Here's an example of one of my documents on my fridge: (yes it's that serious. what can I say, I love documents, order, planning, and lists.)
House Cleaning Schedule---Deep Cleaning
Every 3 weeks a day will be set aside for deep cleaning the house.
Here’s a list of the chores that need to be done on that day:
Schedule for 3-week cleaning days go as follows: (cross off as completed)
Monday, December 19, 2011
Deep clean both bathrooms (dust, wash, sweep, mop) Dust all surfaces
Deep clean kitchen (sink, counters, table, fridge, cabinets) Windex all glass surfaces
Murphy’s Oil Soap Baseboards & Windowsills Wash rugs (that can be washed)
Vacuum all floors and rugs Mop floors and Bona floors
I know, I'm a document making, list following, over-planning freak! Ha! I do love to delegate however. I love to have hired help around the house. I can't afford it but I love being the boss. ;)
What I have found is that with a scheduled cleaning day every 3 weeks I don't fret over any of my housework. It is just Sassy and I (along with the pets) and the occasional stay from my mom when I am working and we really don't get the house too dirty. Some families need a deep cleaning day every 2 weeks, some once a month. I've found 3 weeks to be perfect for me.
I have noticed through the years I feel very peaceful when my house is clean. I do have some OCD so for me to be in a house that is really dirty really bothers me. Without a scheduled deep cleaning day I am all over the house cleaning and organizing almost everyday. This scheduled day helps to keep me in balance. I don't clean much of anything until that 3 week day. It is literally scheduled in on my calendar. I don't schedule plans, I tell people I have an appointment. Which I do. An appointment with keeping my OCD sanity under control.
Of course I'm not a crazy freak of nature if something bad or emergent comes up I drop the rags and I tend to. But for the most part, every 3rd Monday I am M.I.A. I've got a system and it usually only takes me about 3 hours to do the whole house. 3-4 hours to keep the house clean every 3 weeks is better than me putting around everyday trying to keep the house up. I'm not a crazy freak in that I'd leave a spill if something happened for 3 weeks either, of course I clean. I do dishes, laundry, kitchen cleaning, and spills. Everything else waits.
It is freedom!!! :D It gives me more time. Anyone else have a weird cleaning system like me?
5 comments:
I feel the same way. I love a clean house. Don't love the cleaning though. I usually clean every 2 weeks. Would be less without Nomad. :)
I've got a weird schedule. Since I'm currently working full time and I like to have my weekends as free from housework as possible, I've adopted a one-chore-a-day, Monday through Friday rule. Once I get done with work, I to the chore. Today it's the bathroom. Yesterday it was the entryway (vacuum and polish the wood floor, dust the little tables, vacuum the stairs, just the railing and spindles). Tomorrow it will be dusting upstairs. Friday it will be vacuuming upstairs. Once I'm done I can start dinner.
Since I keep them fairly short, I flip-flop the chores by week. This week it's upstairs, next week it will be downstairs (cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming and dusting downstairs, etc.). That way each chore is being done about every two weeks. If something comes up, I'll trade a "longer" chore with a "shorter" chore. Laundry, dishes and grocery shopping don't count as my chore of the day.
Since I'm a natural neat-freak, with the schedule the house always looks presentable and stays pretty clean. Probably not up to my mother's standards, though - she was a HUGE OCD clean-freak, and did the kind of cleaning we're talking about every week. She vacuumed every day, too, and fretted terribly about what a "mess" the house was if she couldn't get to it for some reason! I have tendencies in that direction, but I saw how stressful they made her life so I fight them. Clean, neat, yet lived in is fine with me; it doesn't need to be museum-quality!
I thought I was the only one! When I lived in a house I had an excel spreasheet and I had the list of every single thing to do. For example under kitchen: wipe counters with vinegar and water (this was obvious, but I still had it on my list, ha!) I also had other things like "wipe door knobs" I think that those get really dirty and peole sometimes forget to clean them. Also the little handle to flush the toilet. I had to deep cleaning on that little thing. Now that I live in my RV the toilet has a pedal which is so great!
I love a clean house, too. However, I am, by nature, lazy. I just found a new cleaning lady and she is wonderful. Yesterday I had a clean house for the first time in 5 months. Happiness.
Ok, I'm really like your cleaning system. I could do one of those deep cleans every 3 days. My family is messy like that. I wish I could go 3 weeks.
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