What makes cleaning your house fun??

[WatchingThemGrow]

Our 3 hours/every other week house cleaner is out with knee surgery. Our place is a mess, and I am NOT good or happy with doing it myself.

What do you do when you have to power through and get it cleaned- all the way to the point of baby proofing? We have a 1 yo crawling nephew coming after we have 20 people for brunch Sunday and a family over Saturday night. And our place looks horrendous. Truly horrendous .


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[Melaine]

My best tip is: get the kids out of the way. When the kids are gone I can acomplish so much more! Also:
1) I turn on a mindless comedy on the ipad and carry it around the house. I have been watching friends on netflix and I have been getting a lot more done.
2) laundry basket for clutter. I grab a basket and collect clutter in it just to get it out of the way. Once the cleaning is done, I put away the junk.
3) basket of cleaning supplies
4) list....always helps me!

[twowhat?]

no kids and good music...that's all I need and I actually enjoy cleaning under these circumstances:)

[gatorsmom]

Melanie's suggestions are pretty close to mine- I find spy shows keep me motivated and I don't need to constantly be turning my head to the tv or iPad to see what is going on. For some reason the excitement in the show keeps me motivated. I've gone through the entire 7 seasons of Burn Notice on Netflix. I just turn it on and carry the iPad with me from room to room. Or if the iPad isn't charged, I'll turn it on the tv. Or if that doesn't seem to be working, find another show you like but have seen a few times and don't need to watch- you can just listen to it while you work. OR make a fun, upbeat, fast energetic radio station on Pandora. I'm an eighties-music lover so I started a Billy Idol station or U2 or Robert Palmer, etc.

Laundry baskets are awesome for clutter. But you could bribe your kids to see who can pick up the most stuff in their basket the quickest to get a prize. Put the little people to work! But only if they are at home. If you can get them out of the house, even better.

[wendibird22]

I put my 5 and 7yo to work. Their mess, they help. I'll set a timer and tell them they have 5 mins to get as much done as they can. We make it a game. I'll do that several times over the course of say 1hr. We don't do this all the time so the novelty hasn't worn off yet. I get them to either tackle their bedrooms or the play room. We also do freeze dance cleaning. I put on Kidz Bop on Pandora and we clean and dance around and then when the music stops they freeze. Again, the novelty makes them more willing to do their part. My kids also LOVE to clean the bathroom. I know it won't be perfect but hey, if they get a kick out of cleaning the toilets then I let them at it. I use method cleaner or Dr. Bronner's so that I don't worry about them using it to clean. DD1 did a pretty decent job cleaning the toilets and sinks the other day.

[lizzywednesday]

Podcasts and timers.

It's not "fun," but it reduces the procrastination I have about just doing the flipping tasks from "OMG, KILL ME NOW, PLZ!" to tolerable.

I'm starting to be able to involve DD, but I am not always as patient as I need to be for this to happen. I get more done, faster, when she's not around.

[baymom]

Making a list, since I LOVE checking things off; music and timers. I like to say, 'okay, you only have to do XXX for XX minutes, then you can stop'. Inevitably, once I get started on the task, I end up finishing it (and checking of list!), instead of stopping with the timer. For me, it's pretty motivating, for tasks I'm dreading.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I am not a good music manager so I need to prep some for next time. I did well while the today show was on early in the morning. I need to get on a roll tomorrow morning as well! I did manage to vacuum the expedit, move furniture over to for another PBK cubby from ds2's room into the playroom, and I made the playroom desktop a lot more inviting. I need to screw the ikea rod with cups for markers, etc. into the wall, plus bust out the label maker for a lot of places. For now, though, it looks pretty good. I'm not afraid /ashamed to have others in here now. I hung the Dcs' class pictures (2 years each) on the wall with those inexpensive ikea white frames. I think their friends will live seeing their pics when they come over.

I ended up listening to a sermon from the minister who will be moving to serve as our senior pastor soon. That was fun, but not quite like an 80's rock jam. He was talking about busyness and parenting. Imagine that.


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[brittone2]

My kids can do a lot, so I enlist their help. Every week they clean their bathroom vanity and mirror (sometimes 2x a week) and spray/squeegee their shower. I swish their toilet and wipe that down. I only have to do a deeper clean of the shower/tub every few weeks where I actually scrub or something. The littlest guy wipes down the powder room vanity. I will give one of the two older kids the dining room table to dust, and DD the kitchen table to wipe down/dust. One kid wipes down the fridge with stainless cleaner, the other does the DW. They take off their sheets, and the older two put them back on (I do DS2's). They put away their wash. DS1 and DD vacuum their rooms. It takes 5 mins. It also provides DS1 motivation to pick up his floor because it needs to be done before he vacuums. And I check. I got tired of his projects, etc. on the floor, so I moved to him vacuuming his own room. So he picks up his floor and then vacuums.

If I have a LOT to do, then yes, there's nothing like being kid free and being able to move uninterrupted. Podcasts, music, a TV show sometimes helps.

For me another big help is having cleaning products easily accessible. Some people use a tote; I just keep stuff on each level of the house and that works for me. I keep shower/counter spray in my bathroom because I squeegee quickly after every shower. So I just quick spray and in 45 seconds can squeegee the shower walls and floor. I have a dedicated cleaning toothbrush that I keep on the top of the shower, and I quick run that around the trim of the shower, the faucet handle, and the shower floor maybe 1x a week or so while I shower. For me, having cleaning supplies in the bathrooms, etc. makes it easier to delegate to the kids and more likely I'll do it. If I have to find the cleaning stuff, find paper towels, etc. before I start, I'm less likely to just do it in the moment. I am not the best housekeeper at all, but we have 4 of the 5 of us here almost every day all day (since weHS), so it helps me to do things in 10 minute increments while the kids are occupied with an assignment or something. Basically, I need to remove the obstacles that for me make it less likely I'll get a given chore done. I keep a microfiber dust mitt upstairs, which makes it easy to do a quick dusting of the MBR or have the kids dust their furniture. All of that helps me do stuff in 5-10 min increments I have scattered through the day. It doesn't help with deep cleaning necessarily, but it works well enough for most of my day to day.

If the kids are going to be around, have them put away things on the floor in one room (this is the bane of my existence. I tell them when their stuff gets in my way and keeps me from getting done what I need to get done, we have an issue) while you work in another room. Then once they move their little toys and doodads off the floor, you can vacuum, etc. more efficiently. Use a laundry basket like PP suggested if they can't put it back on their own in a reasonable amount of time.

I also sometimes clean while on the phone with a friend or my mom. It is distracting enough but helps with the drudgery of smaller tasks like wiping down counters, bathrooms, dusting, folding wash, etc.