Friday, May 2, 2008

Housekeeping 101


Let you in on a secret. Even though I'm a stay at home mom, I'm not a very good housekeeper. You see, housekeeping is not, shall I say, one of my talents. I'm certainly no Bree van der Kamp. I see it as something I have to do so I don't exactly agree with what's said in the image above but I'll remember that if I were ever to need an excuse for getting out of doing housework.

Having lived abroad for many years, I've learnt to do everything myself. So I do keep the house clean & free of clutter (which is important when you have a toddler at home). I try to do the minimum possible without obsessing over each speck of dust or a new spiderweb. We don't live in a chateau but this ain't no small apartment.

Friday, today, is house cleaning day. It's always bittersweet when Friday comes along. I know I have cleaning to do but after that, I know I'm done for the week. Yippee.

Here's what I do. I start with windows & mirrors. Then kitchen - there's not much cos I always clean after cooking. Then bathroom - the works - tub, toilets, sinks, shower cubicle. Then dust the rest of the house - the bedrooms, living room, bookcases, cupboards, wine rack, the Girl's play area etc. Vacuum (gosh I have a mental block against this word, I can never spell it right) then mop the floor. If there's no distraction, I can do all that in just one morning.

I actually leave out an entire floor of the house that I don't do on a regular basis - the guest room, the guest bathroom & the store room. I clean them once every few months or just before guests arrive !!

Oh I forgot the terrace. All winter I do nothing with it. Now that the weather is warmer, it means we will be spending a lot more time there which means another place that needs cleaning. Urgh especially now that the birds are trying to build a nest on the beams & the floor is covered with pollen. I sweep every 2-3 days.

X is a neat freak so he'll always find some places that I've missed. Sometimes I'll oblige & sometimes he'll clean it himself after he realises that I'm not going to do it despite nagging.

Then of course there's laundry & ironing. Ironing surprisingly I don't mind doing cos I find it rather therapeutic. It's the standing for an hour that is tough for my back. Laundry is done once every 3 days - there's only me & the Girl so no biggie there.

My golden rule for household chores is to never put them off. After they are done, I can then sit down guilt free to do whatever I want - surf the net, watch my shows or blog, which is what I'm doing right now.




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My husband would probably want to print out this picture for me. He thinks I'm "too clean".

petite fleur said...

Is not a bad thing that you are "too clean" ? unless you're obsessed over it, are you ?

Anonymous said...

Well yes. Sorta. I sweep or vacuum twice a day. That doesn't include the spring cleaning I do every week. We joked if there's such a thing called cleaning disorder.

petite fleur said...

I'm sloppy compared to you. I only vacuum once every 2 days. Cleaning is really not my thing.