Keeping on top of deep cleaning the house

This is what I do. Plus, like @BuddhaAtSea, I ruthlessly declutter so there's never too much stuff to sort out or clean. Skirting boards are hoovered with the little brush attachment every time I hoover a room (weekly, mostly).

I wish I'd could decanter massively, but silly little things like my middle son only drinks out of bottles so I have about 5 sports bottles for him in the cupboard and my husband has 3 as he always takes a bottle to bed. Also my other kids have 2 bottles each so we have a cupboard full of the bloody things. Then there's all the tupperware i use for packed lunches to store chopped fruit. It never ends

My house is in serious need of a deep clean. I don't work but I have 4 kids 2 with autism and one is 4 months old so I do t have the time normally or ghe energy (ever). It causes me serious anxiety if my stepsons come to visit as their houses are pristine and new (mines a 1930s bungalow with peeling paint in the bathroom and cracks in the walls)

Make a chart. List ALL the rooms/spaces in your house one by one, plus tasks like "clean all windows inside" "clean carpets through house" "check and lubricate all window catches/hinges". Decide how often these need doing, then allocate one task a week. So every week, as well as your basic routine, you either deep-clean one room or space, or you do a maintenance task. When you get to the end of the list, start again at the top.

Same for us actually. I'd forgotten that this is a big part of how we keep on top of the house. Ruthless decluttering and a one-in-one-out policy has left us with clear sides, nothing under any bed, and lots of empty space in cupboards and drawers. Definitely the way to go.

@BuddhaAtSea I aspire to my bedside cabinets being like yours . I would like my whole bedroom to be calm and tidy but I definitely need to lose some “stuff”😂

I've got a bad back so decided to get a cleaner. She was fantastic the first time she came but went rapidly downhill spending most of the time on her phone.

I have just decluttered one cupboard in one of the kid's bedrooms and got rid of so much crap. Ten blue ikea bags worth of baby/children's books. It's a huge cupboard. Couldn't believe the amount of crap in there. It's now being repurposed to store hobby related stuff for one of the DC. Can't believe things got that bad. Took 12 hrs to get bedrooms switched over yesterday and clear all the mess. Feel so much better for it.

Know what you mean OP. It's difficult to keep on top of household stuff.

Same. Our house is tidy, orderly, looks clean and smells fresh. The kitchen sides are always wiped down and clean, and the toilets are scrubbed and bleached multiple times a week.

But I might hoover under the bed once a year. I only hoovered under the sofa after 7 years of living here because I was redecorating (!). I only wipe down a bit of woodwork if there's a big stain staring me in the face. I go around with a feather duster every few months and try to tackle cobwebs. Once in a blue moon, I get a bathroom wipe and remove all of the dust and hair from behind the toilet.

It'll do 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'm 58. I've never done a deep clean and I suspect no one else I know has either.

I have very little, deliberately.
No carpets anywhere.
Nothing stored under beds/sofas.
Nothing on the kitchen counters.
Everything is stored away.

Sounds sterile, but I have large paintings on the walls that bring colour, the furniture is modern, plants etc.

All that means that to deep clean my bedroom takes an hour. I have two bed stands with 3 drawers each, in one of the drawers I have night cream, serum and hand cream, one has the kindle, a book and a notepad. The other bed stand only has a box of tissues in it. The rest is empty.
Half my wardrobe is empty. I put away the winter clothes, in boxes.

I don’t keep Tupperware, I have 4 glass ones, two frying pans and 3 pots.
You get the gist, everything is minimal.

What also helps is say my sowing machine is stored with a box on top of it that has the threads, the scissors, tape measure etc, everything is in one place. Makes it easier to keep track. Same for wrapping paper and ribbons and scissors and sellotape. So when I need to clean, I just have one or two things to move about.

HTH

Sorry forgot to attach the pic

This is my duster - not sure if you can get them in the UK
https://sabco.com.au/shop-by/retailer/bunnings/feathered-microfibre-duster-with-extendable-handle/

The skirting board cleaner is the one in the pic. I've got severe degeneration in my spine and hips, so bending to clean skirting boards hurts. It's just a quick zip around with this and all dust free.

Just do what my Mum does. Takes off her glasses and VOILA dust cannot be seen :)

Less stuff less to clean

Deep clean is something people do in rental properties before moving on. Thorough spring clean is more like most people's reality about twice a year

Clean skirting boards look nice though.

How about choosing one room to keep as spotlessly clean as you can manage and having more reasonable expectations about the other rooms? That way you're not spending all your spare time cleaning and tidying but you still have one spotless room to retreat to to and enjoy when you want to.

My flat is rarely visitor ready, but that's life and seems to be the case for the majority of us.

I've got a couple of robovacs and they are the best for getting under furniture and places you can't see. Run daily they remove the need to do floors on the weekend. I also bought a little hand held vacuum. It's about the size of a hair dryer. Perfect to get dust off the ceiling fans and dust books in bookcases. Also great to quickly run behind furniture. I got it to help clean the runners on windows.

My duster is a lovely grabby microfiber one that really sticks the dust to it. Throw it in the wash to clean. I got it to dust the skylight - it screws on to a really long handle.

You can buy a skirting board cleaner - really handy.

I'm not the best at cleaning. Really don't enjoy it, but I do like the results. So i try to find little ways to keep on top without too much extra effort.

The Organised Mum Method app sounds ideal for you.
I swear by it.

@NewShoesForSpring deep cleaning?? I am struggling to stay on top of the shallow cleaning!

Unless you are getting ill I don’t think all
of this deep cleaning is necessary. People never lived like this in the past. I think it’s all just a scam to make people buy more cleaning products. Who cares if areas you can’t actually see are gathering dust, unless you’re eating there or it’s directly in your line of sight it’s not doing any harm.

My house is tidy, dishes are washed after eating, we hoover at least once a week, clean bathrooms once a week, empty bins and wipe surfaces 2/3 times a day. I might hoover under the bed a couple of times a year. I can’t actually ever really remember cleaning skirting boards. We’re rarely ill, house smells fine and looks nice.

I don't mine leaving washing in the machine once its finished but I never go out and leave the washing machine or dishwasher running. many years ago I used to do this, we had a small utility room in our first house and I came back to find the utility filling with smoke and the washing machine smouldering. Apparently it was a control box failure and the model was about to be recalled. More recently my less than a year old dryer blew out a plug in the garage and the plug showed signs of burning fortunately it tripped the box and I went out to see what was happening and found it. Nice under warranty repair man changed the dryer cable for me

I think this is normal. To be honest whenever I've tried to implement a 'system' or routine, life gets in the way of it. The house is fairly presentable but with two working adults, a young child, regular visitors and a cat, it just doesn't get deep cleaned very often, maybe twice a year. I don't want to spend my time cleaning, it's time-consuming enough keeping on top of the basics and the never ending washing.