Cleaning Routine - Tuesday

Tuesday - Lounge or Dining Room

The lounge is only used in the evening so does not get in disarray very often as supper things are cleared away in the evening before bed as well as cushions and throws straightened. Tuesdays are for the more thorough clean. Today I will concentrate on dusting the fireplace, furniture and picture rails in both rooms. The carpets will be vacuumed. That's it - it won't take long as swimming and lunch out is on the agenda for today.

xx

PS - in answer to BBBJ the answer is, "Yes, I do do other things apart from cleaning and my cleaning routine may appear to be obsessive but with this framework I can do as little or as much as I want each day and know that all areas will have been covered with minimal effort and I've 'kept on top of things'."

The very act of living in a house creates disorder involving clutter, dirt and dust. Items are brought in, things moved around, clothes changed. Order and cleanliness doesn't last very long when activity and creativity are present. Illness, of which our family has had more than its fair share, doesn't help on the house maintenance front. Yes, when I can I will put my cleaning routine into action, not to be obsessive but to be happy in the knowledge that the house is in good working order so that we can pursue and enjoy all our hobbies and family life.

xx

Cleaning Routine - Saturday

Phase 1 of the decorating is now complete and there should be no more decorating mess for the foreseeable future. Now my Cleaning Routine can get back to normal. 

Everyday I make sure that the kitchen floor is swept and mopped, cat tray sorted, kitchen surfaces cleaned, washing loads are done (if needed) and ironing is done (if needed).

Saturday

Make sure everything is in its proper place. (Everything must have a home or a 'put down' place.)

Clean - the fridge, the microwave and the hob.

That's it for Saturday - no deep cleaning on the weekends.

Today I also did the finishing touches to the understairs loo - hoovering the newly laid carpet, cleaning the door, dusting the shelves and adding finishing touches such as loo rolls in the cupboard and ornaments on the shelves. The hall was hoovered and the remnants of carpet put in the bin.

xx

PS Having trouble uploading photos at the moment. Will do so as soon as I've figured it out. Have upgraded to High Sierra and some things don't work! Hey ho!

Edited 11/3/18 - Managed to put the pics on via a roundabout way. :)

Cleaning Routine - Monday

Monday - Back Room

As well as the daily routine tidy I focus on our Back Room for a more thorough clean on Mondays.  Everything is 'put in its place'



and then today I cleaned the paintwork - skirting boards, window and door frames.



This involves some scrabbling around on the floor to get to areas under the dresser and sideboard. The gaps in between the radiator and the wall are dusted with my trusty 'not feather' dusted which fits brilliantly into the tiny area and helps prevent a build up of dust and detritus.

(Perhaps I should call it my 'tickling stick'.  RIP Ken Dodd.)

This same duster can also do picture rails and high up places easily.

Other spots to thoroughly clean are the windows, of which there a are quite a few in this room, the dresser (waxed every blue moon), the floor and the lights. These spots will be tackled on future Mondays.

Everyday the loos get a quick wipe but each week they have a really good clean up and under the rim and all that. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are set aside for this - 3 loos, one day each.

That was enough for today because we were taken out for a belated Mother's Day lunch with DD.
Full now,

xx

Cleaning Routine - Sunday

Sunday is my day of rest and there's only one thing to be done apart from my normal daily routine and that is polishing the brass.

I can manage to add pics that I've already posted
but no new ones. Strange.

Grandma used to do the brass every week when she was alive so I feel obliged to carry on doing so. Plus the front door is more welcoming with the brass 'done'. If it is fine weather I also wipe any road dust from the door, door surround and window frames just to add to the sparkle.

xx

Edited later - I've managed to upload some pics to yesterday's post via a roundabout way by copying them to my desktop and uploading from there. Blogger does not want to know about my Photos application.

Cleaning Routine - Thursday, Friday

Thursday - Bedroom

Whoops, this should have been posted yesterday.

Any bedroom will do on a Thursday. The whole room will be tidied and vacuumed (including the edges) and one part focussed on for a more thorough clean - skirting boards, architraves, windows, wardrobes, bed. Bedding washing is for Saturdays.

Friday - Bathroom

And this is for today.

Friday's cleaning is done with the bathroom tidied. My focus today was the woodwork - architraves, skirting boards, picture rail, dado and windows. The light fittings were dusted with my tickling stick. They are a flat boat shape and when we decorated the fittings were cleaned very thoroughly. I don't want them to get so dirty again so a flick of the tickling stick every week should help.

The picture rail runs all the way round and that was dusted then wiped.

Had to get down low to go under the sink unit.

Well that's it for the week. Everything ship shape. I went swimming yesterday and today is my turn at the CS playing shop. Might even find some good bargains while I'm at it.

xx

PS For those who don't know fish pie is cooked fish in a white sauce topped with mashed potato and crisped up in the oven for about 20 minutes.

xx

Cleaning Schedule

Cleaning checklists

Chore charts
Cleaning routines

There are plenty of them out there on t'Internet.

I have researched a fair few and come up with my own schedule which is personal to our house. It involves 'not a lot' of work each day and these little steps gradually build up so the whole house cleaning task becomes just a simple daily routine. 

My Tasks

Do one from the following list each weekday

* Wipe a skirting board.

*Wipe a picture rail.

*Tidy a cupboard (this includes the fridge or microwave).



* Tidy a drawer.

* Tidy a shelf.



(I've found that once started on a set of drawers, sorting one spurs me on to do 'just one more'; once starting on one shelf of a cupboard, sorting one spurs me on to do 'just one more'. Wiping a skirting board in a room is so easy that I tend to do the picture rail aswell.)

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

Clean a toilet and a sink.

Saturday/Sunday

Clean the hob or oven

Clean the brass on the front door

As and When Needed

Do the washing

Dust

Mop

Vacuum

Each Day

Sparkle one room.

(Put things away in the correct place and have a quick flick round with the hoover or duster.)

In our house it's -

Monday - the back room

Tuesday - the kitchen

Wednesday - the hall and stairs

Thursday - a bedroom

Friday - a bathroom

Keeping to the list ensures that eventually you will have cleaned the whole house. Once that happens Sparkling becomes a doddle and everything is in its place so now needs very little tidying.

xx

PS  Galant asked whether I took my Filofax around with me in my bag. Sorry, I don't have a handbag - the organiser stays at home.

Mac and Janet asked whether a Filofax would be able to keep them organised.

(chetongueek)

Oh yes!!!!

 :)

xx

Cleaning routine - kitchen

Yesterday was hob, microwave and fridge day. I don't do a deep clean every time but I did with the fridge today.

With the hob out of the way ...

and the microwave too,

 

I took everything out of the fridge and washed all the shelves and the inside with hot soapy water. The inside door holds the milk, cold tap water bottles, fresh orange juice, eggs and the spray cream as it wouldn't stand up in the main fridge.

Plenty of left overs to eat up in the fridge. The lard and butter are at the top back with tartare and horseradish sauce jars. Chicken casserole awaits us tonight and pork chops tomorrow. The cheeses are in the white container with the salady stuff at the bottom. I try to keep things in containers or wrapped up for easy access.

I got carried away and did a quick tidy of the coffee and tea cupboard,

cleaning of the cupboard fronts,  (Flat fronts are much easier to clean than contoured ones) ...

and finished off making some chocolate cornflake bites.

xx

Cleaning Routine - Wednesday

Wednesday - Hall and Stairs

Time to hoover two flights of stairs and I generally hoover the bathroom and bedrooms while I have the hoover out. The extra bit today was dusting the architraves and skirting boards. Other weeks I will clean the bannisters or door handles. I do have a small vacuum for vacuuming the stairs but I usually lug the large vac with the extension thingummy as it saves me winding up the leads of 2 vacuums.

As well as cleaning one loo thoroughly that was it. The rest was tripping the light fantastic at the Tower and making fish pie for tea!

xx

Normal Routine

I'm back into normal routine mode after an extended festive time which included 2 Christmases, the second of which was a White Christmas on the 29th December. No need to dream anymore until next year then. 

Normal routine for me is to sort all my everlasting cards and match them up with envelopes. Cards which are full of greetings are 'retired' and new cards made. Funny how just making small cards takes up such a large space. All done now and everything is packed away until November when I sign and address the cards again.

Just type 'everlasting cards' in the search box for more explanations of my Christmas greetings for friends and family.

Normal for me is 'work' in the mornings and 'play' in the afternoons so today was cleaning tiles in the newly decorated bathroom and washing and ironing plus card making and walking. It was a busy and productive day.

xx

Cleaning Routine for the week

To the tune of *'Today's Monday' with a little bit of Elvis thrown in.

Today's Monday, today's Monday.

Monday's Back Room Day.

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Tuesday, today's Tuesday.

Tuesday's lounge or dine

Monday's Back Room Day.

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Wednesday, today's Wednesday.

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Thursday, today's Thursday.

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Friday, today's Friday.

Friday's Bathroom

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Saturday, today's Saturday.

Saturday's FMH, (fridge, microwave, hob)

Friday's Bathroom

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

Wash or iron maybe,

Thorough clean one spot.

DEEP CLEAN!

Today's Sunday, today's Sunday.

Sunday's Day of Rest,

Saturday's FMH,

Friday's Bathroom

Thursday's Bedroom

Wednesday's Hall and Stairs,

Tuesday's Lounge or Dine,

Monday's Back Room

NO wash or ironing

Today's a Day of Rest.

xx

* Can't find my version of the song on the Internet but these are the words. We used to sing this song at guides.

Today's Monday, today's Monday.
Monday is washing day.
Is everybody happy?
You bet your life we are.


Tuesday is soup 
Wednesday is roast beef
Thursday is shepherds pie
Friday is fish
Saturday is pay day
Sunday is church

This way and that way

It was tidying bedrooms day today after the visit by family. All the bedding was washed and dried the other day so today was the general tidying up of clothes and bits and pieces. My way is to plonk everything on the bed and work from there. The tidy floor gives me the illusion that the room is tidy and I take my time just putting everything away from the bed. If I have to go from one room to the other I just stay and tidy the room that I'm in. All 4 bedrooms are now straight with new bedding, the surfaces are dusted and everything is in its place.

Tomorrow it's the downstairs that's going to be blitzed and then I'll be back to a normal cleaning routine.

xx

What's in my Filofax? What's not in my Filofax?

This notebook is not in my Filofax. It's a handy portable size that fits in my bum bag if needed. In it are just jottings to remind me what I would like to do on a particular day. If I have a sudden brilliant brainwave I can write that in too as well as places I need to go and people I am going to see. The jottings are in the form of a Bullet Journal - there's a whole new notebook world out there - just google Bullet Journal and you will see some of it! It appeared to me a good way of organising my scribbles so I'm having a go and so far it works a treat.

It basically is "... a customizable and forgiving organization system. It can be your to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary, but most likely, it will be all of the above. It will teach you to do more with less."

The video below is a very quick overview of the system.

So far I've started my October pages and have decided on my bullet point key. 

A few days have been logged and the notebook has been a very helpful source of information I've collected and things we've done and intend to do. As in some organiser 'traditions' I've tried my hand at decorating the pages with a few doodles. You can see how artistic I am!!! The bottom picture is suppose to be a tree which we saw that was full of crab apples.

the tree

the crab apples

Some of the information I'm logging may help in my Filofax home organisation. Here's a quick tour of Filofax 1.

My tabs in this organiser are:-

House

Action

Ideas

Information

Passwords

and

Addresses.

This organiser is simply a reference section for my daily diary.

The house section is divided into:-

Month

Week

Food

Rooms

Finance

The Monthly pages have sticky notes with my intentions for that particular month. These goals can be fed into my daily pages so I am motivated to 'get things done'.

In the Weekly pages is an overview of suggested tasks for the day which basically boils down to -

* necessary as and when tasks - vacuum, laundry, dishwasher stack and empty etc

* suggested daily tasks to clean one toilet, one sink and vacuum one room with a choice of either cleaning a shelf, cupboard, drawer, skirting board or picture rail (which I've called swing tasks). I also aim to focus on a very quick overview and tidy of one room each day. The theory is that I'll have sparkling loos and sinks all the time and over time all my cupboards and drawers will be sorted and kept in order. :}

The food pages are just a log of freezer and cupboards so I'll use everything I buy.

On the rooms pages I've listed parts of the room to clean and these can be ticked off when I've done them. Once they're all ticked I'll either add to the list or 'go round again'. These pages feed in to the weekly task routine.

The finance pages just keep a log of supermarket shops and cash expenditure.

On the action pages I've listed jobs that could be done under different headings e.g.. Garden, Christmas, Music, Miscellaneous. Again these tasks can be chosen to be done on different days as and when I have time and inclination. It's very satisfying to tick off a task. (Sad, sad)

Also in the Action pages is a list of birthdays and cards that need to be made along with ...

… further pages detailing the tasks for the run up to Christmas and pages for lists of presents and cards received and sent.

My Diary Filofax (number 2) contains a monthly page view where I mark in birthdays, anniversaries, important dates and notes plus '2 page' weekly spreads. On each day I have my Daily tasks listed plus one or more other tasks which will fit in with the day.

Here's an example of a week that I've made up. Daily tasks are done from Monday to Friday, appointments written in and any other relevant jottings added. I've also put a quote at the top and the rooms I should concentrate on to get tidy.

I've made a handy 'puller outer' on to which I am able to stick a shopping list which I'll then take on my next shop.

My bullet notebook has fed in well into my routine and so far all 3 organisers are working well with the house reasonably tidy and clean. I've been able to remember (or been reminded to remember) things and am able to capture thoughts and ideas as soon as they occur.

I hope it all lasts!

xx