managing the mess

When we bought our condo, I decided it was important to me to "take care of" the little piece of heaven I actually owned. I wanted to vigilant about chores. I realized that if I ignored cleaning the sliding door tracks for years and years and years, that when I finally got around to cleaning them it would be so awful I'd probably die. I didn't want it to be that way. I was ready and eager for preventive cleaning.




So, I did what any respectable person would do: I made a list. I searched the Internet for ideas on necessary tasks and frequency... and then I put my chores in Outlook. All of them. Every time Outlook opens up, reminders for my current "tasks" pop up, and I know I have chores to do. I staggered them, so they don't all hit at once, and I just try to keep up. Some don't seem to need to be done... I choose to ignore them (hehe)... but they are always there, popping up, glaring me in the face, until I finally do them and can mark them complete.

But I've often wondered how my chores compare with other folks' chores. I'll outline for you here what is in my Outlook. What surprises you? What makes sense? What is the funniest thing you see? How do the recurrences compare to how often you do these chores? And perhaps the best -- what is missing??? (I've never cleaned behind the stacked washer and dryer. Uh oh.)

Note: You won't find things here like laundry, dishes, cat box, etc. Those things are just part of life. They have to get done. This list includes things that could possibly be ignored, to the detriment of our home.


Every week

• Change Wesley's bed sheets
  
• Vacuum and sweep entire home

Every 2 Weeks

• Clean bathroom and hall mirrors
  
• Change our bed sheets
  
• Clean stove top and replace aluminum foil on burners if needed (seriously, I am bad at this... if there is a messy dinner, think pasta sauce!, I'll let it sit on the stove until this pops up in my Outlook. I don't clean after every meal, although I am trying to be better)
  

Monthly

• Dust wood furniture (we have a super nice bedroom set, and this gets me to dust it)
  
• Clean all sinks (three bathroom sinks, one kitchen sink)

Every 6 weeks

• Clean shower, bathtub
  
• Clean toilets
  

Every 2 months

• Kitchen counters, "Full Assault" (this means: take everything off the kitchen counters, wipe them all down so they are spotless, then put it all back nice and organized)
  

Every 3 months

• Mop all tiled surfaces (entryway, bathrooms, kitchen)
• Dust light bulbs and other places (I read once that incandescent light bulbs are less efficient if they are dusty, so I decided to dust them. I added to this list other things like my elliptical machine, the computer desk, the tops and backs of our TVs, the tops of the kitchen cabinets, stuff like that)
  

Every 6 months

• Dust/wash the blinds (I hate hate hate this job, although my cool new Oreck attachment vacuum has made it easier)
• Wash windows and windowsills (this includes the sliding glass door and the tracks I alluded to earlier ;-)
  
• Deep clean the kitchen (this includes tasks like taking everything out of every drawer and cabinet and cleaning, organizing, chucking stuff, plus wiping the cabinet door fronts for smudges, cleaning out the microwave, random stuff like that)
• Clean inside of fridge (I actually love this. I turn it off, take out everything, take out all the shelves and drawers, clean and clean and it's spotless! plus I get rid of lots of forgotten freezer food this way!)
  
• Run oven self-clean cycle
  
• Wipe light switch plates and doors and door molding for smudges (including our front door, which gets all sorts of smudges on it)
• Clean/sort bathroom drawers/cabinets (just like the kitchen -- take everything out and clean and then put it all back in in a nice organized fashion)
  

Yearly

• Dust ceiling corners/clean baseboards (me running around the house with my attachment vac looking for cobwebs in ceiling corners and getting the 1/8-inch of dust on the carpet that the vacuum doesn't get because it's too close to the baseboard... lovely!)
  
• Get vacuum serviced
  
• Get fireplace serviced
  
• Get carpet cleaned
  

There you have it. My list. I'd love to hear what you think! Now I'm off to do some chores before I give up on Wesley taking a nap. (sigh.)