You may not have heard it though the internet, but when my hubby reads this he’ll either laugh uncontrollably or choke on his Mexican Coke (no, not the one you’re probably thinking of – this one) at the thought of me even writing a post about house cleaning.

Anyway, as part of my goal to get my SAHM-self together and organized, I thought I’d share with you my plan.  Together, we can figure out if it’s gonna work.  Maybe, we can travel this road together and share what works and what doesn’t?  You see, I have this love-hate thing going on with cleaning.  I really do like to clean and I LOVE it when things are clean.  Trying to clean with three kids walking behind you and messing things up is frustrating!  I’m going to need some encouragement to keep me going.

I’m no stranger to clean.  I practically grew up in a museum.  Our house was clean; everything in its place and it sparkled.  In fact, if there was one carpet fiber out of place, everyone in the house would hear about it – at length.  I had chores, like every able-bodied kid should have, and I learned how to clean most things.  My slacker mom skills are not for lack of trying on my parents part.

I must research everything, it’s one of those data-collecting sicknesses I have.  When I was pregnant, I was too tired to do anything else but surf the internet most days.  I saved some great bookmarks for later – and later is now.

The first thing we need to do is have a plan.  However you choose, I think that’s the key.  It has to work into your life.  If you have a toddler (or toddlers) running around your house, planning to clean one day per week probably won’t be successful.  On the other hand, if your kids are school-aged, getting everything done in one day frees up the rest of your week and will give you a great sense of accomplishment.

I have an 11 month old.  I can’t leave him unattended or he’ll find something on the ground and try to eat it (yes, even if I vacuum every day, he finds everything).  So, my plan is to break things down into manageable chunks that can be accomplished during Baby E’s nap time throughout the week.

There’s just so much to do, it can be overwhelming.  For Part 1, we’re going to stick to daily quick cleanups.  I’ll continue next week with a Part 2, where we’ll look at things that need to be accomplished on a weekly basis.

Here are My Daily Cleanups (almost all directly from the Woman’s Day article):

  • Make Beds
  • Dirty Clothes in Hampers
  • Room by Room Pickup
  • Vacuum Family Room
  • Wipe Counters
    • Kitchen
    • Bathrooms
  • Load/Unload Dishwasher
  • Sweep Kitchen Floor

For the most part, I already do this on a daily basis and it works well.  What are your daily cleanups?

Don’t forget to come back next week for Part 2 where we’ll talk about our weekly cleaning schedules!

Manda