How do you WOH and keep your house clean? - Page 2

[zeldabee]

Originally Posted by aquarian

Thank god!!! I was starting to feel just awful.

There aren't enough hours in the day! Unless I just don't sleep. Seriously.

Someone mentioned Speed Cleaning, and I googled it, which led me here. There were some handy tips in there, particularly in the clutter control "rules." I'm really trying to develop better habits so that I don't have to spend so much time catching up.

For me, the goal is to have a home that is livable and comfortable, not necessarily spotless. I have no desire to eat off my floors. I just want to be able to find stuff when I need it, and not trip over stuff.

[montlake]

The only it works for us is a cleaning chart. Each one of us has a task to do everyday except Friday. That way no one person is doing everything, and no one person gets stuck with the same job each time it needs to be done. Like each one of us takes a day cleaning litter boxes or cleaning the kitchen. I do vacuum a lot because we have lots of pets. Part of "cleaning the kitchen after dinner" for whoever gets it that day is sweeping. Definitely don't mop every day.

[*clementine*]

Originally Posted by aquarian

ok-- another question. Do you all do floors/bathrooms/kitchen's everyday as well? I was reading this in the other thread.

I do, honestly, I can't imagine how bad they would be if I didn't and it only takes a few minutes. Once you are in swing of it, it only takes a small amount of time because everything is always semi caught up. My house is almost always guest ready clean. Every so often throughout the day I do a round of picking up. It helps immensly. The key is to start with a clean slate and keep it like that.
Now off to clean my house.......

[zeldabee]

Originally Posted by jillkuster

I do, honestly, I can't imagine how bad they would be if I didn't and it only takes a few minutes. Once you are in swing of it, it only takes a small amount of time because everything is always semi caught up. My house is almost always guest ready clean. Every so often throughout the day I do a round of picking up. It helps immensly. The key is to start with a clean slate and keep it like that.
Now off to clean my house.......

Throughout the day? Thought the thread was about keeping the house clean when you WOH...sorry to split hairs...

[moderngal]

Um, 2 words. Cleaning ladies!!
I have cleaning ladies come once a week. In between, I do laundry and general tidying up. DH does the dishes. If I didn't have my cleaning ladies or DH's help, I don't think we'd ever have guests!!

[kijip]

I find it easier to keep a house clean when I WOH. No one is home to make a mess.

I work with my husband on this. We each have a combination of work and school that equals full-time. We each do housework.

Having little clutter helps, as does having a set spot to open the mail over the trash.

We clean the kitchen, wipe down the bathroom, tidy rooms and sweep the floors daily. My husband washes the laundry, hangs it to dry or uses the dryer and I fold it and put it away. I also iron anything that needs it. We usually do 1 load 5-6 days a week. This all takes place in the evening after we get home at 5:30 or so together.

On the weekend we deep clean together and clean each bathroom, vacuum, scrub the kitchen, dust etc. Our son helps as much as a 4 year old can.

1-2 more times per week my husband will run the vacuum if needed.

Having set jobs and a routine helps. And a place to put everything.

[zeldabee]

Originally Posted by kijip

I find it easier to keep a house clean when I WOH. No one is home to make a mess.

Yeah, you'd think that, wouldn't you? However, it didn't work that way for me. Toy clutter is probably the easiest and quickest for me to neaten up, and my son helps too, and that's the only thing that there's more of when we're home.

We generate the same amount of laundry when we're not there during the day. I prepare the same amount of food (only I have to pack some of it), we use the shower/bath the same number of times. We use the toilet fewer times, but it manages to get just as dirty.

No, I personally found it much easier to keep the house clean when I was home (when I was unemployed--it was never an option for me to be a "real" SAHM).

[SewEsperanza]

I do find it easier to keep the house clean now that I
WOH.

HOWEVER, I was a sahm/wahm/homeschooler
for years and it was a struggle to maintain
a clean home.

ALSO, I said EASIER now that I woh, not EASY.
I find IF we can maintain on a daily basis,things
go smoothly.
By maintain I mean, pick up our junk in the evening,
do a load of laundry and put it away before bed, do
the dishes right after dinner.
On the weekends we dust/mop/etc

If we have a bad day and fall behind, forget
about it!

Hope

[zeldabee]

Maybe it makes a difference if you have a partner? I just feel like I have the same amount of stuff to do, only less time to do it. And I was unemployed for 8 months a couple years ago, so was home all day with my then-toddler. Once I was working again, it was a huge adjustment, and I found it very hard.

It definitely is getting easier as my son gets older. I'm fortunate in that he seems to have the instinct to be neat. So with him on board with keeping the main area clear of toys, picking them up immediately when they're no longer in use, that's easier to deal with.

And you're right about maintaining! It's when I fall behind that it gets miserable for me. I was raised in a clean house, and it kicks up lots of emotional stuff for me.

So my struggle now is to find a balance, between keeping the house clean enough to be comfortable for me, but not to have such a high standard of cleanliness that I'm spending so much time cleaning the house that other things suffer.

[almadianna]

i am going to be honest here.
i pay someone else to do it for me.
i do some stuff but it is worth my sanity and time to pay someone else to come and clean for me.

[almadianna]

Originally Posted by aquarian

ok-- another question. Do you all do floors/bathrooms/kitchen's everyday as well? I was reading this in the other thread.

why would that be necessary? lol... i guess my answer is obviously no.

[lovemyfamily6]

I work 5 hours a day and I find it to be a real struggle. I used to keep the house so clean when my oldest was a preschooler and the twins were toddlers. Ever since I got pregnant with the fourth and now that he's a year old and really mobile, it's awful. I'm constantly stressing about the condition of the house. My personality doesn't mesh well with clutter, disorganization and uncleanliness. However, that's exactly what my house has become. I just can't seem to get ahead or even keep up. Dh does what he can to help, which isn't a lot because as soon as I walk in the door from work at 12:15, he walks out the door and gets home at 9:30pm. In the morning he's taking the oldest to school, coming home and feeding the twins breakfast, taking them to preschool, coming home and feeding the baby breakfast, playing with him for a bit, picking twins up from preschool, then getting ready for work. When I get home, it's lunch for the three boys, then I like to be able to play with them for a little while, MDC time, then pick the oldest up from school. Depending on the day, right after school he either has speech therapy or they all have swimming lessons (2x a week), basketball for the oldest. On the four days we have an activity after school, we pick dh up for his break right after and get home around 6:00. I make dinner, spend a little time with them, get ready for bed. I'm usually exhausted by that point because I've been up since 5am.

I've realized that things aren't going to get less crazy, so I did rejoin Flylady a couple days ago. I'm just getting the daily digest. I'm not really interested in the testimonials or anything, so I just scan it. I'm trying to come up with a good plan for *my* house. Swishing and swiping the bathrooms daily doesn't work for me. I am trying to clean (mirrors/sink/toilet) the main bathroom daily because with all boys it is bad. I'm also trying to get in the habit of walking in from work, taking the baby up to our room to change his diaper and then coming down with a load of laundry every day.

The kitchen is my biggest downfall. I can not seem to keep it clean. My friend is living by the "touch it once" philosophy of not putting something down to take care of later. Put it where it belongs now. I need to do that. The kitchen is awful. I don't even know why I let it get this way. It was spotless on Monday afternoon, but now by Thursday it's a pit. It's not even dirty dishes, we keep up on that. It's groceries that haven't all been put away yet, cookbooks, cereal boxes to be broken down for recycling, some magazines that I got in the mail, artwork that the boys brought home from preschool for the end of the year...There isn't a free square foot of counter space though. It's all covered in clutter. I really feel that if I could get a handle on the kitchen, the rest would fall into place for me. But I can't seem to get it under control.

I also think I need to let go of the idea of having the entire house clean at once and realize that the chances of me having a 2 1/2 hour block of time to get it done won't happen. I should schedule something to do each day. I can't seem to figure out how to do that either though. I'm going to start a thread...