The War On Dirt

Coming from a family of Hyper-wipers, I spend a lot of time cleaning my house. A lot. Since children are generally not neat and clean, and I have less time to clean since having them, I've tweaked my housework schedule and tried numerous products to find what works best and what works fastest.

Here are some of the items in my arsenal.

1. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Crayon on the wall? Dried baby oatmeal on the baseboards? Unidentified sticky spots on the floor? Fingerprints everywhere? Magic Eraser gets it all off, with none of the elbow grease required with other sponges. Plus it works great on soap scum in the bathroom.

2. Rubbing alcohol
It's super cheap at Walmart, doesn't smell like bleach, and works great as a solvent. You know that residue that hairspray leaves on the floor and sink? Alcohol gets it right off. I also use it to wipe down Johnny's toddler potty. It dries fast and doesn't leave the bathroom all fume-y.

3. Swiffer Max
Picks up dust and cat hair from the wood floors a lot easier than a regular broom, and the larger size works great under furniture. The cloths also make great dust cloths.

4. Pledge Lemon Oil
We have a lot of woodwork. Using the lemon oil not only treats the wood when it gets dry, but removes dust too.

5. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes
Great for quick clean ups and for spots like switch plates, remotes and phones.

6. Comet
I've tried other scouring powders and this works the best. 87 cents for the big can at Walmart.

7. All Free and Clear, Small and Mighty Laundry Detergent
No dyes or fragrances to irritate sensitive skin. Plus the smaller bottle fits on my shelf, doesn't weigh a ton, and uses less plastic.

And some of my organization tricks:

1. I clean something every day, even if it's just one toilet. I no longer have blocks of 4 hours to clean the entire house, so doing it in small amounts means the house looks cleaner overall.

2. I have a cleaning schedule. Yes, you read right. A cleaning schedule. It's not absolutely set in stone, but it helps me plan my week. For example, on Sunday I change Jameson's litter box. On Monday the master bath gets cleaned top to bottom. On Tuesday and Friday I vacuum and dust.

3. A few weeks before Maureen was born, I went on a manic cleaning spree and did all those little things, like taking everything out of the kitchen cabinets and reorganizing them, or removing the light sets from the fans and washing them. Since then, I choose one room to *really* clean per month, make a list, and then have the entire month to get it done. Today I cleaned out the TV stand in our bedroom. I'm still wondering exactly why John thinks we need to keep an original Nintendo game system, but I know if I get rid of it, he'll notice and say he was saving it for when Johnny gets older. As if Johnny would ever want to play with such a dinosaur.

Johnny has seen me clean enough that he imitates me a lot--shakes out my throw rugs, dusts with paper towels, and uses his toy lawnmower as a vacuum, complete with moving things--and I'll be posting pictures of him cleaning soon. Now if the Dyson guy would just invent a kid-sized vacuum that doesn't lose suction...