How The Housecleaning Went

I completed my very first week of following the Clean Mama routine! It went well. Each day took longer than the 15 minutes she advertises for me to complete the daily cleaning task, but I did each day's assignment.

Here's how it went:

First of all, each day I made my bed, cleared the clutter, washed, dried, folded, and put away (at least) one load of laundry, and kept the counters wiped clean. I completed these daily tasks fairly easily, because I already do these things every day.  Clean Mama also tells you to check your floors each day. This was a new task for me to do, but I did it too, and my floors have not been this clean in a very, very long time. To complete the check your floors task, I ran all three of my Roombas every single day.  After a year of having Roombas, it still amazes me the amount of dust, dirt, and pet hair those things pick up every time I run one.

Monday:  bathrooms-- I cleaned three of our bathrooms alone and helped Leah and Sam clean their bathrooms. It took way longer than 15 minutes, but probably less than one hour total. If I keep on doing this every Monday, it may take less time since they won't be as dirty.

Tuesday:  dusting--I was skeptical about dusting my entire house in one day. However, I was pleasantly surprised! It did not take as long as I thought it would, and Leah and Sam dusted their own rooms. I also think this task will take less time if I continue to dust once a week.

Wednesday:  vacuum
Thursday:  wash floors

I actually combined vacuuming and washing floors, and divided my house in half. Since I have all wood floors (with the exception of ceramic tile in my schoolroom),  I have to vacuum right before I mop. I vacuumed and mopped the basement and upstairs (where all the kids's bedrooms and bathrooms are) on Wednesday, and then vacuumed and mopped the main floor of my house on Thursday. Leah and Sam helped me by doing their rooms plus a little more on Wednesday, but I did Thursday's work all by myself. Both of those days took a long time. On Thursday, it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to vacuum and mop! My right shoulder is hurting from all that vacuuming and mopping!

Friday: catch all--I was so happy on Friday! My house was clean! For my catch all, I chose to clean my microwave and stove. I also washed sheets on my bed, Leah's bed, and Olivia's bed (because Leah was having three girls spend the night, and we needed clean sheets on those beds)--and I went ahead and washed my sheets too instead of on Saturday because I was going to be out of town most of the day Saturday.

Saturday:  sheets and towels--Since I had washed sheets yesterday, I didn't have to do this today. But I did forget Sam's bed! Oops! I'll get his sheets next week. I wash towels all through the week as needed, so I just did regular laundry today.

Overall, I am so glad I tried this method of cleaning. It was hard work, and it took longer than I wished, but I am so happy with the results! I plan on doing it again next week, and also adding some of Clean Mama's monthly tasks for February.  I'll just get done what I can before March gets here, and then I will try to mark off as much as I can on March's list.