House cleaning for dummies
February 25, 2023 12:24 PM
I’m not the greatest at keeping on top of cleaning tasks. I’m also not the greatest at cleaning in general. I’m moving to a new apartment soon and want to start a regular cleaning schedule so I can stay on top of things and keep a clean beautiful home. Is there a good guide to what cleaning tasks should be done every few days/every week/every month etc.? Or a list of what cleaning tools are needed to keep a clean home? More snowflake details inside.
Snowflake details:
- I have a shed-y dog, I do have a good pet-hair vacuum that gets regular use but I’m not always good at dealing with little hairs that stick to chairs/sofa etc.
- I prefer to use eco-friendly cleaning products, and nothing that is toxic to the dog. Lately I’ve been using thymol-based disinfectants as all-purpose cleaners. Do I need a bunch of different products?
- I’m terrible with dusting. I regularly use a dust cloth but often feel like it’s just moving the dust around. I’m not sure of the best way to deal with dust that accumulates in places like the bathroom tile.
- I never use bleach or other harsh products as I’m honestly a bit afraid of bleach. I know people who regularly bleach their kitchen floors and stuff. Is this necessary?
- I take a lot of baths. How often do I clean the bathtub?
- I have some nice vintage wood furniture. I have no idea if I should be doing something regularly to care for the furniture.
- I don’t know if I’m really “neurodivergent” but I have some autism/ADHD characteristics and can probably benefit from advice for that demographic. Having a clear schedule and to-do list is the best way for me to get shit done.
Snowflake details:
- I have a shed-y dog, I do have a good pet-hair vacuum that gets regular use but I’m not always good at dealing with little hairs that stick to chairs/sofa etc.
- I prefer to use eco-friendly cleaning products, and nothing that is toxic to the dog. Lately I’ve been using thymol-based disinfectants as all-purpose cleaners. Do I need a bunch of different products?
- I’m terrible with dusting. I regularly use a dust cloth but often feel like it’s just moving the dust around. I’m not sure of the best way to deal with dust that accumulates in places like the bathroom tile.
- I never use bleach or other harsh products as I’m honestly a bit afraid of bleach. I know people who regularly bleach their kitchen floors and stuff. Is this necessary?
- I take a lot of baths. How often do I clean the bathtub?
- I have some nice vintage wood furniture. I have no idea if I should be doing something regularly to care for the furniture.
- I don’t know if I’m really “neurodivergent” but I have some autism/ADHD characteristics and can probably benefit from advice for that demographic. Having a clear schedule and to-do list is the best way for me to get shit done.
I love Home Comforts, but it's a deeeeep dive into house cleaning. Definitely a great reference but could be intimidating if you're just starting out.
Unfuck Your Habitat takes a much more gentle approach to helping folks set up a routine. Very neurodivergent-friendly, with an emphasis on mitigating negative thoughts and self-talk.
Martha Stewart also has some printable checklists that you could use as a reference (she can also be a bit much, as you probably know).
posted by Sweetie Darling at 12:47 PM on February 25, 2023
Unfuck Your Habitat takes a much more gentle approach to helping folks set up a routine. Very neurodivergent-friendly, with an emphasis on mitigating negative thoughts and self-talk.
Martha Stewart also has some printable checklists that you could use as a reference (she can also be a bit much, as you probably know).
posted by Sweetie Darling at 12:47 PM on February 25, 2023
Another vote for Unfuck Your Habitat. There’s also a Twitter account (was on hiatus but looks like it’s back) which I find helpful for prompts.
posted by bookmammal at 12:51 PM on February 25, 2023
posted by bookmammal at 12:51 PM on February 25, 2023
UnfuckYH is wonderful, especially when I’m just stuck and want to improve something but ?!what first?!?
Dust: do you not see dust on the rag as you work? Are your rags fuzzy grabby? I’m fond of holey socks fuzzier side out. A barely damp rag works too.
Scheduling: you can start with any old schedule and adjust intervals in and out depending on if what you’re cleaning is still fine by you or you’re thinking "I was living with this!?!?" Intervals depend SO MUCH on your pet, your climate, your water hardness, etc etc. I adjust in a phone app, there are systems using index cards.
Bleach: I don’t like putting chlorine down the pipes for anything short of medical cleaning, but I like having oxygen bleaches around for toilets and pet accidents.
For wood furniture, I live by Howard Feed n Wax. Wipe it on thinly, wait a bit, buff it off (with a ragbag rag). Cleans and comes off polyurethane finishes, cleans and builds oil and wax finishes. 15’ a week, or a favorite weekly podcast, rotating through all the wood in turn, is enough to make it glow more over time. If you get really into it, paste wax and more buffing for more gloss. While you’re petting your furniture notice if any of the joints are getting loose, that’s very much a fix-early problem.
posted by clew at 1:10 PM on February 25, 2023
Dust: do you not see dust on the rag as you work? Are your rags fuzzy grabby? I’m fond of holey socks fuzzier side out. A barely damp rag works too.
Scheduling: you can start with any old schedule and adjust intervals in and out depending on if what you’re cleaning is still fine by you or you’re thinking "I was living with this!?!?" Intervals depend SO MUCH on your pet, your climate, your water hardness, etc etc. I adjust in a phone app, there are systems using index cards.
Bleach: I don’t like putting chlorine down the pipes for anything short of medical cleaning, but I like having oxygen bleaches around for toilets and pet accidents.
For wood furniture, I live by Howard Feed n Wax. Wipe it on thinly, wait a bit, buff it off (with a ragbag rag). Cleans and comes off polyurethane finishes, cleans and builds oil and wax finishes. 15’ a week, or a favorite weekly podcast, rotating through all the wood in turn, is enough to make it glow more over time. If you get really into it, paste wax and more buffing for more gloss. While you’re petting your furniture notice if any of the joints are getting loose, that’s very much a fix-early problem.
posted by clew at 1:10 PM on February 25, 2023
Check out KC Davis. She has a book, online resources, and is active on social media. She is a proponent of creating systems that work for an individual's (or family's) needs.
posted by jenquat at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2023
posted by jenquat at 1:53 PM on February 25, 2023
Nthing Unfuck Your Habitat. They have a "challenge" on it called "Unfuck your weekend" which does a REALLY good job of hand-holding you through a weekly "maintaining your house" cleaning schedule, and it also plans things out in such a way that you still have time to have a weekend.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:29 PM on February 25, 2023
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:29 PM on February 25, 2023
FlyLady is great for building a sense of how to schedule activities given your circumstances. Daily emails list tasks associated with the zone of the week plus maintenance tasks and occasional deep cleaning. She advocates the “do a little every day” school as opposed to the occasional blitz. It’s all free including downloadable task lists organized by major spaces. Important caveat: lots of cutesy bullshit (more emails), appeals to buy her products (even more emails), testimonials written in suspiciously similar styles (yet additional emails), and the occasional invoking of her Christian faith (not more emails, thanks be to FSM). I’m allergic to that crap but find it pretty easy to ignore.
posted by carmicha at 6:35 PM on February 25, 2023
posted by carmicha at 6:35 PM on February 25, 2023
As UFYH recommends, the best method for me to have one day of the week set aside for certain things, and just make sure I consistently do it. Always. No excuses, no rescheduling. For example, Saturday is for washing bedding, and I strip the bed as soon as I get up, because otherwise procrastination easily disrupts my plans. Once it becomes a routine/habit, it's easier to follow through on auto-pilot. Similarly, I do the rest of the laundry & towels on another day, and while the towels are in the wash I clean the bathroom, so that clean towels always go back into a clean bathroom. Keeping a few priority things on a weekly schedule ultimately makes it easier to manage.
My other hack is to keep multiple sets of cleaning supplies around the house. There's a set of spray cleaner, sponges, paper towels, comet/ajax, etc in each bathroom, kitchen, and utility room. That way, wherever I am in the house, it's easy to grab cleaning supplies and do a quick clean of a limited area. Doing more frequent, shorter cleaning sessions is more manageable than doing 1-2 long ones. Even when I'm feeling low-energy, it's hard to argue with yourself about just taking 2 minutes to scrub out the toilet if everything you need is right there.
For general housekeeping, I focus on the bedroom as the priority. That way, my bedroom is always a clean sanctuary, even in those weeks when I don't get around to, say, the dining room or office. After the bedroom, I prioritise the kitchen, bathrooms, then living room, etc. After a while you get a feel for how much time things take, when to do lighter or heavier versions of a clean, and what chores you can save up for that one Sunday a month or one weekend a quarter.
Snowflake stuff:
- Pet hair is hard, and thanklessly unrelenting. Vacuum what you can, weekly at a minimum. We have a velvet lint brush that helps take hair off upholstered furniture.
- No, you don't need a bunch of chemicals or scented things. I do a good bit of mopping, wet dusting and spot cleaning with vinegar. I have a eco products for the hardwood floor and a eucalyptus mixture for the bathrooms. There's lots of natural alternatives to Windex, if you don't like the smell of ammonia.
- I don't really dust much, but when I do, it's always wet dusting: wiping surfaces with a cloth dampened with a vinegar solution. I've never seen the point of feather/dry dusting, except for things like lampshades that can't have a damp cloth.
- You only need bleach when you want to seriously sanitise or bleach something. It's not really the best cleaning agent, per se. For a kitchen floor, some vinegar water or ammonia water will do a better job of picking up grease and food drippings. I do keep a bleach solution in a spray bottle to use when cleaning the bathroom or for spot cleans in the kitchen (ie, plastic cutting boards). It's easy to damage things (including your clothes) with bleach, and really, you can live without it.
- Baths: depends on what you can tolerate, and how much soap/conditioner/bath oil you use. It's pretty easy to spend 30 seconds swishing some comet around and rinsing just before you run the bath. Once a week or so should be OK. Swish the water around a bit while it's draining so that less scum accumulates.
- Get some spray polish for the wood furniture. Method has a nice one. But this only needs to be done monthly.
posted by amusebuche at 8:25 PM on February 25, 2023
My other hack is to keep multiple sets of cleaning supplies around the house. There's a set of spray cleaner, sponges, paper towels, comet/ajax, etc in each bathroom, kitchen, and utility room. That way, wherever I am in the house, it's easy to grab cleaning supplies and do a quick clean of a limited area. Doing more frequent, shorter cleaning sessions is more manageable than doing 1-2 long ones. Even when I'm feeling low-energy, it's hard to argue with yourself about just taking 2 minutes to scrub out the toilet if everything you need is right there.
For general housekeeping, I focus on the bedroom as the priority. That way, my bedroom is always a clean sanctuary, even in those weeks when I don't get around to, say, the dining room or office. After the bedroom, I prioritise the kitchen, bathrooms, then living room, etc. After a while you get a feel for how much time things take, when to do lighter or heavier versions of a clean, and what chores you can save up for that one Sunday a month or one weekend a quarter.
Snowflake stuff:
- Pet hair is hard, and thanklessly unrelenting. Vacuum what you can, weekly at a minimum. We have a velvet lint brush that helps take hair off upholstered furniture.
- No, you don't need a bunch of chemicals or scented things. I do a good bit of mopping, wet dusting and spot cleaning with vinegar. I have a eco products for the hardwood floor and a eucalyptus mixture for the bathrooms. There's lots of natural alternatives to Windex, if you don't like the smell of ammonia.
- I don't really dust much, but when I do, it's always wet dusting: wiping surfaces with a cloth dampened with a vinegar solution. I've never seen the point of feather/dry dusting, except for things like lampshades that can't have a damp cloth.
- You only need bleach when you want to seriously sanitise or bleach something. It's not really the best cleaning agent, per se. For a kitchen floor, some vinegar water or ammonia water will do a better job of picking up grease and food drippings. I do keep a bleach solution in a spray bottle to use when cleaning the bathroom or for spot cleans in the kitchen (ie, plastic cutting boards). It's easy to damage things (including your clothes) with bleach, and really, you can live without it.
- Baths: depends on what you can tolerate, and how much soap/conditioner/bath oil you use. It's pretty easy to spend 30 seconds swishing some comet around and rinsing just before you run the bath. Once a week or so should be OK. Swish the water around a bit while it's draining so that less scum accumulates.
- Get some spray polish for the wood furniture. Method has a nice one. But this only needs to be done monthly.
posted by amusebuche at 8:25 PM on February 25, 2023
There is a great little book called Speed Cleaning which goes through the whole process beautifully. I’ve never worked for speed, because I have way too much clutter, but it really does a great job in telling you HOW to go about it and how to decide when to do things.
This website has a whole lot of products and junk, but the important part is the book.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:00 PM on February 25, 2023
This website has a whole lot of products and junk, but the important part is the book.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:00 PM on February 25, 2023
Dusting is horrendous. Get a Dust Daddy for your vacuum. (Don't pay that much, you can get dupes on AliExpress or Amazon for way less. I would also suggest getting a robovac BUT ONLY ever running it when you are there to supervise your dog.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:17 AM on February 26, 2023
posted by DarlingBri at 2:17 AM on February 26, 2023
I use an app called Tody, which prompts me to do whatever chores need to be done that day. When you first set it up you select which tasks you want to track (there are lots of them built in, plus you can add your own) and how often it needs to be done. The app suggests an interval but it can be adjusted--so if it suggests cleaning the bathtub every week but you need to clean it more often because you take more baths, you can change it to be prompted every 3 days. It's also good for things that might slip through the cracks because you don't think of them often, like changing an HVAC filter every howevermany weeks. Plus I like the little 'good job' response every time I mark something done.
posted by Ellen Alleyne at 1:12 PM on February 26, 2023
posted by Ellen Alleyne at 1:12 PM on February 26, 2023
How to Keep House While Drowning - my neurodivergent kid swears by it
posted by Peach at 2:10 PM on February 26, 2023
posted by Peach at 2:10 PM on February 26, 2023
I still swear by Unfuck Your Habitat for a general schedule-setting. Coming back in to address some specific points:
- I have a shed-y dog, I do have a good pet-hair vacuum that gets regular use but I’m not always good at dealing with little hairs that stick to chairs/sofa etc.
So, there's a house cleaner in Finland who makes videos of herself cleaning people's SEVERELY dirty houses for free. She usually uses a couple of different chemical cleaners, but she sometimes gives advice about tools and technique - and one may help with this: using a plain rubber squeegee on your chairs and sofa, like the kind you would usually use to wipe the water off your mirror or something. She recommended it to use on a rug to dislodge stuck hair and dirt so you could vacuum it easier; I tried it myself and it works pretty well. It's not necessarily something I'd do every time you clean, just....when it looks like it needs it.
I prefer to use eco-friendly cleaning products, and nothing that is toxic to the dog. Lately I’ve been using thymol-based disinfectants as all-purpose cleaners. Do I need a bunch of different products?
It....depends. So, there are a ton of "recipes" for "DIY eco cleaners" out there, many of which call for some kind of combination of vinegar, baking soda, borax, lemon juice, and water, stuff like that. I was finding conflicting information about whether vinegar is toxic for dogs - but then I found the American Kennel Club has a page here about how to mix up eco-friendly cleaners while still staying dog-safe, and their recipes indeed are mostly made of things like vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and the like. So I'd maybe try following their recipes pretty strictly if you wanted to try that out.
I’m terrible with dusting. I regularly use a dust cloth but often feel like it’s just moving the dust around. I’m not sure of the best way to deal with dust that accumulates in places like the bathroom tile.
One of the best tools I've found for dealing with dusting is a microfiber cloth. Dust kind of "sticks" to them instead of just getting pushed around, and then you can simply wash the cloth with the rest of your laundry. They also can be used as regular cleaning rags as well. Plus they come in many colors, so if you wanted to color-code things (i.e., red are dust cloths, orange are cleaning rags, yellow are for washing windows, etc.) you could do that if you like. (I started out intending to do that but it just got me too confused, though.)
As for bathroom tile: I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the space in between the tiles on the wall?
I never use bleach or other harsh products as I’m honestly a bit afraid of bleach. I know people who regularly bleach their kitchen floors and stuff. Is this necessary?
Bleach is an effective way to sanitize surfaces - but it is a very aggressive way to sanitize surfaces. It is also not the only way to sanitize surfaces. So - no, you don't need to regularly bleach your kitchen floors.
However, there is something you may like instead for your floors: a steam mop. I have this one and I love it - I simply put one of the cleaning pads on the end, fill a small chamber inside it with water, and plug it in and wait 30 seconds to heat up. My pushing the mop around is what forces the steam out through the cleaning pad, and that steam both loosens any dirt on the floor and sanitizes the surface. The cleaning pad wipes everything up. And then when I'm done, I empty out any left over water, remove the cleaning pad and throw that in the laundry. And because all I used was water it's non-toxic and eco-friendly, and because it was steam it dries super-fast.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:17 AM on February 28, 2023
- I have a shed-y dog, I do have a good pet-hair vacuum that gets regular use but I’m not always good at dealing with little hairs that stick to chairs/sofa etc.
So, there's a house cleaner in Finland who makes videos of herself cleaning people's SEVERELY dirty houses for free. She usually uses a couple of different chemical cleaners, but she sometimes gives advice about tools and technique - and one may help with this: using a plain rubber squeegee on your chairs and sofa, like the kind you would usually use to wipe the water off your mirror or something. She recommended it to use on a rug to dislodge stuck hair and dirt so you could vacuum it easier; I tried it myself and it works pretty well. It's not necessarily something I'd do every time you clean, just....when it looks like it needs it.
I prefer to use eco-friendly cleaning products, and nothing that is toxic to the dog. Lately I’ve been using thymol-based disinfectants as all-purpose cleaners. Do I need a bunch of different products?
It....depends. So, there are a ton of "recipes" for "DIY eco cleaners" out there, many of which call for some kind of combination of vinegar, baking soda, borax, lemon juice, and water, stuff like that. I was finding conflicting information about whether vinegar is toxic for dogs - but then I found the American Kennel Club has a page here about how to mix up eco-friendly cleaners while still staying dog-safe, and their recipes indeed are mostly made of things like vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and the like. So I'd maybe try following their recipes pretty strictly if you wanted to try that out.
I’m terrible with dusting. I regularly use a dust cloth but often feel like it’s just moving the dust around. I’m not sure of the best way to deal with dust that accumulates in places like the bathroom tile.
One of the best tools I've found for dealing with dusting is a microfiber cloth. Dust kind of "sticks" to them instead of just getting pushed around, and then you can simply wash the cloth with the rest of your laundry. They also can be used as regular cleaning rags as well. Plus they come in many colors, so if you wanted to color-code things (i.e., red are dust cloths, orange are cleaning rags, yellow are for washing windows, etc.) you could do that if you like. (I started out intending to do that but it just got me too confused, though.)
As for bathroom tile: I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the space in between the tiles on the wall?
I never use bleach or other harsh products as I’m honestly a bit afraid of bleach. I know people who regularly bleach their kitchen floors and stuff. Is this necessary?
Bleach is an effective way to sanitize surfaces - but it is a very aggressive way to sanitize surfaces. It is also not the only way to sanitize surfaces. So - no, you don't need to regularly bleach your kitchen floors.
However, there is something you may like instead for your floors: a steam mop. I have this one and I love it - I simply put one of the cleaning pads on the end, fill a small chamber inside it with water, and plug it in and wait 30 seconds to heat up. My pushing the mop around is what forces the steam out through the cleaning pad, and that steam both loosens any dirt on the floor and sanitizes the surface. The cleaning pad wipes everything up. And then when I'm done, I empty out any left over water, remove the cleaning pad and throw that in the laundry. And because all I used was water it's non-toxic and eco-friendly, and because it was steam it dries super-fast.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:17 AM on February 28, 2023
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posted by LaBellaStella at 12:31 PM on February 25, 2023