What takes priority?

What housework takes priority? None. The priority is how I feel, if I want to go out for the day I go, if, as I did the other wet cold day just want to lie on the settee and read then I did. I have low energy levels due to a medical condition so the priority is me. Never been ill through a dirty or untidy house a house. don't waste your life on doing what you don't want to do is my message.

Never leave a room empty handed,put things for upstairs on stairs, one room a day proper clean but only work max four hours with minimum two coffee breaks, five day week then two lazy days pick your own mine are Sunday and Monday

Clean clothes, clean kitchen, dishes and bathroom are priorities.

Wooden floors/ posh Lino mean a quick sweep with a broom or mop cleaners the floors.

Everything else is tidy or can wait.

GreenGran

Good advice, but I think I worry about everything spiralling out of control, with the whole house being in need of a good clean, and so little time to do it

Okay, I know it’s neurotic!

Worktops, hob, and kitchen sink cleaned every day.
Toilets and basins, twice a week, showers once a fortnight.
I vacuum when the dog hair starts to collect around the edges of the rooms.
Our bedroom gets vacuumed twice a week, and guest rooms before guests arrive.
Laundry and ironing is done when I've nothing more interesting to do, or we run out of clothes!
I've never been a particularly good housekeeper, there are far more interesting ways to fill my time. Our house is 'livably' clean not a show home.

I would love to live in a clean and tidy house but it is never going to happen.
I've just had to clear out an entire room, including disposing of the carpet, while the floor was sanded and varnished.
It now looks beautiful but only half the contents have gone back in. The rest are still cluttering up other parts of the house.
I would like to part with most of this but can I get DH to agree? Especially as most of the stuff is his.
Meanwhile, while I ponder this dilemma, I'm on here, reading, relaxing and drinking tea!

Don’t put it down put it away is my motto, it works for me although I do sound a bit smug.
It’s the way I was brought up is my excuse.

I'm not as spick and span as I used to be. When it gets on my nerves then i'll do it. Always wash up and clean worktops. Try to keep up with the washing and ironing. Downstairs gets priority. I move like a bat out of hell when I know my sister who lives a long way off and only see 2-3 times a year is coming for the day. Not that she would take any notice. She doesn't have the time to keep up with it all in her house. I guess I could put the hoover round more often but I do keep clean and tidy (ish) on the whole. I would rather be out on the garden these days.

That's a great idea 1mm6 about the bag - one which I shall copy. I do my housework in small batches so that it isn't overwhelming. I like to keep the kitchen and bathroom clean and tidy, then vac the carpet, curtains and chairs weekly (dark cat + pale furniture) and pick up as and when.

I wash up once daily after breakfast, make the beds and check the bathroom.

Clean toilet and hand basin once a week, do the job properly, floor, bath, shelves once a month.

Empty bins the day before collection. Hoover sitting -room weekly, upstairs once a month. Wash when dirty clothes basket is full.

We try to keep the clutter down, so we can tidy up in 15 minutes.

Love your idea lmm

My morning routine is to tidy the kitchen, wipe worktops etc. Then floors, Hoover and mop kitchen. We have 2 labradors both of whom are moulting at the moment so by lunch time you wouldn't know I had bothered! I may have load of washing on while I do this. I always then make the bed and clean the bathroom. I have this routine down about 3/4 hour. Things like windows are done once in a while, ironing about twice week. I actually enjoy housework ( I know - I need to get a life) and although I do have health problems can be fairly active for reasonable periods of time. I'm also perfectionist and nobody can do it my standards. I do allow DH to do the floors now and again ?

After reading all these posts I am feeling so much better about the room whose door is always kept closed and the shopping bag hidden under the kitchen table which has in it everything that comes through the letterbox or is left behind by the grandchildren.

Sara65 You can’t remember which rooms you’ve cleaned? If they are obviously in need of cleaning, then clean them. If not, then let well alone. That’s my method, anyway.

Same as most people I think - kitchens and bathrooms first, then other rooms if I still feel up to it.

Hoover when I ‘see’ a mess ...don’t iron anymore... clean bathroom twice a week...wash up immediately something’s dirty ....mop floors when needed....grocery shop on-line. I intend to enjoy as much as possible what’s left of my life. The next person who owns this house can do as they please...HOUSEWORK....invented by men to keep women busy, busy, busy and tied to the home!!

Brilliant idea lmm6. My priorities on my two days off Are emptying the toilet cassette and filling water tank. Then there is shopping and family visits. Housework...hahaha. I would rather sit and sew on the riverbank...and I do. Life is better spent with simple pleasures than cleaning....

With 4 cats I have to hoover everyday. Sometimes twice in the living room
DH is REALLY untidy but I cannot clear his mess up as he would have a fit & I'd probably lose something ( not by accident either!!).
I tend to blitz one room at a time although the kitchen, Bathroom & Cloakroom do get 'done' every day- even if just quickly.

A immaculate house isa sign of awasted life.My brother sent me this poster i love it.It has a mouse with a broom lifting up the carpet and sweeping dust under it.To me friends come to see me but not a house its always clean but not a showroom.I remember years ago reading a child always remember the time you played with him and not a ironed jumper.

Fantastic response doodle. Exactly what I do. Makes everything less ‘chore like’

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who would rather read or go out than dust/polish/vacuum/wash floors/iron/weed the flowers

For me, kitchen and bathrooms need to be clean. Then the living room, if there is clutter, I put it all in a wash basket, vacuum/mop, and dust. Then I deal with the clutter as and when I can. Bedrooms come last on the priority list for me, as no one else sees them! I always keep my entrance hallway clean in case I have a delivery.
There is a website that has a swear word in the title so I shan't link it, but it's aimed at people who've really let the house get on top of them, for whatever reason, workaholic, grief, depression, 5 kids under 5, and it suggests to go around the entire house with a bin bag for the rubbish, then to go round and collect all the laundry, then put a load on, then to go and collect any other clutter or things left on floors, then assess the situation. You'll feel a lot more motivated when the whole place looks a bit tidier just after a couple of whiz-arounds

Housework is last on my list of priorities. I clear up as I go along, always put things away in their correct place so never actually have to 'tidy'. Do washing when there is a load and smooth it out so that nothing needs ironing, except my sheets because I starch them.
Gardening, however, is a pleasure, not a chore, so I am happy to work hard at it. Each to his own!

Keep your kitchen and bathroom clean and tidy first - I have been throwing out loads of bits and pieces over the last few weeks that belonged to my mother - most of which I donated to charity shops.
I now, where possible, do one room at a time to tidy it and give it a thorough clean - though if I don't feel like it, I don't and just do what I feel like be it read the newspaper, go out for a walk or go shopping!

Get a cleaner - that makes you tidy up!!!

I remember my grandma saying - wash the dishes and the kitchen looks tidy, clean the hearth and the living room looks tidy and make the bed etc., etc.