Yesterday we asked the question, do you clean before the cleaning lady comes? We have to confess that we no longer have a cleaning lady. We gave her up when we realized that our apartment wasn't clean, it was just temporarily tidy. We had to find a way to do the real work ourselves and not in a crazy "I'm going to alphabetize all my spices" way but in a way that meant we could keep it clean ourselves and pocket the increasingly large chunk of change the cleaning lady was charging us. Now our apartment really is clean. The spices are not yet alphabetized...but almost (okay, they're arranged by cuisine). If we can do it, you can too. Our four part method after the jump...
- Excercise your body by beating the clock: Once a week we set aside an hour to do basic chores: swiffer the floors, dust, vacuum or dustbust, change our sheets, toss magazines, newspapers, windex our mirror and glass coffee table and straighten up. We try to combine it with doing laundry. When the laundry's done, so are we. It's a very basic, very fast surface clean that keeps our apartment looking neat.
- Excercise your brain by multi-tasking: Each week we concentrate on one room and spend a few minutes each day doing a more thorough cleaning. We try to combine this with doing other things to make it less painful. So, we'll clean out a cabinet while we're on the phone, rearrange our shoes while we're waiting for the bath to fill, file our weekly receipts while the dryer cycles.
- Excercise your spirit by cultivating daily rituals: We have morning rituals, an outbox to filter out the outside world when we get home and things we do before we go to bed. Like brushing our teeth, they have become routine and help prevent larger problems.
- Exercise your sense of accomplishment: We finish tasks that we start. We wash the dishes after a meal, we make our bed when we get up, we put our clothes away when we take them off.
[Image via MarineGirl]
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Comments (26)
Nice image! :)
SWIFFER!!! noooo, you mean sweep the floors using somehthing reuseable and not disposable, right?
swiffer doesnt work anyway.
and i never understood cleaning before the maid came- is that what you are paying him/her/them to do? if there is something that you need to make sure you can locate easily i understand, but why make the bed and do the dishes and sweep if someone is coming to do that? is that why you have someone? cause you dont have time to clean? might as well just do it myself.
ange_lune,
i am using the word "swiffer" as a vivid visual term for a quick dry mop. i actually use bar mops tucked into my old swiffer mop or recycled paper towels which i then compost.
cheers,
abby
I always dust when I am on the phone. Get out the duster and it makes the task go quickly. I also fold laundry, if it is around, when I am on the phone.
A friend used to vaccuum whenever she heard her least favourite politician on the radio. Well, either that or other cleaning the could drown out said politician. her house was clean while he was in power!
Sometimes I contemplate hiring a cleaning person just to do the floors. I feel totally competent and not too bothered by tidying and surface cleaning but for some reason I feel like my floor mopping skills are totally remedial. I always sweep and then mop with a sponge mop, using hot water and murphy's (or hot water and vinegar if it's on the linoleum), but I always have the feeling I'm not getting my floors 100% clean. Anyone have some mopping secrets they can share with me?
Clean as you go is probably the best advice anyone can follow. Additionally, do a little frequently rather than wait for it to get out of hand. I always clean my cannisters and various kitchen containers each time I empty one out and that keeps them from getting dusty or covered with grime.
Scrub part of the bathroom just before getting into the shower and scrub the shower while you're in it. If you do a few little things once a week (or every few weeks), it makes a huge difference in maintenance.
Also, use a feather duster on all the little things (e.g, picture frames, lighting fixtures) before dusting and vacuuming properly. Brushing everything over takes about 5 minutes and it'll keep you from having to do things the hard way later. Dust turns to stuck-on dirt if you leave it, but brushes off if you keep on top of it.
As for floors (esp. in the kitchen), it helps to wipe down the edges once a week with a damp rag. I try to do this after finishing up dishes once in awhile. The center is easy enough to mop up or keep clean, but the edges tend to be where things accumulate.
Finally though, one doesn't have to be a fanatic about cleaning. It's only going to drive you crazy to try and keep things pristine. Sanitary situations are more important than areas that can tolerate the white glove inspection.
My husband and I had a janitorial service for nine years. You want to keep your house clean? Then clean it every day. I hear you groaning, but if you clean every day then (except for catastrophe) it never needs "cleaning." 5 minutes or less in the bathroom. Wash down one cabinet front or drawer front every night. In a month or so, you will have washed all the cabinets.
Dust mop, and dust, vacuum in major areas in about ten minutes or less. Buy a huge feather duster from a jan-san company. Use old tee shirts and underwear for cleaning cloths then WASH them (unless they are so grubby you need to toss them).
Pick one night a week for deep cleaning---usually Thursday---so you can go into the weekend with a clean house.
As for floors, buy quality equipment and it will be much easier. Who wants to mop with a dinky, short-handled sponge mop. Get real. If your mop-able areas are small, get on your hands and knees.
Jesus. That description of cleaning ( or was that a description of someone's life?) just makes me want to hide. Or do something really different, like listen to loud rock and roll music and shoot up drugs.
....with 2 very young children??
unh unh, I am sticking with my cleaning dude (he really cleans, and what he doesn't, I can easily get to).
...frankly, I cannot squeeze more "5 minute" jobs into my life at the moment...
If you've got time to play about on the internet and leave comments here then you've got time to do your own cleaning...
My husband has a friend who's having trouble making ends meet, so he pays her to clean our apartment every other week. She does a decent job--on the surface. But it irritates me to have to go behind her and deep clean the canisters in the kitchen and the tray that holds all my grooming products in the bathroom. When I complain about it to him, he says, "I'm not paying her to deep-clean; she's cleaning exactly what I expect her to." Well, if that's the case, we're wasting our money, because I don't mind doing the surface cleaning myself, but it's the deep-cleaning that I really don't have time for. THAT'S what I want her to do.
Seriously ...?? People need tips on how to clean their own homes?? Jeez ... I would never hire someone else to clean my house ... if I can't take care of it, I don't deserve to have it. And honestly, I find cleaning to be a real relaxer. I understand some people have a cleaning lady, but you're making it sound like it's the rule, not the exception.
And before you ask, yes, I am extremely busy just like everyone else. I still think you need to find the time to clean, and if you do little things like dust daily, it never gets too dirty that it becomes a real chore.
retract the claws...goodness.
I try to clean as I go and I invite friends over. Meaning, if I invite over friends that I see often, I guilt-trip myself into at least tidying up all major common areas and making sure the bathroom is clean. If I have friends staying overnight or ones I haven't seen in a while, I want my place to be even more welcoming and inviting which requires a more thorough cleaning job. This way I make sure to see my friends more often, we all save money by having dinner or having drinks at my place instead of a restaurant, and my place stays nice. I know it's kind of ridiculous but this is what works for me.
Orchid64 has great suggestions - I do similar things.
I think feather dusters make cleaning more fun! I always take a feather duster to baseboards and door frames every couple weeks because I hate the yucky build-up that results from not doing that!
Try to keep your kitchen counters and sink clear. The kitchen always looks nicer when crap isn't taking over those areas.
Hang clothes/jackets up right away and put shoes away as soon as you get in the door.
Don't even let junk mail hit the counter. Drop it straight in recycling.
Cleaning my mop-able floors on my hands and knees - with a bucket of vinegar/hot water and an old t-shirt - is the only way to get my floors looking and feeling clean.
i've tried to do a vinegar and water mix in a spray bottle i've purchased, but i notice over time it seems to degrade the rubber stopper and no more spray action!
any advice on a brand of bottle that might be able to handle the corrosion? may just have to repurpose an old extra strength bathroom cleaner bottle.
this makes me feel like i need to go home and clean my house! i feel so lazy!
How do you clean dusters? Mine are icky...
It's kind of wacky, but this tells you how to clean your feather duster (with photos!) :
http://www.flylady.net/pages/FlyDuster1.asp
I'm ashamed to admit that I use Swiffers for dusting. I'm allergic to dust and using the vacuum is too unwieldy, microfiber cloths never pick up all the dust/just move the dust around and are difficult to clean, and traditional dusters seem to just throw the dust into the air -- very bad for me.
I posted the same photo the night before! :)
On a related note, I thought I'd share my article called Three-Minute Bathroom Maintenance.
Investing just three minutes a week in lightly maintaining your bathroom will keep all that hair, scum and mildew from building up. A great time to do it is on a weekend, right before you take a shower.
Thank you,
Crystal D.
Sparkleizer and Home Organization Expert
www.sparkleize.com
E-mail crystal@sparkleize.com
Swiffer is a generic term? Oh Abby, Procter and Gamble's trademark attorneys are going to be pissed!
I use swiffers for the same reason that Erika does. I do use microfiber clothes for all other cleaning where I won't be kicking up dust.
My allergies are so bad I have to vacuum and dust daily, but what has gotten me into cleaning my house every day, has been that we are trying to sell it and there could be a showing at any time. So I clean as I go, keeping the place spotless. Realtor's have asked me if I really live here and used words like immaculate to describe it. At first I was bothered by how much work it took, but since it's been 6 months, I have gotten used to it and it no longer feels like a hassle. Brush your teeth (2 min), fluoride rinse (1 min), floss (2 min), rinse (10 seconds), use microfiber cloth on mirror before spots harden (10 seconds).
I will say the one saving grace is my Roomba. I tidy a room (1-5 min), use my long handled swifter on base boards (1 min), then put the Roomba down and turn it on. Voilà 10-15 minutes later, I come back and the room has been vacuumed.