Cleaning is tiring...

[gekiganwing]

Just got my first condominium (took time and work), and now I'm trying to get all my stuff unpacked. I want the place to be clean in the next few weeks, and I'm trying to set aside time to work on cleaning. Any thoughts on how to get organized and STAY organized?

[ficedula]

I have maids that do that for me.

This advice may not be helpful depending on whether you have a job and how much it pays

Otherwise ... don't try to be unrealistic (I will clean EVERY DAY!) because then you'll fail and once you've failed to meet objectives, it's easier to disregard them totally. And make any rules you set flexible too for the same reason ("I'll clean the kitchen & bathroom every Wednesday, but if I'm out I WILL do it the next day I'm in the house").

And you can work towards hiring maids

[Wintermoon]

Limit the amount of stuff you own. Throw you old stuff out and don't buy new stuff.

[PyTom]

Limit the amount of stuff you own. Throw you old stuff out and don't buy new stuff.

But... that means you lose!

Instead, I suggest becoming sucessful enough that you can buy a new place every few years. Sure, many of the rooms can be a mess, but you can then always open up a new room, which should be good for a couple of months, at least.

[KomiTsuku]

I'm not the person to get cleaning tips from. Every single piece of scratch work and story idea from the past seven years sits in this massive pile in my bedroom. It's nearly crushed me several times over the years. So... uhhhh... my best advice is don't let the piles get past 6ft. Any higher than that is a major hazard. Also, throw out things that are completely and utterly useless. Depending on where you live, I'd suggest a burn barrel.

Other than that, I've got nothin'.

Edit: On a that note... XD http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/1155

[musical74]

Living in an apartment myself, this has helped a bunch for me...

1) get boxes and clump things that are the same sort in them. You aren't rearlly going to look at allllll those posters are you?

2) Most places have a donation spot if there are things you own but have no use for. Was surprised how much stuff I had when I moved....

3) Be envious of ficedula because he can afford a maid LOL Seriously, if you can afford a maid, they are a good investment.

4) Always clean a little...maybe not the whole room, but clean a noticable area. When you clean, have some music playing that helps the mood and makes the task more enjoyable.

5) It helps if you aren't a slob <trust me...I'm a bit of a slob and what I think is acceptable others are like *why don't you clean? It's a mess here!>

Hope this helps!

[N0UGHTS]

You people are so wealthy. :weeps:

Set out a schedule. You have alarms, right? Like cell phone alarms? Set those. Obey the alarms. Obey the alarms. And decorate your condo with posters of your schedule, and write the things you need to do on your arm with permanent marker, Live like you're in the army, disconnect your internet when you don't need it, open your windows, turn off all unnecessary lights, lock everything, keep your mind off your mental health issues, and...

Or maybe that's not how you want to live. Okay, I'm fine with that. But then, what sort of other advice should I give...

...I don't think I have any other advice. I've really lived by only the above. And I'm not sure you want to live like I do. Those are just piles of clothes. Really. ...Wait... I think you could set your daily schedule as your computer wallpaper. And make your goals a game! Like, "Every time I neglect to wash my clothes slam my head against my bedroom wall, and when I do wash my clothes, I'll eat a little dark chocolate!" Except, you know, make the games less... Well, you know.

Yes, yes... Make life a game... That's my best piece of advice.
(see below)

Music can really set your mood. When you're cleaning, I suggest listening to hard rock or heavy metal. Or the Jaws theme. :laughs: Anything that'll add to your energy and efficiency.

[LVUER]

Wow, still A LOT better than my place... My place is totally like a war zone. And dust easily come into my room (my city is dusty and I live in a busy street, not a house complex, and my room is directly above the dusty, busy road...)

Cleaning is not my specialty since my room is ... really messy. But still, something that I'm proud of is that I still know where is everything ^_^

[N0UGHTS]

:sighs: How nice it would be to live with a provider... Not that I like my mother in particular, anyway... Or my father. :shudders: Yes, those are the only two "providers" I know.

Back to the topic

Buy products with multiple purposes. For example, a coffee table in the living room that opens up could be used to store movies, music, or sheets and pillows for overnight guests. Decrease unnecessary consumption. Every material possession creates an additional chore.

^ That must be the soundest piece of advice I've ever given.

Treasure it. Because everything else in my mind will probably only warp your very existence.

[Neon Lemmy Koopa]

I try to keep my room clean. never works out tho. dirty clothes everywhere. Shirts, pants, draws, socks. It usually is clean on laundry day tho.

[Jake]

Really, I think the simplest answer to "how do I keep my place tidy" is simply "put things away when you're finished with them". If you've finished reading that book, don't just put it down on the side and pick up the next one, put it back on the bookshelf. If you've finished reading that letter from your bank, don't just drop it on your desk, put it in your filing cabinet in the file for that account or shred it or throw it away or whatever. When you finish eating dinner, wash up the dishes you used and put them back in the cupboard.

Make sure you have enough storage. One way to do this is throwing stuff out until the things you have remaining fit in the space you have; another way is to get more storage - cupboards, shelves, dressers, drawers, those tray things you can slide under a bed, ottomans, whatever. The point is that things are easiest to clean if they don't get dirty in the first place; I don't have to worry about dusting the irregularly-shaped bottles in my spirits collection, because they're in a cupboard, so the dust can't get onto them in the first place.

As to "how do I keep cleaning as easy as possible", the simple answer is "do it more often". It's easier to wipe down a surface that was last cleaned two days ago than one which was last cleaned two weeks ago. Keep doors and windows open for a little bit every now and again, if you can, to air the place out.

[Twar3Draconis]

You've got a bed and some other furniture with space under it right? Well, you could always create depressions in the floor, and increase your storage underneath them.

Or, you could get a PhD in Computer Science, and build a multi-storage room complex.

[KomiTsuku]

You've got a bed and some other furniture with space under it right? Well, you could always create depressions in the floor, and increase your storage underneath them.

Or, you could get a PhD in Computer Science, and build a multi-storage room complex.

Not sure a degree in Computer Science would help much there. I would recommend Architecture, which might be a good idea. Take PyTom's idea of constantly getting a new house, except you can make it! Think of the money you'd save!

[mrsulu]

When you own things, things own you. Everything you own is one more thing you have to track, dust, put away, and so forth.

You could try the packrat rule---if you don't use something within a year, get rid of it. If that's too harsh, move unused items to a "not used" box, and then in two years you'll think, man, I don't need this. I did this with my kitchen for a while and discovered I only used about half of it. Now I have drawers in my kitchen with NOTHING IN THEM. Much easier to clean.

Since you just moved, you can not open some of the boxes, and when you haven't opened them two years from now, you can discard the contents.

The greatest curse as you get older are physical objects that are expensive, difficult to replace, yet mostly inert. Keepsakes, t-shirts from organizations you are no longer in, etc. You can photograph that stuff, then get rid of it.

Another fun household rule: If it's a fungible tool and you run out, buy more. In our house, we used to constantly lose scissors. The rule became if you can't find scissors, write "Buy scissors" on the todo list while you're looking. Now we have 9 pairs of $4 scissors, but the scissors drawer always has two or three in it. We applied the same rule to screwdrivers and hairbrushes.

[Der Tor]

You could go and get this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsY2IuaClJE

Mine is cleaning my office right now. And it even got like cool ultra violet light to get ride of germs and stuf and i modified mine to also spray Chlorine everywhere

But beware of it trying to connect to skynet