Contrary to what many of my friends think, I really don't like to clean. You wouldn't know it if you came to my house. That's why they think I like to clean. Fooled them! I hate cleaning. But, I hate clutter and dirt even more. When I was working full time, the problem was solved by paying someone to clean my house. Now that I am enjoying the life of a stay at home mom who gets to write hub pages, blog, have tea with girl friends, be there for my kids when they get home, make great healthy meals for the family, I really do not want to go back to full time work any time soon. So, no full time work = less money = clean my house myself. Aagh!
So, I used my Process Engineering prowess to develop my own system. House cleaning is a process with many tasks. If we break the tasks down to bits that can be done in 10-15 minutes, then it won't seem so onerous. I call this method A Chore A Day method.
I have no set schedule to clean the house. I used to set a certain day for house cleaning - I grew to really dread "that day". I think some of us would rather have a root canal than have to spend a few hours cleaning the house, every single week.
Today's chore for me was cleaning the bathrooms. I only have 1.5 bathroom to clean and they are quite small. When I woke up this morning, I did not plan on cleaning the bathroom. What happened was, someone had plugged up the bathroom and I was clearing it after everyone had left the house. Then I noticed that it was not looking as sparkly as I like it to look. OK, I'll be honest, it had a brown stain on it, probably from it being plugged. So, I decided then and there that today was bathroom cleaning day. So, I proceeded to clean the bathroom - toilets, sinks, bathtubs, floors, mirrors, baseboards, pictures, window sills. My bathrooms are very small - so I get them done very quickly.
Yesterday's chore was cleaning the burners on the stove. They just needed to be done. The day before that was, Sweeping the floors. And, the day before that was Dusting the TV area and the piano. On days I am short on time, I pick a quicker chore to do, like dusting the night stands and dresser in my bedroom - that takes less than 5 minutes!
Basically, I do what needs to be done but only one chore a day. If I missed a day, I make sure that I do 2 chores the next day. The best place to start is to make a list of all the chores. Break them down into smaller chores if you only want to devote so much time to a chore a day. For example, instead of cleaning the entire bathrooms all at once, break it down to cleaning the toilets only as one chore. Cleaning the sinks and bathtub as another task. Cleaning the baseboards, mirror and window sills as another task. Cleaning the floors as another mini-task. Here's a list to help you get started:
1. Dust TV area.
2. Dust window sills.
3. Dust dining room furniture.
4. Dust bedroom 1 furniture.
5. Dust bedroom 2 and 3 furniture.
6. Toilets, sinks and bathtubs.
7. Bathroom floors.
8. Kitchen/hallway floor - sweep.
9. Mop Kitchen floor/ hallway.
10. Vacuum living room.
11. Vaccum bedrooms.
12. Vacuum hallways.
13. vacuum stairs.
14. Vacuum basement.
15. Clean stove burners.
16. Dust lamps and pictures.
17. Dust ceilings.
18. File/recycle paper work.
19. Check and refill toilet paper holders.
20. Take out garbage from all rooms, replace with new plastic bags.
21. Wipe down baseboards upstairs.
22. Wipe down baseboards downstairs.
It seems like a long list - but when you only do one chore a day, you cycle through that in a bit more than 3 weeks. If you get other members of the family involve, it would get done faster. I suggest putting this list on the fridge, every member needs to do a chore a day, they are to initial beside the chore they did that day. You can't do a chore when someone else has already done it, until all the chores have been checked, unless it is something diffcult like cleaning the toilet if it needs cleaning.
The following are things that I do on a daily basis, make my bed, clean up after every meal, put all toys back where they belong at the end of the night. This is just good habit to get into - this way, dishes are never piled up on the kitchen counter, and there is no clutter.
2. Dust window sills.
3. Dust dining room furniture.
4. Dust bedroom 1 furniture.
5. Dust bedroom 2 and 3 furniture.
6. Toilets, sinks and bathtubs.
7. Bathroom floors.
8. Kitchen/hallway floor - sweep.
9. Mop Kitchen floor/ hallway.
10. Vacuum living room.
11. Vaccum bedrooms.
12. Vacuum hallways.
13. vacuum stairs.
14. Vacuum basement.
15. Clean stove burners.
16. Dust lamps and pictures.
17. Dust ceilings.
18. File/recycle paper work.
19. Check and refill toilet paper holders.
20. Take out garbage from all rooms, replace with new plastic bags.
21. Wipe down baseboards upstairs.
22. Wipe down baseboards downstairs.
It seems like a long list - but when you only do one chore a day, you cycle through that in a bit more than 3 weeks. If you get other members of the family involve, it would get done faster. I suggest putting this list on the fridge, every member needs to do a chore a day, they are to initial beside the chore they did that day. You can't do a chore when someone else has already done it, until all the chores have been checked, unless it is something diffcult like cleaning the toilet if it needs cleaning.
The following are things that I do on a daily basis, make my bed, clean up after every meal, put all toys back where they belong at the end of the night. This is just good habit to get into - this way, dishes are never piled up on the kitchen counter, and there is no clutter.
The following are tips to ease the tasks:
1. Use rubber gloves (from the dollar store) when cleaning the bathroom. It makes the cleaning go faster because you don't need to worry about getting in contact with any nasties!
2. I keep a bottle of Windex and a rag under every sink with a mirror. This way, spots can be cleaned away at any time.
3. Cut up old towels and cotton Tees for use as rags for cleaning. I have a stack of clean rags and I have a bucket they go into after I use them. I launder them with lots of bleach when I am out of clean rags.
4. Keep all your cleaning supplies in a bucket - no need to hunt for different cleaning supplies when you need them.
5. Keep your broom and dust pan handy - I had screws put in the wall neatly and have them hung up so that I can access them quickly.
6. A good feather duster can make dusting less of a chore, I prefer using an old clean sock - I slip the slightly moistened sock on my hand and wipe what I need to dust with it.
2. I keep a bottle of Windex and a rag under every sink with a mirror. This way, spots can be cleaned away at any time.
3. Cut up old towels and cotton Tees for use as rags for cleaning. I have a stack of clean rags and I have a bucket they go into after I use them. I launder them with lots of bleach when I am out of clean rags.
4. Keep all your cleaning supplies in a bucket - no need to hunt for different cleaning supplies when you need them.
5. Keep your broom and dust pan handy - I had screws put in the wall neatly and have them hung up so that I can access them quickly.
6. A good feather duster can make dusting less of a chore, I prefer using an old clean sock - I slip the slightly moistened sock on my hand and wipe what I need to dust with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment