my ex were hoarders and I hate clutter.

18

This is exactly my “routine,” except I also bake bread if I have time and feel like it before Sunday night. If I don’t, I regret it by Wednesday or so.

I don’t work (well, I don’t get paid for the work I do) in June or most of July, so I tend to put off any big housekeeping jobs until summer. Of course, then summer just whizzes past and half of them don’t get done anyway. This summer, I plan to repaint the balcony and clean out and organize the downstairs closet. I also have illusions about getting our home office organized, but that’s not likely to happen in real life.

19

My “routine” involves lots of yelling at the kids to pick up after themselves. :slight_smile:

The only regular thing about our housekeeping is the housekeeper’s schedule–she comes on Mondays. I do the laundry on whatever day I’m working at home that week, usually Tuesday.

Number one on my wish list for when my ship comes in is a full-time housekeeper. I am decently neat and tidy myself, but get hugely irritated when I’m expected to clean up after others. So I don’t do it, with predictable results.

20

Except for a yearly “spring cleaning” where I basically wash & dust everything there’s no routine. I just clean what’s obviously dirty, take out the garbage when it’s full or smells, etc.