How do you keep your real house clean and clutter-free?

[Luanne]

Howdy Greenleafers

or is it Greenleavers? 

 

I enjoy watching HGTV and seeing well designed rooms.  Everything is colorful, pretty and neat in this ideal on screen world.

And then there is my real house.  It's just me and my husband but we struggle with keeping the house clutter-free consistently. 

We used to have chores divided but our job responsibilities have changed and we have not revisited our house responsibilities. 

Between shows to watch and things I have to do and things I want to do, the house is neglected.  

I look up tips on cleaning and try them out but it's tough to keep at it week to week. 

So how do you keep up with cleaning your house? Do you have scheduled small cleaning sessions, a big cleaning session? What has worked well for you? 

L. 

 

[KathieB]

I lived on a boat for a few years, which taught me the importance of the "place for everything and everything in its place" rule is in keeping a place tidy. I have to admit that the studio Lloyd and I share would look cluttered to a visitor, but all work in progress requires some bending of the rules. We share cleaning duties rather than delegating specific tasks. I do not like to wake up to a messy kitchen, so one or the other of us will make sure the counters are clear and clean before we go to bed. Whoever gets up last makes the bed. I wipe down the bathroom sink & faucets with my washcloth after using it (I don't like to use a washcloth more than once, so bought a few dozen inexpensive white cloths to have on hand; when guests come, the matching colored washcloths come out.  ) 

I must confess we have a Roomba, the vacuum cleaning robot, which scurries around the whole place twice a week. It was a big investment, but neither of us is crazy about vacuuming, and the robot scoots under most of the furniture, so we can be confident that all of the dust bunnies have been corralled without having to become furniture movers. 

 

[kathi17]

I'm like you, it's difficult. Part of it is because my house is so small, and my husband and I both do lots of crafts. There just isn't enough room to put everything. My work room is my living room coffee table, and his is the room that used to be my son's. The kitchen is very tiny, and the only rooms left are a tiny bathroom, and a bedroom that isn't quite big enough for a bed and two bureaus.

I'm not a very good cleaner anyway, and having a too small house makes it even worse, because there isn't enough room to organize it properly.

[Luanne]

Until we win the lottery and have a maid, it seems that those declutter your house rules do work. 

So I will start with 30 minutes today and pencil the next 30 minutes on my calendar. 

I will have a chat with my hubby about how you guys take care of the kitchen. That' d be lovely to wake up to. 

 

[nuttiwebgal]

oooo you were serious??

if I feel I must clean I follow the 15 min plan....been doing this for yrs first when my last teen was the only one left home...

I set the timer and start with the area that called me to set the timer...anything I get done elsewhere is a perk...timer goes off I call it good...the exception to this is the kitchen which if Im lucky I can tolerate my own small mess and clean 2x a week...but is usually an hour job because I like it done my way...lol...

I like it cleaner for company but for me Im casual lived in look!

[JustCallMeAnna]

Like Kathi, we have a tiny house. And I too, craft at the living room coffee table! I try to keep all of my things organized in bins that just slip under the table while I'm working (on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf when I'm not). During the off season, I clean daily (chores vary from day to day and I vacuum daily (proud mother to fur children that I'm allergic to)); during tourist season when I'm working, I try vacuum at least every other day and we do anything we can when we can!

With small living, I've found that the only way for it to "look" clean is by cutting back on material possessions.

[chesterfieldzoo]

I have big dogs who track in a lot of mud and shed. I do a lot of crafts. I always have some house project going as well.  Cleaning and decluttering are something only seen in my pinterest boards. I have a roomba also and I mostly keep up with the dishes and we always have clean clothes. That's good enough for us!

[havanaholly]

I don't have a Roomba, so vacuuming is a weekly chore when the weather's cruddy.  The floors, except for DH's office and the end of the sofa where I do needlework / "watch TV", otherwise we're pretty good about keeping things picked up (on the road we live in a camper, and the latest one is only 19' long).  Now my workshop is a totally different matter...

[grazhina]

I hate cleaning, and since DH retired and and is home underfoot everyday I've found I have a tendency to forget when I did what. The final straw came when I started washing the living room windows only to realize that the inside of the windows were clean.  I always start with the dining room windows, then proceed to the living room. Obviously, some time during the past few weeks I had started with the living room for a change and never got to the dining room, but I couldn't remember doing them.

I had begun noting completed cleaning jobs on index cards, but I kept misplacing the index cards, so last week I printed up a calender and noted each completed cleaning job. Now I'll know when I dusted or washed the floors last in whichever room.

DH regards himself as neat and tidy, but he makes more mess for me to clean up than the kids ever did.

[Luanne]

Starting point: my desk; I set the timer for 10 minutes  and put on dance fast music. 

I added a few more 10 minute increments after that. It' s better but not presentable yet. 

We both struggle with holding on to things, some from high school/ 20 years ago.  Though I am better about this now.  Clutter does bother me more than it bothers my husband, so I feel I am almost in this alone. 

I should start with small spaces.   Thanks for sharing your tips with me. 

Progress report: with my hubby's help- the kitchen is 96% in order after tonight's effort.  I think maintaining is a lot easier now.  The dual effort goes so much faster. 

[jbresr]

Some weeks I give up on the cleaning.  I clean hubby messes right along with the cats and dog.  So I try to clean one room one day another room the next then give up for a few and start all over

[me-barbie]

De-cluttered? What's that? and I admit to being a big fan of "shove it into a closet and close the door" 

I do have labelled bins,and I usually get stuff in the right bin. And I have a monthly cleaning lady. Plus, I  buy less stuff now. Or at least I try.

[My Miniature Madness]

I don't clean, I just muck out 15 stalls (rooms/areas) on rotation. When I get lazy, I just throw a party. That forces me to do a more thorough job!

[shannonc60]

Cleaning... Sigh. I am embarrassed to say that my husband and I have outgrown our house too. We have a spare bedroom, which we try to leave neat all the time (although we'd average sleep-over guests once a year), and the third bedroom is my EXTREMELY cluttered workroom - waaaay too much stuff for the size. We have a lot of stuff in general (my husband is a gadget freak).

I tend to do my sewing/minis in the lounge room or dining room a lot (due to space constraints) and so have a small cabinet in the dining room for storing projects I'm working on and a hamper type basket (pretty one) in the lounge for sewing stuff. It helps. If people are calling, I can just scoop it all up and hide it pretty quickly.

The thing that annoys me most if vaccuming and with grass, gravel and sewing debris, it is constant.

[Roxxie2]

I went from a large house, to a series of small apartments, back to a small house and now..............Oh dear a rather large house that requires a lot more work than I want to do.  I try to keep up doing "something" everyday when I feel well enough.    Then along came a bad SI Joint in my hip and I was told not to run the vacuum and all that kind of push and pull work.  So,   I stick to laundry and dusting, general picking up and my other half has been so wonderful doing the floors.   We don't have kids but we have one huge Chow dog who sheds faster than we can clean it up.   I guess it depends on your standards but I have had to lower mine a bit living out in the desert we have constant dirt and sand to go along with the dog hair so I try not to freak out when things are a little dusty.  I find a constant routine of keeping up each day saves an overwhelming job on one day.   Done with my waffle...I have to go clean!    

[nuttiwebgal]

my sis in law lives in housing very small 1 bedroom apt...this is her home forever as far as she knows... she is an artist...painting and other crafts...she also is the head of the artsy senior group in her complex...after hearing her complain a hundred times about no place to work I asked her WHY....why couldnt she downsize to the kids and make room in a corner for a table and shelf unit to hold clear shoeboxes....she is much happier for it...she got rid of a sofa and short thin bookshelf....purchased 4 folding chair. a drafting table she can adjust according to projects and a tall wide shelf unit and 15 shoeboxes.....no one comes to her small place often but to pick her up...she made several reorganizing steps and managed to have her small apt feel less crowded even with more stuff lol

I know how lucky I am to have all my room for my hobby! but I also remember my original work area in Mo...

[Luanne]

TV. They make it look so easy! 

We've kept up for a few days and our kitchen is still 80% presentable.  I have lowered my standards, too.  It's easier  and I get to have hobby time this way. 

[aggiemae]

I am lucky to have someone come in once a week for 6 hours. She does generally cleaning, deep cleans the bathrooms and change the beds. My kids do the heavy yard work though (to avoid that hill folk look my neighbors frown on) I do hire a company to edge, trim, prune and generally tidy up  the front of the house a few times a year. I  keep the kitchen pretty clean but my over all approach it that I don't live here alone and I am not a housekeeper... so the rest of the house is pretty hit or miss. At best it's untidy, at worse it's an embarrassing pig sty.  No, I don't clean up before the cleaning lady comes I just pay her well. 

The most messy times are actually when I decide to purge or reorganize. Right now I am doing both in my craft room. The room look well used but mostly organized when I started last wee. Since Saturday and up until an hour ago I could't even walk across it without stepping over piles. I just finished clearing away the donations,  packed up stuff for shipping and hauled out a giant bag of recycling and a smaller one of trash. Now I can get to the shelves and closet. More work tomorrow.

[claireliontamer]

Flylady.net transformed my life.  I actually mean that too, she advocates doing a little bit each day and she has daily tasks which don't take long at all but really do make a difference.

The other thing is to tidy up after you've done something.  I try to each evening when I've finished put things away, and I've got my daughter in the habit of doing the same thing with her toys.  I find it's easier to keep something tidy than have to re-tidy all the time.

Decluttering and storage is important too but I find this difficult as I love charity shops with bargains!  I do have to think before I buy something 'will I use it?' and 'do I have somewhere to store it?'.

[Debora59]

The best thing I ever did was get rid of all my carpet, cleaning is a breeze with a wide micro fibre dust mop and spin mop, I have long haired dogs. so quick and easy cleaning of the RL house means more mini time. Cleaning up after a project is very important too.  I don't like clutter I have no storage so if things pile up, it makes it hard to enjoy the building projects so an item has to be very important for me to keep it, I have kept hubby, the dogs , and the miniature structures lol.

 

[suej]

I do a little bit each day. And even if the house is clean, if the bed isn't made or dirty dishes in the sink, it feels like we are totally disorganized. So bed making is the first thing that gets done each day. Even when I was going through chemotherapy I would get up and drag around literally until the bed was made then I would hit the couch!  I grew up in a pigsty of a house, so keeping my own clean and decluttered has always been a big deal for me. That's not to say I don't have those times of projects where its in total disarray but I know its temporary.  Again, biggest thing for me is doing a little each day!

[grazhina]

I just found the perfect music for cleaning the shower stall, Keep Your Hands to Yourself by the Georgia Satellites. It's got just the right beat, I'll have to remember it for next time, maybe make a cleaning the bathroom playlist. Maybe I'll try John Anderson's version next time, I always liked it.

 

[havanaholly]

That's actually the right rhythm for cleaning the entire bathroom!

[me-barbie]

Great driving song too

[kellee]

My House is far from clean & Organized.... I am trying to do a complete declutter.... reading the book The magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo.

I have a lot I need to let go of. I had a major health scare last year...Some of you may remember... I haven't been on in a while.... but I don't need stuff I need my Family & Friends. So I am going thru everything and trying to clear out. . I really wish I had more help.... but everyone works, and has school. I work also but I am usually home by noonish.

 

kellee