How often do you clean your house?

Question

I was just wondering how other pet owners and parents keep their homes so clean. I have two children five and two, along with four pets, two dogs a rottweiler, a great dane and two indoor/outdoor cats. I just moved into my own home and I'm having a rough time of keeping it clean. We have carpet in two rooms and tile in the rest, a microfiber couch, two leather couches, glass top tables...basically a lot of glass, black and red furniture. I try to clean once a week but being pregnant with twins, working part time and running after both my pets and my kids it just doesnt seem like theres enough time to get all of this done so I figured if anyone could give me tips it be best to try here :D 

What do you find picks up dog hair best? we use a bagless vaccum three times a week on just the carpets, then I get on my hands and knees using the old scrub bucket and rag as we found the swiffer's dont work that well. 

How do you get dog fur off your dishes? we dont have a dish washer and we dry our dishes with a clean towel every time but it seems like theres always that stray hair on a dish or two even though none of the animals are allowed in the kitchen. 

How often do you dust? we have flat screen tvs, glass table tops, glass shelves and a ton of pictures hanging on the wall. 

How do you wash your dog beds, blankets or toys? How often? my dogs are not allowed on my furniture, they have their own beds (papasan chair cushions) and we cant very well toss the whole thing in the washer and they hate having sheets or covers on top of them. they also have a ton of plush toys that they take inside, outside, on car rides and even to the park. I wash the plush toys once a month, shave (yes shave) the tennis balls, and soak the bowls, hard plastic toys in diluted bleach water  but i feel that even thats not enough. 

I am the only person in the house that cleans, my boyfriend claims to get headaches from cleaning products so I am the sole cleaner and spend fourty minutes every three three days vacumming, scrubbing and sweeping the house and nearly six hours every sunday dusting, vacumming, doing laundry, cleaning the fridge out (weekly), scrubbing, and wiping off furniture. 

Any suggestions would be helpful. We have a four bedroom, three and a half bath, basement playroom and a huge fenced in yard that is half cement half mud pit...its horrible were planning on cementing the whole thing next spring and turning half of the yard into that astro terf or soft cement for a play ground my grandpa is building for the kids that will take up one fourth of the yard with virtually everything a kid could hope for out of a jungle gym/tree house/ship/swing set.

Grinch · Accepted Answer

A Rott, a Dane, 2 young kids, and pregnant with TWINS!!!  AND you work part time!

And you're worried about the HOUSE?  

You already do more than most of us do to keep the house clean.  I don't know anyone who cleans out the fridge every week or ... shaves tennis balls!  Honestly, what's the POINT in keeping dog toys clean?  No dog needs its toys bleached.

Sorry but that boyfriend needs to get off his butt and PITCH IN.  If those are his kids (?), he's at least half responsible for why you're so overwhelmed.  Even if they're NOT his kids, he's part of the family and the only one old enough to help out and he needs to do his share.  He can certainly dust, wash dishes, vacuum, and do laundry.  And YOU, being pregnant, are the one who shouldn't be breathing in cleaning-product fumes.  Honestly, I'd be insisting on hiring a maid.

Dog hair is a battle you CANNOT win.  I don't use dog beds ... I find it's easier to cover the sofas with sheets and let the dogs sleep on the sofas.  I wash those sheets every few days and occasionally shampoo the sofas.

Carpet?  Forget it.  Dogs, kids, carpet ... nope.  Not a good mix.  Hard surface flooring is better.  NO NEED to scrub it all the time.  Use the vacuum on the tile, too.  Every night I put a scrap of cloth from the rag pile on the Swiffer stick and run around the perimeter of the hard floors with it ... seems like MOST of the dog hair accumulates in the corners and along the baseboards.  I vacuum ALL the floors every few days.

If you don't have a dishwasher, you should really let your dishes air-dry.  Unless your dish towels are bleached and sanitized, using a towel on clean dishes puts germs back ONTO those dishes.  Just let them dry and then put them away ... yes, there might be a stray dog hair or two!  OH WELL!

You really need to relax your standards a bit.  Stop worrying so much about whether everything is sanitized and sterile, and settle for presentable.  You'll just make yourself crazy if you obsess over every dust particle and dog hair.

Raina · Answer

Vacuuming the house once or even twice a week is adequate, dusting should be done a couple of times a week, mopping the floors once or twice a month is also adequate, more often can damage some certain types of floors, cleaning as you go along will help keep house clean meanwhile and lessen daily cleaning; example: cleaning while working or using a room such as a kitchen while cooking can help you cut down on cleaning just clean while you are cooking any unused parts of the kitchen if adequate also do not spend more than fifteen minutes in each room while cleaning at anytime Good Luck !

? · Answer

Keeping your house clean is crucial specially with the babies on the way. You really have your hands full and need to delegate and share the cleaning tasks with someone else.

Hiring a cleaning service may be cheaper than you think. Get some quotes from a few residential cleaning companies and see if you can make the investment.

Remember that when you hire a company to do the house cleaning for you, you are paying not only for the service but for the free time you will get for yourself and for your family, career, leisure, etc.

Good luck with this and I hope you find the help you need.
Sincerely,

-Deborah F.
Golden, CO
http://www.InterActCleaning.com

julie ann · Answer

It sounds like you need a cleaning lady.  It all sounds like you can afford one too. If my husband or boyfriend didn't cooperate with me on the cleaning, laundry, help with cooking  etc.I would have no qualms about hiring some help.  Of course he could take anti-histamines for the allergies. No excuses any more!
I wish you all the best.  Yes I do have a great cleaning lady.

Anonymous · Answer

Clean as much as possible. Your health house's on your house's cleanliness.

Anonymous · Answer

That is why the Bible teaches for women to be homemakers in Titus chapter 2.

Trending News

How often do you clean your house?

6 Answers