Obsessive cleaners share your cleaning routines with me

[way2serious]

I would love to be more diligent about cleaning my house and wondered what sort of routines those of you who are obsessive about tidying and cleaning had to see if I can learn something. Also how often do you declutter or have a clear out?

Thanks. Here's to a clean and tidy house!

I certainly wouldn't class myself as obsessive at cleaning (I'm positively slovenly compared with some on mumsnet) but things are generally clean and tidy here, so here's what I tend to do.

Beds made every morning.
Kitchen cloth & drying cloth changed daily.
Hand towel in downstairs bathroom changed daily.
Beds changed once a week.
All dishes put in dishwasher or washed immediately after use. Nothing ever left in the sink festering.
Worktops wiped down several times a day, and immediately if anything is spilt on them.
Toilets cleaned ideally once a day.
Everything has a place and is kept there, so if I'm in eg the living room and it should be upstairs, I move it as soon as I notice it.
I declutter on an ongoing basis, more or less all day every day. If I see something that needs to go in the bin (eg broken item) it goes in the bin right now, no hesitation. If I notice that an item of clothing is too small for dc it goes into a bag for the charity shop as soon as it has been washed. Then when I have a few things gathered up, the bag goes in the boot of the car, ready to be disposed of next time I'm near a suitable charity shop.

I actually spend minimal time on housework -it takes seconds to do each of those individual things, witb the exception of changing the beds which I hate

Exactly the same as treacle - could be twins :)

Same here

I wah the downstairs floors and straighten the rooms before bed. I put bleach in the toilets too, I've a small house so it only takes minutes.

I try and do washing everyday.

I batch cook so some nights I just defrost and cook a pre made meal and use that thirty mins to hoover or clean kitchen cupboards. If I see marks on light switches, I will take a few baby wipes and do all of them there and then.

Oh yes, I declutter all the time. Newspapers every week - bin. If dh wants to keep one I put it in his chest of drawers!!!! Put of my sight.

I bought lots of storage lately. Clothes - I have a drawer just for outgrown baby clothes and when the draw is full, I put them in a bag up in the attic.

Similar to the above. Though I don't change towels daily.

I have had a couple of good friends make despairing remarks recently at how tidy and clean my house Is compared to theirs and I keep telling them I'm a lazy arse who in all probability does less actual housework than they do.

The Difference is I have easy to clean surfaces, minimum clutter, everything has a place and everything in that place and do something as soon as you see it needs doing. Wipe the kitchen units down as soon as you have done what you are doing, sweep up downstairs daily even if it looks clean. Yy to baby wipe on light switches etc. I often clean bathroom with a wipe ans spray whilst toddler is having a bath. I keep wipes and a spray bottle in bathrooma and downstairs bog. And use them most days.

I don't do windows though.

marking space. I am so disorganised, I need a system.

If everything has a place, keeping the house tidy is so much easier as you just need to go round putting everything back in its place. When everything is tidy, cleaning it does not seem so daunting and you can run the hoover round, sweep up and have a quick dust. As someone else mentioned keep wipes in the bathroom so you can have a quick wipe of surfaces each day to keep on top of them.

I've got a load in my eBook, which is free today if you want a copy.

Austerity Housekeeping

There are also some grids on the linked blog with routines.

Austerity Housekeeping blog