Spring has officially sprung — at least, according to the calendar — and thus kicks off Spring Cleaning Week on NewlyWife. Sometimes I wish the idea of clean weren’t so subjective. Do you ever find that your definition of tidy doesn’t match that of your spouse? In my experience, these definitions are determined by the cleaning habits we experienced growing up. As one of the many acts of compromise, we are still working out a way to keep chores equitable and manageable.

Here’s what we’ve tried so far:

Chore Wheel

A chore wheel, if you’ve never heard of one, evenly divides up tasks and rotates to each person. The handy circle that has kept college roommates from playing the blame game had apparently had a smooth transition into newlywed life, as it was the winning advice given at one of my girlfriend’s wedding shower.

Result: Not so much in our house. Despite fun colors and promises to use it, it never worked as a guideline. Heck, it was never even turned once!

The Nag-Free System

No one likes a nag, so each person cleans as they see fit. For example, if there are no clean bath towels left, do a load of laundry right away instead of hunting for a beach towel in the back and leaving the chore for someone else.

Result: While everything may be clean, the house is covered with resentment. The idea is that each person would clean what they couldn’t live with, but some people just don’t notice the mess or weren’t giving up their free time to do clean. We each felt that we were doing more than the other, because, as mentioned above, messy is subjective.

Minute Limit System

For a quick clean, spend just 5 minutes in each room to clear clutter, wipe things down and get it back in order. At the end of the time, move items from the cleaned rooms to their correct places. For us, it would mean a clean house in under an hour.

Result: Mixed. I was convinced that spending 5 minutes in a room would work. It didn’t. I needed at least 10 minutes for the bedrooms and bathrooms, and about 20 minutes for the kitchen and living room. At the end, I was exhausted and surrounded by piles of stuff that still needed to be put away when I felt that I should be done. It also didn’t allow for deeper cleaning, like in the shower.

Mix Cleaning with Pleasure

What if cleaning was an enjoyable time? This idea would bring together things you enjoy and doing it while cleaning. Some ideas would be, playing music, talking to a friend on the phone, cleaning on commercial breaks, etc. Another way to spice up cleaning would be in your tools. For my wedding, I registered for some weird stuff – leopard print broom, with hot pink leopard gloves and sponges, etc. I also really enjoy certain cleaners – more on that later in the week.

Result: Mixed. It makes cleaning better, but I would rather just do the fun stuff and skip the cleaning.

Home Lovin’ Chart

This idea came from Apartment Therapy. It spelled out the chores and evenly divided them as a divide and conquer approach over a month’s time. I also thought calling it a “Home Lovin’ Chart” would help us avoid the negative connotations that come with the word “chore” (makes me think of bore and abhor…). That way, it was like we were positively contributing to our investment and wellbeing.

Result: Mixed. We’re still trying to find our groove, but there’s much less resentment going on since it’s evenly divided. We modified the Apartment Therapy chart to account for more rooms and a busier schedule. (A link to the Excel spreadsheet will be on the site later this week.) Honestly, our schedules are so crazy that it’s hard to commit to a set plan like this. Also, the AT chart is for people with much higher expectations. We typically only use half of our house most days, but that would change when we add kids and animals to the mix.

Perhaps a combination of some of these methods would work. We’re still figuring it out. What about you, do you have a system? I’m interested in hearing about it in case it might work better for us.