Cleaning House

When we first started this blog...the bloggers listed to the right all exchanged emails to each other about what we would like each other to post about. One request that I got over and over again was how to keep a clean house.

Here is why I have not written about it yet: because my house is not AS clean as it used to be.

You see, I have two children now. 'Nuf said.

Seriously though, I do keep a clean house when I am at my best, and here is why:
1. I have allergies. I like to have things clean because I am allergic to everything, especially dust and stuff.

2. I live in NYC. We are pest-prone. I have discovered our pet mouse WAY sooner than I might have, because I actually clean every week...and in this case, I was doing the weekly vaccuuming under the couch cushions when I found the little presents Charlie, the mouse left behind. Now, if I had been in the habit of cleaning behind or underneath my stove weekly, I would have found his hideout MUCH sooner. I have also had an infestion of the confused flour beetle in my kitchen cupboards, during a hiatus from cleaning, when I was hospitalized for viral meningitis--that's another story for another time.

3. I live in NYC. We are cramped. Things need to be put away...if something doesn't have a home then it goes in the trash can.

4. I live in NYC. It's dirty. Our 800 square feet in the sky is the only thing in this giant city that is OURS...I like to keep the dirt out. As a result, we don't wear shoes in the house. This also keeps my area rugs a lot cleaner.

5. Chaos = Crazy mom. I happen to be one of those people that cannot do a task in a mess, unless the task is inherently messy. I cannot relax in a mess, I cannot do much of anything in a mess. So, cleaning allows me to function, pure and simple.

Now that you know WHY I need to be clean, I will tell you HOW I do it. And let me just reiterate, that I haven't been cleaning as well as this as consistently as I used to when I had only 1 child, and I have a difficult time imagining the ease of this routine with any place larger than mine. This is one of the reasons I do not envision myself in a large house one day, unless there is plenty of disposable income for a maid.

1. Straighten up often. If you put away the stuff that needs to be put away, then when you are in the mood to clean, you won't first have to clean UP. Or, when you HAVE to clean, you can just get right to the dirty work, and skip the putting away work. When I had just one child who napped once or twice a day, I would do a quick 5-minute PUT AWAY job right when she went down, before I started ME time.

Now-a-days if the STUFF that needs to be put away has accumulated over a few days, then the night before I am going to CLEAN CLEAN, I put away all the stuff, so that I can start right into the cleaning bright and early.

2. Schedule. Pick a day to do your cleaning...for me it has been Saturday in the past, lately Wednesday has been working.

The first of the month (whatever is your preferred cleaning day) is DEEP CLEAN day. I would take 2-4 hours to do what I call DEEP CLEAN the house. Here are the rules of deep cleaning:
YOU HAVE TO CLEAN EVERYTHING DIRTY THAT IS IN YOUR PATH:
yup, you must stop for that handprint on the wall, that mysterious streak down your kitchen cabinet, the entire grimy stovetop, the WHOLE toilet apparatus--from top to insides, to outside on the bottom, thoroughly dust, lift up the rug and dust under that, clean all the wall hangings, windows,....the list goes on. This also involves the scrubbing (on hands and knees) of the floors, vacuuming, scrubbrushing the bathroom...just everything.

If you can't do this once a month, at least do it twice a year...especially if you don't move very often...the crap will definitely accumulate and your house will scream: "DEEP CLEAN ME! DEEP CLEAN ME!"

2nd Week: Your house is still looking pretty spiffy from the deep clean and the putting away that you have been doing, so you probably just have to make sure you are sweeping/swiffering/lightly dusting, and maybe even just lysol spraying the kitchen and bathroom (instead of the softscrub, latex glove, scrubbrush cleaning).

3rd Week: This is Deep Clean without the rule. Get the soaps and the sponges and the scrubbers out. This week you only have to mop the floor, not hands & knees scrub it. You need to thoroughly clean all sinks and bathrooms-anything with wetness, and depending on the amount of cooking you have done, you need to clean the kitchen pretty well.

4th Week: Same as 2nd week.

3. Occasional Items. Choose one thing a month to clean out that you don't include in deep cleaning: refrigerator, oven, dishwasher (just heard that if you run it with lemon koolaid, it gets rid of stains), garbage cans, closets (mine get really dusty with wood floors), computer (can also get dusty with the chords and crap), bookshelves, cds (they get really dusty), under the bed, under furniture etc. I have NOT been great at this, but this idea just came to me, and it seems like a good one. If I write things in my calender, I do them, so if I were to just take a few minutes and write down one of these items at the beginning of each month, then I would probably do it.

4. Get the kids involved. My kids are still on the young side for REALLY helping to clean up. I need to be more disciplined about getting them involved, but sometimes I would rather have a clean house then teach my kids the principle of cleaning. In fact, I like to do my cleaning when the kids are at school or asleep.

Confession: I have had a cleaning lady here and there, especially when I am really busy with work. My work ebbs and flows so much though, that it is never consistent. The other day, however, my 4-yr.-old came home frmo school and said: Mom, was helper-Maria here? And I said NO, I CLEANED IT MYSELF!!!

I hope this HOW-TO-GUIDE has helped some of you in your plight to have a clean house. This is just one woman's perspective on the whole chore. I do likes me a clean house, and if you don't, then you just read for a long time for nothing...