How to clean your house or apartment

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I was just chatting on FB with another forum member who has to do a bunch of cleaning right now but didn't know where to start. Since I do this every single day of my life just about, I gave her a quick rundown of what to do for a quick clean. She said it was exactly the info she needed so I said I'd post it here as well. Maybe the mods might consider making it a sticky and we can add other life skills to the thread?

Anyway, this is the quick clean I told her about.

1. Go through every room and get all the dirty clothes and laundry. Put them in the spot you keep the dirty clothes in.

2. Go through every room and get all the dirty dishes and put them in a central spot in the kitchen. On the table or counter is fine for now.

3. Go through every room and get all the garbage and put it in the garbage can.

4. Straighten up each room. Make the bed, put things where they belong, etc. If you have many things for other rooms, make a pile in the floor or somewhere for each room and carry things into those rooms and put them where they belong.

5. Get a feather duster (or rag) and dust furniture, books, etc. Just run it over things so you don't see a coating of dust. Work from high to low, top to bottom.

6. Sweep or vacume

7. Damp mop the kitchen. By this I mean wet a mop and wring it out. Get a bottle of spray cleaner like 409 or Windex or I put Pine Sol and water in an empty spray bottle and with one hand spray an area of the floor and with the other one, run the mop over it.

8. Do the dishes

9. Start the laundry if you want to or have to that day

It should be passable after this.

This is for cleaning up a house that is usually cleaned up and is now just messy. I can write one for deeper cleaning if you want.

Sounds useful

My sister was a home economics major. I ask her how people get along without a compressed air hose to move the dust. My challenge is that it is easier to find stuff if there is any portion of it visible than by any known system of organization. If something is put away, I have to guess if it is filed by shape, size, color, function or something else that made sense at the time.

Thank you for this. I am easily overwhelmed by cleaning the apartment, so much so that I get frozen and don't know where to start ... therefore things just get worse and more overwhelming!

http://www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/october/

I had a major revelation when I saw that someone had made a list of their file folders. Of course, that made it easier to decide if something could be filed in an existing class, and helped tweak her memory when wondering where something might have gone. Still, I find that a pile of papers kept in the chronological age in which they accumulated is often more useful than more refined systems.

I've learned to do my organizing into portable units, instead of cluttering up my memory with the various shelves and cupboards I've had to abandon.

Also don't just put something on top of a cupboard, bench top or side table ect. Make sure they are always clear as clutter builds up fast and makes your house look instantly messy.

Have a cork board for pinning bills to and a white board your writing important reminders to oneself.

Have a small bowl or a money box for loose change so it isn't everywhere.

Have a small basket or box in a central location for small "misc" items like loose batteries so they are not floating around in each room and then you can't find them.

I have hanging shelves in all my wardrobes so i can open and instantly see all my clothes and where they are. I also have a chest of draws with 1 draw assigned to 1 item and it is labeled. "bra's" "socks and tights" "underwear" "scarfs and hats" "misc hair crap"

I am using the same system and furthermore I try to plant post-it´s on every half done project (have lots of half finished DIY-projects), but they keep falling down

Thanks for the list! This is great! I find it so hard to keep my home in an acceptable condition. The mess drives me insane but somehow I turn around and there it all is. I just want to be able to pick up one thing and then put it back in its place.

OK. I always say I am great at organizing ideas and information but really struggle with anything material. I will give this a shot.

Thanks for the post,.

It is tough coz it means multi-tasking, and thinking about more then one thing at a time.
I was advised to do it is simple steps. Even that seems complicated & a major job. Most NT's find this sort of thing easy. So maybe consider getting in a cleaner to do it.