Maintenance Monday

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It’s Monday. Again. Gosh it comes round quick doesn’t it? For me, I usually set aside Monday for my love/hate relationship with #maintenancemonday. A day to clean up from the weekend, if we have had visitors, tackle the washing pile, get through my emails, bills to pay and desk to clean up. I try and spend as much time at home getting into the home and other work to clear the decks for the week ahead. Someone asked me what’s involved on my #maintenancemonday so I thought I’d share it with you.

Cleaning

I have two different kinds of clean and on a MM I will go with the shorter abridged version. If I am in need of a deep clean of the house (I really do hate cleaning even though I am a neat freak with a very tidy house) then I will do the bigger version.

1. The Deep Cleanse

I am a fortnightly thorough house clean kind of gal. I DETEST cleaning bathrooms as no joy can come from scraping poo from a toilet bowl or picking pubes off the floor no matter how sunny a person you are, so sometimes my bathroom will go for longer without being cleaned. I will always vac & mop the floors (in the fortnightly clean) but the actual cleaning of surfaces with jiff can go longer. My house clean ritual looks a little like this:

1. Empty all bins in the house. These include bathrooms/bedroom/desk wastepaper bins and kitchen bin.

2. Thorough dusting of MOST surfaces in the house. When I need to dust is HAS to be a hot, wet cloth. It’s the ONLY way, in my humble OCD opinion, that the dust can be removed. I dust things like book cases, shelves, mantle pieces, tables, photo frames, bedside tables – actually when I look at it like that – every MOFO surface in my house. I also think that in doing this first it whacks all the dust that is everywhere onto the floor just in time for you to come and vacuum it up. Which brings us to Step 3…

3. Vacuum all floors – carpeted and hard and bathroom too. As you know I have my beloved Dyson stick vac that I use every day but for the big clean I use my other love: the regular Dyson vacuum cleaner which I love and consider another member of the family. She sucks, in a good way, and never lets me down. I know you should probably change a setting on her as you move between different areas, but I cannot be bothered with that so it stays on the one setting and sucks up everything in her path. Bless her.

4. Mop ALL the floors. I have an Oates flat mop thingy with a detachable/velcro pad thing (SO CLEAR right?) that does the trick. You can throw them in the wash afterwards too. I don’t know the best mixture for washing floors, because I am no expert, so I just use hot, hot, HOT water with Method floor cleaner.  We have a REALLY big room so while I love the end result, I still find the mopping part sucks. But the working up a sweat in this section will make the cup of tea you can have in 15 minutes all the better.

If I was inclined to clean the bathrooms thoroughly I would do that in between steps 2 and 3. The kitchen doesn’t get much of a clean because I am always in there and seem to do it as I go. I am terrible and never do things like clean cupboards. Or ovens. That’s for when you move (or for my #onething list).

Tea is then made, a gloating Instagram shot that involves mopped floors taken, and as soon as the girls get home from School, the mess starts all over again. I think the whole process is known as “insanity” – you know, the doing something over and over and expecting a different result. That, or having children.

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2. The 30 min power clean

I like to think of this clean as the clean before someone comes over. The quick clean that can trick you into thinking that your house is fully clean when it’s not. This clean is not for the faint hearted, you have to RUN. You have to move fast. You have to have your wits about you. Go hard and then you can move on. It required focus. It requires momentum. You cannot get distracted. Check Facebook or answer a call. The only concession is that you can Instagram your efforts at the end.

I suggest that you look at what is achievable in 30 mins. It might just be the kids room. Focus and move on. It could be the kitchen only. Wash up, wipe and put away, wipe the benches and move on. Think about what is going to piss you off the most and deal with it. And move on! For me, today, I could not cope with the toilets, the carpet, the kitchen and the beds. The dust was also proving a problem.

So let’s do this shall we?

2 MINUTES

Throw open all your windows. The fresh air is like a free cleanse for inside of your home. Sunshine will disinfect everything and at least the cobwebs will be broken when you open the windows. Small victories.

6 MINUTES

Strip the beds and get washing. Fresh sheets tonight will convince me that I have worked harder than I did. That said, the girls have bunk beds so there will be an aerobic work out getting those bastards back on later this afternoon. This will also stretch out the half hour time slot somewhat. If you have spare sheets whack them straight on, otherwise deal with the dirty sheets on another day. You don’t have time for that shit today. This time does not really include the remaking of the bunk beds. I can re-do our bed in that time though. RUN PEOPLE.

3 MINUTES

Get a hot wet cloth and wipe over every surface that is concerning you. This is not a thorough dust just a wipe over to deal with immediate areas of concern. For me it was kitchen, and bedside tables that had a layer of dust so thick on it the girls were drawing patterns on them.

10 MINUTES

Wash up everything in the kitchen. Wipe benches. Move on.

2 MINUTES

Throw toilet cleaner in the bowl and give a quick scrub. This is not a deep clean but merely a scrub. DIG DEEP.

7 MINUTES

Vacuum high traffic areas that you will see the most. For me that is the entrance way, my bedroom and the bathroom & kitchen floors. You will be sweating now because you are running against the clock. YOU CAN DO IT.

2 MINUTES

Throw something new in a vase from the garden. Don’t have flowers? Cut a tree branch. Anything will do and it will trick your mind into thinking that the house is fresher and cleaner than it really is.

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Here are some other things I try and get done on a MM:

Washing

If the weather is good I try and empty those baskets so you don’t have to think about it for a few days. If the basket is looking pretty good tackle things like beds or bathrooms for towels and bath mats.

Shopping

I usually try and get this done over the weekend so Rob can have all the girls and I can get some “alone time” (what has my life become?) and sing bad music loudly in the car all by myself. A full fridge and pantry at the start of the week will stop lots of little trips throughout the week.

Desk

I also try and tackle all my emails or bills sitting on my desk. Try and make those calls that you have been putting off: this morning I called there plumber to fix a leak under our sink and a blind company to try and fix some broken roman blinds in all the bedrooms. Once you start on these type of jobs I reckon you get on a roll and can mark off loads.

Now I very rarely (and certainly not at the moment) can get away with doing all these things. I might get in a cheeky 30 min clean, and some washing, or a deep clean and some email work, or maybe just shopping. Whatever the case, I know that on a Monday I am more exhausted than any other day, but getting it sorted out early in the week sets me up in a good head space for the week ahead.

Do you embrace #maintenancemonday too?

Comments

  1. I love it Mrs Mac. You are my cleaning spirit animal. I just still can’t believe you haven’t got into Enjo. Bathroom cleaning. Dusting. So good. And a duster on a stick thing for venetian blinds is my fave.

  2. And here I was proud I’d dusted in my bedroom twice in the last nine months.

  3. I am a neat and tidy girl, but not much of a cleaner. I’d estimate it’s been about 8 weeks since I got the vac out. Think I’ve swept the bathroom and kitchen floors once in about the same time frame.
    The kitchen gets some regular attention as even though it’s just me, I can make a bit of a mess.
    A made bed and my clothes hung up makes me happy!
    Better get a load of laundry on.

  4. Shitburgers, I am so impressed, I really need to do this, when you break it up it seems a lot more manageable. Is it bad that I usually do a power clean every week and then once a month a big clean, or before visitors, I am PRINTING OUT the 2, 6, 3, 10, 2 etc minute thing… Oh I miss my cleaner. xx

  5. We have a cleaner come once a fortnight. It’s such a luxury and I know we could save the money but I hate cleaning and with two little ones and a job keeping me busy it is money well spent. I don’t do much in between their visits but I am with the previous poster on putting away the clothes. Tackling the pile of clean folded clothes that linger in the bedroom all week makes me feel 500% better and lighter.

    That, and sunshine and fresh air in the house!

  6. Before kids I used to gain satisfaction after cleaning-everything neat and bright and sparkly. nowadays I avoid it if at all possible cos it’s mostly pointless, the kids wreck it as soon as I fix it. I’d rather be blogging or messing around with my photos. I do love the power clean for visitors though, can’t have our friends sticking to the floor!

  7. I am such a dismal cleaner, our house is old and dusty the day after I vaccuum, it’s so disheartening, I now only do it if I have to.

  8. I love this, your cleaning sounds just like mine. Can I ask what type of floors you have, we have floating floorboards and I too use the Oates mop but only use hot water as I’m scared I will scratch them.

  9. Sue McCarney says

    How did you come from my loins oh maintenance Monday maven??

  10. I used to hate mopping at all costs and my last house had heaps of tiles and this house has heaps of tiles. When I moved from the last house I had professional cleaners come and give the house the once over after everything was out and their mopping looked so effortless when they did it. I ended up buying a mop and bucket similar to the one they used and it was life changing. Using those mops where you have to push on the handle to fold it in half and squeeze out the water is too much work. Big W or Woolies sell the moo but you also have to buy the matching bucket because it has an attachment on the top of the bucket and you just poo your mop on and push and the water is squeezed out. I told my sister about it and it took me ages to convince her it was life changing but finally she did it and couldn’t believe how pleasant mopping was now. I have to replace the mop part every 6 months which I just bought it last week for $12 at Woollies. The mop and bucket is Vileda go get one.

  11. This is the mop you can buy from big w, woollies and maybe kmart

    http://www.vileda.com/au/supermocio-3action-mop-3603.html

    This is the bucket

    http://www.vileda.com/au/supermocio-power-press-bucket-wringer-3629.html

  12. It’s cleaning Friday here. One of my days off work, so I set to after school drop off, and if I motor, I’m done my lunchtime, and that’s the WHOLE shebang. Vac, mop, clean an ensuite and a main bathroom, bins, kitty litter, sweep front doorstop. Sheets are done first thing Saturday whey little people can help with stripping (and partially remaking) beds. It’s Friday because I like to have a semblance of clean if we have friends over on the weekend, and I can sit down Friday night and know that my obsessiveness is quieted because the house is momentarily clean.

  13. i love the idea of a maintenance day to set you up for the week ahead. I’ve not managed to get into a proper routine since coming out of plaster, guests followed by hubby coming back from working away? He’s due to leave again this week so going to try and get into it while he’s away! Any other tips for coping would be great

  14. Lorelle Coates says

    Pre kids I used to have a “Cleaning Day” and would usually be finished just after lunch. Now with the hubs and 3 kids, difficult to have my “Cleaning Day” and I’m finding it hard to adjust to “half days/spare hours” dedicated to cleaning, as I feel it’s never properly completed. Ahh the struggle is real! Thanks for the great post Beth x

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