I try to loosely keep up with Flylady-but something I have in my planner (new for the year-is rooms broken down by zones. Not sure if anyone else does this but I have taken to breaking a room down into zones itself:
For example the kitchen is broken down this way for me-
Monday-appliances
Tuesday-upper cabinets
Wednesday-lower cabinets
Thursday-wipe down walls and wash curtain,clean dish drainer
Friday -floors
Saturday and Sunday-pantry(which is not in good shape!)and fridge.

I realize that is not a perfect schedule but you should have seen the list before that!LOL I am pretty intent at making lists and the items tend to be broken down into subcatagories even. So I tried to simplify really I did.Cause I was doing great on the other list but started to crash and burn around Thursday due to too many things being on each nights list.

One of my goals this year is to do at LEAST 15-30 minutes a day which doesn't seem like much but its better than crash and burn>

Hey Jamie
Sorry you asked??tee hee

"I am always procrastinating about taking the kitchen garbage out until it is overflowing past the point of decency. And when I *do* take the kitchen trash out, I often forget to go through the house and empty the other garbages at the same time...mostly because I've waited until I really *need* the kitchen trash empty, and I'm fixing dinner, and have no time to grab the others right then."

Jamie, since you 'know' me well enough to know I am not averse to sticking my foot right in my mouth: why is taking out the trash your job? In my house my husband takes care of it...is there some reason why, when you are busy fixing dinner and occupied, he isn't going around emptying trash and taking it out?

Seriously, I obviously don't know what your division of labor/time is but I will throw out the idea that now that you two are living in the same household, household tasks and duties are joint responsibilities.

We empty the trash in the kitchen nightly. As mentioned it has always been my husband's chore. Nowadays it is my son's. The bathroom trash gets emptied weekly, when I clean those rooms thoroughly. My husband will empty the hall bathroom (one he uses) trash can when needed.

Ann

Our trash & recycling gets put out on Monday for pickup Tuesday morning. Then I need to empty the kitchen, office and dining room (i.e. office #2) on Thursday. This seems to work well. I had to put a large kitchen wastebasket in the office to make this all work, and DH didn't like the big basket in the office at first. But it's better than 3 small ones in there that get kicked over all the time and fill up too quickly (like we had before).

Monday therefore becomes my big get the trash & recycling together, find any extra things to throw out, sweep everywhere day. Since the house tends to get trashed over the weekend with the kids home, this routine works well because I HAVE to get the house organized in order to function for the rest of the week!

Not yet...but I say delegate, delegate, delegate! And knowing that will last about a week, I might as well make a daily plan for myself...which is on my list of things to do that I haven't done yet.

I'm finally getting better about delegating. I have 3 children who are more than able to help with our chores. My parents never did this with us, so I had to learn this "all by myself". (My mom would do it herself, then yell at us for not helping her.)

My cleaning routine is to do a little bit every day. I simply do not want to spend hours in one day cleaning! I try to do FlyLady's Zone Mission each night, plus a load of laundry. (I cannot let that laundry get ahead of me!) On Saturday mornings I usually do FL's "Home Blessing" for an hour (vaccuuming, dusting, mopping, spraying). I have to admit I have fallen off the routine wagon over the holidays, but I am climbing back on!

Sheryl

I clean once a week. I just do it all.

Daily-
I keep the house picked up.
I almost totally clean the kitchen by the time it's swept, dishes done, etc.
One load of laundry washed, dried and put up.
- on clean house day I put do towels, dishtowels, and sheets. Other days I do our clothes. Five people in the house, I do laundry every day.

Weekly-
Empty garbages before garbage day.
Clean house
- I developed a list of things I want to do when cleaning house- you know, wipe down counters, clean windows, baseboards etc. I print up a list and get going on it. IF I do it by myself and if I do a great job at it I usually do it in two days about three hours each day. Sometimes I do what I would call a quick clean and this is similar to what most people tell me the do when they are cleaning their house. A quick cleaning only takes me about three to four hours total.

I mean if I really do every crack on the baseboards as opposed to quickly wiping them down or getting the steam cleaner out to clean every crack in the bathrooms as opposed to wiping down the bathrooms the best I can with a cleaning towel-- then I take two days and do about 3 hours each day. If I do the type of cleaning most people do then it takes me about four hours to clean the whole house by myself.

However, I usually have help. I have three kids who are pletny old enough to chase down garbage cans, empty them and put them back up. I have a husband who lives in this house as well. I explain to him- he can help and we can all do fun things on the weekend or he can not help and everyone can do fun things without me. He helps usually.

It is late and I'm getting bug eyed. I don't even know if I'm making sense right now. Two sick kids and a sick husband. Sigh.
G

And when I *do* take the kitchen trash out, I often forget to go through the house and empty the other garbages at the same time..

This is a problem at our house, too. The trash *is* my DH's responsibility, which really isn't fair, since he's also making dinner, doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms--although not VACUUMING them--and all the other female jobs.

You'd think, like a good '50s father, I'd get off my b u t t (my 7-y-o son got sent to the principal's office for spelling that word, btw) and take out the garbage.

I know my mom would issue an order--the garbage wasn't a standing chore, it was a "just in time" one--to take out the garbage, and the rules were, it involved getting EVERY garbage in the house, no matter how little it needed to be emptied. That worked. I need to get something underway.

I'm in danger of ending up like Sheryl's mom--doing it myself, and yelling at my kids for not helping. It really takes SO much time to teach them how to help, and to insist that they do, without whining, etc.

I only have routines I'm really happy with for two mornings out of the week, and would like to get a few more "down pat." So I'll take your challenge. I've been trying to analyze things, as you said, and it does help.

I'm trying to group things that work well together, and in a specific order that makes the best use of my time. I don't think dovetailing is exactly the right word, but it's the closest I can think of right now.

For example, my focus for Friday mornings is what Flylady would call the weekly home blessing, but there's more to it than cleaning. I start with a load of laundry. If I want to get two loads of laundry completely done before work, I need to start the first one early. I timed how long the washer cycles are, so I know when in my cleaning routine to go and switch loads. Next I shave my legs, because then I won't have to fuss about wiping up errant hairs--they'll be taken care of when I'm cleaning the bathroom later in the morning.

I do the tub before mopping the floor, so any splashes will be mopped up. I vacuum up dog hairs before doing the tub to avoid vacuuming in a wet area, and to make mopping easier later.

Saturday mornings the focus is computer maintenance, but again I'm combining it with other things. It takes 45 minutes for the virus scan, so I've found things I can do while I'm waiting for it to run. I get the newspaper in, and use the bag for a quick yard clean-up. Then I look at the ads, cut out coupons, deal with laundry, and so forth.

I guess what I'm saying is, it seems like *when* you do things is just as important as *what* you, because it can save so much time and frustration. It's kind of the old Basic Week Plan taken a little further. I guess some people work this way automatically; I needed to time things, think things out and write it all down.

(I have trash on my calendar, too--recycling actually. I found the recycling symbol in one of my fonts, and printed lots of them in green, on little labels, and slapped them in my planner. Sounds silly to need this, but I notice the label better than handwriting.)

Erica

It's okay Ann...I knew someone would bring that up, but I think most people here know how I feel about the "equality" that most women seem to require in running a household, so I won't belabor the point (which generally seems to make everyone defensive). I don't have kids I need to teach chores to by example (and won't), so I can afford to spoil my hubby. LOL The trash is one of my "household duties", and I don't resent that or mind in the least...I'm just looking for a way to work it into my routines again. :-)

Erica, I so agree...*when* really is important, isn't it? Because if I get the trash taken care of *before* it's an issue, then I never have to worry about being in the middle of dinner and having to take care of it. I feel a bit silly writing down stuff for "trash duty", but it seems like that's the easiest way to make myself aware of it, you know? Otherwise I switch back to automatic again...bad when it's not in a routine.

This morning I tried something - after my shower, before I went in to wake DH up, I took the bathroom garbage, put a new bag in and put that bag out in the kitchen. Then when DH was showering, I pulled the kitchen trash out and changed that, adding the bathroom garbage to the kitchen one. That got set just outside the back door (okay, it's like 10 degrees here, and snowing...and I didn't have socks on yet). LOL I didn't have time to get any of the others then - had to complete the rest of my morning routine before we left for work.

So the morning thing isn't going to work, because I don't have enough time to make it all the way through the house collecting garbage. Tonight before bed I'll run through the house and collect *all* the garbages and take them out, and mark it on my calendar. I think that will probably work better...I just need to keep track of the days this week that I notice it's full, and maybe dump the kitchen and living room garbages on all those days, and then once or twice a week dump *all* the garbages in the house.

I should recycle...we don't now, but there are recycling bins in the parking lot just a block away. Maybe after I get the garbage thing down in my routine I'll add recycling - I think those stickers are a *wonderful* idea!!! :-)

"It's okay Ann...I knew someone would bring that up, but I think most people here know how I feel about the "equality" that most women seem to require in running a household, so I won't belabor the point (which generally seems to make everyone defensive)."

It doesn't make me defensive but I think you misunderstood my point Jamie. My husband doesn't take out the garbage because I've demanded or required "equality"...he does it because he knows I'm busy doing tasks to help our family and our household, so he does things to accomplish the same goal.

I guess what I'm wondering is, in your household if you are tearing around clearly busy, a chore needs to be done, and you can't do it...doesn't your husband care enough about you to want to take care of something to lighten your burden? And I know spouses aren't mind readers so maybe you have to ask at first (you're newlyweds too so you are still building your patterns), but if so, it's part of building a shared life together, not a requirement laid down.

Maybe I"m just lucky that way but I sure appreciate having a partner who tries to help me keep our home and family running smoothly. I once read a lovely bit of old wives' advice: in a good marriage each partner isn't trying to give 50/50, each is trying to give 100/100.

Ann

also know that if YOU keep doing it (bcs you're used to being the one who takes the trash out bcs, face it, you were the only one who lived there), you'll prevent any realization on his part that he COULD. (and he used to be the only person who lived at HIS house, where he surely must have been the person to take the garbage out, no?)

My pastor's wife once said, when speaking about the concept of the same person always organizing the Easter brunch or whatever, "sometimes you need to create a vacuum, so that other people can rise to the occasion--and to the opportunity."

In my family, there is no equality. Not even a semblance of it, really. My DH shops, cooks, cleans, shuffles the kids, does laundry, takes the garbage out, cares for the car, deals w/ extended family's demands, cleans the cat box, cleans the guinea-pig cage, helps DD with her homework. I bring home the bacon, mess up the house, and whine, LOL.

I *know* I do too little, like some selfish adolescent. I also know that since he *will* do it, I don't have to. The things that he doesn't do at all, like fold clothes, I do because otherwise they won't get done. If he said to me, "please be the garbage taker-outer," I'd do it in a flash. But frankly, I'm lazy, and also it doesn't occur to me at all.

Because he always does it. There's no "vacuum" to pull me up--I have to insert myself into something that is already a routine for him.

And, it needs to be taken out at odd times, etc.; a routine won't work for the main garbage (it will for the other ones). But if we had designated me as "garbage lady," he could say, as I do now on the odd occasions when I cook: "honey, the garbage is getting full; would you take it down?" and I would, in a flash, bcs that would be my part of taking care of the house.

And as a consequence, I feel crummy--about myself, about my relationship with him, about the garbage. And it's part of the reason why I don't quite feel like it's "my" home. Because I don't do that much to care for it. We don't do someone any favors by letting them not participate.

I know your DH does way more than I do, so I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with how much he contributes to your home life.

But here I think is the big, valid point: if you are truly having trouble remembering to do the garbage, maybe that's a sign to you that it shouldn't be YOUR job. Not because he's a guy (and taking out the garbage, we all know, is a man's job, LOL), and not because he has to jump through some sort of equality hoop. But because you can't, you don't have time, you're having trouble remembering.

Those are the sorts of cues that tell us how to organize the chores in our household--whether it's a husband, or a roommate, or kids. That really isn't part of the issue, to me--it's that you are having a lot of trouble doing it, and he lies there too and could help.

Do you really think that if you said to him, "would you be the garbage-taking-out person in our house? And would you find a way to remember to get ALL the garbage from ALL the rooms? I'm having trouble fitting it in." that your marriage would be damaged due to some sort of "false and unnecessary equality" thing?

Speaking of which, I'm going to take the garbage out.

DH would help me, if I asked, which I choose not to. Does that help clear things up? I know most people do things differently, but this works for *us*. :-)

If you line all the small trash bags with six bags(or lay them underneath the top bag) ,removing bathroom and office trash is simply a matter of lifting the bag and tossing it into the main trash when you are headed there.Makes the chore painless.

Garbage has never been "assigned" to either of us. Whoever notices the garbage needs to be taken out, does it. It's never been a big deal. However, DH lately has had a different approach than I do. When *he* notices the garbage is full, he delegates it to one of the kids and they come running. Hmmmm...I think I need to take his cue.

Sheryl

I chose a small kitchen garbage can for just this reason. I just tie it up every night as I finish cleaning up in the kitchen, then take it out in the morning on my way to work. All other baskets are emptied weekly, the night before garbage day.

I only have a couple cleaning routines, which is probably why I'm not happy with the state of my house.

1. Clean as you cook. This saves me from an enormous mess that makes it hard to want to clean up after dinner.

2. One-minute cleaning in the bathroom as I finish my shower. I do need to buy a second Swiffer, so I can do the floors more often. It really helps me to have it on hand, rather than have to go downstairs.

3. I pick out clothes for the next day and lay out the things I need to take to work. (Not really cleaning, but it's a routine that helps me.)

4. Before I go to bed, I clear off the coffee table and fold the throws neatly. Makes a *huge* difference in how the living room looks.

5. We try to eat dinner in the dining room nightly, which keeps it from being overrun with junk, as in many homes.

That's about it. I still need to do a lot of work.

Tally Sue, we must have been posting at the same time last night. :-) Since it seems to be so very important to you and Ann, here's the skinny on DH - he *hates* taking the garbage out. When he lived alone, it got done maybe once a month, when *I* reminded him to do it (think big black bags filled with trash sitting around the house waiting to be taken to the curb). On the other hand, I had a routine for getting it done every week at my house, and I just haven't gotten around to forming a new one yet. And yes, he would do it if I asked him to, without complaining...even though he hates it, just because I asked, and he likes to be helpful. But I'm not going to ask him to do something he hates, especially when it's a job I don't mind doing myself. He does plenty of other things to help out and make the house feel like his "home", and I do ask him for help with things I know he doesn't mind doing - I think I can handle making the garbage more "routine" for myself. Sheesh. Yes, he does care about me, Ann, and that wouldn't change whether he helped with *anything* or not. No, it wouldn't "wreck" our marriage to ask him to take out the trash Tally Sue, and no, I'm still not going to ask him to do something he hates doing, because I care about *his happiness* too. Okay? ;-) Moving on...

Cupajoe, thanks!! :-) I learned to do that when I worked in nursing homes (just keep extra bags in the bottom of each garbage pail), and I agree, it really does make everything easier. I haven't quite gotten around to it with the basement and living room garbages though - thanks for reminding me. A simple thing that will save a lot of time - will get that done this week.

Joann, I may have to think about that...though to be honest, I don't know if I have the self-discipline to go all the way out to the dumpster every morning (okay, I know I don't). LOL It's been below zero every morning this week so far, and it's all I can do to let the dogs out and in, much less go all the way across the snow-covered back yard to take the garbage out. I did get it done last night though, and I think that will work pretty well, actually...just adding it to my "before bed" routine a few nights per week. I'm the one using the main garbage the most (I cook, I sort mail, etc), so I actually *can* gauge the days it will generally be full - I think I'll be able to come up with a routine schedule that will work, and the others will just be done bi-weekly (checked, and dumped if necessary). :-)

My cleaning "profile" is probably closest to Ginger's. This is definitely a YMMV situation--for me, cleaning a bit every day just doesn't work. I really need the satisfaction of looking around, at least once weekly :), at a clean, shining tidy house.

I have learned though that the little daily cleaning routines help greatly for liveability. So our daily routines are:

Morning and evening quick tidy results:

All dishes washed, left in drainer, sink and countertops clear (husband does most, I wash anything random left over)
Bathrooms wiped down, all grooming stuff put away (I do during 5-minute tidy before leaving work and before going to bed)
Public areas of house tidy-no clutter lying around (Me during tidy times)*
*Kids responsible for gathering and putting away their things, though I have to remind them, they don't do it automatically
Trash in kitchen emptied daily, after dinner. My son does it.

On a weekly basis I prefer, when I'm doing my own housecleaning as I am now, to use a block of time to try to get as much as possible done. I divide into "wet work" ie bathrooms and kitchen and "dry chores" ie tidying, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, changing linens etc.

So I use my caddy and do both bathrooms:
Scrub bathtub, including bleach misting any visible mildew in the bathtub tiled area.
Wipe down top of shelves
Clean toilet with comet/brush followed by bleach mist
Clean sink with Soft Scrub, followed by Windex wipe. , Windex is incredible for leaving a fantastic shine/sparkle on tile, chrome, glass etc in the bathroom. I Windex the soap dispensers, tile top of windowsill etc.
Ammonia/water mop floor
Change trash bag in wastebasket
Take out bath rug, exchange for clean one (bath mats are washed weekly)

Kitchen:
Wipe down all countertops with Soft Scrub, followed by Windex (tile counters)
Take apart plastic dish drainer, bleach clean
Clean stove including drip pans, wipe surface with, yep, Windex
Clean microwave
Sweep and mop floor

General:
Dust furniture
Sweep and dust mop wood floors
Sweep and mop tile family room floor
Vacuum carpeted areas (area rugs in DR and hallway, wall to wall carpet in bedrooms)
Change bed linens
Straighten up office desk area
Sweep front entry way (outside front door-small tiled area)
Sweep back patio

Periodically:

Wash entry way mats (every couple of weeks)
Polish brass mailbox

VERY periodically :):

Clean windows with Windex--spring cleaning chore is to enlist kids' help and wash all exterior windows. Oye, what a job.

CLean refrigerator-hate this and don't do it regularly

Wipe down walls where I can see visible smudges and stains. I've never been one to 'wash' my walls; can't actually see the point of that.

Wipe down doors as above-periodically I repaint my french doors that lead to backyard as they get grungy with stains and bug juice.

Pressure clean patio-son loves to do this. Teenage boys and hi power jets of water, what a combination!

There are other tasks but as noted, I'm not real good at the in depth old fashioned spring cleaning type things.

Ann

Ann,

Yes, teenage boys LOVE to pressure wash. Actually, it seems to be a male thing. My DH loves to borrow our inlaws pressure washer...and then any male that happens to stop by insists he try it out, too.

I'm one of those that loves to clean windows that I can reach (pretty much all lower level). We have 3 long windows in our family room that I get pretty anal about. I love them to be sparkling clean, all year long. My next-door neighbors must think I'm a nut, always cleaning those windows!

It's interesting how some people love to clean everything at once, while others clean a little all week long. But the key is to do what works best for you. It took me 15 years of marriage to figure out the best system and I have much less anxiety now about keeping our house clean.

Sheryl

speaking of delegating,I find from experience that if you(in most cases the mother)keep a house sparkling clean,others"kids,especially teenagers" will folow suit.
Having raised four children it worked for me.
I have a friend who says her kids never help,but leave a trail of mess wherever they go in her house.Now I happen to know that she adopts the attitude that she's not the only person living there,so why should she do it all.
Well she doesn't keep a tidy house to begin with so the teenagers are just following suit.
If this was a relaxed happy family,then so be it,but this is not the case.They're always arguing about who tidied where last and as a result you can barely get in their front door.
Set an example and your family is more likely to follow.

Eliza ann, yes, it definitely helps. When I started being more organized, I did notice the kids following suit. Now that I've fallen behind, amazingly they are, too. Hmmm...I've noticed the same with DH, too. (smile)

Sheryl

It has taken me years to come up with a cleaning routine of sorts. Previously everything was hit and miss. My routine, which isn't perfect and certainly is not all encompassing, evolved through Flylady and through necessity.

On Tuesdays I clean the bathrooms. We have 4, and I clean the master bathroom and the kids bathroom every week and the other two which are used infrequently, every other week or so.

On Thursdays, I do the main level of our house, which means dusting, sweeping and swiffering the kitchen, family room and front hall and vacuuming the living and dining rooms and the stairs up to the second floor and down to the basement. Also vacuuming our "front room" which is an enclosed porch at the front of the house.

Thursdays is also garbage day so I empty all the garbages around the house. The kitchen garbage gets emptied when it's full, every day or every other day.

Laundry gets done either Tuesday or Thursday every week. It takes me 3 loads and that's to do my DH's laundry and my own. My 3 kids, each do their own.

The upstairs could be better. My DH usually does the vacuuming and the kids tidy their own rooms, although the degree of tidyness varies quite a bit.
Everything else is occasional, if I notice it's dirty and I have the time, I will clean it.

I confine the household chores to Tuesdays and Thursdays because those are the days I'm home and not at work.

I've enjoyed reading and learning from everyone else's routines as I'm always looking to improve and try to streamline everything and maximize efficiency.

Joanne

I only have two real routines -

(1) All laundry gets done on Saturday night and put away on Sunday afternoon.

(2) The kitchen and living room are clean before I go to bed. There's nothing worse than waking up to a messy house!

We have a cleaning lady every 2 weeks so my only other routine is to have everything picked up (mostly the children's bedrooms) on the night before she comes so that she can vacuum, dust, etc.

We're implementing a new chore list and allowance system for our children so I'm hoping that will help keep things tidy as well - mostly things like taking out garbage and cleaning the litter box though.

When I worked I'd come home to do more chores like laundry, groceries & ironing during the week at night & then weekends I'd clean - it would take 6 hrs to do everything on 2 flrs. My Mom who died at a young age spent most of her time cleaning & would sacrifice having a nice day out with the family to be home cleaning, cooking & ironing & all my errands during lunchtime. I then realized I was always rushing & doing & wanted to enjoy some of my wknds too so we hired a cleaning girl to come every other week. I hate spreading out my cleaning a little each day b/c your whole house is never clean. While the bathrooms get wiped often, the kitchen is cleaned as you use it, the beds are made daily, the kitchen is swept daily & the house vaccumed at least 2x/wk the real cleaning is done by my cleaning girl every other week. I make a list detailing what specific items I want addressed that week - there is always 1-2 more involved projects in addition to cleaning bathrooms, flrs & regular dusting & changing bedding. No hired help will ever do the job I really want but she does what I'd have to do so it's worth the $. Since then I went to school, had a baby, stopped working, was diagnosed with MS & possible fibromyalgia & become the main person running my husband's business so we decided to keep her. It's the best decision we've made.

Michie