LOOKING FOR A HOUSEWORK ROUTINE

I work fulltime so don't have a routine. We have 2 large dogs so I need to wash walls, doors, floors, appliances and clean skirting boards on an almost daily basis (only downstairs thank goodness.) It doesn't matter how carefully we towel the dogs dry they stay wet for ages and brush up against walls and shake themselves. We thought that our one year old puppy had stopped chewing but came downstairs this morning to find that he had chewed an expensive door mat.

Rule 1) Keep it tidy - makes everywhere look clean even if it isn't
Rule 2) Vacuum twice a week - it keeps the dust down
Rule 3) Wipe bathroom/shower round everyday (last person in does this) use dry cloths, clean bath/shower tray/basin then dry also round toilet - takes around 10 minutes.
Rule 4) Keep kitchen clean and tidy.

Of course rules are to be broken, but only fools lives in dirty homes.

I have become a bit tidier and better at housework since I turned seventy although I still work full time. I think this may be because I dont want to drop dead and leave a lot of mess for someone else to clean up. I didn't bother that much when I was younger.

I dreamed I dwelt in marble halls ?
Sadly is an end terraced house!

I admit, the poem is indeed quite lovely!

A friend had a cleaning lady who cleaned the bath then polished it with Mr Sheen (someone mentioned polishing the bath in a previous post).

My friend said when she got in the bath she skidded and landed with a thump, she could have hurt herself or broken a bone! She asked the cleaner not to use Mr Sheen on the bath but I think she carried on regardless.

I had a cleaning lady once who had an incredibly posh accent. She used to answer the phone, saying, "The Master and Mistress are out at the moment, may I help you?" She wasn't much good at housework but she did lovely flower arrangements and told excellent gossip.

My boss spoke to her once and was convinced he was paying me too much to be able afford such an aristocratic 'servant'

I'm reminded about a story my mother told me about a friend of hers who had a really tidy house even though she also had five kids, like my mother. The families did a house swap one summer because my mum's friend lived near my parents' relatives and we lived near the seaside. Then mum realised: her friend's house was surface tidy and the cupboards were a tip because "tidying" apparently meant chucking stuff out of sight; my mum's house was less superficially tidy but hercupbards and drawers were well organised. I'm like that too.

badenkate, I think it's the other group doing the over-egging, making out that housework needs doing far more and more often than it really does. I expect a good number of people would think my house messy and dusty, but what needs to be clean for hygiene purposes is clean, and the rest of the house is what I call "lived in". I actually dislike a house to look like a showroom and don't see the appeal of excessive tidiness and dust freeness.

nookie sounds cosy.

Do the cats manage to stay upright?

This thread has made me think about how I organise my time. No, I've never developed a routine because the work I used to do, English language to adults including going into businesses, changed my working times regularly so things always got done as and when.
It also seems, reading the comments, that there are two alternative attitudes to housework: there is a routine of things you have to do and the rest of your life fits round it; or there are other areas of your life that are more important and housework gets done in the space that is left.
I think those of us that are in the second group are tending to over-egg the pudding and make it sound as though we live in squalour ?! I live in a new house, there are just the two of us and two dogs, and we are both quite tidy - to be frank not much cleaning needs doing every day.
One other memory: my DMIL was of the generation when many men said 'my wife doesn't need to go out to work' and she used to clean the house every day for something to do and to feel that she was 'doing her job'. I promised myself I'd never go down that route.

Our house has no carpets or rugs our flooring is marble. We hoover every day on the lower level. The bedrooms are serviced twice a week. The kitchen is cleaned every day as are the bathrooms.

Because we have marble floors I start with an all over vacuum. Then you have to mop clean the floors, followed by a rectangular dry mop and floor polish.

We have two adorable cats who moult almost constantly.

twenty minutes a room usually keeps it clean on a daily basis
daily?
Are you supposed to do each room daily?

DM used to dust every day, I don't.
I do whizz round with a handheld vacuum cleaner when I see bits of garden invading the house.

Cold day in hell when I get excited about anything these days. Least of all housework.

Jinglebells - I have been reading you for months and NEVER seen you so excited about housework. Calm down, it will still be there tomorrow.

My cleaning schedule is driven by visitors, i.e. Manic session of it just before they arrive, otherwise, am very good at ignoring dust and grime.

Fly lady has some great routines and hints on keeping the home clean my favourite is using a timer twenty minutes a room usually keeps it clean on a daily basis or one of my incentives is to invite a couple of friends for coffee or lunch so I'm forced to do it instead of putting things off.

But it's only ever sorted out when getting in and out gets really dangerous.

I've got a shed for that Grannya.

Okay - I'm owning up. I don't have a routine as such, but yes, I clean often. In my defense I lived in an absolute tip as a child so I'm dealing with my hang-ups by making sure that my own house never leaves people needing to wipe their feet on the way OUT.

I live with an ever changing motley collection of people, some of whom actually pay me for living in my house, and I also get a lot of visitors to my home - so I ensure the house is always clean and tidy fro both my comfort and theirs. And I do like the smell of a clean house.

I fit in housework around other things so that although it never takes priority it is always attended to. I tend to do one big job and half a dozen smaller ones each day. Bin emptying is a small job, cleaning the kitchen is a big one. Windows are not my job, but cleaning the oven is. Keeping on top of the house is a big task so the one area I allow myself as a dumping ground is an attic storeroom; when I run out of time to tidy things away properly I dump them there until I can get around to spending a day sorting things out.

I've known 2 people who had house fires caused by dishwashers. Not sure how exactly, and one of the dishwashers was quite new.

(I wonder if putting a cloth in might block something and cause overheating?)

Oh my gosh Indinana! That's the one I've got. I actually posted about it about it on here. I had completely forgotten that it converts. What do the attachments look like?

Ha, I can't remember, cos I'm not sure what I've done with them either. I think they're small and black, a long nozzle and a small flat one (I think) for doing bathroom tiles and so on.

Because this thread title is shouty (capital letters; not complaining, just remarking), it keeps catching my attention and I keep wondering: why the need for a routine? Doing the next most urgent job next seems like a good approach to me, and if nothing's urgent, don't do housework. There's always plenty else to do, surely?