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I am pretty sure I may possibly be in the verge of OCD. I can go to bed with a slightly messy kitchen, a couple toys on the living room floor, etc. but I can not STAND a mess. I say i'm on the *verge* of OCD because i'm not one of those people who HAS to have everything in it's place or I can't sleep. But you best believe i'm not awake long before I start cleaning. With 3 kids and a Since we moved into a house with all wood floors, I sweep every day. Kids=crumbs. Dogs=dog hair. It's pretty necessary. If you don't have all wood floors, you should vacuum the rooms that get the most traffic every day. There is only 1 room in our entire house with carpet, mine and my husbands room. So I actually have to sweep all the rooms everyday. Our house is only around 1600 sq feet, so luckily it's not a WHOLE lot to sweep. If you have carpet in all rooms, I would recommend vacuuming the main areas daily, and bedrooms once a week.
Probably should of said this first, but clean all counter tops daily. I clean all my kitchen counters every morning. Most people probably clean their counters before bed/after dinner. But my husband eats constantly. I dont know where the man puts it all. He makes me sick, and I want to smack him, it's not fair! Why can't women eat whatever they want and not gain 10 lbs over night!! Ok. Rant over. I stay pretty busy all day with my 2 littles at home, picking up my 6 year old from school, doing the mounds of home work he has with him, making dinner, baths.. my husband works long days, he leaves around 6:45am and gets home about 6pm sometimes later, so it's up to me to hold down the fort, make sure the kids are fed, bathed, home work is done, all by myself. It's not easy!! So I don't always feel like cleaning the counters after dinner. And the lucky girl that I am, my husband normally takes care of the dishes when he gets home (loading and unloading dishwasher) he eats dinner, then continuously eats until he goes to bed. So I think why bother with the counters before bed, if they're really bad, i'll clean them, and we do clean up spills or spots off the counters, so it's not like we wake up with the counters covered in juice drippings that have become sticky and spots all over, because those are cleaned as they happen. But you def want to clean the counters before you sweep so you sweep up whatever crumbs you knock on the floor. I also clean my dining room table (with pledge) every morning, usually after breakfast, but if there's a lot of sticky on it, i'll clean it before we eat breakfast and again after.
Unload the dishwasher from the previous nights dishes so you can load it throughout the day with the dishes you use. Since we recently moved, i've heard horror stories about the cost of the light bill in the city we live in. So we are currently trying not to use the dishwasher. Our water, sewer, garbage and lights are all on 1 bill. We are used to septic tanks, no sewer charges and normally around a $15 water bill. So until we get our first power bill at our new place, no dishwasher! So if you do the same, or don't have a dishwasher (I've been there, I know your pain) then try to do dishes as you use them. It will save lots of time later when you have a mound of dishes to do and if you have a lot of kids or use a lot of dishes, your sink will fill up fast, and eventually you'll have to start putting dishes on the counter (been there too) which takes up your counter space and makes your counters icky! Plus doing 4-5 dishes at a time is WAY better than doing 20 dishes at a time after the food has had time to harden or stick to the bowl, plate, pot, whatever. Ew.
I have one of the little swiffer sweeper mops, and I mop the living room floors daily. It's really easy to whip that bad boy out, stick a pad on it and mop. Our kids eat in the living room a little more than I care to admit so they can watch tv while they eat so mama can get some things done, or just sit on her butt and bask in the few moments of quietness while they stuff their little faces and they're glued to tv. Needless to say, the living room floors can get messy. So normally after I sweep all the floors, I mop the living room. I usually just use some clorox clean up and paper towels and spot clean the dining room floors under the table after dinner so I only mop in there about once a week. I plan to get another shark mop very soon, the swiffer is just temporary. I will continue to mop the living room daily with the swiffer mop though and use the shark once a week on the whole house.
Try, try, try to do 1 load of laundry everyday. Wash, dry, fold, put away. It is so much easier and faster to fold 1 load of clothes and put them away than it is to do 3+ loads in one day and fold them all and put them all away. Normally by the 3rd load you're over it and don't wanna fold anymore so they stay in the dryer, or in the basket, am I right? If not 1 load daily, at least every other day. It will prevent dirty laundry build up, and it will also save time if you know all your kids school clothes are clean and folded and put away in their place, there won't be any digging through the laundry baskets to find clothes in the mornings, thinking something is clean just to find out it isn't, having to do last minute loads of laundry.. trust me, it's a HUGE time saver!! And an energy saver too.. I'm sure if you save all your laundry to do in one day you've gotten to the 5th load and forgot it in the washer till the next morning and had to rewash it, or had to start the dryer over 3 times to get the wrinkles out because they sat in the dryer all night? That stuff adds up on your power bill!! Do one load everyday and it won't happen!
I LOVE Windex touch up cleaner. It is perfect for quick clean ups I keep one in the bathroom on the counter, it takes 2 mins to clear off the bathroom counter, and wipe down the counter with the windex touch up cleaners. Counters get toothpaste build up all over them, soap build up, take 2 mins after you brush your teeth or go to the bathroom and wipe the counters down daily. It will keep your bathroom looking clean. You can wipe the mirrors down as well with the windex touch up! Give the bathroom a good cleaning at least once a week, clean the toilet, bathtub, sweep and mop floors. Bathrooms get pretty gross, don't let it build up over a week, it will be a lot nastier to clean and take more time.
Dust ceiling fans, blinds, book shelves, tv stands/entertainment centers etc. once a week. For quick ceiling fan cleaning without the mess, take a pillow case, put it on the blade as if you're putting a pillow in it, and pull it backwards, all the dust and dirt will go into the pillow case instead of on the floor!! If you do all these little things daily and some things once a week, it will save you loads of time later and your house will stay pretty clean everyday!
Clean the microwave every night. (If you use it frequently) Fill a microwave safe bowl up with water and about a quarter cup vinegar, put it in the microwave and run it for 5 mins, let it sit in there for about 15 mins after (don't open the door just let it sit) and then wipe it out. Everything will come off super easy! No scrubbing needed!! If you let things sit in there too long I don't know if it will wipe clean as easily, so I do mine daily, or at least 4 times a week.
Again, I know this sounds like a lot, but I promise the things that I've recommended to do daily, take about 30-40 mins, depending on how big your house is. Wouldn't you rather spend 30ish mins a day doing a few simple things and have a clean house everyday, instead of having a not so clean house and deep cleaning once a week (or less often) and it taking you the entire day!? Life is too short to spend time looking for things or cleaning, that's why keeping an organized, tidy house from day to day is so important! It saves so much time. If you have any other tips or questions leave a comment!!
