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?

I'm liking this thread.
I'm trying to break the habit of waiting until the house is a tip before doing any of it. My current task is declutter and find places for everything. I hope once I'm there then keeping it clean has to be easier. I like the idea of starting at the top and working my way down.

Can't resist joining....
As a general rule everyday I Hoover my kitchen/family room and hall and stairs.( I have kids and a dog)
I wash/polish my marble tops that show all bits

I clean and flush loos and bathroom sinks

I tidy/return all things to their room of origin daily or more often.

Weekly: I change beds, clean bathrooms- I'm a demon on cleaning my shower/plug hole and all the bits where the hair and grime lurk.
I dust at least weekly.

I generally put a load of washing on each day and dry it overnight or whilst I'm at work.not with a tumble dryer.

Everything else is as required . Top tip: tidy first!

Great advice on here.

What is an electric sweeper please?

I follow Flylady (imprecisely and adapted to suit my house and I have a cleaner once a week) but a friend of mine who has a spotless house has a system that divides her house in to floors, other horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces (windows, shower screen etc) then laundry.

I think the crucial thing is to get rid of clutter (as Flylady says, "you can't clean clutter") everything has a place and work out a system that suits your individual home and lifestyle (wish I could follow my own advice!). I know what to do but I find house-work mind-numbingly dull! Decluttering makes it less tedious though.

Lastly, if possible, very important to ring-fence choring time or else it will expand to fit all available time! A timer is your friend. Amazing what you can get done in 15 mins of focused activity!

I do a big clean every fortnight but generally do sone form of cleaning daily, ie wiping down kitchen surfaces, bathroom wipe down and bleach toilet. I hate cleaning and it never really looks any different when I have down it. I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing! After tidying it looks different though.

I like Ninja's plan. My problem is tidiness though. I think cleaning is the easy part. It's getting the crap out of the way first to do it.

I never used to understand people who didn't dust because I had to damp dust twice a week to keep my flat looking ok. Then I moved and I never see dust in this (new build as opposed to old tenement) flat. I still wipe down once a week or so but there's no real need. It's just a habit.

I get home earlier than DH and he spends all his time decorating the house at the minute so I do the cleaning.

We tend to tidy pretty much as we go (buy not over hung up on it - I won't care if a cup of glass is left out all night or whatever)
Laundry gets done when needed.

Other than that, I try and do a quarter of the house each evening mon - Thurs so I don't have to worry about it over the weekend. Kitchen and dining room one evening
Living room and hall the next
Hall stairs landing and bedrooms the next
Then the bathroom - by far my LEAST favourite job! But I used bathroom moose that you spray and on and leave for 10 minutes which makes it easier.

I think our house is clean and tidy for 're most part but not spotless all the time! Life is too short to worry

My mother never did much housework either, so I never got taught.....but my home is always clean
Start by getting a kit together; cleaning/polishing sprays, dusters/cleaning cloths, vacuum and brush & pan.
Then take each room one at a time, move all the furniture as you go, and polish/wipe/clean everything that looks dirty......boring as hell, not difficult!

I have a schedule too. Though we're only in a 2 bed flat so it's not like I have masses to clean every day.

Daily - hoover, keep on top of dishes, wipe down kitchen surfaces, clean anything obvious that needs it. Ironing gets done once the clothes are dry.

Weekly - Full bathroom clean with spray, mop kitchen and bathroom floors, wipe down cabinet fronts in kitchen. Full dust/polish of living room, bedrooms.

Should be done more frequently but isn't - wash windows, wipe down skirting boards etc.

I'm a bit over the top when it comes to cleaning my own house and I taught a couple of friends how to clean. There is no shame in not knowing what to do - you can't drive a car unless you're taught, so I don't understand why people are expected to instinctively know how to clean a building.

The best places to start, in my opinion are bathrooms, kitchen and hallway.
Declutter those three areas and then start a brief daily cleaning schedule.

Daily cleaning

For kitchen:
-Put away rubbish & empty bins

• wash up/load dishwasher
• Clean counter tops
• Clean sink
• Wipe down hob and any splashback spatters while still warm as it will take 10 seconds max
• Change put cloths and sponges daily (soak dirty in hot water and a bit of bleach)
• Sweep floor
• Mop before bed

For Bathroom:

• Wipe down sink and mirror quickly whilst brushing teeth
• Rinse shower out immediately you get out
• Remove hair from plug hole
• Straighten out shower curtain to prevent mildew
• Quickly wipe down loo
• Hang up towels and bathmat
• Open window
• Sweep

For hallway:

• Put shoes away
• Put coats away
• Store book bags
• Go through post and immediately sort
• Shake doormat outside
• Quick Hoover

Once you have mastered one of those areas for a week add in another the following week and the next one the next. Keep all three areas ticking over in such a fashion for a month before adding in the other rooms in the house. You can then slowly add in the deep cleans.

My short daily cleans of each room take 2-10 mins per room, depending on the room.
My deep cleans of a room take 30 mins - 90 mins per room, again depending on the room.
Bathrooms, kitchen and the playroom are all deep cleaned weekly and take about 30 mins from ceiling to floor.
Most other rooms get a twice weekly 15 minute blitz (dust, polish, sweep, Hoover) and a deep clean once every couple of weeks.

I enlist the children for the daily tasks that keep the house ticking over. So they sort laundry, Hoover daily, tidy their rooms, clean the fridge before the shopping arrives, help take the bins out.

This all sounds like a lot but now it runs like clockwork and our house is always neat and tidy and we never have to think about putting time aside for cleaning.

And apart from mopping the kitchen (dirty dog paws) we refuse to do cleaning or tidying after 8pm.

As pp have said, the fly lady or unfuck your habitat routines work for some people, and some of us have homes that look like no one lives there and some like everyone lives there and no fucker lifts a finger.

So find the level that suits you without causing you stress. In terms of getting starting, when I have that CBA feeling I literally start with whatever is to my left. Right now, fe, the kitchen looks passable but there is detritus on a chair that I could reach with left hand and put the fecking stuff away and voila the dining table will look naice again.

Like some of the others, I tend to start in the kitchen and work my way through the house room by room. I do this once a week and it takes me about three to four hours.

Every day, I stick a load of washing on, hang it up and put the clean clothes away. We always wash up and generally try to keep the house tidy.

It's dull but if you try to keep it tidy every day then do a sweep once a week it's far easier than if you let it build up. Less clutter helps too.

Placemarking. Even in the brief phases when I've been a SAHM (with school age dc!) my house never looks anything like immaculate even for 5 minutes. It's partly laziness and procrastination and MN but I live in hope that I will discover a routine that actually works for me.

I love this thread!

In addition to above and just getting the fuck on with it!! My top tip is a dusting brush attachment for the vacuum. I have one for 'dirty' areas like floors egdes , door corners and skirting etc and another for shelves and curtains, keyboards, windowsills etc. Oh and ceilings too. I try to do it a few times a week so it never builds up. Is great for radiators too. I bought ones with soft bristles so nothing gets knocked around. And the dust is sucked up so not moved around etc.

I find using these much easier and quicker than dusting with a cloth, especially for keyboards and TVs etc. Although I do use a cloth every so often as well but more for wiping marks than dusting though.

Tidying and putting away as you go really helps and then I can easily clean a bit here and there on top of a weekly and monthly blitz.

Also remember to clean doors and paintwork and kitchen door fronts - it really adds to the general 'sparkle' and look of cleanliness more than you might think. Same with skirting - wash every month and more often, even weekly in high traffic areas. Zap greasy finger prints asap!

I wash up and wipe down kitchen sides daily, tidy away toys daily to try and keep it tidy, then on a Saturday dust, Hoover, mop and clean bathroom.

Music is a must or I get bored and don't let myself get distracted also get d's 3 to help tidy or spray polish so he's involved

I clear everything out the rooms that don't belong in there each day and I always go to bed tidy so I don't wake up in mess.

I do downstairs on a Monday, Upstairs on a Wednesday. I set timer for each room. I started off with an hour's timer and now down to 15 mins.

I vac, dust and tidy every week on those days then vac whole house on a Saturday.

Deep clean once a month.

Kitchen and bathroom floors mopped weekly.

I'm always trying to switch to chemical free cleaning so for dusting I use wet/dry cloth.

I like cleaning so I'm happy to do it. Again some think I spend hours, but I've got it down to a routine so quick it takes two hours a week which is nothing.

The hardest part is clearing clutter to be a lesson to start. It took us a year to sell and give away everything we no longer had a use for and get rid of clutter.

I look forward to my deep cleans!! Especially the September and January ones!

Inspired by this thread I just took half an hour to clean all kitchen worktops, hob, skirting, Hoover then mop the kitchen and hallway floors, empty the small bins around the house and hang a washing out!

I'm very much a tidy as you go person but actual cleaning happens when I take a notion.

Kitchen gets cleared after tea each day with maybe a wipe round with a kitchen wipe, hoovering once or twice a week and bathroom gets a proper clean once a week with quick wipe downs in between. If I notice that something needs put away I do it straightaway and always take something upstairs each time I go.

It's the extra bits that I just don't have a routine for so Windows, floors, skirting, fridge...way less regularly than I should

OMG I love cleaning! When I've got more time I'll come back to the thread OP!

Microfibre cloths are fab for dusting, they actually pick up the dust rather than just moving it around. Slightly dampen them for electronic stuff.

I often think that if you keep the kitchen clean and tidy it rubs off on other rooms...

I'm a great believer in the 'broken window theory', i.e. if one thing is left lying around out of place it becomes easier to add another thing to the pile or whatever until things get out of hand... Try to put things away immediately and I bet you'll notice a difference quite quickly.

I am definitely getting a carpet sweeper btw, a wee powered one, and I'm going to leave it sitting upstairs so me/kids can whizz it round up there whenever it needs doing.

Ok my secret is to not hoard ANYTHING! If you haven't used it within 6-12 months, ditch it! Just throw that shit out! Once you have space in your house, you will feel mentally lighter and the house will feel bigger and you don't need to keep moving or tidying shit round! Once this task has been done, you'll see a house that you WANT to clean and you won't feel overwhelmed by it. Good luck 😊

What is an electric sweeper please?

Sandy I have one of these. I would never have bothered buying one, I thought why not just sweep the floors? But whereas I would only sweep the hard floors downstairs once a day, making a job of it, this thing gets used by us all, about 10 times a day. Couple of crumbs, bit of dry mud from the garden, 10 seconds and it's done.

Tbh I barely use it now because the kids LOVE it...the novelties not worn off and they're more than happy to do the whole of downstairs with it, they even argue whose turn it is

I blitz every Saturday morning with DH. One of us does the bathroom and one the kitchen, full spray, bleach and wipe up, floor (Hoover and mop). Clean the fridge.
Put some washing on.
Tidy up, plump cushions, fill dishwasher with rogue cups etc.
Change the bed.
Dust - get some antibac wipes and whizz over everything and then I actually use Febreze instead of polish. It's less sticky, smells nice and dust sticks less.
Do all the floors, woodwork and skirting with the hoover.

Every couple of weeks I do the windows and any mending jobs I.e scuffed paintwork touch up

Ironing gets done whenever the mound of clean washing is big enough.

Every day the kitchen gets wiped.