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How Clean Is Your House?

My house is somewhat clean, but not as clean as I'd like it. A 6 or 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. I sweep a couple of times a week, do the dishes most nights, and wipe down counters and pick toys off the floor almost every day. I vacuum probably every other week; we only have carpet in the bedrooms and rarely wear shoes in there. Cleaning the bathroom is something that I dread, but I LOVE having a clean bathroom. In my ideal world, the floors would be mopped, the bedrooms would be vacuumed, the sheets would be changed, and the bathroom cleaned, every week. That is a schedule I have never been able to actually achieve though. There is just too much else important going on in life! Last year, my dad's Christmas gift to me was house-cleaning, and he often cleans when he babysits. Coming home from a date night to a clean bathroom is a pretty amazing feeling. I highly recommend it! :)

Unfortunately, although my husband, Average, does a good job of cleaning when he does it, he just doesn't seem to notice things that need to be cleaned as often as I do. And even though I spend more time cleaning now than I ever used to before, between a dog and a baby our house if just as messy at it always has been. My ideal house would be a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. Clean enough that you never noticed anything particularly dirty, but maybe some dust here or there and just the tiniest bit of mess so that you didn't feel like you were going to ruin everything if you actually USED anything in the house. I've been in houses like that, and find it uncomfortable. On the other hand, a disastrously messy house is quite uncomfortable too. It is my dream to have a cleaning service once a week and then I'd never have to do things like clean the bathroom, mop, wash windows, or vaccuum. That is a far-fetched dream though.

My strategies for keeping the house from getting too out-of-control messy include:
  • wiping down the stovetop and counters every time I wash dishes
  • putting away clean dishes in the afternoon when I get home from work - I never have to dry dishes, and then when we cook the clean ones are all available
  • a basket or a shelf in the living room and dining room that we can toss Sweet Pea's toys in when doing a quick pick-up
  • doing laundry almost every day so it never gets too out of hand, although going out of town usually screws things up. If I have the chance to do laundry while we're on a trip, I take it!
What do you do to keep your house clean?

Comments

  1. My new dream: a housecleaner. =) Ha! I'm still trying to find a schedule/balance with cleaning. My #1 strategy is to buy a small house, which means less cleaning! We are beginning to look at houses, and I've decided less is more in this case. I'm also trying to schedule 2 hours once a week (early Friday or Saturday morning) before Josephine wakes up to clean bathrooms, sweep floors, etc. Last week was my first week. We'll see how it goes!

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  2. The early morning idea sounds good, but I can never get up earlier than absolutely necessary :) Let me know how it goes.
    Having a small house definitely helps. Our house is 960 sq. feet. Another benefit of a small house is that I am always in hearing distance of my curious toddler!

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  3. Mark and I made a list of chores, agreed on how often they need to be done, and then divided them up. Our new house isn't as small as our Eugene one, but I try to keep very few items sitting around that have to be dusted and have to be moved around during dusting - to make it more manageable.

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