Is there a 'housekeeping' job you always do before Christmas?

We go to my Mum's in Scotland at Christmas and I like the house tidy and the beds changed before we go. I like coming home to a tidy house. I also pour bleach in the loo!

Have to do a really good clean before asthmatic son comes to stay, keeping cat out of rooms I have already done is a major tussel DH forgets and leaves doors open!! I used to wash all the glasses, I now request DH does that task as he is the one who will open the cupboard doors and offer drinks. I do clean the silver and brass, at least it us a sitting down task, and I have to clean windows as I hate the way the winter low sun shows up all the marks.

I have no idea why I make my life so difficult when I hate cleaning and shopping!

How do you find the time for all this? I took this week off work in the hope that I could get the house clean and do out all the kitchen cupboards. Result so far: 6 cupboards and drawers (if I count them all there are over 30).And today we're off to visit DS2 and family. Which leaves Saturday and Sunday to do the Christmas clean and it's back to work on Wednesday. In the end I will probably just about manage to polish the dining table and decorate the Christmas tree.

My 70 year old single male friend has his 35 year old daughter living with him. She has been with him for 15 months. It is driving him crazy! She shows no sign of moving on and although she is ostensibly searching for work she hasn't worked during that time.
How can he help her to move on? And get his freedom back?
She is well educated and has some income from when her mother died.
Anyone else got adult children living with them?

You name should start a thread about this as not many people will see it on this one. Good luck!

Not really as I clean the house from tip to bottom every week anyway as part of my free fitness regime. In fact, I possibly do less as the Christmas cards prevent me from getting at some surfaces to dust them.

However, when I go down to Devon for the week on Boxing Day I have to clean that house from top to bottom before the guests arrive the next day so it's swings and roundabaouts.

By the 26th December I will have cleaned six bathrooms in five days. Six loos! I should do a 'Twelve Days of Christmas' especially for cleaning two houses!

Like Teetime I give the oven a really good deep clean. Which reminds me.........

I hire a cleaner for a day much easier and much better then I can do

Making me feel tired just reading this! I do exactly the same as every other week and then just enjoy. Too many nice things going on at this time of year to be deep cleaning the house. Who cares about a bit of dust when you've got a house full of twinkly lights & Prosecco? ?

Only extra dusting where the decorations and card are being put.

Usually have a tidy up change the beds and clear ironing and try to keep the washing down.

No no cleaning, have too many other pleasures, get a life.
Michel55 has the best idea. Get a self cleaning oven, you turn a switch and an hour later all is done. Prefer my free fitness in the forest.

Definitely not! I spend all year doing it...and take a break at Christmas. I can't understand ads on tv selling sofa's in time for christmas delivery! or people buying new carpets for christmas....don't get me started!

Got lots to do and not enough time to do it. I find that everything takes so much time to do and there are not enough hours in the day to do I it. Add to that the fact that the buses round here are only once an hour, and quite often don't turn up, and there are no shops near by, so that uses up more time. Just have to pretend that the dust is invisible, despite the fact that the dust from the trains just over the fence at the bottom of the garden, and from the crematorium very nearby settles so quickly that dusting should be done on the hour, every hour. Hey ho!

I remember my mother and my aunties always having a massive Hogmanay clean up. One of my grandmother's was Scottish and this was a ritual that they had been brought up with so continued it. I used to do it in my early years of marriage as well, but gave it up a long time ago. Nothing in particular is done extra for Christmas either, just enjoy it as it is.

I used to do tons of things in the run up to Christmas years ago. I'd pull the washing machine out and clean underneath it, same for the fridge freezer and also the cooker. I'd defrost the freezer and clean out the oven so everything was spotless in the kitchen.
Then I would take everything out of my display cabinet, clean all the glass shelves and doors and handwash all the crystal glasses.
Nowadays I just keep to my daily routine and can't be bothered to do all of that. My cooker is built in and cleans itself, my hob is an induction one so takes hardly any time, my freezer is frost free, amazing how so many jobs no longer need doing.
I have a daily routine with housework so the jobs I would normally do on Christmas Day and Boxing Day I will do over the weekend, but they are generally just dusting and hoovering.
I'd rather spend Christmas relaxing

I am going to polish the remote and open the chocolates.........

I'm going one better and polishing off some chocolates!

Clean the dining room - it only gets used on high days and holidays!!

Not that anyone would notice so my pre xmas time would be spent stocking up on the essentials ie food and drink..

No - I'm with lucky girl. I don't think the words sparkling or deep clean ever apply to my house. As I have family coming I do try to clean all the rooms and change bedding but no.more than usual (ie adequately but probably not as well as DiL does it!) Then it's left till after decorations come down. No time to do any more with all the food preparation etc to do.

Oh dear was having a clear out put the Christmas Listings on the side just looked at it and thought odd it says 2015 -16 they have made a mistake. No I found the new one must put on my resolutions list to tidy up more often Umm!!!

Wonder what age all these grans with so much energy are
At 77, no energy, no tree, no decs but plenty of medications
Many happies to you all
??

CLean all my windows inside.....I have no idea why!! I’m fact I might stop doing it...but it has become’ tradition ‘or is that ‘addictive’

I am clearing out paperwork, brochures etc - having cleaned more windows inside today.
Reading through the paperwork (getting sidetracked as usual) I saw something in a magazine which suggested that having very clean windows in the window will let in more light and help us to feel better.
So it could be worth doing it.