apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i fess up to being a weekly binge cleaner. i've tried so hard to follow all the advice i've read on how to get yourself to spread out the cleaning throughout the week, but it just doesn't work for me. i'm so exhausted after work and my commute that i just crash. the gf works a tues-sat schedule, while i'm on the mon-fri grind. i take advantage of the time she's at work on saturdays to do some serious cleaning each week. it's more intense if we're having a party, but not really if we're going away.

Coming home to a clean house is always the best, but not always feasible. At the very least, our plants MUST be watered before departure.

I do not keep as clean a house on a regular basis as I would like. But I do binge clean before a trip and have never regreted the time or energy spent. When I get back I am overwhelmed enough with having to unpack and do laundry from the trip. I don't want to do old dirty dishes or chase flies out of the house. Yuck.

i used to, but it just got to be too much. i think i acquired to much stuff.

does anyone know where i can find the headboard/bed in the picture above? its perfect. so are the lamps

Usually when we travel, we pay our cleaning lady to come and do a deep clean so we walk into a super clean home (with clean bathroom, clean kitchen/fridge, oven, fan, ceiling etc.) upon our return.

We always do our own weekly or daily "maintenance cleaning" and every 6-8 weeks splurge on paying someone else to clean which happens to coincide with our travel schedule. We think its totally worth it. A little price to pay for sanity when you return ... and we just add it to our total cost of travel.

Littlerock--

The bed is from Crate and Barrel - Where else?

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=1012&f=1480

I only focus on a few things.
Clean bathroom with fresh towels,
clean kitchen with the clean dishes put away
clean sheets on the bed. the rest is minor in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't rush around the night before waxing the floor or anything.

We don't so much binge-clean, as focus on getting the bare minimum done before a trip. You might call it the "Do a Half-@$$ Job" method. I.e., I'll skip vaccuuming the rugs, but the dishes are loaded and the dishwasher started before departure; I'll skip dusting, but will do a quick swiff of the floors and wipe-down of the counters; I'll skip laundry but will make sure the toilets are reasonably clean and the trash is taken out.

Sadly, this isn't so very different from our normal cleaning routine. (We could stand to do more deep cleaning, on a more regular basis, than we actually get around to!) But it's the nicest feeling to come home to something that looks clean (even if it wouldn't pass the white-glove test). And the grossest feeling to come home to flies in your sink.

@ crewtag - love your system! thinking of adopting it - thanks for sharing.

I always come home to a total disaster...it is aweful, but packing in and of itself is stressfull enough!

I'm also of the "clean-as-you-go" mentality. dishes in the dishwasher, keeping the shower clean, vaccuuming when necessary... all that stuff is no big deal if you just keep on top of it. but if you let any of these things go, all of the sudden its a huge chore that you need to schedule. but then i'm also slightly obsessive about things being in their place so don't listen to me lol. i mean even if i'm running late for work in the morning, i can't go unless i've stopped and made the bed.

i have a small tidy apartment and usually clean it on sunday or monday (my weekend). one day i'll dust, sweep, mop, clean the bathroom etc. for about 2 hours and the other do laundry, grocery shopping etc. my 'system' usually works great.

before a big trip, i do a deep clean. there have been times, yes i admit, that i will not sleep before heading to the airport. i always take early flights to avoid crowds and to get there sooner. for some reason my home always seems to get messy right before a trip. maybe it is because i am trying to do everything before i leave? it is so worth taking the time to clean it before the trip! the first few days after returning home are hard enough to adjust to after a trip and having a calm, clean home makes it easier to get back to the grind. plus time to plan the next trip of course!

My first two weeks as an expat-spouse-with-no-work-permit, I tried to clean one room every day so that the place was always pretty clean overall. I discovered that a) I resented having to do housework every. single. day., and that b) I missed the satisfaction of having done one big clean. Now I clean one day a week. Maybe two, if I get bored in the middle and decide to break it up.

In our old, two-job lives, we tended to come home after vacations to a complete mess--one time we forgot to take out the kitchen garbage! I've already blocked out a day to clean top-to-bottom before the next vacation, so we can come back to a clean flat.

When I'm back to work, I'm totally adopting crewtag's system.

I like crewtag's idea as well. I don't think it costs much to hire a cleaning lady. I'll look into it.

My husband does this too...this insane, break neck pace, clean the whole house in the last 24 hours before we leave craziness. It used to kill me. Now I just expect it. And it is nice to return home to a nice, clean, organized home. :)

As Kathryne said, I like having the whole apartment clean at once. My big cleaning day is usually Thursday. This works well because the place is clean for the weekend, when I'm home most and can enjoy it, but also because when we go on trips, it's usually on a Friday afternoon. By then, the house is clean and I have all morning to think about packing.

hi littlerock, i love the bed too. i just checked craigslist and customsofadesign.com makes it for $799...
has anyone purchased furniture from them?

I'll clean, but because my friends come over to feed and water my cats and I don't want them to know the filth I live in. And I have to take out the garbage, or one of the cats will knock it over because she's mad I'm gone. So dishes, some laundry, floors. It's not like anyone's going to be looking under the bed while I'm gone.

When I was in school post finals I would never have time to clean and I would come back to a filthy place- no clean sheets, papers everywhere, stinky apartment and dirty dishes in the sink.

For the last few years I would do the exhausting cleaning binge before departure even if I have to stay up until 1 0r 2 am before a transatlantic flight. Its exhausting but worth it.

At the minimum I change the sheets on the bed, wash the dishes and take out the trash and burn some incense. If I have more time I vacuum and clean the bathroom.

We have this bed, LOVE it!

I think coming home to a sink of dirty dishes would make me just want to turn around and leave again. If you keep on top of it, there's no need to binge. I'd rather do 20 minutes everyday than have to spend all Saturday. Vacuuming and dusting before a trip seems too much, but dishes, sink and a swipe in the bathroom make home much nicer to come, well, home.

I also clean extremly on Thursdays - when I also do laundry - change sheets and so on. I just love having my place looking top for the weekend. But as other has mentioned I also do the crazy clean before going on longer trips and I feel obligated to leave the freezer with some dinners since I don't want to leave my apt. after a longhaul and don't want think about where to eat.

I've always kept my place reasonably clean, but would also do a bit of binge cleaning just before a trip: water plants, change sheets and towels. sweep, mop, vacuum, quick dusting/wipe down of the most visible surfaces, cat litter changed, larger bowls for cat food and water, dishes washed and trash taken out. Key given to my neighbor if I was going to be gone more than a couple of days so they could check on my cats (and they always scooped the litter box, even though I never asked - not the most pleasant job and they're not cat owners so I always tried to find a gift to bring back to them).

I had considered that design idea over my couch...just hanging a few blank canvases...I'm shocked to see someone else thought of it too!!!

I secretly wish (well, not now) for the house-cleaning faeries to visit whilst I'm on vacation...