How do you keep your house clean? How often do YOU clean?

WOW! Is there enough time in the world to get a house clean? I am a Foster Mom and lots of family in and out throughout the week makes for plenty of mess. Add to that, I am an antiques dealer and non-reformed inveterate shopper! I have had to make some changes to my usual household cleaning schedule and give up the state of perfection I aspired to previous to becoming a Foster Mom, and curb my impulse to but yet more "junk". I have taken on rehabbing the home in addition to all that. So here is what I have done, to get on top of all this mess. I Goggled Home Organization, Home Cleaning, Cleaning Schedules and so on. The best of which was this: First, start small. Grab a timer and a box. Set the timer for 10 minutes (everyone has 10 minutes they can let the phone ring, the kids won't starve, and the dogs can wait 10 more minutes for a walk). Walk through the house with your box in hand. Grab ANYTHING you see which you DO NOT LOVE LOVE LOVE or NEED NEED NEED, toss it in the box. When the timer goes off, you tape the box shut and A. Throw it OUT in the trash (no waking up at 3 am and retrieving it either!) B. Put it in the car and the next time you pass the Salvation Army or some other charity drop box, in that puppy goes! DO NOT LOOK BACK! Do this a few times and you should be getting down to some loved and cherished items. Are there still too many? If so, decide to box up a few and bring them out at certain times of the year, like Christmas, or Easter. Store them with those holiday decorations. Mark the year, whats in the box and put it away, for now. Now you have been still cleaning, but now you are having less to clean, so it should be taking you less time, or, if you are still spending the same amount of time, you are getting more done with it. Stop shopping for knick knacks....they will only require dusting, washing and so on. If the towels don't have holes in them and everyone has MORE than enough, then don't buy more just cause they have some cute little duck on them and would look so cute, UNLESS, you are prepared to go and get the towels you presently have and toss the same amount out or to charity. EITHER OR! If you have 3 radish rose makers, of which you have not used even one, think about making a gift to charity, selling them on Ebay (I sold 10......count them......10 ice cream scoops TOGETHER in a lot and still had my 3 favorites for ice cream parties!) sending them to the trash, Freecycle, or Craigslist, or giving them to a friend or relative who has until the weekend to come and get them! My routine as far as cleaning is this, I have chores I do, I have chores the kids do and I have a rhyme and a reason. Daily chores are dishes, sweep the kitchen and living room floor. My bathroom gets cleaned a bit before and after a shower and then for real, on Saturday. The kids are responsible for their own bathroom on the chore chart its this ones turn, next week, the other ones turn. Same for the upstairs hallway, and their rooms. On Saturday morning, we lay about, and then we get to striping our bed sheets, laundry, their bathroom top to bottom and their floors and furniture. The floors are swept and mopped and vacuumed. Counters thoroughly cleaned, dishes washed and COMPLETELY put away. This is all done as Sunday starts the new chore chart and no one is allowed to leave chores undone and incomplete for the next persons week, unles they would like not only their chores, but the ones they didn't complete for ANOTHER week! Now this may sound like a lot, but if you are doing the daily routine of cleaning, wipe and go.......spending a day or two a week on emptying a closet, cleaning one corner of a room, you will find it somehow begins to come down to one day, for about 2 hours, you will have to really have to "GO AT IT!". We do NOTHING until its done and checked. Then we go food shopping on Wednesday and Saturday. Trash cans go out on Wednesday night, so I like to have the fridge emptied of whatever compost has slipped into the fridge and began to mutate, so it doesn't stink up the can for months to come! And Saturday, just to get some other project done. Clothesline one week, dryer the next, cleaning out the basement, and so on. Once I had myself organized, I find that the real chore for me, is Saturdays push for laundry. I was doing load after load of laundry. So I would start calling for laundry on Wednesday, some do, some don't. Those that wait, can fold and put their own clothes away, those that bring theirs early, get folding service with a smile and a basket to carry it upstairs to put away themselves. My own routine is as follows, I clean a little something in the bathroom, each and every time I shower. One time, its putting up the towels and sheets in the closet, another time, its wiping down the floor with some damp rag towel AFTER my shower, another maybe spritzing the shower with cleaner before getting in and then wiping it down while I am getting my hair wet (it works too!). I pull throw rugs every 4-7 days, depending on use or signs of filth. For me, the hardest part was simply stopping the urge to buy beautiful things, even if I didn't have a use. Now, it MUST have a definite USE, not one I'll find a use for. This has solved a ton of my major headaches! But the cleaning in small spurts worked really well, getting started for 10 minutes at a clip helped, and making NO PLANS for Saturday morning, and some plans for Saturday afternoon and if all is right with the world, I plan a treat and start talking about it on Thursday about maybe going to the library, the fair, the flea market, Chuckie Cheese or whatever. This gets everyone thinking about getting their stuff done early and on time, no foot dragging and I have help getting it done too! The kids are helping one another and I them, so we can go do THIS OR THAT later. Its so worth it to not have to be chained to the house, cleaning and swabbing the decks ALL DAY! Who has TIME for that anyways? You might think we spend all day on Saturday, but no, its maybe a solid 2 hours, if the kids weren't here, I would have even less to do now. But, its so worth it, to develop that schedule, keep to it as much as possible. If I see a busy week coming, I start prepping. Like in a few weeks I will be going to Durham, I want the house to be clean when I leave so I can come home and crawl in my bed when I get home. I will start by making sure the laundry is done and I have fresh sheets on my bed when I leave. The floors will be swept and mopped and the dishes put away, anything else, can simply wait! Hope this helps you! Its a dirty job, but you can do it! Just don't be in it by yourself. Hubby can do a chore chart too! Good luck!

I am 35 weeks pregnant, and have a 3 year old who I breastfed as an infant. I showered every other day, kept a child to make a little extra income, brushed my teeth every day.. blah blah. I had a hard time keeping up with the house, I went through a really bad depression for a while. Just didnt know what to do with myself or how. That passed though. I help my husband with mowing in the summer and keeping a child after school and over summer break for a little extra income, I write books, cook and clean for the most part- my husband helps from time to time. We're lucky, he works for the PO and only works about 30-38 hours a week and yet we have enough money to live comfortably. So he's home for a good portion of the day most days. What works for one family doesnt work for others. Some men work like man men, some women take a while to get their bearings together after babies... and its not like we live in a culture where most 20 somethings havnig babies have seen what a functional SAHM's life and daily routine looks like, as most of our parents worked and its the social norm.

The biggest dirt factor in your house is what you bring in from outside. Control that and keeping the house clean becomes much easier. We NEVER wear shoes in the house. Shoes are the single biggest source of dirt. We keep slippers inside the door and a shoe stand. Besides the cleanliness there's nothing more comforting than getting out of those shoes when you come home. The other thing is clothes that have been worn to work on the car or in the yard. If they're dirty remove when you come in the door rather than shed dirt all the way to the bedroom or bathroom. I know it sounds too simple to be true but it works. Grandma and I don't like to clean either. We clean about once a week and take turns.

Get a good cleaning weekend on. Then house will be clean, and this task will be doable.

Start with jobs everyday-dishes, laundry.

Then come up with a schedule for others that are frequent-bathrooms (sink, shower & toilet), floors and go from there. Take about 30 minutes for these jobs for each person in the house and you should be good to go. You will find that you tend to clean behind yourself if you are the one that had to do the initial cleaning of that particular job.

It is a never ending job.I try to take a room at a time. dust and vaccum and couple loads of laundry every other day.Clean the kitchen every day,clean the bathroom every day.then on weekends sweep and mop all floors.It seems like I've been doing the same thing like you are cause everyone in the house has different schedules and I have to also help take care of my sick dad and help raise my niece.While in the meantime I work 2 jobs. good luck to ya...if you have any more problems let me know and I'll try to help ya.

I try to keep up on keeping things put away all the time, then on the weekends all I have to do is vacuum and sweep/mop, and dust. I also do laundry about every other day, even if it's just a load or 2, so it doesn't pile out of control and I have to spend all day doing it.

I try to "clean as I go"- wipe counters while I'm cooking to keep them clean, toss mail into piles (or the garbage) while I'm on the phone, spray the shower with foaming gunk, if I'm the last one to shower in the pm. That kind of thing really adds up at the end of the week, and is really one minor thing at a time. My major headache is laundry, which seems to multiply like rabbits in the hamper over night, and since we go to a laundromat, ugggggh, I despise it!

First declutter what you don't need. Then try to organise a programme for cleaning. If you do a bit each day you will keep on top of it. Every week try to find time to deep clean a certain room. This will ensure that it doesn't get messy. Try to deal with mail as soon as you get it.

You can easily clean your house with my simple tips of home improvement:

First of all, make a perfect cleaning schedule or checklist in which all cleaning tasks should be planned.

Secondly, arrange your cleaning days like monday for carpet cleaning, tuesday for window cleaning, wednesday for bathroom cleaning, thursday for garden cleaning, friday for kitchen cleaning, saturday for floor cleaning, sunday for taking rest etc.

Lastly follow your cleaning schedule regularly because regular cleaning is the best way of home improvement.

I am married with two kids and I swear to you I am going through the same thing.. I feel like I spend my EnTiRe life cleaning and somehow it never ends..!! NeVeR..!!