by Carolyn Noblett

Created on: October 31, 2009   Last Updated: May 01, 2012

It seems obvious that daily housekeeping needs to be done...well, daily. Morning chores might be making beds and making sure all dirty clothing is in the hamper. Afternoon and evening chores might include running the dishwasher or hand-washing dishes and for some: getting children's toys back to their respective storage places. Before going to bed you might include making a sweep of items laying around that need to get back to their home. One thing is for sure, if you let things pile up it will take that much more time to get them in order again.

So how and when do you find time for vacuuming and dusting, cleaning the bathroom, and deep cleaning of carpets and windows? What about the laundry and ironing? Along with meal preparation, earning a living, and driving kids to extra curricular activities, it really takes a lot of energy to keep up.

First for the big items. Many people were taught that their carpets need to be cleaned in the spring after the rain ceases, but sometimes cleaning (or having them cleaned) works best in the fall right before the holidays. Unless you can get this done twice a year the fall season might work better for you. That way when you have the most company your carpets will be fresh and clean.

Window washing is not the most fun item on the list, but it can turn out to be interesting. Getting outside on a cool fall day when the leaves are changing to bright colors can be invigorating. This can be one of the chores that if done in the fall can bring some joy to the last crisp days before the hard freeze. Since one spends more time inside the house in the winter, it might make more sense to have sparkling windows to peer out of on the few sunny days there may be.

Inside windows you actually could leave till spring. That way you're not overwhelmed with windows. You will have fewer problems with inside windows if you don't allow smoking indoors. Nicotine and tar sticks to everything and grabs every dust particle that floats by.

The next biggest item is vacuuming. The actual time of day that you do this depends largely on your family, living arrangements, neighboring apartments, etc. If you can get people to take their shoes off at the door, you can easily cut your vacuuming time down to once a week. If no one is dragging dirt from outside it stands to reason there will be less to clean up. If not, you may be stuck with twice weekly or even more often.

Now for the less intensive projects. Dusting seems to go the fastest on

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