Cleaning Routines Questions and a Small Snippet of Stitching

My cleaning routines have changed over the years and I have questions for y'all!

So let's go back in time if you would like...

I remember being able to clean the whole house on Saturday. Oh those days in my 20's with tons of energy, I would often get up and start in one room and make my way out and have all the rooms done by noon. I even washed clothes too. 

THEN kids came along and they had lots more stuff and their rooms weren't as easy to clean. I had to adjust and show them how to do stuff. Even with all the showing, I will say right up front, Paul Allen was a HUGE challenge. He loved clean and organized, but he couldn't maintain. He loved nothing more than cleaning up his room and organizing his shelves and even from the very earliest age he was fascinated with this book and 

and this page!!! We had to read every bin name...don't try to skip one, because he knew even before he could read.

By the teenage years, we have moved into our current home and with a larger square footage, things became even harder. I ended up having to hire help and let me just say the lady was amazing and was such a huge help. She only cleaned the main level which meant Paul Allen's domain didn't get touched. There is not enough money in the world to have someone do that. I would tackle it each Saturday and fuss fuss fuss. Lindsay maintained her room and laundered her own clothes. It was most definitely not up to my standards, but I had to cave because of work, busy schedules, and eventually health.

Side note: Both of my kids have neat and tidy homes...I would NOT have guessed that along the way!

When I retired, I set out tackling the house little by little to get it in order. Paul Allen wondered why I waited until he moved out to buy a new bedroom set, new window blinds, etc. I just rolled my eyes at him. His idea of cleaning when the weekend came and he had passed with the grades report was to stuff coke cans and anything else into drawers and cabinets. I am not even gonna lie when I tell you the teen years with him were rough. That is a whole three posts story there.

My entire life I have cleaned a room and then moved on. Sometimes the Internet can mess with you and this craze of clean with me videos and books is unreal. I am a second guesser anyway. 

So first question, do you clean an entire room before moving on...like vacuum, dust, etc OR do you do a task for the whole house like dust the whole house on one day???

I like the idea of a room all done and then move on, but I am indeed curious.

#2. Do you do it all in one day or break it up?

With my age and the size of this family home that I am indeed blessed with, I have had to break mine up into areas per day. I just recently changed all that my areas and get the main level done in three days. 

I do my bedroom and bath and then the guest bedroom and bath (Lindsay's old room) on Mondays with washing sheets and towels.

I then do the living room and my formal areas on Tuesday with laundry.

Wednesdays is my tougher day. The kitchen gets a major cleaning ....refrigerator too with the sewing room and laundry area added. Laundry too. 

You can see I am basically doing a heavy use room with a light use room on each day.

Thursdays are errands and running around with Mama.

Friday is a quick check of downstairs and my porches with some decluttering tasks added in if time permits.

I do laundry everyday and iron on Fridays or Saturday mornings. 

Saturday I work outside in the yard and run around with Hubby and Sundays are for resting!!!

Oh, and I have all of this written on index cards to keep me running smoothly because I like to write stuff down and have lists!!!

#3 Now, I am curious about the deep cleaning tasks...

Do you do those a certain time of the year or spaced out?

I used to do all of them in the summer or right after Christmas because that worked with my teaching schedule. June was a month of spring cleaning if you will.

Now that I am home, I have tried to make a master list and work through them as needed. I have been more successful with that as time as gone on. 

I will say I have a list of tasks that I need to get to like touching up baseboards downstairs with paint and lots more decluttering of closets.

The decluttering post  is coming later with questions 😃

I am interested in what y'all do if as usual I overthink and plan stuff. 

My mother is the QUEEN OF CLEAN and you can eat off her floors. No lie. Of course, she would never allow a dog to live in her house, let alone two.

She is super hyperactive and just moves and does as she sees fit. Maybe one day I will get there, but probably not as long as I have dogs.

As a lover of books, this is my absolute favorite book on cleaning. I have bought many and sold all of them on Ebay or Amazon, but this one I have kept in my collection.

My favorite cleaner in this crazy share your cleaning on the Internet is  https://www.instagram.com/abowlfulloflemons/ on  Instagram. She also has a website and it has lots of useful information, but she has simplified things from the days of her blog and her IG account is much better, BUT she has a brand new home so that makes it hard for those of us who have some knicks and bumps of a 35 year old house. 

Let me know some of your best tips in the comments.

For those of you who only visit here for stitching, here is your look at what I am working on for Christmas in July stitching. An ornament from a very old magazine.

Eagerly waiting for comments on this post,

Sandy