People who keep your homes neat and clean all the time (not just when company comes over): how do you do it?

Question

My husband and I both work full-time jobs, and I just don't see how to keep my home clean without devoting an entire day to it once a week. After a draining work week, I only want to devote ~2 hrs of my weekend, so my house is never really neat and clean. What works for you?

Answer 1

I work about 70 hours a week and I refuse to clean on the week-ends. This is what works for me. I spend about 15-20 mins before I leave for work picking up the house or cleaning the bathroom. Just keeping things put away helps a lot. Always have a place for everything you have OR purchase. Right down to mags or newspaper,bills etc. That is a HUGE part of it right there otherwise you have stuff sitting around and that makes your house look messy. I also have a gal come in every two weeks and she vac's and cleans my bathrooms and dusts the furniture only, and it's worth every penny. She is a independent cleaner not like Merry Maids she is a lot cheaper and better it's more personalized. Another thing I purchased was a small vac (don't buy a cheap one) and I use that between her visits. I also have a feather duster that I would not live without and I use that on my furniture if needed if we have family or friends coming over and I need to touch up between her visits. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I tackle one job at a time, never the whole house! One day I might clean the kitchen, the next I clean a bathroom. I dust one day, vacuum half the house that same day.

I put the laundry away immediately, try to keep the clutter down to a minimum. I never leave dishes in the sink for more than a couple of hours.

Having a couple of places to put junk to sort later really helps too ... I use a laundry basket. Everything that needs to go upstairs goes in the basket, when it is full I take it up and sort it out. Another basket for everything to go down to the basement. (These aren't the huge laundry baskets by the way!)

The only time that I will really clean most of the house at once is after a party.

Hope this gives you at least one tip you can use. Good luck.

Answer 3

Try to do a little at a time. For example, if you're leaving one room to go to another, think if there's something that needs to travel from that room to the other (example: a glass in your bedroom needs to go to the kitchen sink or dishwasher).

Also, multitasking is the key:

1 - Always load your dishes right after eating (don't leave food or pans or plates laying around), or wash them.

2 - Sort your dirty laundry into baskets when you bring it to the laundry room - darks together, lights together, towels together. That way you won't need to sort it when you go to wash them- it's already done!

3 - When you watch TV, try ironing at the same time.

And last tip: for the "big" things, like cleaning the shower, or vacuuming, set a day of the week for each task, and assign perhaps about 10-15 minutes to it. And do it.
That way on week-ends you will only have maybe a half hour or so left to do, and you can add extra time if you want it squeaky clean.

hope this helps you :)

Answer 4

Every night before we go to bed (even if we are dead tired), my husband and I make sure to take 15 minutes and work together to pick everything up and put it away. If you are not home much during the day then this will probably work well for you because you can for example clean up the living room one night and vacuum the next. And since you work, then you really wouldn't have been in there to make that much of a mess. Then on your day off you could spend lets say 45 minutes to an hour and just do the sweeping, mopping, dusting, laundry, etc. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

First, get a plan to spend, say 15 minutes, a day and clear an area. Keep doing this on top of your weekend cleaning, slowly but surely you'll catch up. Then, keep it up. I either take 15 minutes in the morning or just before bed to put away things or do some extra cleaning. Just a few minutes a day will maintain once it is done. Good Luck and stick to it!

Answer 6

Hey-
I work fulltime, part time and school part time, and have a dog so people are amazed at my house beign clean.
I pick things up before i go to bed, and I clean one or two rooms a night, Vaccum on my days off from the partime job.. like i will dus tthe living room while watching tv, or during commercials, or I will clean up the kitchen while i am baking dinner.
Laundry- i do a load a night, no matter even if its just the clothes from that day... switch it to the dryer before bed and i always have it neat, maybe a few things to quickly clean up before company comes over..
good luck.

Answer 7

Boy I can sympathsize with that!

The easiest way is to not let clutter and cleaning accumulate in the first place.

Have a place for everything, and when you're done using it put it back in its place.

Wash dishes right after your meals: That way the food and grime won't have a chance to hard-dry.

If you have time to do a more thorough cleaning, start a load of laundry and do other chores while the machine is running.

Keep a convenient stock of cleaning clothes, and a bottle of diluted Lysol in the bathroom. Take a pair of cloths with you in the mornings, and after you're done with your morning stuff spray down the sink, the tub, and the outside of the toilet and wipe them down. That takes about 10 minutes, and your bathroom will not get really dirty again. You may even want to take that another step further and keep a spray bottle of vinegar or glass cleaner in the bath for the mirrors.

That takes care of most of it right there.

Good luck!

Answer 8

I work full time and I spend about 30 minutes a day cleaning. Dust one day through the whole house, run sweeper another.
Keep the kitchen in order all the times by just wiping down, put dishes in the dishwasher. Same for bathrooms, wipe everything down everyday. Just before bed put away anything that has been got out like magazines, craft projects, etc. When you get up in the morning, make the bed before you step out of your room. If you share a bed, last person up makes it.

Answer 9

I have always been a neat freak myself but if you just pick up each day even if it is only 10 -15 mins time before you go to bed or sit down to relax for the night, it wont all be pilled up for the weekend....hope this helps!

Answer 10

I clean as I go. I also have things that I do each day of the week, ie. wash bedding on Tuesdays, dust on Wednesdays, etc... Pick something for each day of the week, and do it every week. It just becomes habit.