when you clean, do you start with the worst room or the easiest?

[Sonata]

When you are starting to do a big cleaning session, do you start in the busiest and messiest place.... or not?

I start with the living room, because I can stay on top of and it's nice to have one nice room to retreat to. Or the bathroom, because the type of grime that accumlates there does not re-build itself within hours.

We spend most of our time in the dining room/kitchen area, and although I am often dealing with little things there, I am thinking :scratch and realize I never start there to clean.

[Aerynne]

I never know how much time I will have so I start with whatever is bothering me the most. It's often not the messiest room. I firmly believe that the most important room to keep clean is the master bedroom, so I often (but not always) start there. Either that or the kitchen. The kitchen gets bad the fastest and we suffer the most for its messiness, so that's another common starting point for me.

[newday]

i clean on a damage control basis generally. if people are coming over it is the rooms which will be used.
my bedroom, sadly, usually is the last to get cleaned and can go months without attention (except changing sheets, which i do every week), because i am not in there much in the day - out of sight out of mind.

[blondie]

I usually start with the laundry room or kitchen so I can get laundry started/the dishwasher started...then work from there.

[Barefoot Bookworm]

I usually start with the messiest because it's stresses me out to even look at it.

[milkdud]

I start by whirling through the house, on a goodwill rampage. :shifty When things are a mess, I don't know where to start, and donate like crazy.

[LadybugSam]

The most public. Living room, bathroom, and kitchen are at the top of my list.

[a good book under a tree]

I start in the kitchen. We do most of our living in the kitchen and family room, so it makes a big difference to me to have a clean kitchen. The family room is nice to have picked up, but it gets messy again so fast, it's not as rewarding. The room we spend the next most time in is the family bedroom, so that would be next in priority for me. If guests are expected, everything they are likely to see would be next.

However, as a gift to myself this Christmas, I cleaned and organized the whole house (except the basement, attic, and garage which need lots of work). So I am really enjoying being able to put everything in its place every day and have some rooms stay picked up for more than a few minutes.

[newday]

However, as a gift to myself this Christmas, I cleaned and organized the whole house (except the basement, attic, and garage which need lots of work). So I am really enjoying being able to put everything in its place every day and have some rooms stay picked up for more than a few minutes.

wow. if that was something i was actually able to do, i would do that for myself as well.
if this is a skill of yours then maybe it is marketable :shifty

[MercyInDisguise]

I always start in the kitchen because having the dishes dirty and everything drives me NUTS. Idk why that bug me worse. I hate to do days old dishes. :shiver I migrate to the living room after that, since there is always a massive toy explosion left behind in the wake of Hurricane C. I do the bedrooms last, since nobody goes in there except when they're sleeping, so they're not that bad. Laundry room is last and basically never gets clean because it's pointless because it's a never ending pile of reproducing clothing.

[Mother of Sons]

I clean whatever will have the greatest impact first. For general cleaning it is usually the kitchen or living room.

[mamaeffie]

I start with the easiest so I can get something done and feel accomplished. I have to have rewards and a sense of quick satisfaction to keep it up. :shifty

Or I do flyladys crisis cleaning, even if its not a crisis.

[Sonata]

Laundry room is last and basically never gets clean because it's pointless because it's a never ending pile of reproducing clothing.
Unfortunately, this is kind of how I feel about the kitchen. Except not with clothing. :shifty

[allisonintx]

I start in the Front room and make an extremely detailed list of every single thing that needs to be done, then move to the hall and kids bathroom, the kitchen, the bar and dinette, and then the family room

I print the list and put it up in the hall, and then the whole family works and crosses stuff off the List as we go. The List allows everyone to work without breaking my stride to give instructions or make decisions. The List says everything that must be done and to what standard. We all hate the list, but it makes for a common enemy, against whom we all work.

[Niphredil]

I start in whatever room is going to give me the most satisfaction. Frequently that is my bathroom, which no one sees but me, but it makes me feel accomplished and happy to know my perfect space is waiting for me if everything else is a sty. Motivates me to keep going.

[charla]

I start with the easiest so I can get something done and feel accomplished. I have to have rewards and a sense of quick satisfaction to keep it up. :shifty

:yes This is exactly what I do. I need to start crossing stuff off fast so that I can stick with it and feel like I'm accomplishing something and not just spinning my wheels.

[HuggaBuggaMommy]

I start with the worst, usually.

[Mokek Kwe]

Okay, so when I clean- no matter how big or how small the job is going to be- I make my own bed first. Somehow, that makes such a huge change in the room and puts my mind in a different, more "can-do" place.
Then I might do a few things that are easy work/high reward (picking up random trash and dishes and toys next to and on the couch. cleaning off the dining table completely. putting all the dishes into the sink. Stuff like that)- that way I begin to feel motivated and think- "hey, I can do it :yes !" Then after I feel motivated, I might start on things that are harder work with less obvious immediate reward- laundry, organizing closets or tidying up DD's room or toy room, etc.

[MaybeGracie]

I usually start with the worst, because I feel like I've made significant progress when it's done. If I don't have time to get to the other rooms, at least there's still a noticeable improvement.

It's usually the kitchen that I begin with. A clean kitchen makes such a huge difference to me, and it's usually the biggest visible mess (as in, I can't see the mess in my bedroom most of the time :giggle) so the entire house feels tidier when that one room is done.

[Lily]

I start with the worst of the public areas - living room, kitchen and dining room. I do those three then bathrooms then bedrooms last.

[a good book under a tree]

wow. if that was something i was actually able to do, i would do that for myself as well.
if this is a skill of yours then maybe it is marketable :shifty

:giggle if you have a large walk up attic, a garage you never plan to park in, and a basement you don't mind piled high with boxes, I'm your organizing guru. :shrug3 If on the other hand, you'd like to actually have a clean and organized house, maybe we could find someone to teach us both?

With two NF's running this household, we have a whole lot of things we just couldn't ever ever part with because they are sooo sentimental. Someone's grandma's eighth cousin might have glanced at it once, and then it must be preserved for a family legacy for all generations!!!:lol

[Daria_Aleksandrovna]

I always think 'most public spaces' first. Our bedroom is usually messiest and the most neglected, because I dump stuff in there during crisis cleaning. We don't do anything in bedroom except sleep maybe that's why bedroom bothers me less than other spaces.

[allisonlindberg]

I start with the easiest so I can get something done and feel accomplished. I have to have rewards and a sense of quick satisfaction to keep it up. :shifty

Or I do flyladys crisis cleaning, even if its not a crisis.


I do it just like this. I start by getting all the dirty clothes, towels, toys away and dirty dishes. They I go to cleaning floors, counters,etc

[Beth1231]

I almost always start around 4PM in the living room, because I like for Husband to walk into a non- cluttered space when he gets home. Then I tackle the tiny kitchen because when I have a clean space, I start dinner.:)

[pirandellian]

It depends on the situation.

Typically (aka, when not pregnant and can actually clean the whole house in one day without passing out), I start with the kitchen, then proceed through the house in whatever fashion suits me that day. The kitchen is usually the worst "mess" while other things are clutter, so that is why I start there.

However, being pregnant and having the nose of a hound dog, I can only set foot in the kitchen for very limited amounts of time.

Today, I was faced with getting things more "normal". I actually attacked the room that is most out of sight (the office) because now that THAT is cleaned up, I can utilize the storage in there better. Next project will probably be moving the books around (adult books into the office, kids into the playroom, we just recently switched those rooms, so the bookcases were never switched). Then I'll be able to pull all the junk out of the VERY messy laundry room and get it put away properly. The room I really want clean right now is the laundry room, but without places to put the stuff that made its way in there, I just can't do it properly. Hopefully I'll have a good day tomorrow and can get a lot done (with DH's help, but he's going to be brewing beer, so I don't know how helpful he'll be).

[mummy2boys]

I start in the places that guests can see (living room, kitchen etc) and go from there.