I do maybe every other week, and I rarely dust. Is this normal? Should I be vacuuming more often?

Normal??..lol...I vacuum often because of my birds, but dusting is another story. I find that if I just don't move anything, the dust hardly shows. But when I do dust, those Swiffer things work really good. My daughter gave me the whole set-up for my birthday (hint, hint..) and I keep a box in my desk drawer...they're great on the computer screen. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I vaccuum every week overall, and spot check dirty areas as needed. I also LOVE my Bissel Green Machine for those frequent little spills and animal accidents.

Oh wow, we must be pigs here! I vacuum every day! In my defense, we have 3 dogs and 3 birds though! Connie

I honestly can't wait til we can afford the iRoomba, so we can have a self-propelled little vaccuum run all night every night. We have three dogs too and two guinea piggies, so it would be better for us if we vacuumed ore often! :rolleyes:

Oh, and as for dusting, I do my wood surfaces evey time we have company coming, with Murphys Wood Soap. Since we entertain a lot, it's a pretty good system. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Anyone ever steam clean? Do you own a machine or rent, or use a service?

Twice a week

I COULD vacuum everyday. But I DO vacuum atleast once a week. I have 4 inside cats and a large dog and a husband with dust and dander allergies. but no children or much traffic--so it is mostly the issue of pets and dust rather than dirt. I have air filters that help too.
Ravyn

With kids home all day and day care kids, I vacummed several times a day. Now just one child at home during school hours and no day care kids, I vacumm at least one time per week, but usually every two or three days.

For help with making cleaning routines, I strongly suggest

www.flylady.net

She has a "weekly house blessing" routine 7 or so tasks, 10 minutes to do each one, so a little more than an hour for all...including vacumn,sweep, dusting etc. The key is not to obsess and just get as much done in the 10 minutes alloted for the task as you can.

Fabulous web site!!

I'll be honest, FlyLady's book "Sink Reflections" is SO much "calmer" than the website. And a wonderful resource.

I don't vacuum much because I have wood floors everywhere and swiff and/or sweep daily (we have dogs). So I vacuum about once/month or so to get all the corners really good.

I vacuum the downstairs once a month (probably needs it at least 2x/month). I vacuum the upstairs (main living area of the beach house) about 1x/week (definitely needs it at least 3x/week). It's just too much effort!