Clean House

Posting the title Clean House made me think of the television show that I used to watch all the time; Niecy Nash was my guilty pleasure TV host. Fortunately, my home is no where close to being as messy (and dirty) as the clip above but I still struggle to keep things routinely clean. So after reading a post at Apartment Therapy titled How to Clean Your House in 20 minutes a Day for 30 days, I decided I needed to get focused and get a schedule created. Apartment Therapy's list really did inspire me but the idea of cleaning each day gives me the yucky blahs.

I do think daily simple cleaning is important. For instance cleaning dishes, wiping the kitchen and bathroom counter after use, and occasionally straightening up are all great cleaning tasks to do daily. But to make a 20 minute production out of some of the items on their list didn't make much sense to me. Seriously! Who wants to think about cleaning each day!? I personally want to just focus a couple hours out of ONE day to clean each WEEK, so I only have to think about it four times a month. And to Apartment Therapy's credit they did welcome you to adjust the list to your schedule. We don't have a pet or kids to contend with as far as cleaning goes which helps a lot! So for all you folks who only have to worry with basic adult-living mess and dirt, I created "How to Clean Your House in a Couple Hours Once a Week" schedule.

I divided this list into bi-weekly schedules. Bi-weekly A is what I believe is my lighter easier cleaning day and Bi-Weekly B is my tougher more in depth cleaning day. The idea of A verse B comes from being a board game nerd; the B side is usually harder.

And for your viewing pleasure my schedule:

Bi-Weekly A

• Bathroom: Clean linen closet, straighten towels, sheets or regular closet if not applicable
• Bathroom: Surface clean bathroom
• Bedroom: Surface clean bedrooms
• House: Clean all door knobs, phones, entertainment equipment (remote controls), switch plates, banisters and other things that are repeatedly touched.
• Kitchen & Living Room: Surface clean living room and kitchen
• Kitchen: Clean out the refrigerator, take stock of food, organize pantry
• Living Deep clean living room (mirrors, baseboards, dust artwork)
• Office & Mud Room: Surface clean "extra" rooms
• Other: Surface clean "extra" rooms (basement, office, play room)

Bi-Weekly B

• Bathroom: Clean bathrooms (toilets, showers, floors, walls, mirrors)
• Bathroom: Deep clean bathrooms (clean inside drawers, inside of trash cans, tops of mirrors, tile, mop)
• Bathroom: Surface clean bathrooms
• Bedroom: Surface clean bedrooms (put away toys, clothes, dust)
• Bedroom: Surfaces clean bedrooms
• House: Clean out closets (hang up clothes, mittens, jackets, hats)
• House: Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house (don't forget stairs)
• Kitchen & Living Room: Surface clean living room and kitchen (pick up stray items, dust, sweep, vacuum)
• Kitchen: Deep clean kitchen (scrub appliances, wash trash cans, base boards, wipe down and straighten cabinets)

Next step was to create repeat events in my google calendar and paste the list in the description. I know I won't be completing this list 100% at the beginning so I intend to asterisk each one I complete each week until I start completing the whole list regularly. This way I can remember what I didn't do and carry it over into the next week and also track my completion progress. And to make it easy to read all my instructions for the schedule, here it is in easy-to-read list form:

RULES

• Repeat bi-weekly in online calendar
• List chores in description
• Asterisk the each one you complete
• Carry-over non-Asterisk items in the next week
• Finish each item, each week is the ultimate goal

Also...

DAILY DEEDS

• Clean dishes
• Wipe Kitchen counter if you have cooked
• Wipe Bathroom counter after use (I keep a cloth near-by for all the water that splashes about)
• Sweep floor around the edges of the kitchen (food crumbs are always hiding against the baseboards, waiting for bugs to come collect them. To prevent this I sweep the edges daily and keep the critters at bay-sment, yuk yuk)

...

I figured if I can turn this into a measurable sort of "game" of sorts, maybe I can be routine about my cleaning. Does anyone else have a cleaning schedule? How do you keep up with it?

My first week of trying this was this past Sunday but I wrote this post before that so Sunday has not yet occurred for me. By the time that you have read this my future Sunday will already be in the past. My present self, which would be the past for you, is wondering how my future self will do. Good luck, future Bethany and God speed!...could have I written this anymore confusing, I think not!