I clean what I want, when I want/or have time, with option to bump the priority when emergencies occur - 'the egg that cracked outside of the bowl.
If one had a cleaning app, I doubt it would have a facility for synching with the weather app
I'm still in a minor state of shock - what has this world come to if people need electronic gratification for the boring, if sometimes, satisfying tasks associated with keeping a house inhibitable Maybe this is the result of the sticker-chart madness of the last 20+ years. Maybe a fun twist would be to let your family decide how many stars you get
I have an update on this! I do not need an app
I had gotten one (flylady i think it was called) but either it was crap or I was too crap to use it properly I explained to my husband that I was struggling with so he made me a rota, with tick-boxes and it is working really well! I think I had been feeling a little overwhelmed but now I'm settled into a bit of a routine Today while it was raining and the kids were playing quietly I managed to check all tomorrow's boxes! If I keep ahead I can earn myself a day off on Friday
Great! I did that too. I washed up before dinner and cleaned the flat before it got dirty. Took hardly any time at all! In fact, I cleaned the flat five times and now I don't need to do it again for months.
Procrastination is great innit? Same for me when I was doing finals...
I had a neighbour in the UK who was a bit disorganised in the house chores dpt. No aps in those days, but her husband used to leave her a list of things to do every day - worse thing, she thought it was great
Invite people to your house. Nothing gets our house cleaner than guests coming for a meal or even better staying over!
LOL stansted- same here. We live in a big old pile and I only clean the part we use everyday and the rest if mothballed until visitors arrive
I have a friend here like that. Her husband makes a list of things she has to do every day with times and everything. ( like do shopping in Migros 30 minutes, drive home 10 minutes, have a coffee 10 minutes). She doesn't seem to mind at all.
If my husband ever did that I'd be telling him in no uncertain terms where to go.
Pixie, it's great that you found a solution that works for you.
BM, Odile: I'd hate to think what I would do to the OH if he left me a list of things to do during the day! Claim temporary insanity or the like, who knows
Never in his wildest imaginations would my husband ever write a list of chores for me, the housework does itself doesn't it?
It's different when you ask him to though! I told him exactly what I'd said on here, he offered to print me a rota on a spreadsheet-type thing, I chose what tasks I wanted on which day... so he has made me a list but I managed it myself! If however, had I not felt the need for organising but nevertheless he had just marched up to me and handed me a list that he had made; I would have been pissed right off! The list does work for me and I particularly like the tick boxes I can manage without the stars
I'm not sure which I find more disturbing, the idea that the husband tells the wife her chores for the day, or that anyone would ever want to make a schedule for housework anyway. Surely you just clean things as you notice them starting to need it?
I've just been procrastinating about going for a run. The bathroom is sparkling!
Yes of course you do. If I can see dirt or mess, sure I'll clean it up without checking my rota first! But preventative, sort of routine-y cleaning stops build up and is more efficient for certain tasks, such as one I did yesterday; wiping all the tiles in the bathroom and the shower room (not the ones inside the shower cubicle or around the sinks or bath, the ones right near the door and at the far end of the bathroom where no splashes ever get!). They weren't dirty. It would have almost seemed pointless. But this is the type of thing I would have not bothered to do back in my previous homes in the UK. Suddenly after about 2 years, you look closely and see some ming, inspect a little further and there is a thin layer of ming everywhere and small marks and such you hadn't noticed before. Then you try to clean them and it's an awful ball-ache and it still doesn't get fully clean again anyway. Then you've bolloxed it. But because these tasks do seem pointless when your home is new and clean, and you feel like you are wasting your time, these are the tasks that are the least motivating to bother with. these are the things I put on my list. Stagger these tedious, seemingly-pointless tasks over the week, and ticking them off does give some satisfaction, along with the smugness that goes with knowing that in 2 years' time I will not find myself living in a thin grime that I can't get off
Actually, I find this thread rather interesting. In a weird way.
I see that everyone has their own methods of house-cleaning, and makes me feel okay about ignoring some things, while doing other odd things. In the end ..... the place looks clean enough, to me.
But as mentioned above, there`s nothing to beat "seeing the house thru visitors eyes" to get the ignored jobs done!
A family member moved here from Ticino, into a new house, and I was amazed to see how she decorated it ...... "non-sitable" little antique chairs with arty arrangements on them ... earthy bowls on floors .... all sorts of bric-a-brac all over the place/floors. And I pondered to myself how on earth she can keep it in clean condition? (It looked like a shop display).
Kitchen "a`la Italian Mama" style with rows of bottles on open shelves.
SO hard (and tedious!) to clean when there`s things to move all the time!
Your place was spotless!
Yeah- should have seen me fly around like a blue **sed fly the day before
Indeed girls, if my OH ever left me a list of chores- I would have gone bananas! She did divorce him after 10 years- a bit slow on the uptake me thinks.
Why need app for house chores?
That's what the calendar with alerts is for and to do list. What I normally do is I schedule my activities like string the rackets, car wash, room tidy-up, finances and other stuff setting alerts 10 min before the actual planned date. When alarm goes off there's no retreat, no surrender from it. It's a good reminder that is about time to do it, right here, right now, not the next day or any other lousy excuse for procrastinating.
Well, that works for me whereas the other half knows her daily routine and doesn't need any reminder. We are differently wired and some, myself included need self discipline and retraining. But trust me, once you get there it just will become easy peasy
I have another update! Now I don't even need the rota, it has all settled into a sort of autonomous action! More importantly too, it does not feel so big of a deal any more, I do not feel like I am constantly cleaning. I think I was just a little overwhelmed with everything all at once, I had a lot of other things on my mind at the time. If I ever answer a post that is similar to mine, I would like to tell them that by all means get a rota for the short term, but just give it a little time and it will all fall into place