|
Post by cando on Mar 11, 2015 14:05:21 GMT -5
I obviously am a slow learner, but I appreciate this thread & think it is sinking in, now. Thank you for the question and all the great responses! CD
|
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2015 15:00:45 GMT -5
Daily: 40 minutes Weekend: 2 hours (plus 40 minutes for daily tasks) -- My daily goals are to keep up with the dishes, laundry, and vacuuming.
Dishes: load/unload dishwasher, hand-wash anything that has to be hand-washed. About 10 minutes max.
Laundry: fold anything that needs folding. Most of the laundry is done on the weekend, so this is basically just taking care of leftover stuff. I will occasionally run a load of laundry if the dishwasher isn't full. About 10 minutes.
Vacuuming: run the vacuum (hard floors and carpet) for 20 minutes. I have a cordless vac and this is how long it runs before it has to be recharged.
-- On the weekends, my goal is to clean the bathroom & kitchen, and dust furniture and wipe mirrors throughout the house. This takes about 2 hours on one day (Saturday or Sunday).
I also do most of my laundry on the weekends. I don't really count the time because I'm usually watching TV while folding. -- Needless to say, I don't do all of these things all the time. I have good weeks and bad weeks. But when I do keep up, the house looks nice and clean in a "normal" way.
My bedrooms are cluttered but the public rooms that company might see are mostly decluttered.
|
|
|
Post by anewleaf on Apr 3, 2015 9:18:55 GMT -5
How much time? Hmmm...when it comes to dishes (which are continue to languish, despite being sprayed down with bleach cleaner, stacked and ready to be cleaned) I have very little time I am willing to allocate, because I HATE it. I will be SO happy to get our dishwasher up and running again! Loading and unloading dishes, along with scrubbing pots and pans...that's enough in itself.
Laundry is another biggie. As a massage therapist, I have a LOT of laundry to do and it really builds up fast. It seems between work and home laundry, it's constant. So a considerable amount of time spent on laundry is unavoidable.
Bathrooms? While having separate bathrooms (a first for the s.o. and I) is nice, it's twice the work and both have horrible old sliding shower doors. As much as I hate washing dishes, my hatred for those doors surpasses them. So much grunge! The first time I cleaned them, black chunks keep flowing out from under them-and with each cleaning, still do! Obviously, several years of build up from previous tenants *shudders*
Given my extreme fatigue, depression and hatred of my surroundings AND the very physically taxing nature of my job, I'd say 2 hours per week is as much as I'd be willing to give. But I know it ends up being more.
|
|
|
Post by rubyred on Apr 4, 2015 14:47:02 GMT -5
Now that we're in maintenance, it doesn't take much time. One thing that helps SO much is unloading the dishwasher as soon as possible, so everyone can put their own dirty things into it rather than letting things pile up in the sink or on the counters.
Since I have older kids, everyone does his or her own laundry, except towels which are washed and put away once a week.
Daily, we keep the cat box scooped, trash and recycling taken out, and personal items picked up out of the common areas.
Weekly, all the bathrooms are wiped down. Clorox wipes are also on hand in each bathroom for a quick swipe as needed. We probably should clean those bathrooms more than once a week but we work a lot.
Also weekly, the house gets vacuumed, mopped and dusted.
The kids' rooms are their responsibility. My son is neat and my daughter is messy.
All of this sounds like a lot but it's very minimal on a daily basis and takes a few hours once a week for the weekly chores. Of course with spring hopefully showing her face, yard work will add onto that.
|
|
|
Post by anewleaf on Apr 5, 2015 16:09:12 GMT -5
^ Congrats on reaching/being in maintenance! And I agree about the dishwasher-I so miss mine being in working order!
And Clorax wipes are awesomeness!
And you are a better person than I for keeping the cat box scooped daily! It was a sad day when our ScoopFree litter box bit the dust. But after something like seven years straight of running several times daily, I'd say I got my money's work. Something tells me that a new one won't last anywhere near that long...
|
|
|
Post by rubyred on Apr 11, 2015 11:22:17 GMT -5
Thanks! I used to worry about the expense and waste of Clorox wipes but now I just push that aside and clean the darned bathroom!
I have to clean that box every day or it drives me insane. We use a good quality brand of litter and a very large Rubbermaid bin (3 feet by 2 feet maybe?) I feel a larger box makes a difference.
|
|
|
Post by anewleaf on Apr 11, 2015 15:31:11 GMT -5
^I agree about the Clorax wipes-they're indispensable and well-worth the money! I like the scrubby Lysol ones, too! Great for the more crusty/grungy areas... And I *just* bought a new, bigger cat box with high sides for little Ms. Priss. Her old box was stained in one corner (despite scrubbing) and she was letting me know that it was not up to her standards by peeing over the side and flinging out poo Luckily, I was smart enough to have placed plastic under it, but still... As for litter...I find FreshStep crystals to the best at odor retention (or Mimi Cat crystals, when I can find them at out-of-town Walmarts). The automatic cat box required them, but when it died, I experimented with other brands/types. The worst was this milled corn "litter" that so highly fragranced, it overwhelmed me. I don't know HOW our little Princess could stand it! All that fragrance was an obvious attempt to try to make up for the corn's inability to absorb odors.
|
|
|
Post by rubyred on Apr 11, 2015 15:46:52 GMT -5
I'm gonna look for the scrubby ones!
|
|
|
Post by sauberkite on Apr 11, 2015 18:50:54 GMT -5
We use a litterbox that looks like a rubbermaid container with a lid. Kitty goes in through the top to do her business. It's helped a lot with keeping litter from getting kicked around and it contains the smell a bit. I forget the brand, but I recommend it.
|
|
|
Post by better on Apr 29, 2015 8:56:47 GMT -5
bump so I can read it later
|
|
|
Post by calypso on May 22, 2015 13:43:35 GMT -5
I have been wondering about this topic. I have no idea how many hours, weeks or months it will take before I can claim to be in maintenance but I do believe that I can get there if I can just keep plugging away at it, learn to let go of the stuff that I no longer need, use, want, etc., whether it be donated or just tossed. I have a 2800 sq ft house with 3 big bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a living room, dining room, kitchen, family room and sun room. The upstairs bedroom and bath are basically always in maint. since they are theoretically for guests but I rarely have guests so they stay clean and clutter free. My master suite is huge, with a big walk in closet and a bathroom that is too big with a waste of open floor space. The other bedroom functions as my office but it also has a daybed and a big chair and ottoman as well as an old entertainment center that mostly holds office supplies. The garage is 24 x 48 and holds my Suburban and lots of storage racks full of stuff, both needed and useless, around the perimeter. It is in need of a good reorganization and cleaning. It is partitioned and the back 13 feet are a separate room with a regular ceiling and paneling on the walls. It holds my upright freezer, an old refrigerator, a table a small couch, a camp bed and some shelving. Finally there is an equipment storage shed for the 4 wheeler, the big pasture mower, the log splitter, the ride on mower, a potting bench, gardening tools, and two 10 x 10 modular chain link dog runs that used to be for foster dogs. It too is in need of major organizing and cleaning. I know it won't be easy or quick to get everything all squared away and until recently I felt it was impossible to ever achieve but I do think I can get to that stage if I can just do less goofing off and more work. I finally realized that if I didn't believe that it was possible that it never would be so I've had to change my thinking.Making the decision last week to hire out the routine mowing and trimming for this summer makes a big difference. I can just focus on keeping the 7 planting beds clean and free of weeds. One motivation for getting the house "presentable" is so that I can hire someone to do some painting. The living room has a cathedral ceiling that has bead board, not sheetrock and I hate it but taking that down and putting up sheet rock is not a job I can tackle myself. Now if only someone would invent an automatic dog brushing machine I could really cut my sweeping and vacuuming time way down.
|
|