• Home
  • About Tracy
  • Contact Me

Using Time Wisely

Organized to save money, energy, and time

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Document Organization
    • Overview
    • Box 1
      • Credit Report/Cards
        • Credit Reports
          • Credit Updates
          • Credit Scores
        • Credit Cards
      • Personal
      • Home Ownership
      • Vehicles
    • Box 2
      • Life Insurance
      • Major Medical
      • Tax-Favored Programs
      • Prescriptions
      • Dental & Vision
      • Special Health Policies
      • Short-term Disability
      • Long-term Disability
      • Personal Insurance
    • Box 3
      • Social Security Documents
      • Retirement
      • Investments
      • Estate Planning
      • Tax Records
  • Household
    • Cleaning
    • Maintaining
    • Organizing
    • Scheduling
      • Laundry
  • Event Planning
    • Assisting
    • Attending
    • Coordinating
      • Birthday Party
      • Christmas
      • Dinner Party
      • Fall Festival
      • Field Trip
      • Lemonade Stand
      • Thanksgiving
    • Learning
    • Preparing
    • Serving
  • Miscellaneous
    • Communication
      • Customer Service
      • E-mail
      • RSS Feed Reader
    • Goals
    • Organization
    • Time Management
      • To Do List
  • Food
    • Food Prep
    • Grocery Shopping
      • Lists
      • Pricing
    • Menu Planning
    • Recipes
    • Stockpile
  • Family Activities
    • Going Out
      • Free Outings
      • Inexpensive Outings
      • Summer
    • Rewards
      • Good Grades
      • Reading
      • Summer Reading
    • Staying at Home
  • Stretching Your Dollars
    • Daily Deals
      • Groupon
      • LivingSocial
    • Drugstores
      • CVS
    • Gas Prices
    • Gifts
    • On-line Shopping
    • Pictures
    • Products
    • Restaurants
    • School Items
    • Tips
You are here: Home / Household / Scheduling: Deep Cleaning

Scheduling: Deep Cleaning

July 4, 2011 by Tracy

Photograph Credit: MorgueFile (Jane M. Sawyer)

Is a picked-up house, a clean house? Some would disagree with me, but I say, “NO.” Most of the time, I maintain a picked-up house: toys put away; floors vacuumed; laundry cleaned, folded and put away; etc. However, just because my house is organized, it is not necessarily clean.

Before I had children, my house was cleaned every 2-3 weeks. Now that I have 3 children with one in school during most of the year, my house gets a good cleaning every 3-4 months. These cleanings are my deep cleanings. As I write this post, I just finished a 3-day cleaning of my downstairs. Lest you think I live in a huge house, let me say my house is a modest 2-story home with approximately 2,000 square feet.

Why does it take 3 days to clean the downstairs? Glad you asked. I have a method to my madness. I clean everything. Here is my system:

  1. Begin on left and work around to the right. I work with the left wall first. I dust, wipe, and clean items in front of the wall. I put toys together and organize each section (like an end table, couch, toy station, etc.)
  2. Move items away from walls once cleaned and organized. As I complete a section, I move those items completely away from the wall.
  3. Work from top to bottom. Once the area in front of the wall is empty, I begin dusting the ceiling (especially corners, lights, and ceiling fans), walls (using Windex on mirrors and picture frames), and baseboards.
  4. Clean the floor. I will vacuum the floors with carpet or sweep and mop hardwood, tiled, or linoleum floors.
  5. Return clean items to their designated areas. When the area is clean, then I move the clean, organized items back and proceed to the next wall.

This system takes quite a bit of work and, in some cases, help from my husband in moving large pieces of furniture. Though the process is tedious and I get interrupted with requests from my children, meals to make, and errands to run, I enjoy the end result. I am able to find missing pieces, remove dust and grime from items, and organize messy stations. My time is valuable, and using my time wisely 3-4 times a year to get a good, deep cleaning for my house is worth every precious moment.

What about you? Do you have a time for deep cleaning (e.g., spring, fall), or do you have a schedule for cleaning each week or month? I would love to hear how you schedule the cleaning of your house.

Filed Under: Household, Scheduling Tagged With: Deep cleaning

Welcome to Using Time Wisely!

 

Presenting organizational tips and tricks to save you money, energy, and time.

To access 5 Ways to Using Time Wisely Today, click "like" on my facebook page and join in on the journey of Using Time Wisely.

Looking for something?

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive email updates and to hear what's going on with us!

Copyright © 2025 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in