cleaning rotation/schedule (floors, windows, vacuum, sinks)

[kelly237]

Does anyone have a schedule that works that
only takes 10-15 minutes per day???
Our house is 2 story and I want to divide
the cleaning out over 2 weeks .

I could clean a room or area every day or I could
do a task every day like tubs & sinks ect.

A room a day would mean dragging out all the supplies
every day but in some ways it seems better to complete
a room instead of a task /day .

[jimboburnsy]

I would recommend having kids. They will keep the house clean for you. HA HA HA HA HA!!! (I made myself laugh)

[StarryEyedSurprise]

It might look a bit wacky, but I recommend taking a look at FlyLady.net: Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home - free site, outlines a pretty decent 10-15 minute per day plan. Helped me out a lot, and I bet it will help me out even more when I have over double the square footage to take care of.

[gentlearts]

I like to start with the least difficult rooms, which take the shortest time. In my house, it's two unused bedrooms, and an unused bathroom. Within a half hour I can make them perfect, so it's like instant gratification. My usual way of tackling things is the opposite-by doing the hardest thing first-but, when I clean, I like to get the psychological boost from having some rooms gleaming and this spurs me on.
In answer to your question..I do one room at a time. No way do I want 8 rooms at a time in various states of done-ness.
Some good advise from Real Simple magazine is to cope with a messy closet or your kitchen drawers by removing 10 things. Do this a few times and pretty soon your extra junk is gone.

[kelly237]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

In answer to your question..I do one room at a time. No way do I want 8 rooms at a time in various states of done-ness.
Some good advise from Real Simple magazine is to cope with a messy closet or your kitchen drawers by removing 10 things. Do this a few times and pretty soon your extra junk is gone.

...I agree about having all the rooms partly done . On paper it makes sense to do all the glass, all the dusting ..but I need that mental boost of
having a room completely clean . On the other hand when I drag the vacuum out I would rather do more than one room & same for the cleaning bucket.

This is what I am going to try with 20 minutes a day. It isn't ideal because
I only do each room every 2 weeks but to be honest a deep clean every 2 weeks is better than I was doing. I just have too many things I want to do to spend hours a day cleaning.
M- toilets and tubs
T- vacuum 1/2 upstairs
W- finish cleaning that 1/2
Th- vacuum rest of upstairs
F- finish cleaning upstairs
S- grocery day
M- clean frig
T-F repeat above for downstairs

[NCyank]

If you only want to spend 10-15 minutes a day then you should just get a maid. I don't see how it is possible otherwise.

No, you don't have to spend hours cleaning everyday, but you'd be better to pick one or two days a week and spend an hour or more cleaning and then 30 minutes on the other days. You can try flylady or a friend of mine uses this planner and loves it. Or you could just make your own.

Personally, I like to do a quick clean of each room each week, declutter, dust, vacuum, etc. Then each week I add in one deep cleaning item. For example, if I clean the family room on Mondays one Monday a month I'll pull out and clean under the couch and coffee table along with the quick clean. The next week I might wash the windows and mirror, the next week I might do the baseboards, doorknobs and light switches. It's enough that everything gets done regularly but I don't need to clean the baseboards every week, KWIM?? In the kitchen it means that while I clean out the fridge once a week I only wipe of the shelves and drawers once a month. The cabinets get wiped down every few weeks, the junk drawer etc. all get enough attention that they don't get unruly but I don't spend too much time on it each week. With smaller rooms I can do two at one time, foyer and dining room go together, I do the hall bathroom with the hall and closets. Still it doesn't take but an hour a day and everything gets done regularly (that hour includes washing, drying and hanging a load of laundry but DH folds on weekends).

[kelly237]

NCYank...
I used to have a lady that came and did all my floors every week
and I kept the rest clean. I may have to do that when I go back to work
but I am going to try a schedule first.

I can clean my upstairs in less than 2 hours so I should be able to
clean it in 20 minute sessions 5-6 times a week. On the week I am
doing the upstairs I will keep the downstairs swept and neat and vice-versa.

For the deep cleaning idea you have I am going to just work that into
the daily cleaning by focusing a bit more on different things when I
go through that room.
Example: Today when I finish the space I vacuumed yesterday I may
wipe the woodwork down a bit. Yesterday when I vacuumed I threw out some junk from my son's room.


I think this may help me declutter also because when I do a space I
will try to follow up with a quick organizing task for that space.
Sorta focuses me intead of seeing a huge house and wondering where to start.

I have ADD and I jump from task to task so much I don't see my
results. This way maybe I will get to see a space cleaner and more organized for my effort.

My laundry gets done here and there as I pass by the laundry room.
I just put in washes/switch loads as I pass by , and I put it away at
night while I watch the news in our bedroom. My kids all do their
own wash so it isn't much anyway. That was the best thing I ever
did.
It warms my heart to hear one kid ask another if they could switch
their clothes to the dryer for them