I have a roomba to get rid of 80% every day. I strive to manually vacuum once a week, because the roomba doesn’t do corners and some hard to reach bits. Nor can it do stairs, obviously. After vacuuming I run a steam mop over the floors, which is amazing and SO much faster than regular mopping, without any cleaning agents.

Since its a combination steam mop/hand thing, I also use it for the windows. That’s not on any schedule, just when I think they’re dirty.

I wetwipe the countertop after I make dinner, and I clean it with soap whenever it looks dirty enough to be worth the effort.

Honestly, things like wooden floors can be hand-scrubbed four or five times before being actually clean, but it feel that anything that’s stuck on there after running the steam mop is probably not coming off during normal use, so it qualifies as clean enough.

I usually just deep clean once a year and wash the floor multiple times over until it’s pretty clean. Then I let my robot vacuum/mop keep it mostly clean twice a week the rest of the year. The robovac helps enforce a cleaner lifestyle by ensuring things aren’t left out and about. The floors will never be perfectly clean though, just the nature of life~

As for everything else, I set reoccurring calendar tasks to space it out but I try to do one area per weekend. Keeps cleaning manageable but regular.

In newer construction, especially high-rise apartments, there’s a lot less dust. But in older buildings, it’s just an endless torrent, and the solution has been…

Robot vacuums

While they must be maintained, and won’t work well if you’re not diligent about picking up and keeping obstacles off the floor, they make it far easier to keep the whole house clean by reducing the overall volume of interior dust and debris inside the building envelope.

To illustrate (this will be gross) I change the bags about every month and weigh them and it’s usually ~1 kg (~2 lbs) per bag, and each year they remove roughly 30-40 kg (70-90 lbs). And every time I’ve cut them open to see what’s causing all the weight (or make sure nothing important was eaten) it appears to be mostly dust and hair.

It’s freaky thinking how all of that would be floating around, settling on surfaces, collecting in corners and crevices, saturating carpets and upholstery, and of course getting breathed in constantly. Instead I don’t have to manually dust and vacuum very often and our indoor AQI is usually better than outside.

So yeah. Robots.

Edit: added imperial mass equivalents

I pay someone to clean once a month. I hate cleaning and it’s worth the $200 to me.

I keep my sink clear of dishes and take out my own trash, but the rest is just stuff I don’t want to do.

Set a weekly cleaning day and stick to it. On weeks when you can’t clean on that day, move it to a different day. Don’t skip.

And no shoes inside, ever. Tracks in lots of filth, even when you think you have clean shoes.

Clean the worst of it and let the rest be. I try to do a more thorough cleaning spring and fall.

I use a crosswave, and it’s disgustingly effective at cleaning floors. It’s basically a self cleaning Swifer wet jet.

I used it on floors that I mopped with a traditional mop twice right before, and the water was dark brown when I finished.

If you’re lucky enough to have a furnace, replace the filters monthly if you can. They sell them in multi packs. Buy the cheap ones and replace them often.

I clean the kitchen pretty thoroughly once per week after meal prepping. By thoroughly I mean do the dishes, wipe down the stovetop and counters, clean the sink with dish soap and a sponge, then sweep and mop. During the week I try to clean up small spills and such as I go and load the dishwasher after meals.

For the bathroom, I usually do once per month. Clean the counter, mirror, toilet top to bottom, and shower top to bottom. Sweep and mop.

Living spaces and bedroom I sweep/mop/vacuum once per month and clean tables as needed.

I hardly dust or clean windows. I maybe do that a couple times per year or if it’s particularly filthy.

The general idea for me is to clean regularly and as needed so that nothing is really nasty at any given time. Anything else gets done roughly once per year or on move out.

At some point the shame overcomes the laziness and then I clean it.

I keep up on my hvac air filters to help with dust, and have a no shoes in the house rule.

Beyond that, there’s dusting, cleaning windows, sinks, countertops, bathrooms, and probably things I don’t even consider.

Of all the items you’ve listed, I personally rank floors as the most important to clean, followed by bathrooms, countertops, sinks, windows, and finally dusting. These are in order of which are used more frequently and how easily they’d be noticed. A dirty window (on the outside) is rarely dirty enough to outright block the sunlight, but grime on the floor will be tracked into other rooms, worsening the issue. Bathrooms are used daily, so would bother me if they’re not at least reasonably seemly.

For keep floor clean, the zeroth step is to prevent dirt and grime from coming in at the onset. A shoes-off policy in the home is probably the most substantial in this effort. That’s not to say you have to go barefoot – although I do think it’s quite nice – since indoor slippers or shoes are an option. The next step would be to rip out all wall-to-wall carpet, if possible. I have a full rant about the drawbacks of carpet, but it will suffice to say that carpet traps dust and dirt whereas hard surfaces like tile or laminate do not.

After that, you may need to identify what exactly is dirtying your floors. If it’s loose particulate (eg food crumbs), that’s going to need a different solution than if it’s loose hairs, which is different than dust or clothes threads. Crumbs or hair might suggest localized sweeping in the kitchen or bathroom will be most effective, while dust or threads suggest you need to adjust your clothes dryer settings, or your central air system needs a new/different filter.

The thing to keep in mind with all this is that grime does not come from nowhere: there is always a source, and the evidence will lead you to what’s most effective to keep your home maintained. Even if you conclude that the dust is fallout from the nearby coal-burning power station, there will still be things you can do, such as campaigning for a fossil-fuel free world electrostatic air filters or keeping doors closed when not needed.

I have 2 kids under 3…

laughs maniacally

Robots do vacuuming and mopping at least once a week, some areas more often. I do basic cleaning of the kitchen regularly and more in depth cleaning occasionally. Bathrooms are about the same but less frequent. I find getting stoned really helpful for staying on top of cleaning, it’s a much more enjoyable experience.

Vacuum. It sucks up the dirt and traps it.

Brooms & mops were from the ancient days before electricity existed, and as you’ve experienced, the dirt just keeps circulating and never goes away. Endless filth & frustration.