What's your basic cleaning routine that leaves your house in an acceptable state?

[thedrummerswife]

Following a very busy time at work, I'm now off sick with stress and depression. Nothing much had been done in the house and now I need to get back into a routine. However, I have no motivation and am tired and struggling to get going.

The house isn't untidy (apart from ds 23 room and I'm not riding that!), although the garage and cupboards are full of clutter, but all I've done recently is occasionally dust the living room, wipe over washbasin and loo, wipe over kitchen work surfaces and hoover.

What's your usual routine and how often do you do things like cleaning skirting boards, doors, tiles, lamp shades?

I washed the kitchen floor today for the first time in months! Now I don't know what to do next, it feels overwhelming

I'm not thinking of decluttering at the moment, I just want to feel like my house is acceptable.

Then I'll tackle the garden ...

Pfleming...GF is nasty. Hope you feel much better soon x

Drummer wife are you responsible for all the cleaning? You have an adult child living at home so there is at least one other adult in the house. I think you need to work out what needs to be done in the house eg hoovering, this maybe more than a week with pets, cleaning bathroom ect and then call and family meeting and ask your family which jobs they want to take responsibility for.

Declutter, keeping all those size 12 clothes will make you feel guilty every time you open your wardrobe. Go through them and put any of them that you love in a box hidden somewhere in your house. The ones that are just ok get rid of them. If you lose weight you will probably want new clothes anyway.

I work long hours during the week so only do little jobs then eg on Monday water the plants and empty bins, Tuesdays give the toilets and sinks a quick clean, Wednesday order online shopping, Thursday do a good tidy ready to clean on Saturday. We tidy as we go along, I do 5 mins down Stairs in the mornings before I leave the house and five mins when I come home from work. I chuck a load of washing on when the basket is full. Saturday I wash towels and Sunday bed sheets.

DH and I share the cleaning on Saturdays, I do upstairs and he does down stairs. Typically this involves cleaning bathroom, sink, toilet, bath, shower basin, dusting furniture and hoovering. In the kitchen clean oven top, benches, visual marks on cupboard doors, clean sink and chuck out out of date food from the fridge. We wash kitchen, bathroom and hall way floors weekly and the other floors once a month. We rotate dusting skirten boards, cleaning marks of doors, cleaning shower doors ect so they get done once every four weeks ish.

I am a teacher and will clean the fridge out and that kind of stuff in the holidays. But I noticed in the holidays there is a lot more mess and dirt and it is only me at home.

This turned into an epic post! Sorry. Do small amounts at a time and make sure everybody is pulling their weight.

Try not to worry about cupboards and clutter - you'll get round to it when your feeling more yourself and naturally feel that urge to declutter. It's just not important right now. I went through a period of stress and depression and it really does take more out of you than you realise and you need to take it slow to recover (think if you'd broken your leg you wouldn't attempt to walk on it until your GP gave you the all clear...same principle with your mind). As for cleaning, just do what you can when you can. (bite size pieces rather than looking at the whole house as a massive job). Sometimes I'm really on top of the house right down to dusting skirting boards and other weeks I let it slip and pile up because I'm busy enjoying socialising or I value my rest more than other weeks. Maybe pull in any support you have to help? Ask your Mum/friend to give the hoover a push round or help out with washing. You'd be surprised how happy people would be to help if you let them. Ask for the support you need. I hope things improve for you work wise.

There is a website called Unfuck Your Habitat (UFYH) and it has an app that you can download. It gives you reminders of simple things that you can do and recommends doing things on a 20/10 (20 mins cleaning/ 10 mins beak) or for really bad situations 45/15. Lots of people upload before and after pictures and, from the posts I've read, it seems to help a lot of people who have had depression get back into a routine. The pictures can be really motivating. Hope things get better soon.

The best thing I got from UFYH (I think it was there at least) was 5 mins or less. If it takes 5 mins or less just do it...
At first I spent an hour doing all the 5 min jobs!
But I do try and stick to it - so they never make the list (either a written one or even in your head) frees up brain space and makes you feel less overwhelmed - nothing worse than walking round the house thinking I must do that... and that.... and that....
Emptying the dishwasher falls into this category for me - I am inclined to put it off and then the dirty pots have nowhere to go and pile up and there is no space to stack the clean as you put them away..my DCs think I'm mad as I chant 5 mins or less to myself as I do it

Drummer, if you want to feel like you are being organised, yet still sitting on the sofa, try Pinterest . I can while away hours like this, pretending I'm planning, but it's all terribly civilised and relaxing. Just search for organisation tips and off you go. I've even implemented some of them.

The family are really not very good at joining in with housework although dh generally does what I ask him to eventually

I already spend a lot of time on Pinterest , don't give me another reason! (scurries off to look up organising on Pinterest )

Very interesting to see the different ways people approach housework

I think you have to work out your own priorities and standards. I change our bedding once a week because I love the feeling of clean sheets and sleep much better. I try to clean the kitchen before I go to bed but will occasionally quite frequently leave dishes in the sink if I need an early night. As long as we have food, clean clothes, enough crockery to eat off and the cat is looked after then those are the main things. I keep the living room quite minimal so it is easy to keep tidy and make the bed/open curtains each morning. I also make sure I air the house daily to keep the air fresh and clean the loos with some fresh/cleaning smelling cleaner and chuck some bleach down the sink on a regular basis.

You family may not like housework but to be honest I don't think anybody does, except Kim and what's her face from the tv. They are adults and they need to contribute to looking after the family home. If the state of the house is making you feel worse and they are not willing to place their part you need to tell them how it is making you feel.

Feeling pretty inadequate here, hearing about all of your skirting board dusting and daily bleaching of loos...
15 minutes a day is what keeps Villa Villekulla ticking over organizingmadefun.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/15-minutes-of-cleaning-how-to-have-fake.html

This thread has reminded me that I still need to put my washing away! I'm 9 and a half weeks pregnant atm and suffering from the worst fatigue and baby brain all at once so housework is really sliding. When we moved in, I painted a chalkboard up in the kitchen to remind myself what to do and to help break things into manageable chunks (I have a 2 and a half year old to housework has to be broken up). I clean the bathroom once or twice a week, sweep and clean floors every 1-2 days, depending on how bad the floors are and what's happened, clean the kitchen a couple of times a week, have a quick tidy up daily, dust once a week, change bed linen once a week and do everything else as and when it needs it.

I always keep my house tidy, so it never takes that long to clean. However, I rarely or never do deep cleaning jobs, such as woodwork, windows, skirting boards and ovens.

Daily: air beds, open curtains, wash up and put away, wipe kitchen surfaces and dining table,straighten up cushions and throws, and I try to deal with any paperwork (most of it is online now anyway).

Weekly: clean bathroom and downstairs loo (not tiles), change cat litter and clean out tray, empty bins, vacuum house, dust all lower level horizontal surfaces (sometimes fortnightly) and mop kitchen and bathroom floors (again sometimes fortnightly). Change bedding (I alternate mine and DS's, so one bed change every weekend).
I also do 4-6 loads of laundry most weeks and I never, ever iron.

I've cleaned the oven twice and the windows once since moving here in June last year and I try to clean the fridge at least every three months. I haven't cleaned the insides of the cupboards since just after I moved in and I have yet to de-frost the freezer.

Can I just say thanks to the OP and the people who've posted on here. I wasn't brought up with good or tidy habits because I was basically neglected. I also suffer from depression and sometimes it seems like an overwhelming task, I don't know where to begin or what to do. My husband does the lions share of it but he works long hours and I want to pitch in.

I can never understand how other people manage to keep their houses so spotless with the limited amount of time they have. Lists like this are exactly what I've been looking for. Broken up in chunks like that they seem much more manageable and far less overwhelming.

So thanks all, really useful for me.

We have a bloody awesome part-time housekeeper who comes Wednesday's and Weekends, and does all the laundry (including bedding) and the kitchen and bathrooms.

On Monday mornings - I clean the lounge; dust, brush or wipe (wooden floor), and the playroom.

On Tuesday mornings - I clean the kids' rooms; toys away, new bedding, hoover or wipe, and the occasional clothes/toys clear out.

On Wednesdays - I do our room, and if I feel in mood our office.

I do it to music - really gets my energy up , and I do it in the mornings straight after the school run so it's all out of the way so I can relax.

I rarely do the skirting boards, or polish... or in depth cleaning. I prefer to be doing the gardening than the housework, DH does his share after work or on Saturday evenings.

Flylady is useless. They expect you to go from slovenly to an anally retentive obsessive cleaner over night.

I wish Mumsnet would do their next book on this.

I keep the house fairly tidy too, try to put things away straight away to avoid clutter building up. I hate washing the floors and bathrooms The kitchen is the worst area in the house, the top of the extractor hood is very greasy and the (gas) job gets filthy every day.

I know the rest of the family could do more, but ds 23 works hard and shifts, he does empty the dishwasher when he's around which isn't often and does his own washing and cooking, but is the main culprit for leaving the kitchen in a mess (hob, oven, work surfaces). We have repeatedly asked him to change this, he cleans up once, then forgets again. It doesn't help that he usually comes home in the early hours when we're all in bed.

Dd 13 is rarely around when I'm cleaning, as I generally clean on my days off when she's at school. She tidies her own room and is meant to clear the table and stack the dishwasher, which she does if reminded.

Dh does what I ask him to do, but doesn't think of doing it unless reminded. Or he'll tell me it doesn't need doing, that it's more important we rest in our time off..

I've downloaded the apps mentioned and will have a look on Pinterest .

aermingers, sorry to hear you're struggling with depression too. It does help to read how other people tackle their housework doesn't it? Good to hear your dh does plenty.

In reply to the original post. Since you asked, I have no cleaning routine and my house is totally unacceptable!

Hi, My 1st ever post on mumsnet, so I picked cleaning your house!, I clean my house in a trance, same old cup stains, same amount of dust comes out of my Dyson,my mop head snapped so ive just been putting a wipe under each Ugg and skating over my bathroom floor lol

I live in a house way too big for us, parents moved abroad and asked us to look after the family home. So I struggle to keep it clean. I do the minimum to make it acceptable to visits tidying and kitchen work tops every day, loos twice a week, clean towels once a week, then the rest gets done once a fortnight unless it looks gross. I only ever do skirting boards, lamp shades etc when I notice it needs doing, so prob twice a year don't sweat the small stuff. Seriously, be kind to yourself, get out in the garden as others have said, and never mind the skirting boards. There's more important things to worry about, like getting yourself ok

In your shoe's I think I'd go for the routine which Badvoc123 set out in her first post. Then stick it on the kitchen wall and allocate jobs between you, DH and DS. That way little by little you'll see a daily improvement in your home and you won't be bearing the brunt of doing everything. Once you start to get on top of things it can be much easier to keep on top of it but I know how hard it can be to get started, especially if you're doing it on your own. DH and I often do our jobs together and it keeps us more motivated to keep going.

At 13 your DD is old enough to join in too although I wouldn't give her as much to do as the adults in the household.

I dont think anyone should have a cleaning routine that in itself is depressing to me. When i actually have a bit of time at home to myself to get stuff done i play my favourite upbeat music (rather loud) and crack on with whatever needs doing. I see where a plan might help but try to not look at it as though its a chore. I know no house work is fun but liven it up to suit you. Or bribe really close friend/family member with bottle of wine and snacks to help. I do hoover reg but i have 2cats and 1 is half persian! Do you know how much fur he leaves behind after playing with the other cat . Also bribe the teenagers doesn't have to cost money, fav dinner or pudding or say you would like to sit down and have a family game of monopoly or cards or something but you want a bit of help first to get organised first! Music really helps try it. Good luck

I do bathrooms twice a week, our bedlinen once a week, kids' beds ditto.

Hoover every day, big kitchen clean once a week, but mop kitchen floor 3-4 times (steam mop makes it easy).

Wash towels once a week, also a specified day to clean TVs/mirrors, thorough clean downstairs every week too (including doing sofas, woodwork, under sofas and stairs) but I am a bit mad. Hoover upstairs twice a week.

I like a routine, me