Cleaning

I love this forum .. i have some really nasty dander that accumulates in my bedroom from my "babies" my parrots. you really have to dust a lot with these guys in there.. in one day you can have a thick white layer if you let it go ... dusting is us lol

In my experience, my most efficient and effective attempts at playing the Domestic Goddess in charge of a clean home have been whilst on a deadline.... Knowing there will be people in your home in one hour really helps get the job done. Short of inviting people around, I like using the oven timer method. I race around like a mad woman for one hour. Any free time after that can be spent with a glass of wine in one hand, doing as I please to my home to make it feel loved with some great music in the background. A method a few friends of mine are using currently, is house-work swapping... they clean each other's. Sometimes it's easier cleaning outside your own environment, and at the end of half a day's work, you come back to a clean home!!!

So here's mine...I like to make it an exercise when I clean. Especially when I am vacuuming...whew what a work out, or when when I am scrubbing the tub. Talk about working on the abs :) I saw this cool clip on Better.TV about varying up your exercises, makes working out fun. Well, I think this is as close to fun I'll get cleaning and working out...a girls gotta improvise!!

Hi Tigress. I like to do this...put all 'maybe' items in a pile, then ask yourself 'have i used this in the past 12months', if you haven't touched it once and it's not a family heirloom....give it away. Good luck.

I really don't know where to start. I guess I have to admit I have a real clutter problem. It seems like my house is not big enough for all my stuff. I try to purge and get rid of things, but it just never seems to be enough. I need to get organized in a big way. I would love to entertain, but Ireally have to clean first. My son once said to me I need a bulldozer to start to clean the house and that really hurt. Please help. I am open for all suggestions.

yeah the music idea is good and it works too! But i am looking desperately for other peoples to do list on mon, tues etc.... help. i stink at cleaning and my house is a complete mess. i only do the basics and i havent done deep cleaning in a long time. now i am overwhelmed even thinking where to start and how to keep it going so i dont get here again. help help help.

I am a big fan of listening to fun music while cleaning (when I was very young, my family of five used to clean together every Saturday, and we would listen to Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun.") Another thing that I like to do is get some Nestle Toll House cookie dough and bake some yummy, good-smelling cookies while I clean. There's nothing better than a clean smell AND fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies!

Dust: do you know what its made of? Its a disgusting composition of human skin cells, hair, waxes, pollen, mold, fungi ewww, pet dander, dust mite excrement, oh man. Just think about for a minute! Now you want to go clean your house don't you...

Leave the shoes at the door. Keep the soil outside your home by putting a shoe rack at your door entrance. 80% of the soil in your house gets tracked in by occupants and pets. Less soil and dirt coming into your home the less cleaning.

Start with one thing at a time. Especially when there is a real clutter all over the place, it's easy to become overwhelmed and give up before you even start. So think to yourself, today, I am going to organize my bathroom cabinet. Then, every time you take something in or out of it after you have finished cleaning it, put it back where it belongs. That way, it never gets messy again! Once you get in a routine with that, move on to something new. Maybe your microwave? Clean out the microwave. Remove the stains. Then, after every time you use it, do the same thing. Everything will find its way and you will progressively become the spot-clean goddess you had hoped to be!