Because I have a small home, I can get my entire house cleaned to the point where it looks pretty presentable within two to three hours. I start by sweeping the floor of the kitchen, emptying things out of the refrigerator before they become science experiments, cleaning the counters, sink and wiping down the cabinets. Then I take the mop out and clean the floor. The entire room can be done in a half an hour.
After that, I go to the living room, straighten the slipcovers, dust and vacuum. This is another project that only takes about a half hour. I attach a long extension cord to the vacuum so that I can get the hallway and my bedroom as well. I dust the bedroom and then head off for the two bathrooms.
The bathrooms have to be scrubbed down and disinfected. This usually takes about an hour because I have two of them. With the use of proper cleaning supplies and doing this on a regular basis, the cleanliness will easily last a week.
I ignore my kids’ rooms because they are now old enough to do these themselves. Both of them know that they have to wash their sheets and clean their rooms in order to be comfortable. Both of them realize that they would rather live in a clean room than a pigsty. I have given them the tools and the knowledge of how to take care of themselves. I am often sorely tempted to clean my daughter’s room as she often leaves her room like a tornado whipped through it, but as this would not be teaching her anything, I bite my lip and simply close the door.
The main thing is that I have a routine. I know just how to get started and when it is over. Here it is again in a nutshell:
Clean kitchen
Dust and vacuum living room, hallway and bedrooms
Clean bathrooms
By developing this routine and doing it every Saturday, it gives me a great satisfaction when it is all over, the house is clean for a while and I know that next Saturday I will do it again. If I just cleaned whenever I felt that the house needed it, I could be cleaning all of the time and my work would never be done. The routine gives me a sense of accomplishment and also allows me to relax and not worry about cleaning again until the next week, unless something happens to interrupt the routine - like someone spilling something on the floor.
