How to time manage… cleaning your house

Nine ways to get it done! (If you have more, please share)
We might be living in the 21^st century and have equal rights for men and women – but more than 50% of households I know don’t have a paid cleaner.
And I am sorry to say, it’s mostly the male partners in the equation that vote against that expense.
For different reasons, but one still is going along these lines:” my mum raised 5 kids and cooked everything from scratch, made jam and we had home baked goodies every day after school…. And she didn’t have a cleaner or any household help!”
That might be true, but lifestyle expectations have changed, for mums, dads and the kids. So let’s explore how you could manage to clean your house:
A: paid help:
1.Hire a cleaner every week, tidy up beforehand so the cleaner just does the cleaning
2.Hire a cleaner every second week, tidy up beforehand so the cleaner just does the cleaning
3.Hire a cleaner to do the tidy and clean, every week, every day ???
4.Have a concierge that organises the cleaning, tidying and shopping and runs errands.
B: do it yourself
5.Tidy and clean one area of the house every day – one after the other
6.Tidy and clean in one big go – all by yourself
7.Tidy and clean in one day: get the family to do the tidying
8. Tidy and clean in one go – everyone in the household helps
C: mix it up
9. Have a cleaner every second week and do one of B the other week
Have a look through all the options! Are there more? How do you do it?And be aware that as your life changes, kids get bigger or more members of the family arrive, partners get promotions or need to work interstate – these arrangements have to be reviewed and should change.
This is what has happened in the LessMess household in the last 15 years.
+With one child I did pretty much do No.5. Worked, but was a bit frustrating because you do end up cleaning every day!
+When pregnant with child number 2, I was so sick, that we hired a cleaner to come every week.
That got reduced to every two weeks once the child was born and I felt better. Same happened for the third pregnancy.
+10 years down the track, with the same lovely lady coming reliably every two weeks, she
just left us two years ago to learn English(!!!) and I decided that we would try to save that expense. As our kids were 15,13 and 10 we are doing it all together:
+Everyone tidies up their area/mess.
+Once that is done (and approved by me!!!!) everyone has to clean for a solid one hour in one week, ½ hour in the alternating.
With five of us in the house, that is a lot of cleaning done in a small time frame. I actually sit down and make a list upfront, so I am prepared to give them new jobs when they come asking. I also make sure that tasks rotate, so if something doesn’t get cleaned that thoroughly by a 10 year old one week, an adult gets that job next and hopefully does a better job. (our now 17 year old still thinks we have round rooms when mopping…he just doesn’t see the corners!!!)
This is a good learning curve for the kids and a lesson in letting go for me!!
Why is this topic an organising one? Because any of the options above will be either less work or cheaper if you have an organised household, simple as that!!