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whole house cleaning

Good morning all
I wonder if anyone has any advice, I have the next week off work and am planning on spending most of the week deep cleaning and sorting out th entire house. Does anyone have any tried and tested methods of best way to start, top to bottom, kitchen, bathroom etc. I am looking for an efficient way and one that I can just get my head down and get on with the whole thing. My house has turned into a giant mess and needs sorting!
many thanks
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Comments

  • *faints at the thought!* ;)

    Do a room at a time.

    Get boxes/bin bags for each person or other room. When you are tidying sat your living room, bung stuff for the other rooms/peeps in the correct box.


    don't start too much at the same time either or the place will look worse & you will lose motivation & in 3 years time we will see you on How Clean is Your House ;)

    Also maybe set a timer or your alarm clock for 1.2 hour bursts so again you don't lose motivation!

    I must listen to my own advice

    Good luck!

    Lisa x
  • Rachie_B
    Rachie_B Posts: 8,785
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    i start at the top of ther house and work down

    1 room at a time or it will look worse lol

    have plenty of black bags / boxes etc and have 1 for charity shop 1 for ebay / carboot sale ,1 for recycling etc etc

    then when all the clutter is out of the way start on the cleaning
    take down curtains etc and remove bedding,rugs etc i start with cleaning windows,walls,and paintwork,then clean and polish furniture then finally floors

    stardrops in a bowl of hot water is what i use for most things! and @ 58p a bottle you will do your whole house with that !
  • dannahaz
    dannahaz Posts: 1,068
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    I would do a quick sweep tidy of each room to start with, and then start from the top of the house and work down.

    Upstairs, as you clean room 1, make a piles on the landing of stuff to move to another room - one pile for each destination. At the end of the clean, or when the pile gets to big, move it to the room in question. If you can, put the pile away in room B before you start to clean room B.

    I would leave the bathroom as the last of the upstairs rooms.

    I find that cleaning the bedrooms is much quicker than cleaning the rooms downstairs, so by starting at the top I'd achieve a lot very quickly and keep motivated. Plus theres smething to do with dust falling.

    I would echo what mrsMH says about setting a timer. I also set myself small goals like "i'll have this room completed at X o'clock", or "I'l have the floor cleared by ten past", that sort of thing.

    And take plenty of breaks, drink plenty of water.

    Have fun!
  • nearlyrich
    nearlyrich Posts: 13,698
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    Some great advice, listen to some upbeat tunes on a personal music player or just on whatever you have to play music on as you work.


    I would echo the don't try to do too much in one session and as it's a week's holiday try to bundle in a few treats for all the hard work, for instance you could arrange to go out for lunch with a friend on say Wednesday and keep that as a motivator.

    Good luck and if you get finished by Thursday you can come and do mine LOL.
    Free impartial debt advice from: National Debtline or Stepchange[/CENTER]
  • Thanks guys, great advice. I already feel like a candidate for Aggy and Co. I appreciate all advice, it's great. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the thought of itall. I know it needs doing and have put it off for so long now!
    cheers all
  • When I was getting ready to do mine, I nipped to the local library and got a copy of how clean is your house. It gives you a breakdown of each room and tells you how to clean specific things really easily.

    hth

    jen
    xxx
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  • susank
    susank Posts: 809
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    Check out the flylady challenges and go to the flylady site too for tips
    Saving in my terramundi pot £2, £1 and 50p just for me! :j
  • IF you have a lot of cleaning to do why not divide the number of rooms you have by 5. Then tackle each room one day at a time, may be putting a list on the kitchen wall of which rooms/s you are going to do each day.
    Monday to Friday only, Saturday and Sunday are your days off.
    When you have finished that days room you can go in to the kitchen tick it off on the chart and make your self a well earned drink.
    The rest of the day is then your own.
  • I did this a couple of years ago after moving into a filthy house.

    One tip helped me
    Every morning before I got started I got that night's tea ready ( a slow cooker is great), I even set the table. I also had the living room tidy.


    By the time about 5pm came I collapsed into a hot bath but emerged clean a nd fresh to a nearly prepared meal and a tidy room to put my feet up in.

    Good luck you will be so smug this time next week !
    xxxdxxx

    With compassision, good manners, kindness and dignity as your ticket you will travel far in life.
  • One tip helped me
    Every morning before I got started I got that night's tea ready ( a slow cooker is great), I even set the table. I also had the living room tidy.

    Good tip. Having to start cooking in the middle of your clearout is distracting, and of course makes more mess for you to clear up! I've just had a few days off work to decorate and do some sorting out. I made sure I had plenty of snacky food - fruit, nuts, sandwich stuff etc for lunches/snacks, and a freezer full of home made meals which only needed microwaving. Give yourself little rewards - eg a glass of wine at the end of the day when you've accomplished your tasks. I have to confess I treated myself to a Thai takeaway last night - not very O/S I know, but I'd finished decorating a room, decluttered my stuff, cleaned it top to bottom, and put everything back in, all on my own (phew!), so I thought I deserved it. :D

    Also try and finish a room properly, it's a bit disheartening when you've got lots of half finished rooms rather than one or two which are immaculate.

    Oh - and don't try for the impossible, be realistic or you will be disappointed. I finally reached the conclusion yesterday that I couldn't possibly redecorate, clean and declutter my entire flat, top to bottom, on my own in just 4 days :rolleyes:
    Roll on next weekend......:D
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