Help! I am an adult with ADD who needs help setting up a house cleaning schedule. Any suggestions?

Question

Note: I checked out Flylady...but got way overwhelmed by all the emails I got when signing up. Maybe that would work down the road? I clean sporadically, but I really want to get a set schedule. BTW...I live with my boyfriend. He doesn't do much cleaning. I am sick of fighting that battle. I have one indoor cat, a dog, and an indoor bunny (they don't do much cleaning either).

I've got a two bedroom house, one bathroom, basement, living room/dining room, kitchen.

Please help me put together a simple schedule :)

Answer 1

Flylady is great - but I know what you mean about the emails.  I finally stopped the emails (although you can request a "daily digest version" so you don't have to worry about your in-box).

I have ADD too so I do understand how her stuff can be overwhelming.  I'd suggest that you try to work with her site as you go along but in the meantime try this:

If you don't want to start out with the Flylady "Crisis Cleaning" routine (which you can find on her site - it's a way to see some improvement in each room over the course of a few hours if you're feeling completely overwhelmed), don't worry about - just move on to the "maintainence" schedule she has.

Divide your house into 4 sections - those will be your "zones".  The first week of the month, work in Zone 1, week two then Zone 2, etc...  So if Zone 1 is the kitchen/dining room - then Monday sweep and vacuum/ mop floors and clean the tops of the refridgerators and those shelves that no one can reach but you keep stuff on.  Tues, Wipe down all of the counters and tables (move everything off of the counter top and clean behind/under it - same with what's on the tables) and then ONLY put back on the counter what you want there - spend some time finding a home for anything that left over.  Wed, clean out 1 junk drawer and check the pantry/fridge for expired foods... Once you get started, you'll find a rhythem in each zone.

On top of the zone cleaning - make a habit of putting EVERYTHING that you pick up/take out/ move around BACK WHERE IT BELONGS.  That alone will make a huge difference.

Two other things that make a difference for me - EVERY MORNING  run the dishwasher (even if it's not COMPLETELY full - using a little extra water and detergent is worth the peace of mind/ less stress you'll get from doing this) AND throw a load of laundry in the washer and then at lunch or as soon as you come home from work unload the dishwasher (if clean) and throw the wet clothes in the dryer.  If you time things right you can pull the clothes out of the dryer then fold & put them away just before you sit down to eat.  It'll make the evening much easier.  

Good luck - it's not easy keeping things under control and part of the ADD thing is, you (or at least I ) tend to be a perfectionist and it's hard to remember that you don't have to do EVERYTHING perfectly.  Sometimes "good enough" really, truly is "good enough".

If you're situation is like most, soon your boyfriend will start helping out because it's not that hard to move your dirty dishes to the dishwasher (instead of leaving them on the counter) when the thing is empty and should be less inclined to leave dirty clothes everywhere when there aren't stacks/piles of dirty clothes "waiting" to be washed on Saturday.

  

Answer 2

I don't like cleaning and find that if I try to do too much at once, I wind up doing almost nothing.  So I try to do one thing each day.  For instance, today I cleaned the bathroom floor.  Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen counters.  The day before that I cleaned all the mirrors in my apartment.  I find if I do one little thing each day it doesn't really feel like cleaning, but nothing ever gets unbearably dirty.

Answer 3

Make a list. That's' what I do. Prioritize: every week, every month,etc. With a list, assuming that you will fulfill it's demands when necessary, after having made adjustments with experience, you can do no wrong. A lot of the fear concerning aadd involves forgetting things as one is easily distracted. A list solves these problems quite handily. But I prefer to do things in one fell swoop and not being annoyed by constant upkeep chores.