Keeping House Help

Ok, I'll admit it, I've never been a good house cleaner/keepr - combo of being lazy, too busy, etc. not knowing good tips.
I promised myself that once we were in our house, I would really make the effort. It's been almost 3 weeks since we moved in and its already looking dirty!! There are still boxes and stuff lying around which is preventing me from cleaning - like I feel like we're not all 'moved in' yet.
So what I guess I'm asking is how do you guys keep up your house? Do you have days set aside to clean certain rooms? A set schedule?
Also, I have the hoover floormate but don't know if our wood floors are sealed and if it's safe to use the floormate on them. Is there a way you can tell?

Chances are, your wood floors have been sealed. If they are not, they would be grainy to the touch and dull looking. If they are shiny and smooth (no splitners) they have been sealed. Although Ive heard using a wet mop on even sealed wood floors is not good.

I am not a queen of housework. Its always too much and my house is never clean enough in my book. I try my best to keep up with the work everyday and make sure my husband helps a lot (we both work full time jobs, i have no plans on taking on all the housework too). When the house gets really bad, I try to spend a good 3-4 hours on the weekend cleaning. After that, I burn out on it and just cant continue.

You do the best you can. Having a perfectly clean house all the time is impossible if you have a full life. Its okay, we all have dust bunnies on occassion.

We found that we really don't have the time or inclination to keep the house up as well as we would like so we have someone come in every 3 weeks to do big cleaning like scrubbing floors, dusting everything, etc.

We only have to do maintenance or light cleaning which gets squeezed in between other things during the week:

In the mornings while I am getting ready for work - wipe down the shower &/or the bathroom sink.
I usually wipe the whole kitchen down quickly when I do dishes (small kitchen)
DH vacuums when he gets home from work 2 - 3 times a week.
We do the laundry every 5 days or so.

It is not too expensive and it works for us.

its really tough, i agree. i don't have the time or energy to keep up with it during the week so i spend all saturday morning cleaning. i hate every second of it. FH helps, but this summer he's been working outside a lot.

for my wood floors, first i sweep up all the dust/crumbs/dirt. then i use the swiffer dry on it (picks up so much yucky stuff!), then i use the clorox wet jet. i realize its a bit crazy to clean the floor three times, but it gets really clean & i only do it every other week on the wood floors.

i would love love love to hire someone to come in, but now it looks like we have to hire someone to mow the lawn/basic landscaping- its getting to be too much for FH.

Patrick and I do a major cleaning every other week, and on the opposite weeks I do a quick once over. He's in charge of vaccuuming, and does it every 3rd day or so. My house is usually very clean, except now, because we are doing major construction and I can't keep up with the sheet rock dust and debris.
We don't stick to this schedule like glue ~ life happens! ~ but it does help to have an idea of what we need to do, and when.

As soon as the baby is born, we are getting a cleaning lady. We want our free time to be 'family time' or 'US time' then.

I would LOVE a cleaning lady and happily pay for it - but I cant find anyone who is recommended! Can you believe that?

Anyone know a good cleaning lady in Brooklyn?

It's nice to know I'm not the only one! I wish hiring someone was possible but unfortunately we're still very poor from just going through the closing and down payment on the house. We're in super budget mode right now.
I feel like DH's expectations are too high as far as cleanliness. He helps out though.

I try to stick to an every other Sat schedule-- it usually works out but sometimes I just don't feel like it--DH helps by vacumming and doing the kitchen but I always have to remind him--which gets really annoying---but i do find myself wiping up as I go along---
This past weekend i finally told DH that I am looking into a cleaning woman because the house is getting to be too much for me to do alone(wiping down walls, washing windows, etc) and this was the first time he didnt complain-- so now I have been asking around for recommendations--- but it took 1 1/2 of being in our house for him to agree
we have friends who no matter what clean every other week and do nothing in between-- I dont think I could ever do that

I just try to do a little bit every day...if things pile up...then I sit down one day to try to get rid of the crap...


Stef...the people christine uses (I think) is Millenium...and we used them as well when we were in Queens...I know they do Queens and Manhattan...and they would probably come to Brooklyn...I don't have the number anymore though...maybe Christine does...or you can look it up

Erica - I gave Stef the low down on Milennium already Carmen was over last week and was asking for you.

I try to keep the clutter picked up so the cleaning is easy, but it doesn't always work. Just moving into your place makes it tough. You need time to find a place for everything. That's my biggest problem is I'm still trying to get organized. Once I know where something belongs it's easier to keep it neat.

I found that this site www.flylady.net had some good points that helped me get more organized and set some good habits. It's geared more for the stay-at-home-mom, but they do recognize the working women too, and the main point is that you don't have to do everything in the exact order they give you, just start small and keep building.

I try to do things as they come up, and that keeps me pretty busy. I do laundry at LEAST every other day, some days more than others. I do 'touch ups' as soon as I notice something's out of place or getting messy
In the midst of 'redoing' so many rooms and projects at once , it can get fustrating as I switch modes and focus time on A and B and C gets neglected. I feel likeI have too much house to tend to sometimes and I only have a high ranch. Maybe when I have ten kids, I can delegate chores, and I will just lay out in the sun all day
There are days where I dont sit (ok, except for the occasional pc break ), I will even eat my sandwich standing in the kitchen as I have one eye on the baby on the floor, but I will be 'up and at it' from 7am that john gets up, cleaning and getting stuff done till 7pm. I told john to put a videocamera in the house and see for himself. (but he beleives me ) Days where I will do 2 trunk loads of grocery shopping (withthe baby) and clean my butt off all day.
and then OF COURSE there are days when I want to just shop the stores, come home and relax and do NOTHING
So its a balance, anyone can burn out from the *excitement* of cleaning

Karen H-

Ive tried flylady but I just cant put my shoes on first thing in the morning. LOL They do have some good tips if you are a clutterer or procrastinator....or both!!