Cleaning: how often do you...?

[bw52]

Just curious. How often do you vacuum, mop, change sheets on bed, and clean bathrooms? Those are the biggies for us that i want done weekly, but hardly ever happen....

I'm just curious, because i was thinking we did good today, every floor in our house is spotless--vacuumed and mopped and all beds changed......and then i noticed the kitchen counters, which look like a bomb went off! We can't ever have it all done at once! And that took the entire day! Well, almost.

Is this normal? It is here, but i'm wondering what is for others--especially those with young children--we have 3 kids ages 5 and under, including a baby.

[StantonHyde]

When you clean yourself it is never all done at once--just can't! I have cleaning ladies once a week. Saves my marriage!

[lizzywednesday]

Sheets are changed roughly every other week, which is less often than "experts" say, but it's what ends up working for us. I have 3 sets of sheets for the Master bedroom, so it could, in theory, be done more often.

Floors could probably be swept daily, but vacuuming is a PITB - we have carpeted stairs, narrow hallways, and a tight space in the Master. If I get to vacuum the Master bedroom once a year, I consider it a victory. Twice is overachieving.

Mopping happens roughly quarterly. I need to scrub my kitchen floor (hands-and-knees, for real) this week, too.

Bathroom cleaning happens monthly if I'm having a good year, less often if I'm not. (My "guest" bath, for example, is on my "to be cleaned" list for next week. I can't do chemical-intensive cleaning when DD is home with me because she gets in the way.)

DD is 4; she will happily Swiffer floors, use the stick-vac (ErgoRapido), and sweep with a dustpan and brush. I've taught her how to clean up minor spills with paper towels or rags. She's also fairly competent at bringing laundry to the washing machine, cleaning windows, dusting, and picking up toys. I'm also teaching her how to fold dish towels.

What kinds of things could your kids do? There are a lot of basic household things that children are capable of doing, but a lot of folks feel intimidated by letting their kids do "work." As long as the tools are scaled down to their hands, there are plenty of ways a child can help out around the house!! (I've been cleaning bathrooms since I was 8 or so and my mom decided I did a better job than she did. It's one of the only "cleaning" tasks I take pleasure in, believe it or not.)

[KrisM]

I sweep the kitchen and dining room most days after dinner.

I vacuum usually once a week, but for me that is one of the things that makes me feel like things are clean. With fuzz or paper pieces on the floor, it drives me nuts and just vacuuming improves how I feel about the entire room.

Mopping is less frequent. I spot wipe the floors every few days. I mop maybe once a month.

Sheets - I do ours every other week usually. Kids I try do that often, but usually it ends up longer.

Bathrooms - I wipe the sinks daily and that takes hardly any time and makes them look decent. The rest- every 2-3 weeks, depending. We have hard water, so get rust stains.

[Neatfreak]

Vacuum: Weekly, or sooner if there's a mishap
Mop: Every 3-4 weeks, but I spot wipe and sweep everyday (no shoes indoors, either)
Change sheets: Every two weeks-ish
Clean bathroom: Weekly

[gatorsmom]

We have a cleaning lady come weekly and does different parts of the house so it's never clean all at the same time. But it's clean enough.

She vacuums, dusts, and mops floors every other week, depending on the floor.

She cleans the bathrooms and toilets weekly.

I change the master bedroom sheets every other week to every 2 weeks when DH is out of town. Weekly if he's in town.

I change the kids bedding monthly :bag unless they wet the bed then I wash their bedding that day. I do try to wash it more often but I do so much at night while they are sleeping and obviously if they are in their beds then they are hard to change. :)

I wipe the kitchen counters daily. It's a huge pet peeve of mine. I sweep the kitchen area everyday, sometimes twice. I hate stepping on stuff with my socks.

[niccig]

Vacuum - once every 2 weeks now that we have a poodle mix that doesn't shed. With our old dog it was a couple times a week. I would like weekly, but this is DH's chore, so not always weekly. I sweep the kitchen every 2-3 days I'd say

Mop - hardwood gets done after DH vacuums. I do mop the kitchen floor after I sweep it, so that's done more often.

Bathrooms - I want it every 2 weeks at least, but sometimes the shower/bath gets stretched to longer. I do the counter top, sink at least once a week, and the toilet is done weekly.

Change sheets - I prefer every week, but it's more like every 2 weeks. Same with towels. Sheets and towels are DS's chore, but it's on me to remind him.

My main problem is with dusting. We're so bad at doing this. Before ILs came for Christmas, I spent HOURS on two days dusting. Have to get this done more often.

Now if we're having people over more than normal, then all the cleaning gets done more often. I joke we should have a party every weekend as the house will then be cleaned.

[jerseygirl07067]

My house has tile and wood in the living areas, so I sweep several times a week. almost daily. I usually do it as a mindless task when I'm on the phone, it only takes me a few minutes. I find it rather satisfying to scoop up huge mounds of dirt and crumbs that seem to multiply rapidly. Though it does feel like shoveling while it is still snowing in my house with 3 kids who have friends over all the time! :)

I clean the bathrooms once a week, vacuum every few weeks, more or less depending on how bad it looks. I try to change sheets every few weeks but honestly have let that slide, and yes, have probably gone beyond a month. Yuck, I know!! But one of my kids has bunk beds and they are a PITA to change, esp the top.

I have a steam mop that I use every few weeks but I have a super lazy way but quick way to clean my kitchen tile....I take an old clean t-shirt or towel, make it really damp, put it on the floor, and walk around on it all over the kitchen. Voila, 2 minutes later and my floors look like they were just mopped. :)

[PunkyBoo]

I have a wonderful nanny that does the basics weekly - vacuum, mop, dust, clean the boys bathroom and change their sheets. I don't have her do anything in the master bedroom or bathroom though. I change the sheets in the master weekly. My bathroom gets cleaned probably quarterly (aside from spot cleaning when needed) and my bedroom gets vacuumed probably 3-4 times a year. Not nearly enough but I work full time and just don't made time for that stuff often enough.

[123LuckyMom]

I vacuum very frequently, daily and sometimes more than once a day in the kitchen, but we have a golden retriever who sheds like crazy, and the kiddos create lots and lots of crumbs. The vacuum is my cleaning tool of choice. I'm very bad about mopping, though. I use a wet swifter weekly or when I see visible need, but I mop properly probably once a month or less. Less if I'm being honest. In the bathrooms we use, I tend to wipe things down (shower, sink, counters, toilet seats and outside) daily or every other day or so, and I clean the bowl of the toilets weekly. I have a six year old boy, so my toilets can occasionally be highly unsanitary! I'm good about doing quick wipe downs, but I'm not a good deep cleaner. The floors in the bathroom can get left for a month or longer. Again, it's that pesky mopping thing. The tubs and showers we use also get cleaned regularly. We do wipe downs when we use them. I deep clean tubs and showers every other week or when I notice they need it. The bathrooms we don't use sit untouched until someone is going to see them. Then I clean them from under the inch of dust that has settled. The kitchen counters/sink/stovetop/microwave/refrigerator get wiped down daily. I'm good with sponges, vinegar spray and wipes, and the vacuum, and I'm terrible with the duster, mop, or any deep cleaning. The daily wipe downs take almost no time. I do them as I use things, so it's not like I stop what I'm doing to go clean. I think that's really how I'm able to manage. Also, the daily/per use wipe downs really do make the deep cleaning easier, because things don't have a chance to get super dirty. I've taught the kids to do this, too. After brushing teeth, for example, the sink, counter, handles and faucet get a wipe down. It takes seconds, and even the 2 year old can swipe a sponge around (though I have to wash the sponge.) I change everyone's sheets every other week or more frequently if necessary.

[ckso]

We have a cleaning lady come once a month to do a thorough cleaning. Bathrooms, kitchens, ovens, dust, mop, etc

I have messy eating 3 and 6 yr olds so I sweep the kitchen almost after every meal and spot clean as needed. Vacuum as needed which ends up being about once a week. Sweep throughout the house once a week although I tend the sweep the bathroom 2-3x a week because of the hair

Beds gets changed once a month sometimes longer

What helps is that we have a no shoes in the house policy. That includes friends that visit.

Most nights, bath happens at night right before bed time so sheets stay relatively clean

No eating in the bedrooms. Only kitchen and sometimes in the living room if it's a not too messy type snack. And they're only allowed to drink water if they're not in the kitchen.

[Carlasmom]

We have a cleaning lady that comes every week for four hours and does a thorough cleaning of bathrooms and kitchen. She also vacuums and mops the floors in the other rooms and does some dusting. The evening before she comes everyone has to help pick up the house.

We eat in the kitchen which I sweep daily. Wipe down sink, counter top and table after use. Sinks in bathroom also get wiped down once or twice a day. Bed sheets I aim for every other week.

[essnce629]

When you clean yourself it is never all done at once--just can't! I have cleaning ladies once a week. Saves my marriage!
Yes to this! DH and I only lived together for a few months before I hired a cleaning lady to come every week to clean the 2.5 bathrooms and the kitchen in our apartment! It was when he was in law school and just getting him to clean one bathroom was always a battle and it would take days of nagging and then I'd just end up doing it myself and get resentful for him not doing anything ever. So we paid $50 a week for the things I hate cleaning most-- bathrooms and mopping!

Now we have a housekeeper that cleans the entire house weekly. I couldn't image life without her! She (or her 19 year old DD) is also our babysitter! They do everything, but change the sheets. So all the bathrooms, kitchen, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, etc.




I change the kids bedding monthly :bag unless they wet the bed then I wash their bedding that day. I do try to wash it more often but I do so much at night while they are sleeping and obviously if they are in their beds then they are hard to change. :)


Me too! I'd love to do it weekly, but it just doesn't happen and there's always so much other laundry that HAS to be done so the sheets get put on the back burner. DS1 gets his changed the most since he's having accidents at least weekly. :(

I wipe down the kitchen counters and dining room table every day after dinner. Part of DS1's daily chores are to wipe down all the stainless kitchen appliances, vacuum under the dining room table, empty all the small trash cans and recycle bins in the house, and wipe down his bathroom counter and toilet, so those get done daily as well.

[Simon]

With a baby in our house, most everything happened less often than I'd like.
Bathrooms: regular cleaning is almost weekly, deep cleaning more like quarterly
Bedrooms: sheets every 2-4 weeks, depending
Floors: sweep daily, spot clean weekly, full cleaning infrequently. Vaccuum depends on the room--some are every 2 weeks, some less often (upstairs--no food, no shoes ever).

[sdoyle]

We have a cleaning lady every other week. It's the best money we spend because it allows us to hang out as a family on the weekends instead of spending our time catching up on cleaning. Since we have hardwoods/area rugs through the main level, we have lots of dust bunnies. We have a Roomba that is set to run at 0700 every day and that amazing little thing picks up all sorts of stuff. Kitchen gets picked up and wiped down every night. Sheets are my nemesis and probably only happen about once a month.

[Melaine]

DH most often vaccuums and he tends to vaccuum the front room at least twice a week if not three times. We don't have a garage or mudroom or anything and we go in and out all day so it gets dirty very quickly. When I had the tiny stick vac I did it more often but it's a pain with the big one so I just leave it to him.

the bedrooms get vacuumed once a week or two. They need it at least once a week, there is always a lot of lint and tiny bits of paper that make it look bad. The kitchen we sweep pretty much every day and I spot clean floor as needed (lots of rags). We need to mop at least every week but honestly it's every two. Our floor is awful old linoleum and it just doesn't scrub clean so I hate doing it.

Sheets are every 2-4 weeks. Ours are easy to change so definitely every week or two. The kids have bunks and it is a pain plus, like a Pp said, can't be done while they sleep! I'm sure the girls could do their own sheets if it weren't for the height and tightness of the bunk.

bathrooms two times a week usually get a basic clean. I mean, wiping counters down and mirror and wiping the surface of the toilet. This is usually during bathtime. I scrub inside the toilet maybe once a month and really wipe down the floors and tub maybe once a month. I have put all the kids toothbrushes into the master bath so that the guest bathroom doesn't get as dirty. They often bathe in our bathroom too.

our kitchen gets wiped down multiple times a day, we are here all day and make a mess constantly.

I have definitely had to establish new standards of clean, particularly letting go of the dream of a whole house clean. It's seriously impossible for me since we homeschool, the kids are here with me all day every day. If we had a fenced in yard maybe I could send them out to play while I get it all done but we don't so I can't.

but really for us the clutter is more of an issue because we are in quite a small space.

[AnnieW625]

I sweep the kitchen and dining room most days after dinner.

I vacuum usually once a week, but for me that is one of the things that makes me feel like things are clean. With fuzz or paper pieces on the floor, it drives me nuts and just vacuuming improves how I feel about the entire room.

Mopping is less frequent. I spot wipe the floors every few days. I mop maybe once a month.

Sheets - I do ours every other week usually. Kids I try do that often, but usually it ends up longer.

Bathrooms - I wipe the sinks daily and that takes hardly any time and makes them look decent. The rest- every 2-3 weeks, depending. We have hard water, so get rust stains.

:yeahthat: pretty much to T.

We used to have a cleaning lady come two to three times a month, and we miss her, but we are saving about $250 a month by not having her and that is more important than a clean house all of time right now.

[okinawama]

Vacuum : 3-4X per week
Sweep: 4-5X per week ( sweeping and vacuuming is completely necessary with my two messy eaters and my lazy rules on snacking in the living room)
Mopping: 1X per week
Bathrooms and sinks: once every other week or whenever a friend is coming over, whichever comes first.
Sheets: way to long probably...every two weeks-ish

[Liziz]

All of these timeframes are longer than I'd like, but they're our reality now, with a small child and both DH and I in demanding jobs.

Sheets - 2-4 weeks (4 is gross, but it happens, I have to admit).
Vacuum - spot vacuuming with our stick vacuum once every ~2 weeks, a real vacuuming often only happens before we have guests (so every 2-3 months)
Dusting - when guests are coming
Bathrooms - monthly, sometimes longer for a good deep cleaning. But, I do keep a huge supply of cheap washcloths in the bathroom and I wipe down sinks, counters, and mirrors nightly. By doing this, it's amazing how much longer the bathroom stays clean.
Kitchen - kitchen sink and counters are clean and clear every day. DH is completely anal about this (but will do it himself, so win for me) - he can't stand dishes in the sink or dirty counters. So those are always done after each meal/by the end of the day. Floor gets vacuumed with a stick vacuum in the kitchen 3-5 times a week -- DD is so messy and the stick vacuum is so quick that this one is easy. Mopping happens way less frequently than I'd like. Again, it's usually when guests are coming (every 2-3 months) -- or when there's a spill on the floor (which usually comes first!)

[brittone2]

I'm pretty good with vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms at least weekly, but it isn't all simultaneous. I have a dog that has tumbleweed balls of fur when he sheds (shep/border collie mix), so we have to vacuum daily in order for things to look good. That doesn't always happen. I usually vacuum *something* every 1-2 days. Usually one floor at a time, but not necessarily the whole house every 1-2 days. At minimum, every 1-2 days I'll quickly go through the kitchen and hit the corners of the rooms where his hair collects, then do the whole entire first or second floor a different day.

I mop every 1-2 weeks. Mopping is my least favorite chore by far. I do spot wipe as needed, which is every 1-2 days.

Bathrooms I do at least weekly, but I outsource the kids' hall bath to them, other than floors. THey divide up the vanity, shower, mirror and clean it on their own. I usually swish the toilet and wipe it down 1-2 x a week when I'm bathing DS2.
I keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom, which for me helps me overcome one obstacle to getting it done. We keep squeegees in each shower, so I just quickly do that after I shut off the water. It takes me 1 minute to do a quick squeegee. Sometimes I spray it down and then squeegee. For me, this means I don't have to necessarily do a full on, big time clean of the shower all that often. I find if the cleaning supplies are handy, I find it less of a big deal to quickly wipe things down.

Sheets are weekly because I enjoy the end product a lot. I have the kids strip their own beds, and the older two put theirs back on by themselves. THat helps a lot. They know every Thursday is the day I wash sheets.

We HS, so a lot of these are built into my morning routine and are just integrated into our day. FWIW, my house is pretty much never, ever all clean at the same time. But with 4 people here all day long most days, it keeps it looking not quite as horrible as it would otherwise ;)

[wendibird22]

Vacuum 1-2x a week...mostly kitchen floor. Carpets weekly. Mop weekly. Sheets are like monthly. Would love to do it every other week but it just doesn't happen. Bathroom sinks and toilets are weekly, every 2wk at most. Shower is cleaned less often. It's enough to keep up with dishes and laundry.


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[ArizonaGirl]

I clean the bathrooms, dust, mop, and vacuum 1 X per week and then I vacuum in between the kitchen and dining area when the crumbs are bad.

Sheets and towels every week to two weeks, sometimes I alternate.

(We don't wear our shoes in the house, if we did I would probably want to clean the floors more often. Our house is roughly 1450 sq ft, so not very big)

[zarafrayne]

I do cleaning twice weekly. I'm not much of a clean freak but my DH makes sure I clean up atleast twice a week.