My new standard for when I've gone too long without dusting: We were watching the Celtics game yesterday afternoon and I couldn't tell the difference between the players...it was all just kind of a blur...
My friend Kristina cleans her whole house every Thursday. It's not a big deal for her, it's just something she does each week, like laundry or washing the dishes. I've always wanted to run my life on that (okay, any) sort of schedule. You know, to be the women who does the entire 57-part Clinque skincare system at night before bed, changes nail polish colors on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is never too rushed to switch to a different handbag to coordinate with her outfit before leaving the house in the morning.
Maybe the problem is that I don't leave the house most mornings, and I'm not quite sure which nail polish/handbag combo goes best with my flannel pajamas. I'm never sure what any given day will hold (today started off with me staring at an unfortunate pile in the corner of our backyard, wondering what on earth THAT DOG could possibly have eaten...) so it's hard to get on a plan. Still though, I'm always looking for ideas.
I'm all set with the dusting (When Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis look like the same guy, it's time to pull out the Pledge) but I'd love to know: how do you decide when to clean?
19 comments:
Whenever I have people over. I swear my house has never been so clean in the three hours before the Upcake party (which I just posted about, by the way!)
I do sweep once a week because MY DOG is little but sheds like she were 150 pounds.
My cleaning binges have nothing to do with the level of dust or grime in my house and much more to do with the level of stress in my life. The higher level of stress, the cleaner my apartment. It's really quite a simle equation.
And, for the reecord, red nail polish ALWAYS goes with flannel pajamas. :o)
xox
My mom always just cleans a little everyday so there never has to be a super cleaning spree. I'm in this habit. It should be a good thing, but really all it means is that I'm always annoyed with my roommates & end up screaming "Oh no the crap shack" while shoving the mess under the couch whenever people come over.
I just play it by ear. I'm pretty neat, but not a neat freak. I live in a pretty small space, so it can get out of hand if I don't keep up a least a little bit daily. So I guess a little daily maintenance, then once a week (but at no particular time) for bigger stuff.
I have never wished to have such a schedule, but now I kind of want one. We decide it's time to clean when we can't take it anymore or when we're having guests. We have low standards.
I do the kitchen and the bathroom every Saturday, for sure ... the rest of it, it depends. When the mood strikes me (which isn't as often as it should!) :)
I'm the kind of person who has to have a schedule for EVERYTHING, so... Sunday afternoons, like clockwork!
When someone's coming over! That's pretty much it for me! LOL!
We clean on Saturdays making it a family affair, to prepare for our Sabbath. We put on loud music and assign responsibilities, and it's fun:)
Saturday is a full house cleaning for me and the kids (hubby works all weekend). Throughout the week, hubby has trash duty every night, and a 2 load of laundry quota to meet each day. It helps, but I still need help!!
I'm like you--I really can't keep schedules. Except, well, for when I am teaching and am in the middle of the semester (then it's easy--class, office hours, grading papers--but that's really about as much 'schedule' as I can keep). It's seriously enough for me to get out of bed, drag myself into the shower, throw gym clothes into my messenger bag, and make it to the bus on time to get to work at genzyme. My boss who is wonderful in many ways probably would not be able to appreciate the huge fait accompli that this is for me when it's so damn easy for other people.
As for CLEANING, though, let me say that I am the antithesis of the grown up modern woman who can do it regularly. I think it's a huge deal that I managed to wash my dishes and take out the trash and clean the kitty litter and change the roll of toilet paper when that needs to be done. But there is ONE THING that always forces me to clean, and it's exactly why I like to do it as often as possible:
inviting friends over.
Seriously. I can not have friends over and have a messy apartment. And when friends come, it funnels all of my blah-ness about cleaning and my sheer lack of motivation into "Stefanie and Dan are coming over for dinner! Yay! And we are going to sit HERE--oh, shit, there are piles of books here, and they can not sit on a sofa with half of my poetry collection on it, can they?"
Then, magically, the cleaning gets done.
Oh--look out in your e-mail for something I am going to forward you that might show up as coming from my yahoo e-mail address OR it might show up as coming from evite. Either way, it's not spam. I promise.
i might be one of those schedule girls you hate. i normally clean every sunday. unless i'm out of town, then i skip a week ;)
i clean when stressed. it is very zen...clears my mind, plus i get the sparkly afterwards.
i try (eek) to clean the bathrooms once a week. the rest gets cleaned when i notice or when i am stressed. but, boy no longer lives at home and husband travels, so there is little to clean most weeks.
Unfortunately, as you may have read the post from my blog, I clean every Sunday and hate it terribly. But I do it because my man is a neat freak and insists we do it every week. But,I am still looking in the phone book for that cleaning person. ;)
When I start to go crazy and can't make my way through the dust bunnies.
I have the same issues trying to decide what handbag looks best with my PJs. Sigh.
I sort of have a schedule: I work from home on Mondays, so I try to at least do the vacuuming and Swiffering and occasional mopping on those days right before I leave to pick up my boy at school. But a lot of times I just have too much work to do, and I don't get to it. Other than that, I clean when I can't take it anymore - when it's so gross to me that it's making me cranky or stressed out. And, of course, when we have friends over. Whenever we do that, I always say to my husband afterwards, "We should have people over all the time because the house has never been so clean!" But becoming a mom made me care so much less about the cleanliness of my house - partly because I don't want to be cleaning when I could be having fun with the boy, but also because it's a losing battle. It's hard to get motivated to mop the kitchen floor when I know it's going to be encrusted with goo within minutes afterwards!
I always clean the night (or morning) before my magic cleaning elves visit to my house. Some (mostly my mother) think it's a crazy extravagance that I hire someone to clean my house. It's not that expensive, and without being forced to pick up before they clean, my disorganization would take over every room of my house. Besides, I can work two hours of OT and pay for it, whereas it would take me FAR longer to clean my whole house. I'm still giving reasons, aren't I...
Dusting somehow just seems to slip through the cracks at my house. It doesn't even occur to me to dust unless I start seeing little trails and fingerprints cropping up in unwanted places.
Or, when company's coming...
I try to clean the house every Saturday, but it seems each time, I only get half done.
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