Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Cleaning can suck my big fat....

I have quite a bit of graphic hatred towards cleaning.

I'm a Stay at Home Mom that has many jobs...one is to keep the house clean (just like every other stay at home mom, unless you have a cleaning service, then I hate you.)
This is a crappy job.

I suck at it. So, in my attempts to become better at my "job", I've been doing some research.
I've tried SO many techniques to keep me on track.

I did www.motivatedmoms.com which was a great program, but only a year long and costs $8 per year. Not a huge expense, but I didn't want to purchase something again. Plus, it seemed like a huge waste of paper and I kept losing the binder I kept it in.
I made my own, based on that one and researching Pinterest.com. I even bought a dry erase board and label maker. It's very professional. But very ignorable.

It worked OK, when I would notice it, but sucked up some serious time. I rarely had any time to spend with my kids. All I did was clean like a crazy person. I tried to schedule times I was going to clean, but it never really worked out. The kids would start screaming, or they wouldn't nap that day, or it was a perfect day out and we needed to be out playing in it. I just can't seem to get the things done that I need to. I tried spreading it out but that didn't work either. I have to scrub my toilets every day. If I don't, it looks like...well, like crap. My 5 year old doesn't believe in flushing.

THEN I found "Speed" Cleaning online. http://www.somewhatsimple.com/speed-cleaning-101/
Worked like a charm. Except that it is just a simple cleaning and not a deep clean. My house hasn't been dusted in months. And it doesn't offer some of the more sporatic cleaning that the Motivated Moms offered, things that you wouldn't get to everyday but still need to be considered. For example: Pick a clutter spot and clean for 30 mins. That was a helpful item and they put it in there about twice a month. If you have seen my house, the entire thing is a clutter spot.

I'm not quite sure how to combine everything together. Or to get what I need done without eating up all my time away from the kids. Pretty soon they won't be taking naps and I won't have that time to use for cleaning.

I should alternate and do more serious cleaning one day and speed cleaning the others...or save the serious cleaning for the weekend when Jalon is home and do speed cleaning during the week.

There are so many items on the cleaning list that I'm not sure what's important or how often to do them. Like washing my shower curtain? (Do people actually do this? It's near the shower...isn't that enough?) I also hate wiping down my blinds. And I would rather eat paint chips than clean out my closets, but I should add it to the list at some point.

Is there a secret I'm missing? My house isn't bad, but it could be better.
Help is needed.
Tips, required.
Please.

And thank you.

4 comments:

  1. Saddly enough Danielle, I work out of the house all day, my hubby is in another country and when I get home from work the last thing I want to do is house work. I would much rather spend my few free hours after work with my munchkins... which is exactly what I do because by the time I get home from work around 7ish that it is just starting to get cool enough to play outside. So I always think to myself, the laundry is going nowhere it can be done another day.... sadly by the time I get to laundry I have 3000 loads (maybe a bit exagerated) and I hate laundry, it is my nemisis, we are arch enemies.....however, I do like to keep and orderly house so what I do is once my kids are in bed I will do a quick walk through and pick up toys, shoes, hats, babydolls whatever so I at least dont trip in the middle of the night.... I have also come to the decision it is not to early to teach your children cleanliness is a must, so I make my children do chores, yes even Tristin at the lovely young age of 3, he takes out the bathroom trashes, pulls his blankets up on his bed, puts his shoes and toys away, my girls also keep their room clean and take out trash, my oldest empties the dishwasher and transfers the wash into the dryer..... we have a chore chart and a weekly payment system, ususally something from the dollar store but they dont need to know how much I did or did not spend on them, they just like the reward. Sadly there will always be laundry its a never ending battle and apparently as long as I have three children and an indoor dog (70 lb. English Bulldog) I will always have ditry windows and dirty floors, so I just dont look at the floor and window very often. When it comes to the bathrooms I tend to clean them right after they get out of the bath otherwise I wont get to them, and I always make sure that my "BOY" sits "NO MATTER WHAT"!!! Good luck with your house cleaning if you have any tips or come across any let me know...

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    1. I cannot imagine working that long and then trying to get work done after that on the house. My house would be a disaster. I hate doing laundry, but I've improved on it. I try to do a load a day or every other day. My problem is putting it away. I have 2 stacks hanging out around the house, waiting for folding or hangers. I keep hoping they will magically apprear, but no such luck.

      Chores have started. Evan does the speed cleaning with me. We've had a pretty good routine going on and I can't wait to include the twins on this. They have started with throwing laundry down the chute and cleaning toys, but so far that's it.

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  2. The roomba is pretty darned awesome. And the same company just put out a new robot that will SCRUB YOUR BATHROOM FOR YOU. And it only costs a little more than your left arm. So you know, there's that.

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    1. I NEED a few of those. I probably need one with arm attachments to pick up toys. And one that can scrub toilets. And another that can do laundry. Maybe one that can wash dishes...do they make something like that? Never mind. Can't afford it anyway.

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