New Year Resolution to step up cleaning in my home, but where do I start?

trinidadone

hello all,

Happy New Year!!

As one of my New Years Resolutions, I have decided to do much more cleaning than I currently do.

Do you have a cleaning structure? do you do things on a daily, weekly and monthly bases?

Do you space your cleaning out, or crame everything in, in one go?

Do you actually have a cleaning plan, or clean as you go along?

I am interested in know much more?

phill99

I've employed a cleaner. Far better proposition than increasing the amount of cleaning I do.

littleredhen

Life is for living, not cleaning:j
Since my separation three years ago from my oh I have become a live life to the full kind of person. Have been to Amsterdam, Rome and soon going to Prague:T
Stuff the cleaning, it's a waste of time. As soon as you have cleaned stuff it needs doing again:mad:

suisidevw

Same as Phil! Have a couple of Polish ladies that zoom round our house doing a cracking job. Much better than I'd ever do!

Doozergirl

I've been known to use the flylady thread in the past.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5145868

There is a flylady website somewhere and it will email younreminders and stuff. It's been a long time since I used that.

There was a day when I realised that pretty much everyone I know with a neat house has a cleaner, so I too have had a cleaner for just over a month. He's quite muscular and good looking, to the chagrin of my husband!

He did ask if I was going to have an affair with him. I pointed out that I'm far too excited at the prospect of a clean house, to be wasting time on that!

It does take the edge off everything. I've never physically been able to get around the whole of this house before the first thing I cleaned is trashed again. That's soul destroying. And I'm even more busy with work now. (What am I doing here??)

I_have_spoken

I clean the toilet every month, whether it needs it or not!

trailingspouse

Well, I don't have a cleaner, but I do have an overall plan to make sure everything gets done.

Here goes -

Basic tidying up every day. That's just simply putting things where they're meant to be. Kitchen sink and loos get a quick wipe when they need it, in addition to the weekly clean.

Monday - clothes washing - one load of dark colours, one load of light colours, a load of woollens as required.
Tuesday - Change bed. Wash bedding and towels.
Wednesday - ironing, clean bathrooms
Thursday - clean upstairs (two floors, 4 bedrooms - but unless we're expecting visitors I only clean our bedroom and the stairs/landing). Weekly shop.
Friday - clean downstairs (two floors - living room, dining room, kitchen, utility). Hoover, dust, wash kitchen and utility floor.

And that's it - but bear in mind there are only two of us, and OH works away all week most weeks... Friday is quite a full day, but it means it's all nice for the weekend.

I find that keeping the place tidy is the important thing - nothing worse than being all ready to hoover/dust but then having to tidy up before you can start.

Hoploz

I normally do one job at a time, eg hoover right through, dust each room, clean bathrooms etc.

My mum always recommends doing the whole of one room at a time.

I think she's probably right, because with my way i never feel like it's all done.

Yorkie1

For some reason, my mum always changed towels every 5 days when I was growing up. I can't imagine keeping track of that!!

Whatever routine you decide, I'd make sure it was easy to remember.

(I'm another person who thinks life is too short to clean, except when it gets embarrassing or you've got visitors due ... )

puppey

get it all done in one go, painful but then the rest of the week free!

sniggings

easy...if the house is a mess,you need to start with a clean house, so one room at a time, totally clean it, then 20mins a day and one day a week,take an hour to totally clean one room, the next week pick a different room.

Obviously this all depends on the size of the house and number of people, but 20mins is loads, this doesn't mean you do nothing the rest of the time tho, if you walk past a dirty mark on a cupboard etc you clean it there and then, you'll find these jobs get less and less.

Buy a timer and time 20mins (an hour once a week) it's good knowing there is an end in sight, you'll find yourself rushing to beat the timer some days and others nothing left to do, and waiting for the timer to go off.