More on Zones
So, here’s the question: Is it better to have a big cleaning day or to clean a little bit every day?
My point of reference for answering this question is laundry. With laundry, too, you can have a big laundry day or do a little every day (though once your family gets large enough, it’s more like every day is a big laundry day). I did the big laundry day for years, mostly because I detested laundry. I wanted to get it all out of the way at once and not think about it for the rest of the week.
The problem was that it actually never happened that way.
I’d get most of the loads done in one day, but I’d never get them all put away in one day. And then there’d always be some load during the week that had to be done. So, the way the reality worked out, I still had laundry hanging over my head all week, but I held my ground, firmly resisting the pile-guilt by insisting that it would have to wait for Laundry Day. And so often it became more and more backlogged, until I’d have to have a Nothing But Putting Away Laundry Day.
Then we put the house on the market. Baskets and piles of clothes hanging around constantly was no longer an option. So I made myself move to a load-a-day plan, because clearly the weekly day was not working for me. I haven’t gone back to the one-day-a-week plan.
It can work, as long as your total number of loads can be done in one day, but it means you have to be remembering and doing it all day, to get the clothes cycled through. And it means a lot of time folding and putting away in one day. If that works for you, then by all means go with it. I don’t think one should chuck a system that’s working.
However, I found that in doing a little bit every day, “doing laundry” became much less of a dreaded task. It takes 2 minutes in the morning to start a load, 1 minute to change loads, and 10-15 minutes to get it all put away real quick. No marathon sessions, no mounds of laundry (dirty piles in hampers or clean piles in baskets), and no dread. I don’t like laundry, but now I merely shrug, instead of waking up sighing, breathing deeply, and saying, “Ugh. Laundry Day.”
I believe it’s the same way with housework. It never gets too bad, it never takes too long, if you just do some every day. 30 minutes every day is easier to fit in, even around interruptions, than 2 hours straight.
Remember that with Leila’s zone plan, your 20-30 minutes of cleaning includes putting things away, and is only dusting and vacuuming or mopping without moving anything. Again, it’s a small, bite-sized amount that can just be tackled quickly and relatively painlessly, whereas 1-2 solid hours of such tasks is dreary. And, for me, simply doesn’t work well, because I easily talk myself out of at least half of what I should do, and life happens and can derail a whole day. If the derailed day is Laundry Day, then there’s a big problem. If the derailed day is Cleaning Day, it can get bad.
When I have assigned large tasks one to a day, I have inevitably gotten behind and way off track in no time. Laundry doesn’t get done all in one day, so it trickles into other days, so that day’s tasks get pushed back, and the ball of chaos begins to roll. On top of that, if I have mentally reserved Monday as Laundry Day, then I feel resentful if I have to do laundry on other days. If Thursday is my cleaning day, then Tuesday when the house is a wreck, I will pick up a book and haughtily tell the house, “I will see to you on Thursday.” If I do a little bit every day, then I get more things to check off quickly, and I have mentally accepted that it is the day’s tasks. I have much, much less resentment toward my housework on a “little bit every day” plan.
Each individual’s mileage may vary, especially someone who doesn’t have the personal issues and hangups I do.
I’d love to continue the conversation in the comments, though!
When I had a little house, I used to clean it in a day. Now I have 1 laundry day, 1 tile floor vacuum and mop day, 1 wood floor vacuum and mop day, and 1 bathroom cleaning and vacuum bedrooms day ( I usually vacuum every other week truth be told). I don’t have a kitchen day because every day is a kitchen cleaning day! Bennett sweeps around the island every day after lunch and I hate going to bed with a messy kitchen! I only fold jeromy, Emma and my own clothes so doing laundry all day 1 day a week works so far :) I usually do a load of towels 1 other day too.
The size of the house makes a huge difference! Going from the small kitchen in the Richland house to this one that is 3x as big took me at least a year to adjust to (but I was pregnant, too, so I was slow to adapt!).
What about kitchen cleaning tasks like stove cleaning, hood cleaning, microwave cleaning, and such? Do you do those things every evening? My kitchen was designed to be pretty, not easy to clean. Sigh. One does feel guilty about leaving a mess in a kitchen-meant-to-be-pretty, though. That’s another thing that has helped my motivation! I feel like I’m offending my kitchen’s nature when I let it get crufty. I never felt that way with any other kitchen I had. :)
I try to have a Big Laundry Day every couple of weeks and do bedding, furniture covers, things like that. But yeah, most of the time it’s a load every morning — then it never gets too overwhelming. One thing that helped me is weeding down how many extra clothes we have… I have to keep up with laundry so we don’t run out.
Those sorts of incentives help me, too. Right now we frequently have wet sheets in the morning, so that helps me get the load started right off the bat!
I like your thoughts here, and that is how laundry works out for me, too. I do a load of laundry most days, and then, yes, when I am around on Saturdays I will do a number of loads, but it is never an emergency to get it all done because if something is left it’ll just get done on Monday anyhow. (You are right about the large family issue–my friend with six teen and preteen children in whose garage apartment we lived when we were first married–did laundry all day every day. She was so serene about it!
Anyhow…
I wonder if I shouldn’t try the zone thing. Part of this is because I wonder if I’d teach my children to do more if I didn’t have Big Cleaning Day. Then, I am in a hurry to knock it all out, and I don’t have the patience or the time. Sure, if we’re talking 9yo quick learners, but if it’s littles that are only technically capable, I just end up sending them outside…
I am seriously considering. I don’t think I have much to lose (other than time spent tackling it mentally) because I can always switch back if it’s a no-go.
Okay, I did it: I divided my house into zones. I’m going to try it because my curiosity is just getting the better of me…and because I like the idea of getting mostly OUT of my big cleaning day. (I do hate that day.) So after I divided it, I thought, “Why not start now?” And so I cleaned the living room and the dining room (labeled “Zone 1″ on my little chart). Wow. I feel so satisfied, and what now what I wasn’t able to get to on my Big Day is clean. Hmmm…We’ll see if I can keep it up, though…
I’ll be interested to hear how it works for you, Brandy. :) Not getting to things on a big clean (and big laundry), is exactly what made me amenable to the zone plan.
Apprenticing the children in the housework is a good thought, too. Maybe with the zone plan something similar to the dinner helper rotation might work? I hadn’t thought about that. I’m still working on being consistent with the dinner helper business, but I had been thinking that my 3yo does go to loose ends in the afternoon and is my one girl, so maybe I should have her be my helper instead of sending them all out and getting into a “zone” myself. I do like listening to talks or sermons during my afternoon chore time and dinner prep, though. :)
We do a load in the morning, he boys take turns loading. and a load at night that sits in the dryer till the next morning. Rarely have big piles, ups, except on sheets and towels day, which is Tues. which is also bathroom cleaning day.
The evening load, consists of bathroom hand towels, kitchen towels, which I use to wipe the floor right before they go in the wash. I figure a little bit of effort everyday, keeps it clean enough that I don;t have to deep clean as often! And having wet nasty towels is gross :-)
Zoae — So every evening you wash all the towels and cleaning cloths you used that day?
yes, the kitchen and bathrooms hand towels, and wash rags. Using them to quick wipe down the floor in each room, keeps the floors cleaner too!