So Bean and I are working through some things right now, one of them being keeping this house clean. I don't know what his experience was growing up, but we had June, a lady who came to our house every 2 weeks and cleaned everything. The bathrooms, mopped the floors, changed the sheets, vaccumed, cleaned the kitchen...everything you can think of, June cleaned it. I used to love coming home after June was there because the house smelled deliciously Pine-Sol-y and was spotless.
June and my Granny were the best of friends. Everytime Granny came to visit, she and June would clean together and smoke cigarettes on the back porch. Granny LOVED to do laundry. I really think she lived for it. She would ask me if I had anything else to wash in the one or two loads she managed to come up with every single day. She was good at it.
As a result of this, I never learned how to clean. I never had chores. My dad had a certain way of cleaning the kitchen after Connie cooked, so we never cleaned up. At some point, Connie told Dad that we didn't need June to come clean the house, that she would take care of it. I still didn't have to vaccum or sweep or mop, I rarely cooked, and I rarely set the table.
When I got my first apartment that didn't come with a roommate in college, I kept it fairly clean. I don't remember cleaning, but I always had the dishes done every night, and I vaccummed every now and then.
So now we have this house with no carpet and the dust and pet fur seems to collect everywhere. Somewhere in our pre-marital counseling we (I) decided that if one of us cooks (meaning when I cook) the other of us should clean (meaning Bean should clean the kitchen every night). Bean agreed to that, because his dad cooks and his mom cleans the kitchen. He probably thought he would cook most nights and I would clean. So we came to a standstill. I would cook, he wouldn't clean. He would cook, I wouldn't clean because he didn't clean last time. So which came first, the chicken or the egg? The dirty kitchen or the dishes?
Not to mention the bathrooms. The whiskers on the sink. The fact that these bathroom sinks have ugly curves that are hard to clean. The all-glass shower that never looks good. The toilets.
Then there's the laundry. Since Bean wears 2 shirts to work everyday and sweats through them from working so hard, the laundry piles up. Not to mention that I go through several pairs of workout clothes a week and sweat through them from walking 4-7 miles a day...which will only increase as the time goes by, which means the sweat will only increase. And the laundry will only increase. I dread thinking about the cloth diapers we will be washing in a couple of years!
On top of all of that, there is the junk mail that constantly comes in and covers all of our surfaces- kitchen counters, the drawers by the front door, the catalogs on the coffee table, the bills that need to be paid.
I've had enough!!
So we hashed it out. The first thing we are going to be working on in our marriage is the cleaning. We are starting from square one.
This week we are practicing the daily issues- cleaning the kitchen/doing dishes, keeping up with the laundry, and the mail. So far every night this week, the dishes have been washed and put away the day after the dishwasher is run. The kitchen counters are wiped down and look excellent before we eat dinner. Any laundry we've done has been put away the same evening, not just left on the dining room table until someone comes over. And the mail has been taken care of when it comes into the house.
Next week we will start tackling the cleaning that needs to be done, but never is. So here is our schedule:
Daily- Finish all of the aforementioned items (including all aspects of the kitchen).
Monday- Sweep/vaccum downstairs, take out the trash/recycling
Tuesday- Clean the toilets, litterboxes, and bathroom sinks
Wednesday- Clean the shower, tub, and mirrors in downstairs bathrooms
Thursday- Take out trash (if needed), move any recycling outside to big bin, pay Blake for mowing the yard :)
Friday- Sweep/vaccum upstairs, do any paperwork and filing in the office
Saturday- Wipe down surfaces/dust as needed
Sunday- NOTHING.
Monthly- Wash the couch cushions, wash/change the sheets, mop the floors
So the question is: what am I missing? Is once a month on changing the sheets gross? What is your favorite method for keeping the house clean? Any tricks or shortcuts? We can do this, right? I'm not crazy for making a schedule, right? Don't answer that. But answer the other ones, please.
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