Homekeeping a large house?

[sarahandmadelinesm]

We just purchased a new home in lancaster pa (we are in south carolina, so it is a big move!) Anyway, our house now is in a very expensive area, so it is pretty small--1300 square feet of "rooms" we live in (or 3 beds/2 baths/eat in kitchen/living room). The new house is 3500 of living space (4 beds, 3 baths, living room, dining room, eat in kitchen, family room, den, sunroom, on 2 floors)
I am trying to visualize how much/how long this will take to take care of. I currently have a service come in once a month to do a good monthly cleaning--i.e. bathrooms, kitchen, all floors etc.
SO now, I am trying to get an idea of how long somehting like this takes to maintain, and also, how much a cleaning service would charge, if anyone uses one...
I would love your advice! We are thrilled with the house, I am just a little nervous about the details:)

[PurpleButterfly]

I try to stick with a system of alternating certain chores on certain days of the week, on a two-week alternating system (any two weeks out of the month). I tried doing floors seprately but it seemed to take a lot more time and work. Instead, I do the alternating chore weeks about once a month and it works pretty well! I keep the days flexible but try to stick with doing the chore on one of the days during the assigned week.

Week One:

Monday
Clean all bathrooms

Wednesday
Do all floors

Friday
Clean out fridge
Wipe & polish all appliances

Week Two:

Monday
Dust and polish upstairs furniture (if I feel like it, sometimes I'll do downstairs afterward, if not, I do it the next cleaning day)
Tidy upstairs rooms

Wednesday
Dust and polish downstairs furniture (if not already done)
Clean and freshen animal areas
Vacuum wood floors

Friday
Tidy up and restock all bathrooms
Clean windows/shutters as needed

I do deep cleaning about every five to six weeks, sometimes more frequently. As much of a blessing as it is to have a spacious home, there is a definitely increase in workload and time you have to spend keeping the house up. My friends think I'm crazy, but I miss our smaller, cozier home. :shrug

[Punkie]

Yeah, I feel your pain. We moved from about 1600 to ~3000 sqft., and we have 4 levels (5 if you count our loft!). Its SO hard to get everything clean at once! I have to do a floor a day and I still feel overwhelmed at times. I'm trying to experiment with other plans that will hopefully work better...

[PurpleButterfly]

Wow, those are a lot of levels to keep clean, Amanda! I find myself missing our last house, even though it was also large and on two levels, it was laid out so much better for practical living. I am trying to learn to accept that I can never have everything perfect here at once. :/

Now let's see if we can find some positive things about a spacious home so we don't freak our Sister out before she can even move into hers! ;) :P

Storage!!!!
Closets!!!!
Room for little runners!!!!

:cool

[Punkie]

Wow, Kym! I'm so happy that I don't have to deal with more sqft! I can barely manage what I have now! Are your grandparents living with you still? I'm guessing that would make more cleaning work... At least there's only 4 of us to clean up after :)

As for the good stuff:
We love having lots of rooms! We love that the kids have their own playroom downstairs! We love that guests have a level to themselves and can shut the door to that level so we never have to hear each other! I have an awesome kitchen :heart I adore my huge, luxurious bathroom with the giant tub! There's tons of blessings that come with a spacious house :D

We also have a much bigger yard now, and I'm learning the work that it takes to maintain a nice yard! We've always had lawn services, and they really aren't that popular here since you only have to tend your lawn for 1/2 of the year.... That's another adjustment for us though.

[PurpleButterfly]

Yeah, half-year lawn care rocks!! :tu :cool

My grandparents do live with us. Definitely adds to the workload but also to the blessings. :grin

I was just upstairs and thought of something to add - be sure to pick up dollar-store potty brushes and cleaning accessories for each of your bathrooms; it will make it a lot easier than carrying stuff from room to room! :)

[Punkie]

Yes, and a vacuum for every floor (or every other floor in my case) is also very handy.

If it weren't for my multiple toilet brushes, then I'm sure they'd get scrubbed much less often!

[greenemama]

i recently discovered how handy (and seemingly luxurious) having a cleaning supplies stash for each floor can be! it's not like you have to buy double, really, as the stuff on each floor lasts twice as long. :)

i try to have lists. try. i do things like bathrooms on one day, vac one floor one day, the other the next. the basement doesn't really get vac'd very often. dh's studio does and now that we've a litter box in the laundry room i feel like i vac in there all of the time.

our house is pretty big and the yard is reasonably large. dh does the yard except for the flowers but even taking care of those, watering, etc., is a lot of work! especially with little hands in the mix.

i try to dust once a week and normally do that downstairs at least. it really helps to do one floor one day, the other another day. unless company is coming and then it's an all at once free-for-all.

[sarahandmadelinesm]

Thanks so much--this was just the info I was looking for:) I love the house, but I have so many projects in mind (painting a mrual, decorating a bg girl room for sarah and a sweet baby room for madeline), I want a realistic idea of the amount of time just regular maintenance would take!
THanks, all :heart

[Abinsmom]

I'm sorry, am I the only one who believes paying a cleaning service is worth every dime exponentially??? If you're a mommy and your house is anything over 2,000 sq. ft., get a cleaner!!!

My cleaner comes every 2 weeks for $75/time. I pick up before he comes, but he does all the deep cleaning (well, he doesn't do windows, but that's okay!). Aside from keeping my hard woods clean (kitchen especially), I hardly clean anything myself.

Having a cleaner isn't as prestigious as it once was -- it's quite normal for many families with small children. For me, it's just like paying the water or phone bill -- it's a necessary service and it's easier for me to pay for it than to do it myself.

[PurpleButterfly]

It sure does sound nice, but I would have a really hard time spending $150 a month on something that I know I could do myself...my thinking always seems to be along the lines of, "what kind of hs'ing or art supplies could I get for that money if I saved it by doing the work myself"? :O

I also think I would feel really weird having a stranger scrub my toilets. :neutral

But I do understand where you're coming from and have often thought the same thing about my time being worth it. :shrug

[Abinsmom]

I agree it is uncomfortable at first to have someone come in and clean the toilets, but I got over it really quickly. And honestly, I always clean the underside of the seats and anything else totally disgusting on the toilet before the cleaner comes -- I want him to focus on the bowl and not any of the gross other stuff! Hey, I am the only female in the house (even the dog is male!), so I'm no stranger to gross toilet rim spatters!

[AttachedMamma]

I would guess that a cleaning service should be able to give you an idea of how long it takes for certain cleaning jobs. Of course, they may stretch it a bit. :rolleyes How about flylady? Could you get some info there? :)

We currently live in a 2400 sf house and it takes me about an hour to vacuum everything. It is our 1st house and I was overwhelmed w/the cleaning when we 1st moved in...then DD arrived on the scene a few mos later and it was like impossible! I'm thinking of buying a smaller house next time. ;)

cindi

[AmyDoll]

yea - we have a cleaning service in our townhouse - $85 a cleaning and we'll hopefully have one when we move too! Our new house is 2500 sq ft on 2 levels w/an unfinished basement & our TH is 1600 sq ft on 3 levels.

with sam & (hopefully) more kiddos on the way - if i have a minute, i don't want to scrub a toilet - i want to look at a magazine, turn on the computer, or work on something for me! i certainly can't count on Sam being entertained long enough for me to get the mop out to do the kitchen floor. so, since we want clean floors and toilets and no one wants to do it - i hire it done.

i don't think the money could be better spent elsewhere - this means that i spend more time with sam & that I get to maintain some of my own identity. if i was expected to clean the house in addition to mothering and my daily chores (like laundry and dinner) & errands (bills, post office, groceries) i think i'd be pretty resentful and tired.

[MarynMunchkins]

:lol I was just sitting here thinking how bored I was because my house is clean and my kiddos are all happily playing upstairs. :lol