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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

What is your housekeeping routine?

167 replies

pecka · 29/05/2006 14:38

Come on..... love to read about peoples domestic habits.

What do you do to make sure how is tidy and clean throughout the week (or not as the case may be)

OP posts:
LadyCodofCOdford · 30/05/2006 10:38

is anyone really interested or are they just using this as cathaarsis?

sassy · 30/05/2006 10:40

Thanks for translation/instant subtitles Cod.

(did you see comment by someone earlier who said they thought you were typing in patois, and reads your posts in a jamaican accent?)

LadyCodofCOdford · 30/05/2006 10:44

oh ho yes
i am crap typer.

sassy · 30/05/2006 10:46

My routine is roughly...

Wash clothes as and when - approx 1 load per day.

Clean upstairs, change beds etc once a week - polish about 1 week in 2, other weeks general tidy round and hoover. Hoover stairs.

Clean bathroom and loo once, sometimes twice a week, change towels same day.

Polish lounge once week, hoover most days (laminate floor and small children!); mop floor about twice a week.

Wipe kitchen surfaces frequently, kitcen table ditto. Hoover kitchen floor most days, mop twice a week.

(spend about an hour a day doing all this - not too bad realy. About another hour a day on endless toy-tidying though.)

sassy · 30/05/2006 10:47

Cod - really?

Wink
MadameClarydeClary · 30/05/2006 10:47

cod, it's cathartic yes, but I am also interested.
For example, it has reminded me that I need to tidy out some of our toys/games (always good car boot fodder.
Aslo fascinated by the differences, eg how does Boobylicious (great name!) do washing once a day with no babies when I only do 8-9 loads a week with 3 smalls?

ggglimpopo · 30/05/2006 11:30

It is not cathartic. It is oneupmanship - as in either "I am the cleanest of all women" or "No one is slobbier than me". There is no dividing line.

Cappucino · 30/05/2006 11:35

I've just read all this and have realised six things

  1. you all do too much damn housework
    • no actually they're all the same thing, I just kept thinking it over and over as I progressed through the thread
speedymama · 30/05/2006 11:36

No, no, no! It is not about oneupman ship. I'm interested in learning about how others use their time with respect to their household chores in case there is something that I can adopt in my own routine. I think it is excellent that others are prepared to share what they do. I'm sure I am not alone in wondering how a family, where both parents work full time, manage to keep their house in order.

Cappucino · 30/05/2006 11:48

and stop BLEACHING the damn toilets daily!

they don't need it - and it's really, really bad for the environment

MadameClarydeClary · 30/05/2006 12:00

speedymama, the answer to your last question is, we don't! lol.

speedymama · 30/05/2006 12:09

Blush. I must be sad then!

foundintranslation · 30/05/2006 12:10

I'm just interested because I'm nosey.
Most of you do seem to do more than we do Blush

Mercy · 30/05/2006 12:13

FIT - snap!

LIZS · 30/05/2006 12:22

Do a full-ish clean with hoovering, bathrooms and tidy up twice a week - usually Monday and Friday. Dusting and wash hard floors once a week. In between as and whatever needs it including kitchen surfaces and cooker top every day, loos etc and dustbust under dining table and around lounge. Washing about 4/5 loads per week - bedding/towels on Friday and school stuff over the weekend.

noddyholder · 30/05/2006 12:31

Is this for real?Housekeeping routine!

SSSandy · 30/05/2006 12:31

Now I have some kind of a routine, I find it a lot easier to keep on top of the housework (except ironing which I loathe but I did 2 hours of it this morning for a change). I find if you clean a bit every day, it doesn't take very long. If you do the bathroom once a week, it is a big job but if you whip around every morning, it only takes (me) 10 minutes.

I compare myself to my mum and have no idea how she managed. Her house was heaps bigger, she had 3 kids (not 1) and worked part-time (I'm a SAHM), yet she was always on top of it all, and did the ironing and cooked and baked a lot more and a lot better than I do. Mind you she hated it all too but she did a heaps better job.

LIZS · 30/05/2006 12:52

hardly a "routine" as such, just a loose mental approach to the housework to fit around what is going on ie. ds' sports kit goes back on a Tuesday so it has to be washed and dried for then .

Cappucino · 30/05/2006 12:57

I'm alarmed at the idea that cleaning my bathroom should be a 'big job'

a few years ago I bought a book for dh called 'Keeping House - the lost art of being a man'

it's aimed at blokes who have no clue about housework and just tells them what needs doing, when, and how

it's really sensible and has none of this rubbish about cleaning your bathroom daily or endless bleaching and polishing

ffs as long as things aren't dusty, aren't dirty or aren't slimy it seems to me that everything is okay

LilacBump · 30/05/2006 13:13

hoover: daily downstairs, weekly upstairs
tidy up: every evening when DD is in bed and DP at work.
dishes: once a day
bathroom: cleaned once a week, wiped daily
laundry: every two days
dusting: twice a week

bedrooms get a good clean once a week (hoover, dust and change sheets). towels get changed twice a week.

DD (nearly 5) is responsible for tidying her toys and feeding the cat.
DP mows the grass, does all DIY, cooks at the weekend and does the dishes with me.

poppadum · 30/05/2006 13:18

I am a complete slattern. I now have an excuse; my very clingy two year old will not let me get anything done. I have tried letting him help, giving him his own duster and so forth, but he is simply not interested ( can't blame him there)> How do you get the screams of "Mummy, mummy" to stop long enough to clean? I am too tired to do him after the kids are in bed. The whole house is slowly getting stickier and stickier!

jenk1 · 30/05/2006 13:18

im going to have to admit that i go by Kim and Aggies book as my routine was going to pot before that.

So,
Monday- Clean Bathroom and change beds, dust and hoover all bedrooms and stairs
Tuesday-Clean outside Loo,Thoroughly clean and hoover hall
Wednesday-Clean all glass in house,Dust everywhere and hoover downstairs.
Thursday-Just a quick clean and tidy and pay my bills (just like Bree of Desperate Housewives!!)
Friday- Thoroughly clean kitchen and cupboards etc
Saturday and Sunday are family days and we just tidy and clean up as we go along.

Every day when DH is putting kids to bed i clean surfaces in kitchen and sweep floor and give it a quick mop and tidy toys away.

I used to be really obsessive and spend all my time cleaning but i made myself ill so my sister bought me Kim and Aggies book and i read it and it really does help me to have a routine.

Oh and i iron as and when we need clothes and do a daily washing machine load.

eenywifemum · 30/05/2006 13:29

every day I tidy up each room, then do the 'day time' dishes (dh does the after dinner dishes) and twice a week I hoover. I do laundry every day... and on weekends when DH is around I make him help me tackle the few remaining piles of clutter around the house or bigger projects that I find difficult to do in my current state of pregnancy.

Then of course I do a mad cleaning spree whenever guests are imminent!

Routine has been totally ignored the last several days as I am ill and now I am looking around at the growing amount of work to do and feeling very daunted! It's much easier when you do a little every day!

Jenk1 you sound so organised! I have the Kim & Aggie book but havent opened it in months I must have another look and try to get more out of it!

clairemow · 30/05/2006 14:01

Oh my goodness. I am a failed housewife. I do tidy toys away every day, and the house is quite neat, and the washing gets done - but I clean the bathroom maybe once a week - but not on a regular day - and stuff toilet duck down the toilet every other day or so, and wipe the kitchen as I go along. Mop the kitchen floor when I can no longer live with the mess - about once a week-fortnight. And the hoover comes out maybe once every 10 days. I comfort myself with the thought that DS seems to have a v. strong immune system, and rarely gets ill (only been sick once - he's 2), so it can't be that bad.

I never do any ironing at all and go out of my way to buy things that don't need it. DH irons his own shirts. I have never ironed a duvet or underwear- why do people do that???

Agree with someone who said to stop bleaching the loo every day - very bad for the environment...

FrayedKnot · 30/05/2006 14:08

I work p/t so I do stuff in the afternoons / early evening.

Daily - empty dishwasher, put washing on, cook supper, wash up pots after supper, put dishwasher on, hang out / tumble dry washing, & fold up & put away, make pack lunches, clean round kitchen work surfaces etc.

Every 2-3 days - hoover downstairs, empty bins.

Weekly - change beds, clean bathroom & loos, wash kitchen floor, hoover down & upstairs, dust something somewhere.

Monthly - big clean on Saturday morning, go through whole house doing everything thoroughly.