How do you clean?

With nobody home and a plan.

My first thought was poorly. It's not hoarder status or a everything in it's place kind of thing. I desperately need to get back into a routine. I use the fly lady app and do well, when I use it consistently. You don't have to sign up for e-mails.

I don't follow everything like shining my sink every night. If the dishwasher is still going, there will be dirty dishes. Or the whole morning routine list. I'm perfectly fine cleaning in my pajamas with no shoes. I like how you can easily add to the lists or delete what's there. Like taking care of pets or cleaning the coffee pot; I have neither.

It starts at about 12 am. I bring down all the laundry and put on a load. I wash the kitchen floor a couple of times. I scrub the granite until it sparkles. I clean 3 bathrooms until they shine. I dust the house floor by floor. Then I attack my bedrooms and wash walls and baseboards. I finish around 5 am by passing out. I generally don't feel that well after one of these episodes. The house is very clean when I am done, though!

Sometimes I attach the fridge because it's a good time to throw out anything I don't think I am going to eat.

I get my best cleaning done when it is last minute!!!! I hate to clean, and when I ask for help it is just moan and groans.

I get so much done when I am alone in the house. When my husband goes on trips, I clean like crazy! I get so much done before the kids get home from school and all I do is drive from 4-9 most weeknights. He goes on a 36 hr. trip tomorrow, but the kids are off school, so that means I won't get much done. I like to put on youtube cleaning videos while I clean. It really motivates me!

But unlike your family, my family doesn't do a good job keeping it clean. I don't make them help me (I am a sahm so I don't mind doing most of the work). I just want them to pick up their crap and put dirty clothes in the hamper.

So far I never have no one else home, but it is better when everyone isn't congregating in the living room. Then I can vacuum and tidy up.

I also put on music but just tell Alexa to "play music" so it is random.
I pretty much do cleaning everyday (I have a schedule) but when I am doing a good overall cleaning....I start in the living room by putting things away, move on to the kitchen, then bathrooms, then bedrooms, when I am done, I dust then vacuum/sweep/mop.
(if laundry is needed, it is put in first and I move to the dryer/put on a new load as I clean the house)

It goes a lot faster when you are alone - that is for sure.

I do a little cleaning most days. Very little. Today I noticed some crumbs behind the answering machine and I wiped them off the counter. Everyone in the house does a set of chores so no one has to do a lot.

I also like to clean best when I am home alone. I pick a playlist and sing along as I go. I love it when the weather's nice enough (like today ) to fling the doors and windows open too.

I don't have a set schedule, but I do try to clean as I go so it never gets out of control. It's not near as satisfying to clean something that's already clean, but the process sure goes faster. For example, I wipe down the counters in the bathroom most every day with a clorox wipe. So once a week, when I move everything and give it a deep cleaning there's not much to it.

I like to clean on a daily basis so that I don't have to do it all at one time. I do a load of laundry daily, I clean the kitchen daily including the floor. I wipe down the bathroom daily, including the tub/fixtures so they don't get hard water stains that are harder to clean weekly. I have Clorox toilet bowl hanger things that keep the toilet bowls clean and only need to brush them out about once a month. I sweep/mop the hard woods as they need it and run a swiffer along the baseboards at the same time. We have pads on all the feet of our furniture, so it's easy to push the stuff out of the way to sweep/mop underneath. We vacuum the carpeted areas once a week. Windows, mirrors, dusting and smudges on door jambs etc... get cleaned while I am talking on the phone with my Mom or daughter (instead of sitting and talking to them) who I talk to daily.

I wash the sheets/towels on the weekends, but it's towels for 2 and 1 bed, so it takes very little time at all.

Once in the Spring, Summer and Fall the outside of the windows get cleaned. (My most detested chore!)

It's just my dh and I and no pets at this time, so it's really easy for me. Even when the kids were home I did the same thing, so that we didn't have to spend time on weekends cleaning. The kids were expected to help too, so that made it easier.

You and me both. 

I don't have any set routine, but I try to get most of it done during the week so our weekends are free to do other things as a family. I try to knock out the laundry early in the week so it's all washed, folded and put up in the bedrooms before the weekend. I try to keep the kitchen and bathrooms pretty clean all of the time and clean as I go, but there are trouble spots like the kitchen counter where DH's mail tends to pile up and look junky. I work part time from home, so I can do a little here and a little there if I'm going in that direction anyway.

Now that we're down to only one dog that sheds it has helped a LOT. I probably only have to vacuum every 3-4 days at the moment because he's not in full on shedding mode, and the new little one doesn't shed at all (yessss!). The dog hair on the floors is my nemesis and I. HATE. IT! Yuck.

My biggest problem is kid and husband clutter. They leave their crap laying around everywhere. The previous comment on 'backfilling' made me LOL because that's kind of how I feel some days. No sooner do I get everything picked up and put where it belongs, then they come home and the whole place looks like a tornado hit 15 minutes later. The kid I'm working on but the husband is pretty much set in his ways, LOL. 

At this stage of my life, I'm not going to worry about it too much. As long as the kitchen and bathrooms are mostly clean and the main parts of the house get picked up and dejunked periodically, I guess I need to be okay with that. When I keel over and die someday, I'm not going to look back on my life and think, "I probably should have spent more time cleaning" if you KWIM.