Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Everyday Cleaning

Maintaining a clean home with little ones can be really challenging.  I don't have a daily schedule of cleaning or even a weekly one.  As you saw here, I do make lists for big cleans and organizational projects but not for daily cleaning.  Probably because it is nonstop and automatic.  I thought I would write a post about how I clean my home on a daily basis.
I do have a couple of "rules" that I try to stick to that make cleaning easier to keep up with.
1. Clean the kitchen completely each night.  It is much easier to start your day with a clean slate!

2. Clean as you go.  I think when you have the mentality to clean up once at the end of the day, the mess can get overwhelming and it might cause you to give up and go to bed.  Then when the next day starts you are behind the ball.  So I try to clean up everything as soon as we are finished with it.
3.  Try to do at least one load of laundry per day.  Laundry tends to pile up fast over here and I find that throwing a load in before I leave in the morning and finishing it during naps helps me to stay on top of things.
So those are my pretty standard rules.  Now, I will go into specifics about what I do each day.  It's not really hard, but to be honest I am always cleaning up something.  I think that will change when my kids get a little bit older.  My oldest is able to clear the table and put his dirty laundry away but that's about it!
Whew!  Here we go....after each meal I sweep the kitchen and I use Basic H on my floors about 3 times per week.  It doesn't take me very long to do my kitchen; probably 10 minutes including the "washing."  Really, the Shaklee products have made my life so much easier.  I use one spray bottle for EVERY surface in my kitchen, floors to counters to appliances to cabinets.  I am always wiping down counters and doing dishes.  I do wipe my appliances down most nights as well as my cabinet handles because of toddler germs;)

The kitchen is the hub of our home so I spend the most time cleaning in there.  The rest of the downstairs is pretty simple.  I vacuum about three times a week, although most of my house is hardwood floors, the area rugs and corners need vacuuming often.  This takes about ten minutes, too.  I dust bi weekly, using Basic H on all of my wood surfaces.  I wipe down my powder room every other day with Basic G.  I tend to do these things when I can.  I try to have the downstairs finished before naps but like I said, I am always picking up after the kids.
As far as upstairs, I make my bed everyday and make sure that our water glasses go downstairs and that our bathroom is wiped down.  I use Germ Off wipes in our upstairs bathroom every morning.  It literally takes thirty seconds to wipe the toilet and sink down.  I wash my bathmats once a week.
The kids rooms are a different story.  I shared here about getting rid of my playroom so the kids rooms hold all of their toys.  I don't make their beds everyday because they all still nap and I feel like they are in and out of bed all day!  If we are expecting company, I do make the beds because the rooms look so much better that way but in all honesty, it doesn't happen everyday!  I do open their shades and let the sun in and they are responsible for putting their toys away before we go downstairs.

That's about it.  I think the biggest key to having a clean house is to declutter and clean as you go!  Later on in the week I am going to break down exactly how I clean each room, which products I use, what I have tried that has failed and what I do that works for me:)

4 comments:

  1. wow..... i really have no words for how jealous I am of your cleanliness. Maybe things will get better as my girls get older, but at this point I can hardly keep up with loading the dishwasher after mealtime! :(

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  2. OH MY...okay i want to be you when I grow up!!! haha...thanks for the tips though. It is an encouragement to try and stay on top of things. And I love the hints for the daily stuff you do like wiping down the sink and toilets every morning. what a great idea. thanks Jill!

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  3. this TOTALLY motivated me yesterday after reading it. I cleaned the bathrooms, toilets, kitchen, and then was SPENT! Like the person above wrote, I want to be you when I grow up! I don't know how you do it!!! I am working on it though....you amaze me! xoxoxox

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  4. thanks for the encouragement, girls! it sounds weird but i really do love to clean (most of the time)! it gets easier when it becomes a part of your"routine"':)

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