House Cleaning - House Work
 

What do you consider "routine" chores/projects?

What do you consider "deep" cleaning projects? Or - just once in a while projects?


For us - the "once in a while" projects include - but are not limited to -

Cleaning the windows
Defrosting the freezers
Cleaning out the refrigerator (looking at the dates on the condiments!)
Getting the carpeting cleaned

How about you?

Routine- bathrooms, vacuuming (my vacuum does all different floors so I don't have to sweep). constant kitchen cleanup, dusting (hate that job) Daily litter box care of course.

Not routine- cleaning out all the kitchen cabinets and drawers, windows, cleaning, under furniture and beds, lights, fans, cleaning out the garage.

i don't like any of it lol. My husband and I have a good routine though. We need to do our windows. We have a million of them. That's a job my husband loves, not me!

I don't have a lot of chores that I consider routine. We are empty-nesters, so don't have kids around messing things up.

Routine:

Kitchen ... breakfast/lunch/dinner/clean up
Laundry
Clean floors (DH vacuums and I sweep/mop)
Clean bathroom(s) (DH takes care of the shower stall)
DH helps a lot with things like making the bed every day, nearly all the regular outside work, cleaning up the kitchen after dinner ... Love the guy!

Everything else is just as needed ... and maybe even later ... LOL

For me there is "routine", "deep", "once in a while", and the ever dreaded "holy-moly company is coming and I really need to kick it up a notch!"

Routine--piecing, hand quilting, cutting, pressing.
Deep, once-in-a-while, cook, clean house :p

Just kidding...sort of.

Well, kitchen areas must be clean for me for sure and bathroom, laundry must be done, cat box....but I must admit we do have a lot of dust bunnies not great on vacuum cleaning and dusting. Major stuff like washing all the drapes, twice a year. I have never washed our walls, I know my mom used to wash her walls. If anything smells yucky in the house, that has to be cleaned. I don't believe in hiding smells with pretty air fresheners, unless you're cooking fish or something and you want to mask that smell. We have way, way too much stuff and that is a problem when you want to dust and/or vacuum clean.

Kitchen and bathrooms always. Dusting, vacuuming and hard surfaces next. Had the windows washed this year. We keep up with it and this house is bigger than the last one and has less in it, so, easy to get under and around things. It also doesn't accumulate much dust which I can't explain. Laundry of course but I don't mind it. We are both able so we don't hire inside help. If I ever need it I will. I love my quilting but don't need to be doing it every waking minute or even every day.

Dishes, sweeping/mopping kitchen/eating area is a main everyday chore. Vacuuming living room/bedrooms and dusting is weekly or every two weeks unless we are having company or babysitting. Cleaning leaves or debris from the pool is as needed, washing filter once a week in Summer and monthly in Winter. Feeding chickens and gathering eggs is daily. Mowing the lawn is weekly in Summer, grass is dormant in the winter.

Deep cleaning?? as needed I guess. My sister would come to help and it would take her a whole day to clean one room. She would take off the little crystals from chandeliers an wash them, take out all the books from the shelves dust and replace them in order. I iron little doilies to place under stuff on furniture. Gee I miss her...she moved to Texas.

Maybe once a year, Garage cleaning, window cleaning, carpet cleaning, filling a big dumpster (family activity) with junk, bush/tree timings.

Well, since my mom passed away, I've been my dad's cleaning lady. (They had a cleaning lady before that, because of my mom's health and dad's age. He doesn't want to be alone in the house w/ any woman unless he's related to her...he's just such a pure and wholesome guy with old-fashioned ideas, for which I highly respect him.)

So I clean his house (deeply) and mine...well, as best I can. Ha.

My "dailies" at my house:

Dishes
Tidying main level
1-2 loads of laundry

2-3x/week vacuuming main level (thank you, dog hair)
sweeping kitchen
quick cleaning sink and toilet in half bath

Weekly:
changing sheets
cleaning bathrooms
dusting family room

Less often, less regularly:

the bedrooms (all upstairs)
dusting dining room and living room (not in plain view of visitors, so...you know...why?? LOL)
throwing out old food from fridge

When I can't stands it no mo:

my sewing room
clean the fridge thoroughly
windex windows and doors
move furniture to vacuum in/around/under (need my menfolk for this job)

My dad's house is cleaner every week since I give it 4 hours and he doesn't cook. LOL

I like the kitchen and bathrooms to be clean. So I tend to those chores daily, and it includes keeping the refrigerator up to date. My husband does the laundry, washing bedding, and swiffering/vaccuuming floors once a week. Dusting almost never happens except in my sewing room. Any other deeper cleaning happens on an as-needed basis, such as "company is coming! We need to clean."

Periodically something will really bug one of us, so we'll do some other cleaning, such as straightening out some closet or area that's collected too much junk. The freezer is really bugging me because it needs to be defrosted. So we'll be working on that soon.

if anyone happens to just stop by, I don't think our house looks really dirty...maybe some dust, but otherwise ok

I don't walk out of my bedroom in the morning until bed is made, furniture dusted, floor is dust mopped. I don't leave the bathroom until sink and mirror is wiped, shower is wiped down with towel, toilet bowl swished. DH is up before me so when I leave the bedroom everything is clean. Takes about 15 min. extra after dressing. Same with kitchen. I leave when it's all clean including wiping down front of fridge, oven, dishwasher. I have nothing on my counter tops so it's easy to wipe them clean. Put dishes in dishwasher and clean coffee pot. Sweep floor. Done. About 20 min if food is cooked for breakfast. The living room has a quick dust mop and furniture wipe. Done. I start with a deep cleaning of the rooms then do the upkeep everyday. It's cleaning a clean house, don't wait until it gets dirty. Big cleaning jobs are done one room at a time on a Sat. morning. One room per one Saturday. Takes about 40 min. including the windows in that room. I go to bed with a clean house and wake up to a clean house with not much effort or time involved. A Mennonite woman showed me how to clean and maintain a home when I was first married. She said I needed help when she saw me folding clothes on the sofa. I've never done that since. LOL

I do a daily pickup of the house.
Kitchen gets cleaned after meals.
Vacuuming is every other day.
Dusting is done every other day (due to allergies). I use a damp cloth as not to rile up the dust.
Bathrooms are completely cleaned (tub/shower, sinks and toilets) twice a week.
Laundry is twice a week.

I don't consider it a chore to do housework. It's just something I do to keep our home comfortable.

I'm impressed. You dust and dustmop your bedroom every day? How dusty does it get in just one day?

And why did the Mennonite lady disapprove of folding clothes on the sofa? Let me guess--it's more efficient to stand and fold/put away at the dresser or wherever the items go?

We just recently sold one of our retail specialty food, bakery and housewares businesses that ran our life for 10 years...my other retail business is a women’s clothing and accessories shop which does not require as much of my time except traveling for apparel shows and I have great ladies who work for me.

Anyway...I now have more free time to quilt (YAY), cook and clean. Since we sold the business in September I have gone through closets and kitchen cabinets....one by one. It feels good to be able to keep up with routine housework such as floors, laundry, bathrooms and dusting) without any stress. And now I have more time to do things I havent’ been had time to do in years...I am in the process of staining and polyurethane steps into my new sewing room built over the garage and I stripped and finished a beautiful desk I picked up at an auction for my sewing room.

Zozee: I'm impressed. You dust and dustmop your bedroom every day? How dusty does it get in just one day? [Quote]

I live in the country on a dirt road. We are one mile away from a main road, but there is a lot of traffic here. Farmers would rather take the dirt road to town than have to drive on the main road with all that traffic. There is always dust. Especially when the wind is from the wrong direction and I would like to open the windows.

I figure God made dust before vacuum cleaners. I may as well admire God's handiwork for a while before removing it.

wow this came up just as I dragged the vac out. I vacced the rug then had to sit down. I don't know why, it makes my back hurt. I did a little dusting too.

Routine chores - dishes and keeping kitchen clean. Everything else falls under the category of only when I can't stand it anymore.

I don't make my bed everyday (or ever) but once I get my quilt done, I will. No sense fancying up the bed if it is just blankets.

Now I really need to dig around in the corner under my laptop desk, and sort out all the wires and get rid of all the dust. Ugh.

You are my kinda gal!!! There are so many other things to do besides cleaning! I hate it! I would rather be quilting or sewing pillowcases or answering e-mails or ANYTHING! I do keep the kitchen clean but we are such clutterers!! Need to just pitch so much stuff but there is always something else to do.
I clean the bath countertops when I am in there and the toilet when it needs it.
Life is too short for a clean house (unless company is coming!). When I can write my name in the dust, I dust one room...maybe two...
Don't come and visit without a warning, please!!!

sailsablazin- I saw a funny suggestion a while ago- put some get well cards out around your house. In case you have drop in company, they will think you have been sick! HaHa!

Like everything else, I think we all just have different levels of comfort regarding house cleaning. I like to have things clean, especially kitchen and baths but I'm not ridged about it. My dad said to me once that my house had that "lived in" look, lived in by what, I'm not sure. Then he laughed and laughed. He was a character ! That was at the time I had 4 young children and was going to nursing school. Probably the most organized I have ever been in my life, really.

For many years I kept a very clean home I was kinda young. For years I worked and home was still pretty clean I was getting a bit older. Home is still kinda clean, I am now retired, getting even older. I use to clean our home for fun, no fun in it now. Most of the time my house is as clean as most.
I want to make quilts as long as I can and donate to kids in foster care. I feel that is more important than a spotless house.

I saw a sign in a second-hand/antique shop that I really liked. Dust is a Country Accent! I should have purchased it because it wasn't there the next time. :)

On New Years Day, I always defrost the freezer. Set the boxes of food outside in the cold while I tackle it.

It’s a good idea to replace a toothbrush every 3 months, so I do that the first day (or about) of January, April, July and Oct. January and July are my “6 month jobs” - for instance tip the mattress off and vacuum good under the bed. Helps me remember when I last did it.

Thanks for this thread and conversation. It made me giggle. I learned from an online site meant to help those of us with "messy" genes, to do the kitchen sink every night, no dishes left in it and sink washed and wiped down. Then to never leave the bathroom in the morning without cleaning it. A quick swish in the bowl, wipe the counter, mirror and sink makes the room ready for you and any guest that may come by. Using a shower squeegee helps a lot. Once I started this routine, I leaned by experience to keep the counters clear of stuff. What a HUGE difference it makes to keep cleaning simple. Now I should heed my own advise and clear the island in the kitchen. Too much stuff! That is another thing I learned. Eliminate stuff. If you don't have room for it on a shelf or behind a door then something needs to go. KISS is a wonderful and very freeing thing. Very few of the items I got rid of have I ever needed!

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I figure God made dust before vacuum cleaners. I may as well admire God's handiwork for a while before removing it.Amen to that!!!!!

i am very lazy when it comes to cleaning , so i prefer to use vacuum cleaner for cleaning

I have a sign on the front porch:

Welcome to our Home.
You may Touch the dust,
but please don't Write in it.

The main thing I do regularly is leave a check on the counter each week for the cleaning crew. Life is too short to waste time on repetitive, thankless tasks.

According to me deep cleaning project is something which is planned and the cleaning require more hard work to make it neat and tidy...

Why don't you make one in your favorite colors?