Upkeep of house

I’m clearly not talking about hoarding, unsanitary or dirt-related conditions or anything unsafe like trip hazards, but with all the impressive examples of housekeeping advice floating around I’d like to add my tuppenceworth that this is your life, your house and up to you.
There are no rules or standards to be met other than your own. And if you’d rather blitz the place when you get the urge or prefer a regular routine - that is entirely your decision.
«Dust if you must»

If you can afford it have a cleaner. We have a lovely lady who comes once a week for two hours. She does a brilliant job. We pay her £50 for two hours.

OH and I do our own ironing. The kitchen is kept clean and if the carpets get overwhelmed with cat fur I get the hoover out.

We have a gardener who comes when required. This has been less often during the last few months because of the heat. She came today and stayed for an hour and a half.

We first had a cleaner when I had three children under five. Then I did it all myself until OH lived overseas for a few years. He had a cleaner (and a gardener and a translator and a caretaker) so thought it only fair that I should have help too.

😂
Salsa - yes, £25 per hour, for both husband and wife. Not each .

They like an airing once in a while.
Spring is a good time 😁

Oh I’ve got one of those - must start using them 😂

petra

crazyH

My house looks fairly tidy , but I hope my visitors don’t look down at the skirting boards. How many of you clean the skirting boards regularly?

Me, 😂

Well I dust them kind of regularly with one of those microfibre stick dusters.

We just moved fridge/freezer and freezer as the decorator is coming soon. This was something I used to do fairly regularly but not for a while so it was quite dusty 😲

I have a cleaner for two hours every fortnight and she does the floors, hoovers everywhere plus anything else which I feel requires a bit more doing!
I do one job a day such as ironing or dusting! I leave the bedrooms we don’t use until someone stays !
I start a charity bag every month to declutter as I know it has to be done!
Perhaps you need to prioritise what needs to be done then do it!
Definitely get a cleaner and maybe a person to help in the garden if you need it too! Good luck!

cleaners cost a lot of money, if you hsve grown up grandaughters you must be quite elderly , do none of them offer you help. i hope you are not a giver and they are takers

crazyH

My house looks fairly tidy , but I hope my visitors don’t look down at the skirting boards. How many of you clean the skirting boards regularly?

Me, 😂

karmalady exactly that. Putting off makes me feel when I get back to doing whatever it is, it has become a chores rather than just something that needed doing.

Why not advertise for someone to come in for a one off cleaning and garden watering …then you can carry on from there…the garden could be a school boy needing some pocket money..plus its cooling down now so it will be easier to keep up with the watering, weeding and deadheading..and onceca cleaner has blasted thru everything with a mop and bucket, and duster etc..You’ll be good to take over..

My house looks fairly tidy , but I hope my visitors don’t look down at the skirting boards. How many of you clean the skirting boards regularly?

Deudits

The 'pecking at my head' is the real problem, more than the cupboards, and it goes away with a system rather than with one big blitz. What has worked for people in the same boat: one job per week, written down and dated, the inside of one cupboard, one set of drawers, and nothing else that week. Karmalady's point about not procrastinating only holds if the job is small enough to start. A paper list on the fridge does it; a diary does it; a phone reminder app such as XNeuronal will do it by voice, you tell it 'wardrobe drawers next Tuesday' and it says so out loud on the day, and it keeps the date you did it, so next month you check rather than guess. A cleaner for two hours a fortnight, as Luckygirl3 says, takes the floors off the list entirely, which leaves you the bits only you know about. And the chairdrobe is allowed. Everyone has one.

Yes, good idea to keep a to do list handy.
I cleaned out the larder yesterday which was satisfying and horrifying in the same measure as quite a lot needed throwing out as well out of date.Felt very virtuous afterwards 😇

henetha

I sympathise Dolly. Old age and a bad back mean that I'm not keeping up either. I do my best but it's not perfect by a long way.
I like your idea, FriedGreenTomatoes. Made me laugh.

My lower back isn’t great either which makes any bending difficult.
I take Paracetamol before going to work which helps.
As others say, the recent boiling hot weather has affected us all but now temperatures are nice again I just make sure I do some housework every day which keeps things on an even keel.

Pardon my question but is this £25 per hour with two people working ?

I am in North Wales and looking for a cleaner

I also let the housework slip during the heatwaves and it bothered me. I made slight inroads at first but then had a workman coming in who needed to go into most rooms - surprising how quickly a house can be cleaned from top to bottom!

You have no desire to move, so please drop that idea.

Which do you prefer: housework or gardening?

Do the one you know you can and will not be satisfied watching others do, and get a cleaner or a gardener (if you can) to do whichever task you dislike, or have not the strength to do.

The 'pecking at my head' is the real problem, more than the cupboards, and it goes away with a system rather than with one big blitz. What has worked for people in the same boat: one job per week, written down and dated, the inside of one cupboard, one set of drawers, and nothing else that week. Karmalady's point about not procrastinating only holds if the job is small enough to start. A paper list on the fridge does it; a diary does it; a phone reminder app such as XNeuronal will do it by voice, you tell it 'wardrobe drawers next Tuesday' and it says so out loud on the day, and it keeps the date you did it, so next month you check rather than guess. A cleaner for two hours a fortnight, as Luckygirl3 says, takes the floors off the list entirely, which leaves you the bits only you know about. And the chairdrobe is allowed. Everyone has one.

I sympathise Dolly. Old age and a bad back mean that I'm not keeping up either. I do my best but it's not perfect by a long way.
I like your idea, FriedGreenTomatoes. Made me laugh.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

I do my housework every day between 8 and 8:15am whether it needs it or not.
🤣

Like your style 😂.

I do my housework every day between 8 and 8:15am whether it needs it or not.
🤣

My house is looking chaotic at the moment after the heat, my DH to care for, and a family crisis taking up most of my time. But I have learned to ‘triage’, do the work that is most urgent and most visible first. Then do other jobs at my leisure.
Thankfully did loads of decluttering a while ago and only have a back yard rather than a garden to care for.
And strangely when family or friends visit I always apologise for any mess but they always say how lovely the house looks.

None of us have been keeping up with the everything during the hot weather - and that applies to young as well as old.

Just accept that in exceptional circumstances. our usual routines get disturbed and things get neglected, and when those exceptional circumstances end things will gently return to normal.

My home currently looks as if a dust bomb has hit it. That is because we bought a project house a year ago and currently have a constant stream of builders doing dust making activities. I am just accepting that my house will remain so until the work is finished, just going round and doing a bit of dusting when it gets too obvious. When the work is complete I will do a a thorough clean - and get back to normal

I'm with MawsRosie ... life is too short for fussing about tidiness.

I have a cleaner for 2 hours a fortnight. In between I neither vacuum nor clean floors routinely. If something spills I clean that up, but otherwise zilch.
Obviously I wash up and clean surfaces as I cook but that is it.

I have a robot lawn mower, and a young lass who very occasionally helps me with my semi wild garden. My cleaner's partner does my big hedges and trims the wild flower garden once a year.

What is all this cleaning for?

No worries!