What are tips for keeping your household clean and functioning smoothly?
I do one room per day from top to bottom. Swish out the commode every morning.Always put dishes in the dishwasher out of sight.Vacuum rugs not less than once per week (more if you have heavy traffic).Dust after you vacuum if needed.Change bed sheets once per week or more often.Wash light or thin curtains often. Send heavy drapes to the cleaners at the end of winter and the end of summer to keep the house smelling fresh.Do the same with quilts, blankets, comforters.
grizzeybear1
New member
The #1 thing a person should do to keep a place functioning smoothly is that when you leave a room (even if it's just to get a drink or go to the bathroom during a tv commercial, etc.) is to pick it up- don't pass it up!! Teach your family to do the same. Pay them an allowance that you can afford or reward them in some way or set up a reward system of some sort for when they complete their daily tasks. (You are not someone's personal slave.) Dirty dishes go into the dishwasher or a dishpan under the sink until later when the dishes are washed for the day. (Aside from the dishes to be done, keep the kitchen clean throughout the day.) This is the effortless way to put things back where they belong when you are finished with them. Otherwise in a very short time your place can be totaled & take many hours to straighten up. Run the dishwasher or wash the dishes & clean the kitchen after dinner or at the end of the day. You should have the family or whomever clean up their area & do their share & do their own dishes after meals. (Also, if applicable, children need to learn about how to clean, organize, & how to take care care of themselves now while they are young. [It certainly doesn't hurt husbands or boyfriends either. It's supposed to be a partnership, no?] If they don't learn how to work now, they will have it really difficult later. Later, you can teach them how to do what you are learning to do now by helping them to set up a scheduling system similar to this one or what is useful to you for that in this email. The reason that I mention this is to let you know that there is no need for any guilt on your part if you decide to delegate.) Double check before going to bed at night. Try to have an idea, ahead of time, where certain things go, when put away. Maybe sketch a chart in order to figure out your house plan. Little by little, so that you have the room to put things away, set unwanted things aside for a sale or donate things to a thrift shop. (For the time being, if you have an extreme clutter problem, at least plan what rooms & what things go where in general. Put the rest in the garage or another room or unused rooms & work on organizing it a few minutes a day.)Decide what daily chores that you must do. What in the morning & what in the evening? Considering your daily schedule, aside from your housekeeping chores, like if you have a full or part-time job or whatever else that you already have a part of your daily schedule, set up an am and also a pm routine that is workable for you. Keep this schedule in your planner or notebook. When setting up your daily routines, consider the other things that you need to do in the course of a day also- like taking a shower, sleeping, grooming, maybe exercising, relaxation or hobbies of some sort, homework, child care, meals, phone calls, checking emails, working on goals, etc. Next thing, write a list of what you want done & how often you want it done. Decide what you want done & when in the course of a week you want to do a particular chore or set of similar chores.You might want to do a load or two of laundry a day or take a day & do it all. When to change your bed & towel linens? Then you might want a day or half day for whatever- errands, shopping, office stuff listed below, or whatever. Clean certain rooms on certain days, etc. Maybe another day or half a day can be used to do monthly or things that need to be done less frequently or seasonally. Whatever days or half-days with related tasks that you can think of to simplify your week would be useful for you. You need a free day or family outting day or church day or whatever you can think of that would fit into your lifestyle. What about a romance day or evening for husband or boyfriend? What about a day or part of a day to work toward other goals or projects or hobbies? Even an hour or so or an afternoon a week can add up to some exciting outcomes in a short amount of time.Either carry with you a calendar to coordinate things on or some kind of planner notebook to remind yourself of special things that come up & to keep important info all together in. Use this resource to write up a "To-Do" list each night for the next day that isn't already a part of your daily & weekly schedule that is not already a part of your plan. You can also have a loosely planned weekly menu also. Like pizza night, frozen meal night, chicken recipe night, beef recipe night, vegetarian night, slow-cooker night for an especially busy day, eat-out weekend night, family night, or a really nice sunday meal day or whatever you can think of. One topic for each day of the week. Include grocery shopping, more specific menu planning, grocery list combined with checking out sales ads, laundry, errands, kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, offices & any other rooms in your house. Also- any bill paying, special shopping, etc. Don't forget any outside things that you want to list like yard, patio, garden, garage, etc.If you work outside of your home and depending on your other regularly scheduled weekly activities, you should consider this info when setting up your weekly schedule. Maybe do certain chores before work or after work or during your lunch hour or whatever.Also, you might become interested in delegating some of these chores to others- professional help, husband, or your children (according to their age capability) if applicable.I just thought of something wonderful for you!! You would love flylady.com. The other website that I listed is the most famous, professional, & funniest cleaners in the world. Thoroughly check out his website(s!) & the many hysterically funny books he's written on the subject too.I know this might be an awful lot for you but, you don't have to use it all. You can simplify this info much more than I've done. Use what you like & disregard the rest. I could go on but, I won't. Hope some of this is useful to you. God bless you & yours. These are two of the most exciting websites that I've ever discovered. Check it out! You don't have to buy anything. It would give you even better & many more ideas & more useful info than I've given you! 
I can't begin to compete with Grizzeybear1's extensive answer, but here are some website links to help you out:http://www.flylady.com/http://www.messies.com/http://www.thecleanteam.com/http://www.queenofclean.com/http://www.shesintouch.com/http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Organizedhttp://www.ineedmoretime.com/organize_home.htmhttp://www.juliemorgenstern.com/http://www.peterwalshdesign.com/1home/1_1whatsnew/1_1whatsnew.htmlCleaning Products:http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/homemaking/vinegar.htmlhttp://www.dialcorp.com/index.cfm?page_id=56http://www.wisebread.com/254-uses-for-vinegar-and-countinghttp://housekeeping.about.com/cs/environment/a/alternateclean.htmhttp://www.armhammer.com/basics/http://www.versatilevinegar.org/usesandtips.htmlhttp://www.thelaundrybasket.com/Our_Products/Our_Products_Super_Washing_Soda/our_products_super_washing_sod.html