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| Personal Effectiveness Goals, productivity, time management, motivation, self-discipline, overcoming procrastination, habits, organizing, problem-solving, decision-making, intelligence |
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06-25-2011, 04:55 AM
| #1 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
  |  How to keep your house clean?
Okay I am not asking for cleaning techniques.  The emphasis is on the word keep. I like a clean environment. Makes me feel good. But it feels like it takes too much upkeep to keep it clean. So what I am asking for is habits which have helped you to accomplish this. As far as daily chores go, I have good habits. For instance, I never, never keep the dishes in the sink. No matter how good the lunch/dinner was I always make it a point to do the dishes immediately. It's the habits that are not daily that require some strategy. For instance, how often to clean the floor? How often to remove the dust from books? I have no strategy for these and they tend to pile up. One of my friends had days for specific tasks. Like Mondays/thursdays - clean the bathroom and so on. Thinking if that would be a good idea. |
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06-25-2011, 05:03 AM
| #3 (permalink) | |
| Banned Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 4,885
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How do you keep it clean? Clean it up so it will look all clean and shiny, then torch the bloody house! No one will mess the bleeping thing again and it will remain 'forever clean' in your mind!  I don't have a serious reply. It really does seem like a never ending story and I really do feel like torching the house sometimes. Quote:
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06-25-2011, 05:31 AM
| #5 (permalink) | |
| Banned Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,335
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That, and never, ever, ever go into my brother's room. | |
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06-25-2011, 05:37 AM
| #6 (permalink) | |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
| Quote:
It's a serious issue for me because my productivity is directly affected by the cleanliness of the environment. | |
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06-26-2011, 05:22 PM
| #8 (permalink) |
| Master  Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Las Vegas, NV
Posts: 5,988
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I got a Roomba robot vacuum last year, and I love it. You can even pre-set it to vacuum at certain days/times. It helps keep the floors cleaner. Installing the habit of keeping things clean from a young age certainly helps. When I was growing up, my sister and I would have to dust, vacuum, and clean the whole whole house every weekend. We had a list of chores that rotated every week, so each weekend we'd alternate between which half of the house each of us did. These days when I do any cleaning, which I actually enjoy most of the time, I listen to audio books on my iPad. I also listen to audio books while cooking. By listening at 2x speed, I can go through a lot of content, and it keeps my mind engaged. Sometimes I'll listen to music instead. A good way to begin is to create a single master list of anything you might ever need to clean. Even include things like changing air and water filters, cleaning old food out of the fridge, and cleaning spots off the carpet. Then you can use this master list to make a shorter list for the week (or however often you want to clean). Then work down the items on that list and check them off as you go. |
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06-27-2011, 04:27 AM
| #9 (permalink) | |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
| Quote:
About your sig - write your own code.  | |
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06-27-2011, 04:34 AM
| #10 (permalink) |
| Member Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 86
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you act like its such a CHORE i think thats your main problem cleaning can be relaxing when you use bleach because the smell is idk really nice. anything that smells like clean motivates me to clean also its stress relieving -- |
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06-27-2011, 04:37 AM
| #11 (permalink) | |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
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I have minimum of electrical appliances to help me. This is partly to adopt a minimalistic lifestyle and partly to keep expenses down. Throreau going in to the woods and living a minimalistic life had an effect on me and I tried to follow in my own small ways. Now I realize that if I make lists, it may not be that much of work after all. I could fit it in week's timetable. Yesterday, I spent two hours in a Mega cleaning event and my bedroom looks much better now. | |
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06-27-2011, 04:38 AM
| #12 (permalink) | |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
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06-27-2011, 04:59 AM
| #16 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: France - Japan - Korea
Posts: 3,241
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Since I got a dog, my house has never. I simply don't have a choice but vacuum every morning to keep the shedding and tumble hair under control. You're right that making it a regular habit is the best way to stay on top of things. I would try to fit new habits in daily and weekly schedules, even if it seems a bit overkill. For example, a great one is to spend 10 minutes each night, before bed, picking up stuff that's not in the right place/right room. If you have kids or pets, things can get particularly out of control, so a habit as simple as putting all toys/socks etc in a crate and putting it in the right room makes a big difference. Clearing up my desk every night also makes a big difference in work productivity. Rarer cleaning issues, I do every Saturday morning. I don't necessarily do the same thing each week - the hot plates don't need scrubbing that often - but at least that's a dedicated time slot to take care of these things. An interesting thing to consider is how your living space is arranged. I read about the concept of "hot spots" in a feng shui book and it was a revelation (I don't think it's specifically feng shui, just common sense when you think of it). There are spots in your house that will systematically gather clutter, no matter how hard you fight it, because of where they are with regards to your doors and movement patterns. A table right by the entrance door is a typical example. A "closed" living room, with couches facing each other, will also tend to gather books and tea cups in my house. Think about where your hot spots are, and how you could tweak your furniture to tweak your habits and as a consequence, your unconscious cluttering habits. Rotating a rectangular table 90° can radically change the way you move through a room and disolve a hot spot. Another example of how I disolved a problem rather than force myself to deal with it: my biggest issue with cleaning the fridge came from not eating through greens and fresh herbs fast enough. So I started growing lettuce and herbs on my balcony and window sill. If it's alive, it can't go bad. Fridge cleaning went from being a very annoying weekly requirement to being a very quick, monthly thing (if that). Finally the blog Apartment Therapy regularly publishes great articles about cleaning, decluttering and keeping your home beautiful. Here's one example, but don't hesitate to search for more: Spring Cleaning Checklists From Basic to Backbreaking | Apartment Therapy Chicago Last edited by aelle; 06-27-2011 at 05:03 AM. |
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06-27-2011, 05:16 AM
| #17 (permalink) |
| Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 337
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Oh how I love having a clean environment! I know how you feel -it is hard to keep up with it all. I felt I was most effective when I had a scheduled day of the week that I cleaned almost everything (I don't have a specific day anymore, but I still end up doing most of my cleaning on one of my weekend days). It would actually take me less than an hour to do it all (not counting laundry), and I would start in the evening after work. It was kind of my "wind down" for the week. I would start my laundry, and while that was going, I swept and mopped my floors, dusted nearly all the surfaces with a damp cloth, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathroom. Sometimes I played music, sometimes not. Afterword, I usually "rewarded" myself by watching a movie and having a glass of wine or something. Good luck! |
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06-27-2011, 05:24 AM
| #18 (permalink) |
| Banned Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: France
Posts: 6,053
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I had this epiphany that in my house things get messy because I have too many things and not enough space. First thing is to get rid of everything you don't need. Second is to create space for your stuff. I know that I throw everywhere my clothing when I undress. If I had a special place where to put them, they would not be everywhere. The same held true for my jewelry and papers. However, since I got jewelry boxes and arranged them, they are all in the same place. I still struggle to find a way to arrange my papers. As to habits, it might be useful to try and clean up each time you create a small mess. |
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06-27-2011, 05:46 AM
| #19 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
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aelle Thanks for the tips. 10 minutes every night sounds great. I don't have fridge so it keeps me on my toes in terms of buying and eating fresh fruits/vegetables. I remember the fridge cleaning used to be a chore. The link is amazing. Cleaning dealt on war footing. Will have a look when at leisure. sheffy4 I used to do that when I was working. Same with music, I like to play it while cleaning. Feels great after you finish. AG, I don't have much stuff. That's the good thing, there is not much clutter. In fact, I may have to buy some stuff because seems like it's essential. In retrospect, it was a good choice to be a minimalist. I don't have much problem with papers because I use my laptop for most of the things. Maybe getting some folders/binders might improve the situation. Cleaning small mess immediately is a great tip. Thanks. |
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06-27-2011, 08:40 AM
| #21 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
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Sometimes it feels like there are two guys inside my head. One is the logical one(L), the other one is intuitive one(I). Many times the logical one arrives at a conclusion by painstaking logic, then discovers that the intuitive one knew it all along. Then the dialogue goes like : I : How lone have you been practicing Ho'oponopono? L: It will be one year next month. I: And what does Ho'oponopono mean in simple terms? L: It means cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I: And what are you doing in this thread? L: Oh, this thread is about how to keep the house cle..ooh I see what you mean. That is amazing!!! I: DUH!  |
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06-27-2011, 08:45 AM
| #22 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,044
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Cleaning is a fab metaphor at the moment. A lot of the things associated with the Egyptian revolution are around cleaning. Anyway, if you are a side-tracked sort of person, and need a bit of fun with your chores, eg sometimes I need to play 'time' games or 'counting' games with myself, try flylady bingo : Fly Lady Bingo | Facebook |
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06-27-2011, 08:49 AM
| #23 (permalink) | ||
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
| Quote:
Quote:
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06-27-2011, 09:33 AM
| #24 (permalink) | |
| Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: France - Japan - Korea
Posts: 3,241
| Quote:
FlyLady.net: Your personal online coach to help you gain control of your house and home | |
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06-27-2011, 07:46 PM
| #25 (permalink) |
| Banned Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Mexico City
Posts: 11,168
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Get a cleaning person.... Seriously, if I had to work a part time job just to pay someone who would clean my house it would be a great trade off!!! I absolutely do not like cleaning. I constantly overlook things that are dirty (my mind just simply doesn't register them) and I constantly forget that that's what I was supposed to be doing instead of other stuff..... Cleaning is a waste of time for me. Why clean something today, if it's going to be dirty again next week??? It just doesn't make any intuitive sense to me (although I get the logic behind it). So, yes. My own preference is pay someone else to do those things you don't like |
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06-27-2011, 10:24 PM
| #26 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,044
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Since I found my own way, I quite enjoy it as someone else posted 'a change of pace'. I'm a natural messy as are most of my family and my mother used to turf us all out of bed at 8am on a Saturday morning for the weekly detested cleaning marathon. Now I rarely tackle housework with vigour, preferring to take a leisurely approach with copious breaks in between I don't really see it as a chore anymore but as something I like to do because I like to have a reasonably clean home. |
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06-28-2011, 04:45 AM
| #27 (permalink) | |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
| Quote:
I am not going that way because I don't think I have such a big house that it needs someone. As compared to a family with kids/pets etc. Also, I find that if I look at the cleaning process in a different way, I actually enjoy it and it motivates me in other areas as well. | |
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06-28-2011, 05:13 AM
| #28 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Sitting by the fire at the Inn of the Last Home
Posts: 5,799
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Here's how I organize: Take everything (EVERYTHING) and put it all (ALL) into one, huge, gigantic pile. Don't worry about grouping it, or making it nice. Just get it all into one place. All of it. Take EVERYTHING out of every closet, off of every shelf, out of every corner. Now you can see everything you have - every single item. Now, take it all and start grouping it. Make grouped piles. Just take one thing, and start a pile with it. Then take something else, and decide whether it goes in that pile or not. If it doesn't go in that pile, then start a new pile. Just keep doing that, one item at a time, until you have everything grouped. Now you have a set of groups of all your things. Now you can see exactly what you have, how much of each group you have, and exactly how much space each group takes up. Now - look at the space you have available. Look at the furniture you have available. Now create one devoted place for each group of things you have. Again, just do them one at a time. Take one group, find a place in your space where it would fit well. Put it there. Then take another single group, and find another place in your space where it would fit well. And just keep doing that, one group at a time, until you have a PLACE for every group of items you have. Always pick a place that leaves you with space for expansion. What you're doing here is orienting your space around purposes. Once you give a purpose to space, you use it for that purpose and for nothing else. You've given your space purpose. Making things purpose-oriented helps me a lot. Then I never have to wonder whether it's a good idea to use a particular space for something or not. Since I've given it a distinct purpose, I can use that to guide the decisions I make whenever I engage any physical item and/or my physical space. Once your space has purpose, that all just happens naturally - you don't even have to think about it. And this is critical - always devote a place to things that have no place. You'll never get through a month without having at least one item that doesn't have a place. All you need to take care of that is a place that you put things, temporarily, that don't have a place. It's your staging area for finding a place for things. Whew. Now your items are organized. Everything has a place, including things that don't have a place, and you never have to do it again. And if you just have too much stuff for your space, rent a storage unit and toss all the stuff you don't use in there. As for cleaning - hire a maid. Preferably a French maid. |
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06-28-2011, 05:46 AM
| #29 (permalink) |
| Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 6,439
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Thanks for the strategy, PWL. In my case, the decision to become a minimalist has been a great one in hindsight. All my belongings can now be fit into two bags. At one time, I had too much stuff and I realized it made no sense to collect so many things, for one person. So I gave away most of it, gave books to libraries/friends, threw away what could not be given. I have now reached a minimum point so that most of my house is actually empty. Having place for everything looks interesting. I can employ that idea in my kitchen where I have most of the stuff and most of it is disorganized. The idea of a French maid is *grrrrrrrrrrrrrr* (Austin Powers sound.) |
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