What is the best way to tackle house cleaning? Bathrooms first, kitchens first, bedrooms first?
By therese from Long Island, NY
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I like to make my bed as soon as I get out of it so at least something is done. If I were just walking into a house to start cleaning I'd do the kitchen first since it's usually the worst. Then I'd do any "common" areas next (living room, den, dining room) and move on to bedrooms going first to the master bedroom and bath (since kids usually don't care if you don't have a chance to do their rooms!). I usually do all the floors at one time rather than a room at a time but not always.
Check out www.flylady.net. She has a very good housekeeping system. Very easy and you dont get tired out either.
I love a neat tidy house and I get overwhelmed at times but I found that cleaning the bathroom sink and toilet daily bathtub/shower weekly or as needed. Clean the 'easy rooms' like bedrooms, living room, leaving the kitchen last. I also learned that waiting for laundry to pile up for a full load is not always as I don't like spending an entire day doing laundry so every day or so wash a small to medium load as it doesn't take so long to washer to fill as with a full load.
Everyone has their own system for housecleaning, but here's mine. I simply tackle one room per day. That way there's not such a huge job every day. Things like the dishes and mopping the kitchen floor of course I do daily. But otherwise, I do one room per day and it usually only takes me 1/2 to 1 hour depending on the room and what I'm doing. Also I do one load of laundry per day too, for 5 days (day 1=darks, 2=lights, 3=whites (bleachables), 4=towels, 5=sheets & anything else), which leaves me 2 days with no laundry to do.
Another thing is a few years ago my husband bought me a Roomba vacuum and it's been a life-saver ever since. I run it at nite in the room that I plan to clean the next morning so that part is already done when I get up. Of course, I don't do this in my bedroom or my bathroom. In those rooms I run the vacuum after I get done cleaning the rooms. Then I just shut the door and let the Roomba do its thing while I'm in other parts of the house.
For mopping I have a Shark Steam Mop. Since it just takes plain tap water and dries almost as fast as you can mop, it only takes me about 5-10 minutes to mop my 12x30 ft kitchen.
I'd say, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen//divide kitchen into two parts or light and heavy and take a break between.
I gather all of my cleaning supplies I will need to clean the whole house into a caddy. I have extra trash bags in the bottom of my trash can so, when I take the used trash bag out I have them handy to replace the trash bag. I also have a basket to put things that go in another room into. That way I don't have to keep going back and forth from room to room. I just put it up when I get to that room.
I start in the bathroom, because that is my least favorite to clean. I then clean the bedrooms. Then on to the living room, office, playroom, and dining room. I do the kitchen last in case I find any dishes in the kids rooms. (They aren't supposed to have them in there but, it happens)
When I go to a room to clean it, I start in one corner and work my way around the room. After I have finished all of the rooms, I sweep, vacuum and mop the whole house at once.
I use this method daily to tidy up, and weekly to deep clean. I takes me about 30-45 minutes daily and about 2 hours 1 day a week to deep clean. Hope this helps!
Real Simple's website has some interesting checklists that also tell you how often to clean whatever. For example, it might say to wipe the bathroom counters everyday, but to vacuum the bedroom once a week.
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