As is the case in life, things have changed around here. We no longer have any cleaning assistance. Our long-time cleaners have retired and now we are working on a new housecleaning routine.
Having the house clean for the weekend when we were likely to entertain was always my goal. But. More change. We do not entertain like we used to and most of our friends are now free any day of the week so weekends are not so important.
A housecleaning DAY means that at the end, the entire house is clean and fresh and I can sit back and enjoy it. But. Again, another “but.” When I clean the entire house myself (hub does help, but still…), it’s a lot for my old bones and joints. It’s really not a good experience.
Minimizing the pain and maximizing the enjoyment of a clean house is my new goal.
Here is my game plan and some of my current favorite cleaning supplies.
Break it Up
Many of my friends who clean their own houses clean different areas on different days. Maybe bathrooms one day, kitchen another, blinds and dusting still another.
Cleaning every single day is not my preference. Of course, with a house full of cats, vacuuming is pretty much a daily chore. 😉
So my solution is to break up the cleaning into two days. The first week of the new housecleaning routine didn’t work so great. Because I forgot to steam mop the floor in the laundry room. Which is kind of a big deal. Because that’s where the litter box lives.
The second week worked out better.
Day 1 is bathrooms, kitchen and steam mop all the floors. Day 2 is everything else. And Day 2 is quicker.
Here’s a rundown on the Day 1 routine.
Grove
I have been using Grove for many cleaning products for quite a while and I’m still happy with them and their service. They carry gentle, less toxic solutions and that mostly works around here. I do use other products like Clorox and Pledge a little less frequently but need them on hand.
Most of the products I get from Grove are available elsewhere, but the membership has been nice to have.
Bathroom
Buying bulk from Costco makes sense for a lot of things. The Lysol toilet bowl cleaner from Costco comes in a three-pack. This purchase didn’t work out. The packaging of the Lysol bottles is horrible and two out of three of the bottles leaked horribly. No more of that stuff.
From Grove, I tried out the Method brand. It works just fine (I guess – I didn’t do a bacteria count) and the bottle works much better. It has a soft spearmint scent.
For the surfaces (including baseboards) I routinely use Clorox wipes.
For a heavier clean if needed on sinks and tub, I use Comet cleanser. I used to use Softscrub, but I can no longer find it.
A quick wipe of the counters with granite cleaner shines everything up.
Hub is in charge of glass cleaning (he doesn’t like my work). We have been using Sprayway aerosol brand for years, but tried the Method glass cleaner recently from Grove and I like it better.
For pictures and the few decorations in the bathrooms, I’ve found giving them a swipe with a Swiffer wand is enough to keep them dust free.
Kitchen
A dish cloth with hot water and Dawn dish detergent works for getting most of the surfaces and cupboards clean. The countertops get a polish with granite cleaner when they are dry.
The sink gets a good scour with Comet. Because Comet (or Ajax) contains bleach, I use it between big cleanings when I need to disinfect the sink and keep cross contamination away.
Then it’s on to cleaning and polishing the stainless. Which is pretty much the bane of my existence. More on that for another post. Really, I have enough experience and enough products I can do a whole post on stainless cleaners. Ugh.
Floors
Shark steam mop #1 died, so we’re on #2. Ideally, the appliance would have lasted a lot longer (like my 20-year-old iron, for instance) but I liked it enough to buy another.
Using steam to sterilize our floors instead of chemicals makes me happy. I touch up in between with Bona or a tiny bit of Dawn on a Scotch-Brite hardwood floor mop. But my big cleaning day I take out the big guns. The Shark.
After sweeping and steaming the floors, about one half of my house is done and the biggest labor-intensive jobs are tackled.
What are your thoughts? How do you go about your chores? Any suggestions are welcome.
Wrap Up
Thanks for joining me on my journey and letting me chat about house cleaning. I love a clean house, but don’t love cleaning it.
God bless you and yours and have a wonderful weekend.