Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Housework That's Working For Me

Much to the dismay of my husband, cleaning does not come naturally for me.  My mom is the kind of person who seems to have never-ending energy and can never sit down and relax because she is always cleaning.  I didn't inherit that trait from her.  My mother-in-law has a morning routine she does every morning, and then she spends all day on Wednesdays cleaning the house and bathing the dogs.  I've tried having one big cleaning day before, but I just get overwhelmed and exhausted.

So what's a girl to do?

I am embarrassed to admit my lack of cleaning in the past.  Really embarrassed.  But all of that is behind me and I've finally gotten into a housekeeping routine that's working, and I wanted to share it with you.


My mornings run like clockwork.  We wake up, have breakfast, and then Josh and I take turns going up to his office to read and pray.  After that, I go in the bedroom, get dressed, pick up the bedroom, and make the beds.  I take any dirty laundry with me to the bathroom, where I start a load of laundry (this works well for me because here, my washer and dryer are in the bathroom).  I wash my face and brush my teeth, and then I spray and wipe down the sink and toilet, and give the toilet bowl a swish with the toilet brush.  I pick up any stray things on the counter or in the floor and head to the kitchen to check and see if there is anything I need to do to prepare for dinner, like take meat out of the freezer.

After all of that, I play with Jude until time for his nap.  Once he goes to sleep, Josh and I eat lunch, and then I get to work on whatever is on my agenda for the day.  Here is my list of once-a-week things that I do:
Monday- polish shoes (our shoes get really dirty going to church), dust, give the Poodle a bath, quick sweep
Tuesday- wash bed sheets, clean shower
Wednesday- big sweep, mop, beat rug, wash rugs and dog bedding
Thursday- iron, wash windows
Friday- clean out fridge, clean microwave, quick sweep

And this isn't huge, but at night after dinner, we always make sure the kitchen and living room are straight and the dishes done before we go to bed.  That's just good to wake up to in the morning.

I have to tell you, it's been really satisfying for me to just have a couple of things on my to-do list every day, and this way nothing gets really dirty.  I love never having to clean the whole bathroom, because that was my most dreaded chore ever.  I would put it off until the bathroom got disgusting, and then... well... it was a disgusting job.  But by wiping down the sink and toilet every single morning, it NEVER gets dirty, so it's not gross and I don't dread it.  It's wonderful.

There are a couple of places for improvement in my routine.  Notice that you didn't see "do the dishes" anywhere?  I really need to work that into my routine, or else we end up with a huge pile of dishes to do after dinner (we don't have a dishwasher).  If I were really disciplined, I would do the breakfast dishes while Josh is reading and praying, but it's so much more satisfying to do my morning check of the internets during that time.  But seriously... I need to do the dishes instead.

I should also mop the kitchen and dining area more than once a week.  It gets pretty grody by Wednesday thanks to a little dog, a little cat, and a little boy.  But I'm not too worried about it right now.  I won't tell you how often I mopped the floors before starting this routine, but I'll just say that once a week is a HUGE improvement for me.

How do you keep your house clean?  Do you have a routine?  Do you just clean all the time like my mom?  Do you never clean until it gets grody and embarrassing?  Let me know, I'd love any tips or ideas!

3 comments:

  1. We have a real-life "Chore Chart"; everyday there is a big chore and two little chores. For example, on Mondays, my big chore is to clean the master bathroom, and my small chores are vacuuming the upstairs and taking out the upstairs trash. Saturday is laundry day and cleaning the kitchen and Sunday is my "day of rest". It works pretty well for me since I'm not a one-big-cleaning-day type of girl either. By writing it down and sticking it to the refrigerator, Chandler can see what needs to be done to help me out when he gets home from work. I usually leave a small chore for him :)

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  2. Well I just found your blog! FUN! I will just tell you that I used to not be a very good housekeeper... but my husband is quite the clean freak! So, I've learned to be one too (sort of). He has relaxed a lot, and I have gotten a lot better...which helps a lot. I'm the world's worst at leaving a pile of papers on the end table and that's one of his pet peeves... gotta work on that. I dont' have a routine like you.. but after reading this... I may just have too. I'm going to have to get a lot more organized after Adalyn gets here. For the most part, cleaning the kitchen and dishes are an everyday must. I used to leave dishes for days (I don't have a dishwasher either), but found out how much it bothered Ronnie. So, now I actually enjoy getting them all done before bed so everything is clean when I wake up. I should vacuum everyday, since my lovely cat has long white hair... but it's usually and every other day thing. I hate to say that the bathroom usually gets nice and gross before I clean it... oops! Anyways, I have a lot of improving to do... thanks for your schedule!

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  3. I was actually REALLY hesitant on posting about this today. I didn't though, because I felt it ironic to be blogging about how I keep my house, "oh so tidy," when it is currently an absolute pig sty {I haven't gotten over the holiday hump yet!}! However, this weekend, I will start a weeks worth of spring cleaning, and then blog as I progress on getting it back in shape!! :D I like your schedule though! It's given me some ideas on reshaping my current-cleaning-schedule, just to change things up! :D

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