Tell me your housekeeping schedule!

[Famatigia]

Gah! With five kids, one of them being a baby, it's so hard to keep my house together. It seems I'm always cleaning! LOL!

What is your entire housecleaning schedule? Is it planned out for the week? Can you please break it down for me? I want to copy someone. Haha.

[Charmie981]

I have four, one of them a baby and I find that as I have more children, I'm actually BETTER at keeping house than I used to be. I'm not sure if that's perspective or needing to keep my sanity or what.

Here's a basic rundown:
The olders do their own laundry. If they get behind, I'll wash and dry it, but they cart it to the laundry room, fold and put away. I don't care how it's done, as long as it's done. I don't make them sort and as long as it's on a hanger, I don't care...it may be inside out, upside down or whatever. I don't care...I didn't have to do it. They have one day a week assigned to them for their laundry and it has to be done that day or I dock their allowance (yes, I pay my kids to wash their clothes ).

I do all of the baby and adult laundry on Monday. All of it. All the way to complete. If I don't, I'll never do it and it will pile up. The rest of the week I work on doing other things like sheets, blankets, bath mats, etc.

Thursday night I clean the kitchen, 100%. After dinner, the kids clean the table and sweep, and we all put our dishes in the dishwasher I get everyone to bed (up until this point, this is our everyday routine), and then I clean the counters, cabinets, sink, stove, and floors--sweep and mop. I find that I can't do the whole house in one day, but if I do the kitchen the night before, I can do the rest of the house.

On Friday, so that I won't be staring at dirt when I'm trying to relax on the weekend, I clean the house. I start at one end and work my way to the other, mostly ignoring my kids rooms. At one point during the week, they will clean their rooms. Sometimes it's after school on Friday sometimes it's when I sick of seeing the mess, sometimes it's when they can't find something.

I start at one end of the house (my bathroom) and work my way down through the rest of the house, skipping the kitchen/dining because it was done the night before. In a perfect world, I'd get it all done, but since I often don't/cant' get it all done, I do it one room at a time, not one step at a time, meaning I clean the fixtures, dust, and sweep/vacuum/mop in each individual room before moving on to the next, so that if I don't finish, at least what I did do is done 100%. Make sense?


It all sounds so great, but as I type this, I'm fighting with my middle DS to get his laundry done (today is his day) and my oldest to clean up his room (can't see the floor anymore) and I'm putting off doing the dinner dishes because I just really want to curl up in bed with the baby and read a book.

[clutterwarrior]

Charmie it sounds like you have it all working like a 'charm'.

I think I might try that too as I am drowning in clothes here. My youngest is 8 and I think I should get him to bring his stuff to the laundry to earn pocket money. With my middle daughter, I really need to get her to do her own washing, as she throws the majority of clothing into the wash. Maybe if she has to do it herself she won't keep putting so much stuff in the wash.

My oldest should do hers too, but she is always so busy with university that I haven't been asking her, but I should as she will need to do it when she leaves home!

[Grace and Granola]

I only have two kids, but I babysit two kids full time, too. I've also wanted to get perspective on how others do it, because right now it goes like this: No cleaning for 5 days, besides picking up and vacuuming. Then the house is a wreck, I stress about it for 2 more days and then I spend a good 2 full days cleaning everything! I really need to get the kids involved more too!

[chely7425]

I have 2 kids right now with a 3rd on the way and I just started the Mindful Moms chore thing... so far I love it!! Right now it is taking a bit longer because little things like clean the bottom shelf of the fridge take like 20 minutes because they have been neglected for awhile...

[Alyantavid]

I only have 2 and they're older.

Saturdays, I clean everything. Dusting, vacuuming, mopping, etc. I usually pick out some big clean out/declutter project every weekend too.

Sunday is laundry. I wash everything on Sundays.

The rest of the week is maintenance. I sweep the kitchen floor after the kids are in bed probably every other day. Kitchen is completely cleaned up after every meal. Bathrooms, I wipe down while the kids are bathing or brushing their teeth. Dh and the boys make the beds after they get up in the mornings.

We pick up toys and such after they've been played with, I'm constantly decluttering and as long as everyone picks up after themselves, the house stays really clean.

[SeekingSimplicity]

I have a cleaning schedule that I posted on the inside of my kitchen cabinet.

Here are a couple pics:

My Schedule

On my cabinet

I do other things like dishes, wiping surfaces, and taking out the trash as necessary.

[zoebird]

here is mine:

daily

wake and make the bed, straighten up the bedroom, gather dirty clothes and put them in to wash, and then make breakfast.

after breakfast, i clean up the dishes, straighten up the whole house, and then start on the daily chore.

after that, when the wash is done, i dry it, and then put it away when it is dry; and i do the dishes throughout the day as needed; and at the end of the day (before bed), i pick up toys and straighten up the house.

so, pretty much after 9 am, it's just maintaining--straightening up as we go along, finishing up the load of laundry as we go. nothing more taxing than what takes 10-15 minutes at a time.

weekly

i have three big chores: 1. scrubbing the bathroom; 2. scrubbing the kitchen; and 3 dusting/vacuuming the whole house. we live in a small space; there are only three of us.

i scrub the bathroom on tuesday, kitchen on wednesday, and dust/vacuum on friday. my son helps along side (he's 20 months).

Big chores, though, can be divided. For example, your eldest can do the dishes and clean up the kitchen while you scrub the bathroom with the little ones, and your second oldest can vacuum 1/2 the house. then, on kitchen scrubbing day, the eldest can vacuum half the house while the second eldest does the dishes and the little ones help you scrub the kitchen.

folding laundry is something that everyone can help with, as well s putting their clothes away. tidying up before bedtime (putting away toys, crafting supplies, etc) is also something everyone can do.

use a rhythm

i cannot stress enough how much a rhythm helps me.

from the steiner/waldorf perspective, the idea is that you have an time for everything. thre are times of activity and rest. times of work and play. times of preparation and times of celebration. by creating a rhythm, everyone knows that their needs and expectations will be met.

the rhythm of work (cleaning up the house, etc) is helpful because i get the work done, but my son is also happy while i do it. he knows that that time will be for the chore, and that after that time, we will have play time. and then there reading/story time and then rest (nap time). then another play time, then another quiet time, then meals, then more play, then tidy up, get ready for bed, and another quiet time before sleep. his needs get met, and he's happy to go along the rhythm.

there are threads on it in the waldorf forum, even for larger families. just creating a rhythm to your day creates a sense of order and peace. everything gets done. and, i find that i have more time for play and relaxation than i did before i used a rhythm!

[OkiMom]

Schedule?? Oh yea that thing Im suppose to follow right? Hardly ever works out but this is what I have written down:
Mondays- All clothes laundry/towels, clean kitchen
Tuesday- Clean living/dining room, clean small fish tank
Wednesday- Clean DDs' room and hall bath, mop hall way, do DDs' linens/bathroom linens if needed
Thursday- Clean master bedroom, den, master bathroom, do linens if needed
Friday- Quick clean apartment, sweep apartment, clean large fish tank, replant any plants.

Dishes/wipping up counters and the like get done when needed. Every morning I empty the dishwasher and put things away. Every night I load it, wipe down the sinks and change out my dish towel to get ready for the next day. Usually on Mondays I make myself a new spray bottle of vinegar spray since I use about a bottle a week.
Baking goes on Mondays since Im in the kitchen anyway doing laundry and cleaning. Errands either happen on Tuesdays or Saturdays. My hubby is awesome about doing any extra projects I need (scrubing the balcony/moving around furniture/cleaning ac units etc. basically anything that involves cleaning mold since Im allergic). My girls help with whatever Im doing (I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old). My 3 year old picks up her own toys and helps fold/put away her clothes. Its not done perfectly but Im not raising a perfectionist, Im raising a little girl who feels great about herself when she knows shes helping her mom. My hubby does any car maintenance (cleaning, going for oil changes, gasing up etc) and anything that requires heavy lifting. If he isn't here (hes a Marine and gone alot) other than getting gas these things go undone. He doesn't like it when I do whats traditionally his "jobs" while hes gone and since he hardly every leaves for more than 6 weeks I leave them for him to do when he gets home. Its easier and makes him feel needed/wanted. He loves coming home to a honey do list (and Im not joking about that, last time he was gone I didn't make him one and he pouted for the whole day after he got back before telling me he felt like I didn't miss him becuase I didn't make him one.. silly man).

[ParisApril]

My schedule is as follows.

Wash dishes 2x every day.
Sweep when I see hair balls or if someone dropped dirt and sand on the floor from their shoes.
Clean the bathroom when it is dirty.
Dust when things get dusty.
When it is sunny out wash laundry.
Make everyone tidy's up after themselves all the time so the place doesn't turn into a disaster area!

That's it! Easy and flexible!

[ChristyMarie]

What about the idea of spending a certain amount of time cleaning each day and you get done what you get done?

My maid seems to have vanished and I don't think I have the energy to find a new one. Plus, we've been trying to cut back so I think this is a natural time to start cleaning the house. For the first time in a looooong time.

I keep it straightened and I keep up with laundry so those aren't really issues for me. But how to fit in actual cleaning? I was thinking of different schedule options and nothing works for me. I thought one level a day but, well, I cannot get one level done in a reasonable amount of time so I just give up. Wednesday I did the main level, except the kitchen and wood floors and it took me about 2 hours. I cannot clean for 2 hours a day! But if I do one hour a day I think I can keep it rotating and be ok. This also means that the vacuum will be out a lot unless I want to keep carrying it up and down the stairs. Which I don't like. Or I could figure out how to use my whole house vacuum system, which I might have to use on the stairs anyways.

I've been thinking about this a lot this week.

BTW, what do you all use to clean the bathtubs and showers? I think I need to buy something or can I just use a general cleaner?

[zoebird]

i use a general cleaner (organic, biodegradable what not) for everything.

i also prefer to just do a type of room at a time. as i wrote above, bathroom, kitchen, others. this can be done in an hour, really.

so, if you have three bathrooms, each one takes about 20 minutes to clean (including mopping floors, and in my case, scrubbing walls/etc to prevent mold), so that's an hour.

kitchen should take about 45-minutes to an hour.

vacuum dust--divide it up so that it's these rooms on this day for one hour, those rooms on that day for one hour. to use the vacuum without hauling it each time, perhaps something like this would work:

monday: bathrooms;
tuesday: kitchen;
wednesday: living room and dining room;
thursday: family room and stairs--now the vacuum is upstairs and older kids clean their rooms including vacuuming;
friday: upstairs hall, master bedroom, small kids rooms.

that leaves sat and sun for outdoor chores (lawn, garden, etc), or just for fun!