House cleaning tips and organizing

Don't try entire cleaning in one shot!

Hi Prakruti,

Tell me who likes the cleaning job? It's the most boring and tiring job that makes anyone feel lazy to do it! But we don't have a choice and need to do it to maintain the house and the things.

My suggestion would be don't try cleaning the entire house in one shot. That will leave you exhausted and obviously the next time you would dare to think of cleaning. Do a frequent cleaning and do it in parts and pieces.

 

Creative ways to do the household work...

Hi Prakruti,

Click on the below link to read the article posted about the creative ways in which couples are sharing the household work.

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185

May be you would want to involve your husband in help you clean up the house

 

Hi Prakruti,

If you have kids, I would recommend you involve them to help you clean the house. Though they cannot do much, they will make it fun.

You can also play your favorite music and do the cleaning. That makes it a little better to get the mood to clean. Since we don't have a choice, we need to try and do such things

 

Hi ILites,

I am sure many of you would have faced this problem and successfully overcome it too. How do you clean your house?
I am a working woman with no kids but one bigger kid:-D yup my husband with a 3bedroom 3 bath house .
If I start cleaning on a saturday my whole day seems like over. So nowadays am not doing a proper cleaning at all. Its so boring to spend the whole day in cleaning. Any suggestions,tips to make it interesting.
Also a silly question, what is dusting and how do you do it?
What do u do to get a clean house:
1. Clean kitchen
2. Clean bath tubs and toilets
3. Vaccum
4. Dusting?

Did I miss any other type of cleaning?
Also how do you remove the cobweb up in the ceiling. My ceiling is about 25 feet.
Also how do I clean the artificial flowers?

 

Some tips

Hi gvi,

I can understand your house cleaning problem, sometimes it happens to me also, I get bored after a point of cleaning the house and loose the mood (but having started the cleaning, i make it a point to complete it, though with much reluctance). Well, will suggest something to you for making ur life easy.

1. Follow the saying "Everything has a place and Everything in its place" - make sure you replace whatever items you take back to its designated place , that takes care of 50% of housekeeping.
2. Don't keep all cleaning for saturday, if its only 2 of u, whatever free time u get, utilise to clean one room at a time (even if that is difficult, a particular portion of the room at a time), dedicate 30 mins everyday for each room, by weekend ur cleaning job will be only 50% remaining !
3. As far as kitchen goes, from my exp, after finishing cooking and before leaving kitchen, have a quick glance and wherever u see dirt, just wipe it off immdly with wet cloth or using soap water and if you have the utensils spread on the kitchen table, arrange everydish inside your kitchen cupboards and keep the kitchen table neat. It's mostly the dishes spread everywhere in kitchen that gives a conjusted look to ur kitchen.
4. Vacccuming too dont do it at a stretch,if that tires you. vaccum one room per day if you want and do it properly. Sometimes I only vaccum my kitchen on the weekdays and other rooms leave it for the weekend.
5. Finally, play some of your favourite music while you do cleaning...listening to nice music while doing laborious and monotonous task gives you some good diversion and also the mood to do the job ! (This works for me well !)

Hope this tips help u to an extend...regarding cobweb and other cleaning, I don't know much.

Love,
Preethi

 

Ofcourse! a tiring job

hi,

I take much more care when I clean my house. I remove the dirt immediately after I notice it. Here are my few suggestions:

1) Dusting - Very necessary to be done everyday. Facial brushes are very useful to remove dust from corners of the delicate articles. The hair dye brush is for hard articles. A piece of cloth or a hairy duster is very useful for overall dusting.
2) Toilets - Atleast once in a week (if you are very particular about a very clean bathroom and toilet) wash with hot water using necessary floor cleaners.
3) Vaccum cleaners can be reserved for items like Computer Keyboards, Carpets, Cushion Sofa.
4) If you cook heavily, stick a newspaper on the wall behind the Gas or Electric Stove, so that, after you finish you can remove the paper and throw. For moderate cooking you can leave the paper for a week.

I believe these suggestions may be of some use for you.

Vanaja

 

My two cents

Hello GVI,

Yes i can understand how hard it is cleaning the house. Well I live in a single family home too and here is what i do:

1. I call professional cleaners once a month to do a thorough cleaning . They cost about $100 to 200 bucks a month but it is worth it. All you have to do is then to just maintain the house.
2. For toilets, you get the clorox bleach tablets, that youcan drop in your flush tank. Then with every flush, your toilet bowl gets clean and remains sparkling. Also, it is very handy to keep the Clorox or anyother brand disinfectant wipes handy. Every day, just use a couples of wipes to clean up the vanity counter, the mirrors in your bath. Also once a week, you can use these wipes to wipe down the ceramic portions of your toilet bowl( outside).
3. Bath tub/ showers: Wipe all the areas dry, so that you can prevent mildew formation and also soapscum.
4. For kitchen: as Preethi said, it is good to clean the kitchen as and when you finish your work there. Again the clorox wipes are really handy for this. you can wipe all the areas( countertop) range etc... with this and you get a clean kitchen.
5. For dusting: any feather duster or the swiffer duster works well to remove all the accumulated dust on your furniture, electronics etc.....
6. For removing cobwebs: i have tall cathedral ceilings too. So I got this really long duster which has an extendable handle and then attached that to another long pole. Of course, you need a ladder to to get to the nooks and cranys in the ceiling.
7. Vacumming: I have a two level home. So i split the vaccumming to two days. One day for the top floor and the next for the lower level. Vaccumming should not take you more than 1 to 1 and half hours to do .

Well hope this helps.
Vandhana

 

We use to do cleaning in weekends.

1) My hubby broom & i mob
2) he does laundry & i do cooking

By this i don't get all the load & both of us finish work soon & then enjoy rest of the weekend!:-D. I clean kitchen daily. Regarding washroom clean once in a week.

 

No end to house cleaning!

Dear GVI,

Welcome to the NRI housewives club and their woes. I am yet to meet one of us who has not complained at one time or the other about the never ending house chores.
You have received some very useful and helpful tips from Preethi, Vanaja and Vandhana.
The most attractive solution was ofcourse that of Vandhana's...get cleaners from time to time for thorough cleaning if you can afford it! I have never used this service as I am not a working woman and think I need to do atleast my house work myself!
Like Preethi says, it is best to have an adaptable plan to keep the house clean. Oraganisation being the key word. When things have their own place and are regularly put away in their places, it takes care of the majority of the mess. I cannot relax if my sink has dishes in them! They have to be put away, which may not always be possible if you are a working woman and are leaving the house in a huff. But that helps. I also use a lot of kitchen towels, both paper and cloth to keep mopping, wiping, sponging off etc. That helps to keep the kitchen clean and tidy. I remove every spot then and there before it spreads and makes a mess.
Similarly, I use the toilet brush to twirl through the t-bowl everyday to give it a quick clean and clean it with detergents once a week. This avoids building up any scum. Also, I keep a clean duster cloth, you can buy a pack of them for very cheap, on top of the vanity counter and wipe the counters after almost every use along with the mirror and taps so they are always sparkling clean. I spray the shower two or three times a week with bathroom sprays.
I have invested in Shark floor cleaner which is cordless for a quick floor cleaning..it works on every type of floors and carpets besides having hand vacuum cleaner like dirt devil. These are very good even for closets and spice drawers etc.
Like Vandhana says, those long cobweb brushes are a great help for high ceilings and I am very thankful for swiffer wet and dry cleaners (bathrooms, entraces and kitchen) and dusters. As a matter of fact, I always keep a look out for convenient cleaning products that seem to flood the market from time to time.
What I do not do is clean the whole house on one day or the weekend because that would become a dreary task for me and I would lose interest. We also vacuum the floors once a week, taking each floor in on seperate days! AND..my husband helps me with vaccuming!
And so on and on .....I could go on. Hope you have collected enough suggestions now. But if you have any specific cleaning query, shoot off and we will all come back with our inputs
Happy cleaning!

L, Kamla