Hire a housekeeper. It's probably not the answer you're looking for, but it's what I do.

What areas are a challenge for you specifically?

There is a Cleaning Tips forum that might have ideas for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cleaning Tips

Flylady website?

Here is a link that might be useful: Flylady site

A tip I learned from Don Aslett's Speed Cleaning book is to only handle something once. Take care of something instead of sitting it down on the counter or table because then you just have to move it again.

Other tips from his website is:
Dejunk. Do it now. Make the bed. Keep food carefully contained. Keep floors policed daily or weekly. Dust occasionally. Dump trash regularly. Have the right tools, which include one spray bottle filled with diluted cleaner, two terrycloth cleaning towels, small broom, one white nylon-backed scrub sponge, a cleaning caddy to keep all this in.

Here's a site that gives you daily chores and also monthly challenges. You can do the monthly anytime during that month, as long as it's done by the end of the month.

It's an entire website devoted to new moms and expecting moms, but this organization plan might help.

Here is a link that might be useful: organization plan

Keep the dirt OUT ... have large mats at all entrances, large enough that you take three steps on the mats before you reach the floor inside.

Take your shoes off at the entry and change to "house shoes".

Don't let it get messy, keep it picked up. Empty the dishwasher promptly and load right into it, don't put dishes in the sink. It's amazing how much you can do in 5 or 10 minutes-if you don't let it get too messy.

I keep a roll of paper towels and a bottle of glass and surface spray cleaner in all the bathrooms- I can tidy up the bathroom in under 5 minutes.

Robot vacuum cleaner runs every day to keep floors clean.... keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom and kitchen for maintenance tasks.

(get rid of messy DH and children) did I just say that out loud! I meant to say keep things picked up and try to teach said DH and kids how to pick up after themselves.

LOL Chispa! Don't think that I haven't considered doing just that very thing with my DH who is worse than all three of my children used to be. It drives me nutso!

Holly, what seems to work pretty well is taking any item they have left out and putting it in their space. Why do people think that the kitchen counters are the place to leave empty UPS/FedEx boxes and tools? I take those things and place them in the offenders space. For DH it is his office and for the kids either their desk or room. I'll get a "why is there a box on my desk?" ... wow, same question I had about the kitchen counters! Very few items are now being left in the public parts of the house.

Chispa, you could be my twin! I do the same thing :D

I'm still doing battle over dirty shoes. DH walked through a recently mowed, damp lawn THEN tracked it ALL OVER the house. Was it necessary to go in almost every room?

.deliverymen, cable people etc are notorious for not taking off shoes when asked. ..we bring in a lot of "crap" from the outdoors.
.i am in the process of buying doctors "footsies" for the ones who refuse.. of course friends and family always oblige..its not a big deal for them.

How to keep your house clean?

Plastic furniture. Concrete and tile floors. Drains in the middle of each room. And a good hose.

This post was edited by bird_lover6 on Thu, Oct 24, 13 at 13:38

Is nobody else's radar beeping at this thread? Looking to me like a tin of canned meat.

I thought maybe it was from someone who is learning English. At first I didn't think it would get many responses but it's turning out to be a pretty good thread!

I wonder what happened to the OP?

I love your answer, bird lover!

Possibly tinned meat, but still some useful info. I try to not do things in two steps when I can do it in one. Such as hanging up my coat when I take it off instead of first throwing it on the chair and then hanging it up. Carrying the laundry upstairs and putting it away instead of carrying it up, setting it on the bed and then putting it away later.

Things like that help me but I am amazed at the amount of mess I can make.

Today is my favorite day - the cleaning lady just left. My family knows that I simply request 48 hours of uncluttered bliss. Then the bad habits seem to creep back in.

Lots of good tid-bits here. Dedtired - the two-step thing is a chronic issue in my house - and I fall victim to it often. Actually - I have a constant conversation in my head telling myself to follow through - the laundry is killer. It can stay in the basket for days.....

Honestly - it's really not all that difficult - just takes discipline and about 20 minutes in the morning and at night to keep the clutter and piles at bay.

Everything else you just do - bathrooms, kitchens, make the beds etc....

Chispa, that is good advice. DH reminds me of the little guy in the Charlie Brown comic strip who has a little puff of dirt that just follows him around. Our lr is unusual in that I have a fairly large walk in closet there yet DH just throws clothing anywhere and everywhere.

Oh Janice, me too. Thursdays are the best! Everything clean and tidy. DH is on a road trip right now so I will have a clean house for several days! Yippee!

Just recently someone said in jest that I'm "anal" about my countertops. Uh, no. I told them a messy countertop gives me a messy mind and I can't concentrate. It wasn't my DH either because he agrees with me.

Yeah, where is the OP. Doesn't matter, I like this topic too!

Here's what I do, not including deep cleaning which is another story.

Living room. We have a lot of wood in there along with dark wood floors. I keep a Bona Dust Mop hidden and I can go over the floors & under the furniture in a few minutes.

In one of the cubby holes in my desk..which is in the LR, I keep a microfiber dust cloth.

Each morning I quickly pick up before I sit down to enjoy my coffee. Takes one minute.

Kitchen. Dishes go in the DW before bedtime so I can wake up to a clean kitchen.

I keep Clorox Wipes in bathrooms and kitchens for a quick rub down.

My only problem is doing all of this in one day. :)

CAYG...clean as you go. A classic McDonald's mantra which works pretty well considering, if you didn't have that and you had your place being manned by a bunch of scruffy-necked teens, how long would it take to be a disaster? So cleaning becomes built in as part of the process...pick up the laundry on your way to the bedrooms... throw out the junk as you pay the bills...wipe down the counters while you're cooking...don't pile the dishes at the sink, but put them in the dw. It keeps the cleaning tasks from getting too overwhelming.

The other expression that's helpful is, "If you don't have time to do it right now, when will you?" How many messes are created by, "I don't have time to fix that now, I'll just shove it here." Then they get forgotten and left and become a huge deal to fix...just take the extra couple of minutes to do it right when you're doing it and it will save a whole lot of grief down the road.

One of my favorite "Flylady" tips is "Keep your sink shiny", as in, go to bed with an empty and wiped-out kitchen sink (and all the implications: dishes that didn't go in the dishwasher are washed and put away, the dishcloth is dealt with, and waterspots are gone). So I see it as every room having a "shiny sink", whether it's making the bed, keeping clutter off the dining room table (since we don't use it for eating, let's put the clutter on it), straightening the sofa cushions before bedtime. So, at least one thing in a room is tidy, and the tidyness spreads (sometimes).

The other thing is, daily routines. Just do it!

I used to be fanatical about cleaning, even when I was young and single. Then when the kids came along I relaxed my standards somewhat but I was at home for 12 years so still managed to keep a tidy and clean house. Then I went back to work part time for 8 years...still managing to keep up..no problem. Then I went full time in my early 50's....managed OK...but not as kept up as before. Well, here I am...61, still working full time...but I just don't have much energy for it anymore, especially when I get home from work. So, it's a combo of age and working full time that has done me in. It's not as clean as I'd like, and new wood floors and espresso furniture that show dust like crazy aren't helping either! Keep thinking of hiring someone but just havent gotten around to it....I am the type who would clean before the cleaning lady gets there so Im not embarrased. And the last thing I want to do is spend the weekend cleaning. It's a dilemma for sure. When I was at the top of my game I would clean the upstairs on Mondays and the downstairs on Fridays. Im thinking in a few years when I retire I won't mind doing it since I will have all day everyday to get it done and can do it in the mornings when I have more energy. Any tips on hiring a cleaning person?

I should be cleaning right now but instead I'm stalling. And stalling. And stalling. I've been away for 4 out of the past 6 weeks so the dust is deep. I'm going to start on it any minute now.

Regarding hiring a cleaner: I'd ask friends and neighbors for a recommendation. I had 2 cleaning people for 19 of the 20 years living in this house. Both were recommended by family and neighbors. The last one quit about a year ago and I thought I should just do the cleaning myself. They were better at some jobs, I'm better at others. I am on the fence about hiring another one. On one hand, it helps the economy to give someone work. On the other hand, the money not spent there can be spent on fun things.

I am task driven. I work best (and find satisfaction) by having a to-do list, and marking things off. One of my rules is that it doesn't get marked off until it is done. Laundry, that means it is put away. A specific cooking project, must be cleaned up. Dust, vacuum, the work is done and the tools are put away. Etc., etc.

This keeps me from leaving things 95% done.

I'm with jujubean. Hire a housekeeper and relieve yourself of resentment. If you're slaving away cleaning and picking up after others you're going to be territorial about those areas of the house.

I do best if I just do it and don,t argue or barder with myself over it. I agree withnot handling things twice , things really pile up on you if you set things down with the idea that you will deal with them later. Before you know it the whole house is a big pile of later. My one drawback is laundry I really hate it. I have to bribe myself with tv time to do it.

When the original post asks such an open-ended question, and never comes back to the thread to thank those who responded, does it seem like the post is just fishing for free "copy"? Perhaps because they are a blogger? Just curious what others think.

(Even if that is the case, I've been interested in reading the thread. And I've gotten some good tips for cleaning.)

Great ideas! I especially like chispa's advice (getting DH and the kids to clean up after themselves - not getting rid of them!) and the "get a housekeeper" idea.

Now that I'm working full-time again, I have a housekeeper come every 2-3 weeks and refuse to feel guilty about it, like I used to. It still takes me several hours to work my way through "clutter" that seems to accumulate by Friday evening, and I'll do a quick wipe down of the kitchen and baths in between housecleaning visits. Also, the housekeeper really only seems to do a light surface cleaning (keep meaning to find a new cleaner), so I do my own deep cleanings periodically.

I need to work on going through mail and school papers on a daily basis so it doesn't get out of control. I try to ignore the dust on my dark stained hardwood floors, but often do a quick vacuuming on the weekends.

francoise47, not sure about original poster...from Australia, joined shortly before posting...but this thread might be enlightening

Also op has 4 posts all on different forums

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/comphelp/msg1006544925228.html

Here is a link that might be useful: chat bots?

Don't do this:

i thought it was spam from the beginning but then I'm cynical.
Either way, it's a good thread.