A cleaning schedule?

I'm not a minimalist

Ever since we moved into this old house I've struggled to keep it presentable under control and it just got worse over time.

There is no built in cupboard space. We never finished painting and I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate the unfinished painted look, pink walls, dark cream entrance (that looks dirty not creamy) with the most hideous lino floors you've ever seen (which is better then the horrid carpet which was on top of them) not to mention the disaster that is the bathroom, the kitchen that is falling apart..........you get the picture.

Don't get me wrong, of course it has charm too with it's high ceilings, jarrah trims, and wooden floors just waiting to be made new again under that horrid lino. But making the old gal beautiful again takes time and money. Neither ever seem to be in a abundance.

Anyway, I don't feel like we have a lot of stuff. But we have far, far, faarrrrr too much for this old house with no built in cupboards. I'm not a minimalist and I'm a sewer, crafter and collector. Hubby has his hobbies too. We have a few pets - cats, dogs, birds, fish - and they have their stuff.

It got to the point where we had boxes in the hallway, the dining room had the overflow and it was all just beyond me.

Triage

When we were both working full time the weekends seemed to be overstuffed with just doing laundry, shopping, cleaning, walking the dogs and the other stuff that had to be done to keep things bubbling along.

We tried to finish painting and get the floors sanded but there is always something in an old house that needs repairing so it seemed the time we did have to spend on the house was spent fixing things. With a limited budget and time constraints the endless list of things that needed to be done in the house was decided by triage.

Triage is the process of determining the priority of patients' treatments (the patient being our house) based on the severity of their condition.

I couldn't keep on living in triage though, I needed the house to feel like a home not a storage unit under renovation. So the purging stuff began which was hard because there was no room to go through it, there were no cupboards to put stuff away into, and off course I'm rather attached to my stuff, so that doesn't make it easy either.

Anyway, I never got a cleaning schedule sorted out for this house, because I never got beyond survival mode of laundry and kitchen and the odd agghh I can't stand this any more I have to clean/mop/tidy and that would mean time not getting something else done that needed doing.

Who knew a cleaning schedule would make such a difference?

I now have a cleaning schedule. I struggle with it still because sometimes it seems crazy to be dusting or whatever when there's so much else to be done.

But you know what? It helps soooo much. My house has been the cleanest it's been since I scrubbed it down when we moved in. I feel more in control. I feel like eventually I'm going to be able to get to a place where I won't be embarrassed to let someone through the front door.

Having a cleaning schedule helps so much more then I ever thought it would. I thought you just cleaned stuff as it was needed and I never saw the value of a cleaning schedule the concept of a cleaning schedule had never even occurred to me.

This cleaning schedule thing happened recently.

In July I wrote this post about 'stuff'. I thought I was doing really well because I was making headway and the hallway ended up empty (for 5 minutes until I filled it up with more stuff that was being decluttered).

In August I wrote this rambley post which was just a few days after finding Nony's blog. Since then I've read her blog from start to finish now, and she is the reason I have a cleaning schedule.

Nony inspired me to take the next step and to find a way to keep on top of the house cleaning by doing daily tasks. I used her methods to add the daily tasks into my day to day. And then weekly tasks, and eventually I started to feel less overwhelmed (I say eventually but really now I look at the time frames it's not nearly as long ago as it feels and that's because I feel so much better about my living space.) Nony's experience is also helping me with my decluttering, especially the hard stuff; but that's a whole nother post for another day.

So if you find your sanity in crafting or sewing but can't actually reach the sewing machine for the clutter and you're going a little crazy, you might find Nony can help you too. I knew I wanted her to be an affiliate so I could give a little back to her for the sanity she has given me and I also hope to help you find your sanity if it's hiding behind piles of clutter like mine was. Click on the picture if you're interested in her e-books.

So Nony I want to thank you for helping me get to the point where I have hope that my house will be a home.

My Daily Cleaning Schedule

Morning:

• make the bed
• put clean dishes away while the kettle boils for coffee

Afternoon:

• clean the dishes
• wipe kitchen benches, splashback and stove top
• sweep the lounge, kitchen and dining floors

I'm pretty good at doing this every week day but seem not to manage so well on the weekends and come Monday morning I find myself regretting my 'Sunday night off'.

My Weekly Cleaning Schedule

Monday 

• laundry day

Tuesday 

• change the bedding (and catch up on any laundry if needed)

Wednesday 

• me - yep that's right, this is the day I remember I need to trim my nails, pluck my eyebrows, put on a skirt instead of trackpants and blowdry my hair otherwise I just don't find the time and I feel guilty about taking the time to do this stuff. 

• check the fridge for stuff to be thrown out because Thursday the rubbish man comes. 

Thursday 

• squeeze as much decluttered rubbish into the rubbish bin as possible and take it out to be collected by the rubbish man.
• dust 
• sweep and mop the whole house

Friday

• clean the bathroom
• clean the toilet
• sweep the floors and actually do the mopping I didn't do yesterday even though it was on my schedule

Saturday

• clean out the freezer because it's also shopping day

Sunday 

• clean the microwave

My weekly schedule is still a work in progress and I haven't added a monthly schedule yet, I have added them to my calendar so I get reminders to do this stuff which helps. I'm just not ready for the monthly stuff yet.

And seeing as how I haven't done today's task yet I better go an do that!

I did, but I took a photo for the blog first and that's the one at the top of the page - my bathroom cleaning kit. My bathroom needed some serious heavy duty cleaning when I started my cleaning schedule but now it just needs an old cloth and cleaning vinegar and it doesn't take nearly as long as it used to. BTW I use different stuff in the toilet.

Do yo have a cleaning schedule? What does it look like? Do you do all this stuff? Do you different do stuff? And what are your monthly items, stuff like cleaning the windows and gutters?