Friday, March 26, 2010

cleaning 101

Over at Kelly's blog today, the Show Us Your Life theme for the day is cleaning tips, and I can't get enough. I think it's my OCD tendencies, but I kind of love to clean. Now don't get me wrong, my house is certainly not spotless, and there are times when it looks more frat boy style than Martha Stewart, but overall, I enjoy having a clean, relaxing home.

I don't have a lot of tips, but I have figured out somethings that work for us, to keep our house in working order.

First of all, we have 4 animals in our house. Yes, I know, but we adore them. So pet odor is a huge thing of mine as well as their hair. Fortunately, we have almost no fabric in our house. Our furniture is leather, our floors are hardwood and tile, and we just keep area rugs around. So the smell is kept minimal due to that. I use a Shark vacuum or a dry Swiffer every day to minimize the hair. This is a necessity. We also vacuum the area rugs every day. Annoying? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

Other than that, I've broken our house down into rooms to clean. Meaning on Monday, I tackle the living room, Tuesday, guest room and bath, etc. Each day, the room of the day gets a thorough cleaning. Dust, fans cleaned, ceiling wiped down (told you I had OCD), etc. It really does not take very long, usually 30 minutes at the most. I try to knock it out when I get home and Mr. Perfect is cooking dinner. Then we have the rest of the night to relax.

I try to clean the kitchen nightly. Try. This is honestly where I slack off. I HATE the kitchen so dishes in the sink... I can ignore. But I'm working on this! I also make the bed daily (until lately, because I can't bend over!). Just making the bed makes the room look more put together. We pick up after ourselves daily to minimize clutter and we do laundry as it piles up. Saturday is my catch up day, but I REFUSE to spend my whole weekend cleaning. So.. do it during the week. =)

I swear by Febreeze dust spray, Swiffers, and a hardwood vac. Love all three. That's about it. I got lucky in that Mr. Perfect tends to help out a good bit. He gets home before I do, so by the time I come home, he's usually picked up some and vacuumed the house. He's also real good at cleaning the kitchen. I'm lucky, I know.

I can't wait to read some more tips from the rest of you guys. Cleaning tips make me giddy!

9 comments:

Newlywed Next Door said...

Nice post!

I usually don't clear much during the week so we did a big cleaning spree on Saturday mornings. Coffee and good music make it better :)

Kara said...

I liked the title of your blog-Perfectly Imperfect, so I clicked from Kelly's. I really like your post and your blog and here is why: My husband and I have been married for 6 years, are 37 weeks pregnant with our first baby-it's a girl, and we have 3 boxer dogs in the house. I totally get you on so many levels!!! However, we have CARPET...

Kara said...

I am feeling normal, I guess, which isn't great haha! We are on spring break this week. I don't know how it will be next week when I have to teach. I would like to go into labor on Sunday. Such a fun, mysterious time! I read your post about missing all the alone time with your husband, I feel the exact same way. I'll have to add you to my blog list and keep up with you and that April girl!

Virginia Belle said...

Wow I am so impressed by you! I recently set the goal of doing a deep cleaning of an area of the house once a week. So each area only gets cleaned once every 3 weeks. Not nearly enough! So I should definitely increase it to doing each of the rooms once a week. Thanks for the cleaning tips :)

Brown Girl said...

I need to get a swiffer for all the pet hair we have! Great tip!

Heather @ Simple Wives said...

I LOVE my swiffer. When I lived in my old duplex it was a lifesaver.

Okay, this post makes me want to clean like crazy. ;-)

beckylbranch said...

Hey girlie! You won the sleep sheep giveaway so email me with your address at beckylbranch@gmail.com yeah!!!

Grad3 said...

My house is ready when you are :)

Lindsey said...

Good post! I need to do some major cleaning, UGH!

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