how do I keep house spotless?

freidasima

Sat, Jul 02 2011, 6:56 pm

Amother above I like your mother in law. My house isn't spotless but I'm quite organized.
Just the other day my daughter in law came over and commented to me "How do you keep your house so clean?" I reminded her that we dont' have little kids around any more.

but the truth is that I am really organized and on top of things. Everything has its place and it goes there immediately. I never put things off. There are never piles of laundry around, They are in the hamper and when it gets full it gets washed, hung, taken down and immediately folded and distributed. DH's and mine I put away, the kids get their to their beds and from then on it's theirs.

The floor gets vaccumed and dusted and washed thoroughly once a week for the whole house, parts of it get washed daily like the bathroom and kitchen floors.

Dishes get washed immediately. Pans get washed as soon as the food is taken out of them, even before I eat. Book are always put away on shelves. Papers are piled neatly where they should be. Kitchen counters get wiped all day long. I brush my teeth? At the same time I clean the bathroom mirror and the sink. I am washing dishes? I clean out the sink and use bleach once a day. Before I go to bed I straighten the sofa and pillows. As soon as I get up I make the beds. shoes are always put away. I take mine off as soon as I get home and use slippers that are only used inside the house. The bathtub gets washed while I shower as do the bathtub walls and the shower glass. Daily. There is a list on the fridge of things to get in the market. I keep doubles of everything and guy as soon as one is gone. There is a bag for bottles to be recycled and another for bottles to be brought back as deposit bottles, both are kept hanging on the terrace door. I have a broom in the bedroom, another in my husband's study and one on the terrace not to speak of one that I used in the broom closet. Same for sponja sticks.

Kids toys. I had a hamper in each of the two kids rooms in which the toys went. Boxes of toys were stacked. One couldn't take out a toy unless the other with pieces was put back. Every night everything went back into its place. Clothes are taken out at night for the next morning. When something is torn it gets mended immediately.

The three ways to do it are:

1) never to be lazy, when something needs to be done do it immediately and fast.
2) keep lists of things to buy before you run out, when you use up the "spare" not the last one
3) follow through. When you have a task to do take it to the end. Don't just take the laundry off the line, fold it immediately and distribute it and put it away.

EvenI

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 2:22 am

freidasima wrote:

(Jumping on the bandwagon of the bemused seekers.) You are organized, but it seems that beside being organized, you also prioritize cleaning up and you have time to do that. The problem comes when you are strapped for time and you manage to find time for the main part of each task but not enough time to clean up after each task before the next one calls.

freidasima

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 2:44 am

No I don't have the time.
I work full time, have private patients in the evening, don't have a cleaning person or any help around the house and my kids aren't even home enough to help out. DH is great but he, too, when he is home, is busy, he also gets work calls all the time, has people coming over, etc.

You are right about prioritizing. With a very small apartment as we have, it could easily become overwhelmed with piles. I look at my girls' room - the boys room was always neat as they had much less and were only two in the room, not three at one point - and am HORRIFIED. Two adult young women still live there, both in their mid 20s, and no one believes in putting ANYTHING away. I can't tell which one is worse. Comes Friday afternoon and one goes through a whole big ritual of actually cleaning up, but all week long???? Gevalt. I just put their laundry on their bed and it stays there. They sleep around it. Piles of stuff on the big one's side of the room all over the floor. The younger has it piled on chairs and a small pouf by her bed. Certain surfaces in their room get dusted erev pesach and erev Rosh Hashana and that's it. But we came to a deal when they were in their late teens all of them, I leave things on the bed, I do the floors once a week, I will dust empty surfaces, but other than that, the room is theirs.

So yes, I prioritize that I need a neat house, but...and here is the thing. What allows me to carry it out is my speed....I am fast. Very very fast. And I am efficient. But most of all I am a firm believer in the expression in hebrew "haoyev shel hatov hu hatov me'od" - the enemy of good is very good. Meaning I don't try to get things perfect. The laundry is folded decently, but not hospital corner kind of stuff, when I do sponja I do it fast, only with water after sweeping up. No three different kinds of soap and wax etc. I also put off my own needs such as taking a break from cleaning to finish things up. Sure, I would be happy to take things off the line and leave them in a laundry basket for someone else to clean but....there isn't anyone else....there isn't anyplace to leave that laundry basket other than on the dining room table, the ONLY table, and we eat there daily.

So...that's how it goes. when you come home from the market you put away things before making supper. And if you know that you are going to the market after work and will take time to do that, you make a double supper the night before so that you just have to take out of the fridge and warm up while you are putting away things.

Super super super organization. It just has to be a priority to have a neat home. You don't need time. You have time to sit on the toilet when you need to? Everything waits when you have to do that? Same for putting away laundry. Everything will wait. So the kids will get to bed twenty minutes later. So what.

amother

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 11:20 am

My sister has a spotless house and it's the reason I limit my time there. It is too stressful for me to go for a shabbos or YT because she's so neat. For example, everyone has to wait for her after sitting down from washing because she is at the sink washing the little kiddush cups. She can't even tolerate some dirty cups for a few minutes. If I leave a bottle in the sink for 2 minutes you can see her blood pressure rising, ditto with the little one making crumbs while he eats. If my kids get up to go the bathroom, they have to clean up the toys they are in middle of playing with.

imaima

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 1:15 pm

I keep laundry hampers, wet wipes, diapers in almost every rooms, dust bins in several spots in the apartment. It does make life easier, even though I still do not end up with a spotless place.

I think zaq said it right about priorities. My own priorities are 1) food to eat. and 2) clothes to wear. I do not do anything else until these 2 things are accomplished. Then comes cleaning, if I still have the koyach for it. I explained it to my dh when he was complaining about mess, and said that if he wants clean, something has to go.( And he likes to eat fresh, and we can't rely on take-out here, either).

Speaking about cleaning, I am contemplating getting a small hand-held car vacuum cleaner for cleaning mess after kids' meals. It is often too bulky to drag the big vacuum to remove a couple of crumbs from the carpet and high chair. Has anyone tried that?

freidasima

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 5:21 pm

Sure I feel like I'm always juggling but doesn't every mother feel like that? And certainly every mother working outside of the house? And certainly every mother without household help?

I'm so used to it by now I could not live any other way. But I try to be open to new ideas. I also know my limits. I don't have a dishwasher but don't mind washing dishes at all. However...I hate having to scrub baked on grease on roasting pans. So I use disposable aluminum ones. I am aware of the expense and when it comes to something that leaves almost no residue in the baking pan I will wash and re-use it labelling it pareve or fleishig, but the really baked on ones go straight into the garbage pail - that's my luxury and it keeps things clean for me.

It all depends how much mess bothers you and how much you hate cleaning. I don't hate it at all, in fact just the opposite. I like it. I like the way things look so nice and neat and clean afterwards. I like the way that the trisim sparkle after I dust them or the sun comes into the windows after I wash them. But I'm not a neatness freak. I will be like your sister in law who washes the little kiddush cups right after they are being used if I'm already in the kitchen and they are there as I have a tiny kitchen and if anything piles up we have a traffic jam there. But if I have guests in the living room and my tiny coffee tables are covered with glasses, plates and forks and we are sitting around talking and they are done eating, I will sit and talk with them and not be chafing at the bit to take the stuff inside and clean up already....simply because I am enjoying my guests. The company comes first, the food and the cleanup is secondary.

Again, priorities.

however as soon as they leave, I will take the stuff into the kitchen and wash and dry and put away immediately. It's true I enjoy making a get together but equally enjoy the moments after everyone goes home, cleaning up, putting everything back to "normal" until you can't see that we have had fifteen people in our tiny living room only an hour before. That's another part of the "fun" for me, getting everything back to normal.

What is important is to enjoy the process, not to sweat it. Enjoy cleaning up knowing that you will have a clean house afterwards. Enjoy washing and drying those dishes. Concentrate on the nice smell of the soap, the nice warm feel of the water either on your hands or your washing up gloves. And most important, enjoy the food you serve, the friends or family that you eat with, Enjoy the process, not only the outcome.

jemappelle

Sun, Jul 03 2011, 8:31 pm

I find that many 2- 5 minute cleanups prevents the mammoth end of day draining cleanup. ex. taking the 5 minutes to load the dishwasher right after eating, making beds as soon as we get up, putting away sets of toys when the kids want other toys out so that there wont be zillions of pieces to reorganize at the end, sweeping up crumbs right away, folding laundry straight from the dryer...its worth it at the end. was even able to keep the house very neat over yom tov that way. my last cleanup after havdalah of yom tov only took about 15 minutes!
I use a cleaning lady for cleaning- like mopping/bathrooms etc, not for reorganizing etc.
I also work full time so Mon-Thurs there is no "day-time" mess in the house. - I try to clear up the breakfast table on the way out.
hatzlacha!