What’s your cadence for maintenance? Is there anything you think you should be doing more frequently? Is there anything you do extra proactively because you don’t like seeing it left undone?
I’m also curious about how much time you spend taking care of your home and how that balances with the rest of your personal life, and how you share the load with other people you live with.
I remember a guy talking about moving in with his girlfriend. As single people she vaccumed once a week and he did once a month. She felt they should alternate every other week and he was like wait. Your vacumming half as much as you used to and now im vaccuming twice as much. He proposed he do once a month so he is working the same as before and she gets a week off. Was a guy from work so no idea how that eventually turned out.
Somebody missed the schoolhouse rock that explained “compromise”, what a dullard lol
I’m recovering from cancer and caring for my wife who has severe post traumatic stress as a result of natural disaster.
- I have a shower most days
- I get dressed most days
- I turn the dishwasher on when it’s full, and empty it when there’s no more room in the sink
- Occasionally I sweep and vacuum
- I mow the lawns every few weeks
That’s pretty much all I can do at the moment, but I’m slowly getting better.
Hey, just wanted to say: Fuck cancer, you beat its bitch ass to a pulp for good now, ya hear?
this sounds like me but add in laundry like the dishwasher and nix the lawn as im in a condo. Honestly I spend more time going over finance type stuff which I try to look over each weekend.
Done as needed, or as mood strikes. Generally everything stays clean, if not, the pressure and annoyance builts until it gets completed. Repeat.
Routines like that do not exist in my household
I vacuum the house every day with roombas. It’s actually nice always walking on clean surfaces. The roombas have had some disasters but still worth.
Two months ago or so, I started wiping my floors about twice a week with a damp cloth, because I’ve got dust mite allergy, and yeah, the clean surfaces are crazy. When I’m not wearing socks, I can easily tell, if I haven’t wiped for a few days.
But also, everything else in my room collects dust much less quickly, I guess because I scoop it off the floor before it can settle everywhere else.
And my floor now also has this shine to it, which always makes it look like I’m trying to sell the place.Every 2-3 days I walk around the house pushing a swiffer mop and it has helped a ton with keeping dust at bay.
Exactly, walking on dusty floors gets stuff on your feet after a while. And after a night of sleep, at least in my house, the ac will have blown a lil bit of dust on the floor.
Once its cleaned the wooden flooring feels almost sticky because it cleans your feet as you walk instead of making it dirtier.
So, I’m SINK, so my routine is probably “light.”
Dishes are done
usuallydaily, but I live alone, so it’s like… My breakfast mug and then whatever dinner is. I usually do it in the morning while I’m waiting for the water to boil.I vacuum once every 1-2 weeks depending on the state of the carpet. (I got outside often and sometimes track things in. Also have a long haired cat). I also don’t like bugs, and my carpet is light. The little dots make me anxious.
I wash the bathroom about once a month, but will spot treatments here and there. (like wiping something down whole brushing my teeth, stuff like that).
And swifter the kitchen floor whenever it seems gross. I do laundry when I run out of underwear.
Littler box is usually every day, though I can sometimes skip a day. Usually when I do that, I’m in “animal mode,” so that’ll prompt me to refill bird feeders as well.
I am awful when it comes to my bedding. I hate doing it for whatever reason.
I hate doing my bedding too.
Actually I don’t even hate it, I just never think of it. It never seems to force me to think about it like other dirty things do.
Same. I don’t think of it as “dirty” like I do everything else. Even though it’s just as dirty 😂
how you share the load with other people you live with.
I do everything because the other two people I live with do nothing and are absolute pigs. No… I take that back. Pigs are cleaner.
Oh no! I hope you all can get along still anyway.
I have trouble consciously making and adhering to routines, so I’ve got an automated checklist that I attend to when I’m dissassociated enough to simply go through the motions. Some days, I even finish the list.
May I ask what kind of tool you use for the automated checklist?
Reminders for the checklist itself and Shortcuts for the automation, both on ios. A little embarassed to say I use an iphone, and I don’t have android analogues handy heheh.
Nothing to be embarrassed about. Hardware and platforms are just for running software on, pick what works for you!
I have a cleaning lady who comes every-other week, which takes care of most upkeep. I also have a roomba that runs daily. Otherwise:
Walk the dog twice a day.
Do dishes / clean the kitchen every night.
Laundry, once a week while working from home.
Empty the litter box robot once a week.
Take out trash as needed.
I also meal prep every Sunday.I used to be a very messy person, but this system has worked well for me.
Emptying the dishwasher every. single. day.
I have daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks, including both home and car maintenance. I put them on my calendar so I don’t lose track. Especially when I’m traveling a lot for work, “when was the last time I washed my bedsheets?!?”
Cleaning the kitchen is the thing I keep on top of best because I want my food to be clean and safe and for cooking to be enjoyable.
Compared to some I have dated, I have some personal standards that are higher. I think I’m pretty good at recognizing that though and dialing back to a compromise when appropriate. But I also draw lines where I have to. Someone bringing their cat into the equation; they must be 100% responsible for their cat and they must take good care of it. Someone who lets litter age, or lets cat vomit sit for any period of time after discovery, or doesn’t vacuum hair and litter dust up at a high frequency I find acceptable is a no. Just no. We’re not compatible and that sort of mismatch does not get better with time. Even if we haven’t moved in together and I’m just visiting their place, that’s something that will strongly sway me towards breaking up.
I have broken up with one person due to mismatch in our cleaning expectations. It happened well before there were conversations about moving in together. Conversations leading up to it were cordial, open, and without blame. As far as breakups go, not a bad one from my perspective.
I started with the cadence that I found from somewhere on the internet. Then I adjusted the timing to what felt good to me.
I found that https://github.com/grocy/grocy worked well for me to setup these kinds of things as chores. I guess that a callender would work too. I just like to have everything on one page.
I had to scroll all the way to the bottom to find a comment that mentioned using an app if some kind to help organize these tasks.
This one sounds interesting, I’ll check it out.
All the time. Someone’s gotta do it.
There are a bunch of infographics I like for this question, philosophically/asperationally anyway: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+often+should+you+clean&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=images
Now being regimented enough to stick to those schedules is the hard part for me.
Daily/weekly - dishes, trash, laundry always get done, but with the six year old plus two full time jobs they can *linger* for an extra day at times, lol
edit: typo
The first image I clicked on started with “Daily - Make Bed” and I noped out of the whole thing. There’s cleaning that needs done regularly for health and there’s tasks that get more onerous the longer you leave them (like laundry). But I’ll never understand the obsession with making beds.
Maybe people have more complex bedding setups, but mostly I just have a duvet on top and fitted sheet below. What difference does it make to anyone if I lay the duvet out flat and smooth each day? I’m immediately going to move it around when I go to bed, and I spend almost no time in my bedroom when I’m not in my bed. It’s the equivalent of saying “Daily - Fold the end of the toilet paper into a neat triangle”. If anything, immediately covering your used bedsheets with a duvet is trapping in moisture. At least the German habit of hanging your duvet out to air each day serves a purpose!
hehe, yeah hence my ‘aspirational’ comment. I think of em as more guidelines than strict must-dos. also I forget that cleaning the blinds is even a thing until i go look these up and see that on the list, lol.
My partner and I once sat down for like 3 hours and make a checklist of chores in todoist. Can ret reoccurring things with all different parameters… Sometimes I stay on top of it, but other times I play like 3 weeks of catch up on my day off…
Wow, lots of folks Roomba way more often than I do… I should get that guy going more often! I just get conflicted with it… I feel like I have to get everything off the floor for it… Perhaps I’ll try to let it run in a native environment.
I do dishes and a light pickup pretty much every day, and a more thorough pickup once or twice a week. I have a couple of cleaners come to clean the floors, the kitchen, the tabletops, bathroom every other week. I have two robovacs that run every day. I do laundry about every week and a half. I keep the fridge clean of aging leftovers and whatever else at least once a week. I trim blackberry vines and ivy periodically but not nearly often enough. I brush the dog a couple of times a week. I water the plants/garden. I order or go out to buy household needs a couple of times a week.
Taking out trash/recycling/compost is supposed to be the husband’s job, but I do it here and there as he is forgetful/lazy.
I hire and schedule all of the cleaners, landscapers, contractors that we need for various tasks. A much bigger chore than it sounds. Easily my least favorite task. I don’t know how all of these businesses manage to remain in existence when they’re all so flaky.
