How much cleaning is enough?

Annmarie ?

Dust if you must but wouldn’t it be better

to paint a picture or write a letter,
bake a cake or plant a seed,
ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must but there’s not much time,
with rivers to swim and mountains to climb,
music to hear and books to read,
friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must but the world’s out there
with the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,
a flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will to come ‘round again.

Dust if you must but bear in mind,
old age will come and it’s not always kind.
And when you go - and go you must -
you, yourself, will make more dust.

In a moment of despair my Mum said 'please try to keep your place tidy. That gives the impression of being clean'. I have followed this request pretty much to the letter (slight Achilles heel paperwork) but I do a thorough job when having guests. Also beds are always fresh and ready in case of last minute arrivals. The kitchen surfaces have a daily sloosh down as I await something from the MW. That's it. I'm not at all unhappy if someone arrives on the doorstep unannounced.

bedding washed and changed twice a week?!! And here was me feeling proud because we do this weekly....

Oh, and who was it said 'Clean the house once, and 6 months later it needs doing again' ?

I've worked an upstairs/downstairs system for years, ie upstairs one week downstairs the next. Avoids always doing the same bit. That said, Monday is housework day, unless anything more interesting crops up. Make the bed and wash the pots, and hey presto the house looks tidy. Plus have found that laminate floors reduce the dusting - it seems to be fitted carpets that make the dust.

I used to thoroughly clean a room every week with a tidy up for the others. Bathrooms and kitchen daily. I discovered though that washing and polishing the likes of skirting boards, inside cupboards, wardrobes was basically a waste of time and effort. No-one absolutely no-one ever noticed and honestly neither did I. Moved house and my regime is much different, kitchen, bathrooms, hoovering and dusting done twice a week with all the other chores when I feel like it. Yesterday I cleaned my windows, inside and out. Amazing what a change in setting did.

We'd like to be tidy but find that if we put things away, both OH and I forget where they are next time we need them... So stuff does tend to be on view. (Tidy people look away now.) As for cleaning, I have a cleaner, not exactly professional but keeps the dust down. And I do a bit myself when I feel like it. Nowhere near as organised as we should be, by the sound of it.

Still, it suits us.

My place is on the market. When I am told by the agent I will have a viewing I go mad cleaning the place. After the viewing I relax until the next one.

I hoover downstairs every day as we have 4 cats. Other than that when it looks as if it needs it. I keep kitchen surfaces clean of course & whiz round bathroom & cloakroom every day but nothing major. I'm steeling myself to do the stairs sometime today.
Life is too much fun to spend hours cleaning!

Whole house on a Monday morning ( once a week), just a tidy up in between!
Always looks clean and tidy to me as 2old people without pets don’t make that much mess!

I really cannot imagine a kitchen or loo getting 'grubby' or 'dusty' every day with just two people. The mind boggles.

Kitchen (tiny) every evening after dinner while making a cup of tea, bathroom every morning after ablutions and bedding twice a week. The rest depends on how much time we’ve spent at home during the day to make it dirty! I am very tidy though with a home for everything- get away with a lot when you’re tidy!

When my daughter was little she used to ask ‘who is coming mummy?’when I cleaned and I am afraid I haven’t got much better.

I am a lazy so and so...Never liked housework. I come from a country where we had daily help, even for cooking. BUT after about 40 years here, I'm just about getting used to it,
Had d.i.ls and babies over for lunch yesterday. One of the babies was sick. So d.i.l. took her upstairs to my ensuite to wash her down. Oh the sheer embarrassment of it all ?- my bed was not made . Damp towels on the floor. I dont know what she thought of me. I usually keep the house (downstairs ) tidy and clean....didn't expect anyone to go upstairs. That has certainly taught me a lesson.

Have to say as little as possible, do have slutty tendencies, but always have clean loo and fresh bedding.

Wednesday is my cleaning day so I'm sitting here trying to work up the enthusiasm.

DH goes fishing so it's the one day of the week where he doesn't get in my way/want me to do something else/mess up the bits I've just done and visitors expected on Friday so a quick whizz round won't do.

glammanana
Bedding changed and washed twice a week, I am so impressed, mine, me only, is done every two weeks and then only because it's very crumpled by then.
I need help with the quilt cover as well.

I am in the 'as little as possible' camp. I wasn't put on this earth to be cleaning all the time!

Clean here and tidy when I am not crafting. I am not obsessive, I dust when I remember, send roomba on his rounds every few days and he picks up a good amount. Keeping the floors clear of dust stops dust flying up onto surfaces

Bathrooms as and when, only me here. Sparkle clean for visitors but otherwise they are always clean and hygienic

How much cleaning is enough? Generally as much as my cleaner can do in four hours once a week.

Um, I'd like to say Rosie that when we did have pets (dog, cats, horse, gerbils, etc) I cleaned up the pet hairs everyday, but I fear not.

I did always clean their dishes. And I know horses don't come into the house (well, not often) but somehow they manage to spread their aura.

I had a cleaner when I had a very bad back but would hate to have one again. I dislike the intrusion in our lives and the one we had did not do a really good job. My mother worked all my life so we had a neighbour who cleaned for us . She was with the family for years bringing her children along to begin with . She was a real treasure .
We set aside a morning a week for cleaning and I top up this for the rest of the week. I so like to be tidy.

I clean for 10 minutes every day.
Whether it needs it or not.
?

When you have pets, you have to clean up after them every day , no matter how tedious it is, or how you are feeling. 'A quick whip round' won't do when there are pet hairs and birds feathers to clean up.