clean up my house and keep it clean

I’d say it’s been a good full week of regular maintenance. I have been a tiger on the dishwashing ;) Laundry needs some work still, but the little things have been kept up all week.

I love cleaning, I just never seem to have time. I’ve been focussing on decluttering with the aim of keeping a simple home that is easier to clean.

Unfortunately with two adults, a teen, four year old, baby and hairy dog all living in a two bedroom house it is just not going to happen!

The plan is to plan a routine and devise a chore rota that includes the children (well, Stinky Pinkleton is let off for a few years) and see whether we see any improvement!

...and I managed to move my piles around to keep my front room clean. I realize I waste alot of space with small piles of papers and should get 1 or 2 more cabinets that could make the organization better. I also have 2 empty drawers in my filing cabinet. Somethings wrong with this picture!

I love my house, but it is such a mess I am hiding it from guests. My goal is to clear out the clutter so I can think more clearly and spend more time on things I actually enjoy—and stop fearing the doorbell!

I’m finding it somewhat easier to keep up with some things just because I keep cleaning the house over and over for guests – someone or other almost every weekend now – and once it’s that nice I don’t want to mess it up. Putting stuff in my daily planner also helps; I’ve come to realize nothing gets done unless it’s in there.

There are areas where things could still improve though…

Booster projects:

-clean the table so I can work/eat on it comfortably

Continual:

-whatever I take out to use, put back where I found it as soon as I’m done with it, yes, even if I’m inspired or in a hurry to do something else

-wipe down surfaces as soon as I’m done with them

Daily:

-spruce up kitty’s eating area

-scoop litter

-sweep kitty litter off floor

Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday:

-take out trash in the bathroom and drag all the trash out to the roadside

-clean bath tub and mat

Monday-Wednesday-Friday:

-put cat toys into cat toy basket so the place doesn’t look like a danged cat sanctuary

-vacuum

Sunday:

-change kitty litter completely

-clean the windows

-wash/clean sink, toilet, bathtub, bathroom mirror

Monday:

-dust bathroom knickknacks

Tuesday:

-clean kitchen floor

Wednesday:

-just kinda dust everything

Thursday:

-change the sheets

Friday:

-straighten up stuff along the kitchen wall

Saturday:

-straighten up CDs, tapes, DVDs, and books which I KNOW will otherwise tend to become strewn all over the house

Monthly:

-check dates on emergency supplies and other non-refrigerated food

of roses and decay around it.

Had a very productive weekend so far tackling a lot of the paper clutter and my boys helped me sort through it too for the first time. At least got through one big pile that was sitting in the corner of the living room, and it really only took a couple of hours to do.

I can literally spend twelve hours a week cleaning and organizing a one-room cabin and I get to wondering if it matters at all because it seems like as soon as I start doing anything but cleaning – you know, like living – the place starts deteriorating and within two or three days the place looks like a nightmare again. I’m serious – I took out the trash two days ago and now there’s this huge pile of garbage again. The bed had nothing on it this morning but my alarm clock and now I’m probably going to have to get through a fifteen-minute cleanup to have anywhere to sleep. Two days ago the kitchen was immaculate and now it looks like a cyclone hit. Last week the table looked fine; now I can’t even see the stupid table. Two weeks ago the closet was in perfect order, now there’s a monstrous pile of linens and stuff on top of the drawers. I am ONE PERSON living alone! How is this kind of craziness happening?

And these schedules I set up for myself to keep up with it all worked okay for a while, but you know what? I am sick of everything in my life being determined by a list somewhere. That’s why I no longer look at my cleaning schedule, my daily routine that I wrote for myself, or my planner any more so than I must to get to appointments and get homework turned in on time. I barely feel like I’m the same person internally from one week to the next; I can’t deal with this repetitive Sisyphean insanity of doing the same incredibly time-consuming routines over and over only to have the problems repeat themselves weeks, days, or hours later. I don’t know what I need to do but this is not working.

I’m constantly trying to keep my apartment clean. everyone around me must think I’m a neat freak because they think it’s clean already. Not to me.

Daily:

-spruce up kitty’s eating area

-wash dishes

-put away dishes

-scoop litter

-sweep kitty litter off floor

-remove any clothing or small objects left lying around in the bathroom

-remove any stray stuff left lying on the table or chairs

29, 1, 3 – Every other day – odd-numbered dates:

-take out trash in the bathroom and drag all the trash out to the roadside

-tidy up kitchen counters and cart

28, 30, 2, 4 – Every other day – even-numbered dates:

-clean under and around the table and temple room cabinet

-put cat toys into cat toy basket so the place doesn’t look like a danged cat sanctuary

Once a week:

-dust bathroom knickknacks

-change kitty litter completely

-laundry

-clean kitchen floor

-check under and around the bed for rogue stuff

-clean the dish rack

-dust the microwave

-make sure nothing’s piling up improperly in the closet

-change the sheets

-straighten up stuff along the kitchen wall

-straighten up CDs, tapes, DVDs, and books which I KNOW will otherwise tend to become strewn all over the house

-get the hair up off the rug and vacuum the place up

Every other week – B weeks:

-clean the stove

-clean the kitchen window sill

-tidy on top of the refrigerator

-clean the windows