I should be cleaning. I have been sick for a week (bronchitis...woot woot) and the house cleaning took a back seat while I tried my hardest to hack up my lungs.
I struggle with cleaning. It's the worst of the chores.
I have dissected my cleaning aversion ad nauseum. I have analyzed who, what, when, where, why I am so bad at keeping up with chores to no end.
I just dislike it so much that I procrastinate until it gets to a point that I am then overwhelmed. I am well aware how ridiculous and annoying it is, trust me.
When I actually do get the gumption to tackle the cleaning in a timely manner on a daily basis, I love it! It makes me feel more at peace and calmer. I love our home some what orderly (please keep in mind, it can never be perfect, I do have people living in my house). I have zero desire to have a staged, magazine-esque home--I want people feeling comfortable and not like they have to chop off their left hand if they spill or accidentally make a mess--but, I don't want the other kind of uncomfortable where you don't want to sit on the couch because you're scared of what you'll be sitting on.
So, as I continue on my cleaning journey, I am open to suggestions right now. What organization methods work for you and your crew? Do you have a cleaning schedule? Things that must be done daily? How do you handle big cleaning projects like floorboards, doors, windows, etc. Do you have a set amount of clothing per person? Set places where toys are allowed?
I NEED ALL THE CLEANING IDEAS!!!!
I am going to blog in a couple of days what is working for us and where we need inspiration, so if you are in a similar cleaning situation, stay tuned!!!
Eisenhower is so excited about all the up and coming cleaning extravaganza he can barely contain his kitten self.
We clean the whole house top to bottom on Sundays. I do 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, the living room, the kitchen, the entry way (all of the upstairs, plus the downstairs bathroom), and Ben does the boys' room, the toy room, family room, etc (the downstairs, minus the bathroom). We do it all-- fans, baseboards, wash floors, etc. Then we just have regular maintenance all week. Every night, all the bedrooms and main rooms are tidied up. The kitchen is cleaned completely after each meal-- usually some mopping happens because Dorothy is messy. I vacuum and dust the bedrooms twice a week, and Ben vacuums and dusts the basement twice a week. I also wipe down the boys' bathroom nearly everyday (they are gross) an the babies' bath and our bath a couple of times a week. We do laundry everyday-- about 2.5 loads, wash dried, and put away. It sounds like a lot, but because we started with everything perfectly clean, we only spend about 30 minutes a day picking up, doing laundry, and cleaning, plus cleaning up the kitchen every night after dinner. Even when we do the whole house, it only takes a half day. So, in short, my advice is get everything perfect (every room at the same time, so the whole house is how you want it to be-- you could always hire a company to come in and do a 1-time deep clean) and then you just have really quick easy maintenance forever. Also, I am a huge fan of covered baskets-- we have one on our dresser for random crap and two giant ones in the laundry room where we stash school papers everyday. When they get full, I empty them and decide what to keep and toss. A little distance between the kids' bringing them home and me having to store them makes me way less sentimental, and I get to purge more. And we never have a pile of papers on the counter. I also have a bulletin board by the garage door where we tack up field trip reminders, birthday invites, lunch menus, etc to keep those things off the counter. My house is super clean and organized, and I really do not spend much time cleaning.
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