Your housework that is!
The method I use, will not work for everyone. The reason being, that everyone has a different home, different family, and even different kinds of dirt. For example – only some of you need to think about water softeners or septic systems. My house is on the large size (we are downsizing in the next two years.) We also have well water, which makes things a little more challenging despite a high-tech water treatment set-up in the basement. But I digress – here is the daily outline:
- Sunday is for church. After church, in general, Sundays are pets and plants day. The houseplants get undivided attention for one hour per week, including watering, re-potting, pruning, rotating, and fertilizing. I find this activity very relaxing and soothing, even restful. I can usually take a great nap after the indoor gardening session. This was also the day I used to clean ears and teeth, and trim nails on my dog – but she left us this past summer. . .
- Monday is clean the kitchen day because Tuesday is when trash and recycling is picked up. It’s a good day for me to rummage the fridge for anything that needs to go in the garbage since it will be gone the next morning. Living in the woods prevents me from putting anything that might interest animals into the outside trash until the last possible moment. Twenty minutes are spent de-cluttering and organizing, twenty minutes are spent dusting, and twenty minutes are spent on the floor. I set a timer for each twenty minute block of time. I also clean the downstairs half bath on Monday.
- Tuesday is a light cleaning day – just the family room. There are a lot of book shelves in there, which get swiped each week with a Swiffer duster. It’s great for the tops of books – which can be ruined by embedded dust. A lot of dusting here – twenty minutes dusting, twenty minutes straightening and organizing, and twenty minutes on the floor. It’s the same amount of time I spend in the kitchen – but not nearly as strenuous. Tuesday is also the day I take care of any ironing. The upstairs small bath gets cleaned today too since it is the easiest bath to clean.
- Wednesday is devoted to the basement laundry room. It is huge, because the house was built long before the electric dryer was available. I also have a recumbent exercise bike, a large wooden potting bench, and two cat trees in the laundry room. This room can get horribly filthy, because it opens to the wooded back yard, and is on grade level. Once again, twenty minutes of organizing and de-cluttering, twenty minutes of dusting and scrubbing (there are five windows in just this area!) and twenty minutes on the floor. If I don’t time myself – I could get carried away here – because the vacuuming is endless. Especially around the ceiling cobwebs. There is also a room down here with a fireplace that we used as a bedroom. It gets tackled along with the laundry room.
- Thursday is another light cleaning day, involving only the formal dining room and parlor. Lots of attention to detail, but it’s never too cluttered or dirty, because it is off limits most of the time. In general, I am the only one in the parlor on a daily basis because of the piano. Some people would say that is trending towards fussy and the ridiculous, but as any mom knows, it is nice to have a portion of the house that is always clean and presentable. This area also holds antiques, which take some attention. The large cupboard in the dining room gets a good work over inside, (something always needs rearranging in there!) then twenty minutes dusting, and twenty minutes on the floors. The downstairs half bath gets cleaned again because it gets the most use, and is the bath used by guests. Since this cleaning is so light – Thursdays are designated for errands like grocery shopping, etc.
- Fridays are devoted to the upstairs, which includes three bedrooms, the sewing room, and the family bath. I change the sheets in the master, and clean the family bath. (This house does not have a master bath.) The other member of the family are required to change their own linens and clean their own rooms. Twenty minutes are spent organizing the master bedroom, twenty minutes are spent dusting that room and the hall, and twenty minutes are spent on the floors including the stairs going down. The sewing room gets a little attention every day. But that’s for another post!
- Saturdays are the most changeable, because of DH. His office dwells in half of the lower level. If he is working in there on Saturday – I do not clean it. It has a full bath, which I also may have to skip because of his schedule. On those days – I go all the way up, up, up, and work on the attic. This is a full blown, old fashioned attic that you can walk around in. Spiders love it. I could spend hours in here – but once again, I time the twenty minutes organizing, twenty minutes dusting, and twenty minutes on the floor, and staircase leading down. Saturdays are also my day for baking – usually in the afternoon. If the weather is nice, (not often) I will go outside instead of the attic, and work on the garage and storage shed.
I don’t mind telling you, that this monstrous house was much easier to take care of when all of my helpers were available. But, like I told DH – it’s good exercise, and I feel wonderful after it’s done. The key to all this clean comfort is not trying to do too much at once – and not procrastinating.
One technique I’ve adapted is “overlap” vacuuming. I attach an appliance grade extension cord to my vacuum cleaner’s regular cord. It gets plugged into an outlet near the entry of the particular area I’m working on that day. After doing the thorough vacuum of the focus area – I continue vacuuming out as far as I can go with the extension cord. Not going into corners or anything – just getting the general area done. This makes everything easier, and prevents tracking into the room that has just been cleaned. This system allows for the kitchen floor to get a once over three times a week! And I don’t know about yours – but mine needs that!
Some day, hopefully sooner rather than later, we will be moving onto our retirement program, but until then, it is my responsibility to keep this home to the best of my ability. I know some young moms who think they would be happier if they only had more room – but let me assure you – your kids grow up and leave – and you are then left in a huge, empty house! But I also know – that if I can keep this place in order – you can do it in your home too.
Titus 2:3-5
King James Version (KJV)
The Vine Vigil 
