To have no clue how to clean a house?

[blueonblue]

Somehow I've reached my mid-30s with no idea how to clean a house. I'm okay (sort of) at keeping it tidy but I don't have any kind of system for cleaning it.

DH is about as good as me, a bit better but not much. Since I work part time and him full time, I think it falls to me to spend some of that time keeping things in order.

My mother was not much of a housekeeper so I was never taught, and I just don't naturally notice things looking awful until I make a conscious effort and then clean as I notice things or when we have a visitor.

Please help my by sharing yours or your family's general system for cleaning the house. Do you do a different room each day or a big clean each day? What's essential and what's once a month kind of stuff?

Buy a cleaning caddy...put the following in it..

Spray glass cleaner
Polish
General cleaning spray
Bleach
Disinfectant
Cloths
Roll of kitchen roll
Binbag

Take this with you room to room...and like another poster said, use a timer.

I agree with the dusting with a damp cloth, it makes it much easier, I am a Housekeeper and this is what we do at work.

I have daily and weekly jobs. I work long hours so do my big clean on a weekend when i have the time.

Daily

General tidy up
Wash up
Wipe down kitchen sides
Washing clothes maybe twice a week and hang on airer
Clean any spills etc
Loo brush round toilets
Spray down shower glass before i get out

Weekly

Polish everywhere with a damp microfibre cloth with a bit of zoflora on

Vac everywhere
Change bedding
Bleach kitchen and bathrooms
Wash makeup brushes
Wipe skirting boards
Plump cushions and vac sofa
Ironing

Takes me about 1hr on a weekend, then i iron in front of the tv.

The main thing that helps is being tidy. I don't have clutter and everything has a home. I generally do a quick 5min whip round before i go to bed just straightening sofa / washing up mugs / rubbish in bin.

Following

I have a day for each room.
I work part time so on my working days I do the easier bits and do the kid's bedroom on a non working day, lounge and dining room on Saturday etc.

This works if you have already had a good clean and tidy up but its also a good way of getting started if you feel a bit defeated by your house.

Getting one room done will give you a sense of 'I can do this'. When the 'room day' comes round the next week it will be much easier to do and take less time. Keep doing it and it should only take a few minutes unless you feel like tackling your underwear drawer or your plastic bag collection in that forgotten cupboard.

It depends on what makes you happy. I can't function well in mess and dust/dirt gives me the heebs but its FINE if you don't mind a bit of dust and untidiness.

Also following!

Although I'm not going to bullshit I think I'm more lazy than anything, I'd rather fuck about online than clean and tidy. My house isn't terrible and I keep on top of things like vacuuming/washing up but it's the dusting of skirting boards, washing windows, cleaning the cooker etc that I can't be fucking about with

In my defence I don't really like living where I am, I want to move soon and I think if you're not happy where you are it's more difficult to take pride in it iyswim?

Martha Stewart has some great lists for daily, weekly, monthly,... cleaning: www.marthastewart.com/274764/cleaning-checklists

seminormal I'm with you, and also not happy with my house, which needs tons of work.

I have heard tell of damp dusting....not really sure what for 😀

Don't have kids is another great tip!

I'm great at cleaning and tidying but as soon as I do it, there are little people undoing all my good work!

Semi I am the same I get too caught up on here and doing other shit online, and I most definitely agree with what you said about not liking where you live, I hate my flat!!
And I find it so hard to get motivated to clean it and organise it, I force myself to get it done, because I know I feel heaps better if it's clean and tidy than if it's a messy pit!

former My kids are a nightmare, they are so messy and grimy
and they do things like empty pots of glitter out of the pots, Go into the kitchen cupboards and get out hundreds and thousands and they end up everywhere I am considering a lock for the kitchen door

Baby wipes act as a fabulous damp duster.

Also, if you're like me and randomly get ants in your pants when you're on the phone (WHY? I'm perfectly happy to sit on my bum the rest of the time, except when I'm on the phone!), it's a great time to wipe down surfaces with a baby wipe. I did my tv stand and shelves last night while I was having a natter.

I looked at house and the cupboard full of cleaning stuff late one evening after work, after kids were in bed thought 'fuck this' and hired a cleaner by make a few cuts elsewhere.

Over 20 yrs later she is still with me.

Best decision I ever made.

I had to learn this. I genuinely don't see or care about it. About 18 months ago I just got sick of being embarrassed when unexpected people came round (running to shut the kitchen door, grabbing their tea cup when they got up to take it into the kitchen etc!).

I had to set myself some rules. I do well with rules. Now, without fail, I do all the dishes every night (or DP does). Wipe all the surfaces down. Clean the hob, even if it doesn't really need it. Sweep any bits off the floor daily, mop once a week. Throw out any food from the fridge that is off or just not going to be eaten. Empty the bins.

Now that I've "reset" myself, I can't imagine going to bed without these things done. And yet, for years I'd leave the dishes till we were at the point of having to wash a cup or a fork just so there was something to use . I find it really hard now to understand the old me!

With the rest of the house, I have a motto: Just Fucking Do It Now. Don't walk past a cup without taking it to the kitchen.
Don't walk past a pile of laundry - take it upstairs. Put it away. It takes moments.
Don't leave paper shit lying around. Junk mail through the door? Don't leave it on the side, take it straight to the recycling.
Shelves dusty? Grab a wipe (I keep a pack of cheap baby wipes in every room now, not the most eco but I am very green in other, bigger ways, so...) and just fucking do it.

With my bedroom, I compeletely organised my drawers - all pants and socks are rolled and stored neatly in one drawer, all t-shirts in another, all pyjamas (I have a lot) in another. The rolling method minimises the space they take up and means I can see exactly what I have, can always find a pair of socks, the right pants, etc. It also means all my drawers can close now (!) which makes the room look a lot better, rather than having them open with stuff spilling out!

I'm far from a neat freak, and things still start to slide sometimes, but I know what to do now to pull it back and not let it get the better of me.

I find it easier to break stuff down into daily weekly monthly etc
So for eg;
Daily;
Make beds
Clean toilets (if needed)
Breakfast dishes
Stack dishwasher
Wipe down kitchen surfaces
Clean hob
General tidy around in all rooms
Washing

Weekly;
Damp Dust
Hoover up and down
Steam mop hard surfaces
Bathroom
Ironing
Strip beds and remake

Monthly;
Kitchen cupboards inc fridge
Washing items like sofa cushions, throws etc
Windows inside
Skirting boards
Disinfect bins
Polish mirrors

Yes, agree about "dusting" it sounds like someone whipping about with a feather thing which just causes dust to settle somewhere else.

You need a multi surface polish which you spray on to the surface before dusting. This then means the dust sticks to the duster rather than just gets redistributed. If you're dusting a narrow surface then spray the polish onto the cloth rather than the surface you're dusting.

Also dust before vacuuming.

My final tip is not to forget to dust skirting boards, the top of mirrors and pictures and if you have panelled doors the little ledges in the panels.

Oh yes! Baby wipes! Great for carpeted stair corners!

I have found since getting a Gtech cordless vacuum my cleaning abilities has gone up! It's small enough to sit in the corner of the hall and it takes me less than a few minutes to whizz it round my place (2 bed ground floor and all laminate/ tiles)

Before I had to lug out my hated dyson Hoover, plug it in each room to do the job and it was forever falling over and getting clogged by the smallest thing. Now vacuuming is so much easier!

I've also got a long handled dustpan and brush that sits by the Hoover in the hall (folds up so sits flush by the wall) to brush up any stuff on the floors as I go along during the week if need be which takes less than a minute to do.

I do a proper vacuum and tidy up once a week and wash the floors on a saturday night so they dry overnight as I work full time and I'm knackered during the week.

I try to tidy as I go along but can epic fail at that some weeks.

I've found keeping the cleaning products I need in the rooms so much more helpful than having everything under the kitchen sink. I have bathroom Cleaning stuff in the bathroom cupboard, furniture spray in the hall drawer and kitchen spray on the draining board.

Also I got some magic cleaning pads from eBay that I have in bathroom and kitchen cupboards which are amazing for tough little jobs. I have a pad sitting on the bathroom and kitchen sink to remind me to use them.

Bathroom gets a good clean each weekend but wipe out sink when it looks grubby through the week ( why can't bloke rinse after they shave?? Why???) and I attack the loo with my loo brush once a week as we have really hard water in our area and can look scanky otherwise.

Same with kitchen, I try to tidy as I'm cooking but can fail at that sometimes but do a proper clean on a Saturday evening but I wash up every day and wipe down surfaces. (My kitchen is tiny). I wash the front of the kitchen cupboards only when they start to look grubby.

I dust the bits I can reach maybe every other week but wash the tables each week ( we have fold up ones as easier to use for us)

Twice a year I do a mega clean involving washing out inside of cupboards, washing all furniture, proper scrubbing of skirting boards and moving heavy furniture mainly because I get infected by the spring and autumn cleaning bug basically if I can see it it gets scrubbed.

I maybe get the proper duster out once a month because I don't like troubling the spiders as they eat the bastard flies and don't worry me so only dust when they are getting unruly with their webs or visitors are coming round

As a short arse I have found taping the duster to the handle of my long handled brush means I don't have to get the ladder out each time I do need to attack the cobwebs!

I can now clean my place at the weekend in well under an hour, just takes me being in the "get your bum off the sofa now" frame of mind

Bearing in mind I don't dust non-electronics at all and we've been in this house for six and a half years, I've just gone round and wiped some representative surfaces (cupboard in dining room, living room bookcase, kitchen shelf, playroom cupboard) and only the surfaces near electronics have enough dust to register. I'm happy to add dusting to my repertoire if it's really necessary but it doesn't feel like it is - I'm probably another decade off Miss Haversham levels of dust, and many MNers claim to be dusting every day

I agree with pp that I prefer to do more housework less often (eg do 3-5 laundry loads twice a week, rather than one a day) and that it's very satisfying to have everything completely clean all at once. But given my timetable for the new school year I think a room a day is more realistic and I'll think about how best to do it - eg kitchen the day before grocery shopping.

Baby wipe for dusting sounds achievable

@flandersrock - what electric sweeper do you use?

Baby wipes are fab for a lot of cleaning tasks

I have a gold medal in procrastination! I go to bed every night intending to get my arse in gear tomorrow, but it never happens. I find doing the same thing over and over again, as in a routine, boring and just wish I had more motivation. Any tips?

Sorry posted accidentally. Let's try it without the typos:

I loathe dusting but now use these which speed the job up and have the benefit of trapping all the dust. When a head gets too manky you just throw it away and fit a new one.

I do have one tip, Which helps to get me motivated and helps me to get on with the housework and that is music, I put the radio on or something else and just get on with it just don't put on sad ballad songs