How much time do you spend cleaning? - Page 2

[Shantimama]

We have two teens, a pre-teen and a dog. I spend 30 minutes twice a day cleaning and our house is usually very clean. The floors get swept every day and washed once or twice a week. The bathrooms get a light clean every day and a deep clean once  a week. The living, dining and bedrooms get dusted and cleaned once a week. The kitchen gets cleaned every day, deep cleaned as necessary.

The every day stuff I tend to do first thing in the morning when I get up. Then each day of the week has one area that I work on and usually doesn't take me more than 15 minutes. At night I tidy up and put things away so that the cleaning will be easy the next morning.

It helps in some ways that my kids are older now. They are more able to clean up after themselves but they don't always do it. I clean with ENJO and that cuts my cleaning time way down and does a better job than the stuff I used to use.

I like having a clean house and it really helps me to have a routine.

[accountclosed3]

hmm.

Do you consider your house clean?

Yes. I wish we didn't have carpet throughout, as I would prefer to have the bare timber floors that are beneath it (we rent), and so we do vacuum regularly. I prefer to sweep with a broom and wipe with a cloth and some water/tea tree oil, so I would prefer the timber floors for sure!

But, other than that, yes, the house is clean. It is also tidy. It's a very small house, so tidy is really important to me. I tidy several times throughout the day -- starting when I wake up -- and then I do my deep clean for that day. Monday is deep clean of the bathroom and mud room; Tuesday I deep clean the kitchen (scrubbing the fridge, etc); Wednesday is dust/vacuum the rest of the house. 

I would say that I spend about 1-1.5 hrs a day in cleaning and tidying. Deep cleaning seems to take about 20-30 minutes (a lot of scrubbing walls and ceilings, window sills, etc to get rid of mold -- it's a wet environment), and tidying -- which includes dishes, laundry, making beds, wiping things down, sweeping floors, etc -- takes up the remaining time. 

I like the house clean and tidy. means a lot to me. :)

Do you have young kids?

Yes, one 3-yr old.

Pets?

No. We are considering a dog or a cat, but we're not ready to take on a pet at this point. And, I'm not interested in poop detail. :D

[IsaFrench]

thanks all for posting these, it confirms what I suspected,

- I am VERY slow moving

- I need to go though a MASSIVE decluttering event

MM lists have helped to some extent as well as reading other websites to pick up tips

(I'm very comfortable with my daily routine, still stuggle with the weekly one but now and then surprise myself with un-prompted deep cleaing bits in short busts- MM style- that I know would be on a montly or quarterly list - flylady like)

[Ruthiegirl]

Well, I am emerging from 12 weeks of awful morning sickness and have just started getting back into a routine.  The house is a mess, dh did a great job keeping up with the kids, cooking, laundry, but not the cleaning.  

I am still moving slowly, but I try to work 15 minutes at a time, 4 times a day.  So, an hour.  Yesterday, I spent the whole hour getting the bathroom cleaned up.  Today, I tackled the laundry room and kitchen.  It is slow going.  

We have very little clutter around, just dirt.  I have a list of chores sorted by priority and have been working my way through.  When the house is clean, I spend less time fussing, maybe 30-45 minutes a day and I work fast and efficiently.  

I like a clean house, but don't have the patience to muck around with it too much.  We have 3 kids, no pets.  It is a small house, too and that helps keep the job manageable.  

[NikonMama]

Originally Posted by TheSlingMama 

 I spend about 20 minutes a day cleaning (picking up toys and putting them away when we're done, running the vacuum, and unloading/loading the dishwasher) and one day a week I spend about 2 hours 'deep cleaning'

Same here.  I have the advantage of having a 12 year old that picks up his own toys, unloads the dishwasher for me, and folds and puts away his own clothes.  I load the dishwasher really quick as we are cleaning up from dinner, and that only takes about 10 minutes.  Otherwise I just do some general pickup in the evening.  I only vacuum once a week (not often enough, but I HATE vacuuming).  Laundry doesn't really take me any time at all, and I don't consider it cleaning b/c I fold it while I'm watching tv at night. 

I have a 12 year old boy, DH, 3 cats, and 2 dogs.  I do consider our house to be clean.  We recently moved from a larger house, so we got rid of ALL of our clutter.  There really isn't anything to pick up b/c of that. 
 

[Shantimama]

I work from home so having things clean and tidy makes my life a lot easier. I can't focus on work as well if there are piles of things lying around or jobs that need to be done. I enjoy my days more when things look good and are easy to find.

Decluttering on a regular basis is essential for me and so is having a routine. I also take advantage of days when I have lots of energy and some free time to get jobs done. This morning my son and I washed most of the windows, inside and out - not a big priority but wow, does it look good now! It took us about an hour. I have taught my kids how to do a lot of jobs and they are now old enough that they can do a decent job when asked to spend 15 minutes at something. If all four of us spend 15 minutes cleaning, that is an hour's worth of chores done. They don't see it now but I think I am doing my kids a favour by teaching them how to take care of a home now. They may have the option to hire someone to do their chores for them when they are adults but I don't want them to be dependent on someone else taking care of them.

[olaz-b]

After many years of stressing out about cleaning and keeping on top of it all, I have come to accept that we are not neat and organized, and that's OK.  Now, I feel a lot less stress in our lives, which is usually quite the opposite for other people.  However, I have many friends who say that they enjoy coming over to our house because we are real and don't put on a show.  I'm in no way putting down anyone on here, I'm just saying that we are the way we are and if others don't like it, we're OK with that. 

When it comes to cleaning, I make sure that dishes are washed and put away daily, laundry gets done a couple of times a week, vacuuming gets done a couple of times a month, and others things when I feel the dirty thresh hold has passed.  I've come to accept that once something is deep cleaned (eg. microwave), it looks fantastic for a couple of days, then it has a plateau of "not bad" for a couple of weeks, then it gets gross, so, I clean it.  If I wanted it to look fantastic all the time, I'd be cleaning it every couple of days, but I'm OK with it looking just fine for a couple of weeks, therefore I only end up cleaning it once in a while.  To me, that's less stressful than having to worry about it every couple of days.  It works for us and it lets us do the things we really enjoy, like running our homestead and playing with our DS.

BTW I really enjoyed the book "A Perfect Mess - The hidden benefits of disorder, how crammed closets, cluttered offices, and on-the-fly planning make the world a better place" by Eric Abrahamson and David H Freedman.

[ridillaster81]

I usually spend half of most days cleaning.  Dishes, laundry, sweeping, picking up toys, and much more!  I only have a two bdrm house!  I have a 2 and a 4 year old, and they mess it right back up.  I feel like it never ends!!!  I also have a husband that works long, hard hours, and he rarely does a thing.  I'm semi-okay with that because I know how hard he works, but I feel like he could do more.  By nature, I am a clean person: I cannot stand to have dirty kitchens and bathrooms.  I sometimes have clean clothes in my room for a week before I get around to putting them away.  I am interupted at least every 5-10 minutes for something from my two boys.  I just keep on trucking, I guess!

[SilverFish]

it's gotten a ton better since we moved to a new apartment as we were able to take a few days before moving in to really really deep clean (like washing the walls, all the windows, scrubbing baseboards and cupboards etc). it made a huge difference to my motivation to keep up with the cleaning. we also really decluttered and have enough space now that things all have a proper place, as opposed to just crammed in where ever there was room! 

it's not perfect though. my dh's office/ my art room is still pretty awful... i tend to put any small items and paperwork, random stuff, in there. the living room, bedrooms, bathroom and sometimes kitchen are generally good.  

overall, probably about 30-60 min a day. my last mega cleaning day (bathroom, bedrooms, floors) was about 60-90 min worth of work, and i try to do that twice a week (the other day would be kitchen, hallways, laundry room etc). a couple days a week i don't do more than some dishes and sweeping. 

my dh is pretty good about doing the chores that are his, once they've become habit. i had to shove an awful lot to get to the point that i don't have to even ask. he automatically does almost all the dishes, laundry, and will participate in cleaning days. it would never in a million years occur to him to vacuum or wipe down the vanity or sweep the kitchen floor though...