How often to you have to clean to keep your house clean?

[PrincessPerky]

Yeah, company ready is my goal, not the white glove, mainly cause I would fail miserably at white gloves!

[Firefly]

Company ready is all I ever plan to have my house clean. I couldn't and wouldn't have the time to make it white glove ready..

[acezz4e_tish]

my puter is the messiest mess of mine.lol

[PrincessPerky]

Actually if I am invited to a 'white glove' house I am often afraid to let my kids in the house! even when they are being especially good, they always manage to get into something, and if their is a meal served! end of the world, while my son is good, he is also only 3!

But on the reverse side if I walk into a 'disaster' or 'clutter house' I am also afraid cause my kids are klutzes, who knows what they wil tip over or uncover!

[abowers]

We have a ~600 sq foot apartment. We (try to) vacuum weekly, we don't have a dishwasher so we have to wash dishes by hand. If we're good we do them right after we make dinner -- but we've spent some serious time on the weekend washing a couple days of dishes. Clutter accumulates during the week but we try to spend time cleaning it up before it gets too bad. (Can't go for more than a few days).

[tgavin71]

My name is Tanya and I am 'neatness challenged' (thanks mymessyhouse.com). Have tryed flylady.net but all those emails just annoyed the bejeebees out of me.
While I like having a clean house I hate doing it. The problem with cleaning is that if you do one bit the areas near it look even worse than before and you have to do that and it goes on and on and on and on.

[lrjohnson]

Tanya-Just found this post today,
Lazy slobs make the best minimalists ,
that spoke to your post. The idea is, the less stuff you have, the less you have to keep clean. I don't have anything on my kitchen counter except a coffeepot-it makes it much easier to wipe down. Maybe there are ways you can simplify to make cleaning a quicker, easier process.

[PrincessPerky]

Yeah, Ill vote for less is easier!, wonder if I can convince the kids to ditch more toys?

[tgavin71]

Originally Posted by lrjohnson

Tanya-Just found this post today,
Lazy slobs make the best minimalists ,
that spoke to your post. The idea is, the less stuff you have, the less you have to keep clean.

thanks. That is so true. When we were a miltary family the longest we stayed in one place was 11 months. So it chucked out a lot of stuff. It was just easier than packing it. Made cleaning easier too as each house we went to was sparkling and when we left we just paid a cleaner to come and clean .

[Savin4disney]

I try and pick up for 10 - 15 min a day. I also try and do a load of wash every few days. Since I hang it, I have to plan a bit more for that. I try not to let things get to far away from me. Once that happens it is harder to get it back in order.

There is no way I would do 2-3 hours a DAY cleaning unless I am getting paid for it.

[abowers]

I try to pick up a little bit each day too, or we doa more serious clean on the weekend or my day off during the week. But I'd prefer to do 10 minutes of a dishes a day over 45 minutes of dishes in one sitting.

I do a fair amount of cleaning while at work (as a preschool teacher) in terms of wiping down the tables before & after snack and lunch, sweeping, washing toys, picking up toys that the kids don't pick up at the end of the day. So I'm tired of cleaning already by the time I get home at night.

[eisor]

I currently live at my parents home (i'm commuting to school). So, I'll be talking about their home.

Our house is almost always clean (except for Friday nights and Saturdays...it looks lived in during these times.) I contribute this to the fact that we have a bible study fellowship twice a week in our home. Also, we constantly have people over.

We vaccuum pretty much everyday, sweep the kitchen everyday, do the dishes everyday (at the end of the day). The rest of the house we clean once a week (every sunday morning). We've been doing this since before I can remember. I actually like knowing every sunday we clean. Habits are hard to break.

However, my personal opinion on cleaning is your public rooms should look presentable, and you private rooms are up to you. Personally, I can't say i'm the greatest at keeping my bedroom clean. But, my bathroom is clean because it is available to guests.

[starving_student]

Once a week about 4 hours. Daily light cleaning as warranted....

[sakigt]

Once a week for about an hour.

In between I just keep things where they belong so there is no need to clean up later. Not surprisingly, I spend most of that hour cleaning up after my cats.

[debtfreeme]

my room: each night before i go to bed i straighten and put away things so it is presentable the next day, takes maybe 5-10 mintues depending on what i was doing before i go to bed.

Every other week my housemate has a service that comes in and does all the major cleaning and it takes her about 3 hours for the entire 3 bedroom 2.5 bath two story condo. All she does in my room is vacuum and i usually vacuum once during the week she is not there. (i am only home usually to sleep so my room is not very messy).

I like a tidy room but there is one area, on top of my hoep chest, that becomes a catch all. It is hard to keep clean but i am trying.

[razzxxx]

Originally Posted by MrsChambers

okay... cleaning is the BIGGEST problem that I have.
We have no kids, thank god, put we have 3 cats and a pup...
I have to clean the floors AT LEAST once a day... sometimes I have vacuum two or three times a day!
it's CRAZY

we have made a little investment however to help with our cleaning...

A CLEANING LADY!

we got her over a year ago. When I first decided that I needed some help with the cleaning my husband was a little weired out about the money.. most people wanted $10 an hour CASH.... hell.. that's what I make BEFORE taxes... PLEASE

but after a little searching we found a wonderful woman... she charges us $30 bucks a shot.
she used to come every week, but we needed to cut back - so now she comes every other week.

she cleans the kitchen (basicly just wash's the floor - everything else in the kitchen is usually clean)
she vacuums the rugs
she cleans the bathrooms
she runs some laundry for us if it needs to be done
dusts
straightens

IT IS TOTTALY WORTH IT

AND, she will babysit the animals when we leave for a few days!!

can't beat it.

so, if you think that you can't afford some help with your cleaning.. you should check around... perhaps there is someone groovy in your area too!!

i cant afford a cleaning lady, im my own cleaning lady, how much do they charge

[Ima saver]

I would love to have one, the last one that looked at my house wanted $25 an hour. Since that is what my husband makes an hour, building custom homes, I did not think she was worth it. I found out later, that she works much cheaper, but I have a fancy house, so she was going to charge me more.

[getforfree]

I dust and vacuum about 2 times a week. Usually wed and sat. We have carpet in bedrooms only.

We have a rug in the living room which gets diry really quick, so sometimes I vacuum it twice a day. Kids are always there. I can't make them eat at the table. So my couches and rug are always dirty, I have to clean it every day. Now they spend more time outside in the sandbox, so I have more laundry, but cleaner living room. I bring them snacks outside, so the house will stay cleaner. The living room, kitchen, bathroom floors get washed about every 2-3 days. I clean my bathroom about 2x a week.

I wash the dishes after every meal, or if I don't have enough time, at least 2x a day. I just can't stand dirty dishes! I don't use dishwasher, I use it as a dishes storage. My kitchen is really small, plus I stockpile, so there is not enough space.

I do my laundry often. Usually as soon as I have at least 2 full loads, I hang it outside. I can fit up to 5 loads there. I like doing laundry.

My house is almost clean, except that it's kind of small and cluttered. My Dh leaves his clothes everywhere, but my 3 y. o. son knows where the diry clothes go. My Dh leaves mess everywhere, but my kids pick up after themselves and put the trush into the garbage. My kids pick up the toys and help me clean. They also help me sort the laundry, espessially my son. He likes to load the washing machine. He likes to sweep too, but I have to redo it after him. I wish he would be older, he could do half of my cleaning.

[kealina]

Originally Posted by lrjohnson

I like things very neat, but I'm not a stickler for clean.
I really actually feel physically uncomfortable around a lot of clutter. I lean towards the Japanese aesthetic (there as a small child, may have imprinted).

So I stay on top of decluttering, dishes, and laundry.
My (modified) minimum wage challenge

i feel that way too... my FIL's is so cluttered and i never feel comfortable there...i lean towards the japanese aesthetic too, mostly because my step-dad (who is japanese) helped raise me that way... i also stay on top of laundry and dishes and try to work on the decluttering as much as possible... i was taught to wash dishes after every meal so that's what i do if possible... i soak the occasional pot but i try to keep the sink empty... laundry is done at least weekly and most other chores are done whenever i can make time... it does get dirty very fast living with males and 2 cats.... i hate our vacuum so i only vacuum once a month although i sweep (including the rugs) almost every day...

[PrincessPerky]

Originally Posted by getforfree

We have a rug in the living room which gets diry really quick, so sometimes I vacuum it twice a day. Kids are always there. I can't make them eat at the table.

can't make them eat at the table?????