A domestic !

Since my husband's retirement we pretty much split domestic chores, I do food shopping and all the cooking, rounding up the washing, loading the machine. He's very good at clearing up generally, washing pans, loading the dishwasher, tidying up the garden, we split the ironing down the middle. He got fed up with heavy duty housework, cleaning showers etc. don't blame him he always applied more elbow grease than I ever could. However, a couple of years ago he hired a cleaner, several hours once a week, I did think "are you mad!" at the time, now I realise would hate to live without her I love an immaculate house, she comes on Tuesday and it's fab for a few days, although we do tidy as we go. Grandchildren quite often stay on a Friday or Saturday every other week..........and well suffice to say after they've gone it can look as if the house has been ransacked

I should say that I blame my mother. She once told me that during the war she looked at the polished furniture falling out of bombed houses, thought about the woman who had spent her life polishing it and vowed she wasn't going to do that. She passed it on!

Several years ago I went to our local market for replacement bags for our hoover and the stallholder asked me whereabouts the on switch was to identify type of bag. I fessed up that I did not know as DH did all the hoovering. The stallholder (a man) told me I should be ashamed of myself .

Sewing, knitting, crocheting, reading is different, olliebeak!

Cleaning is like painting the Forth Road Bridge, never ends, it all just gets dirty again.

I am sitting here planning what I ought to be doing and procrastinating.

Perhaps I could just about make a coffee.

Oh no, oh no, I just saw the words cleaning the oven, how could you, GrannySomerset
Definitely time for coffee, perhaps a lie down in a darkened room.

I'm definitely not a domestic goddess, unless there is one who avoids housework. Maybe that's what I should do, invent one. Ok so the dust gathering in the corners is actually an offering and musn't be disturbed. She requires that I ignore the mess of shoes, hats and gloves gathering in the hall. A daily worship requires I sit on the settee drinking coffee for an unspecified time (longer is better). Certain items like the iron and the hoover are taboo and may only be touched occasionally.
Thanks for the post NanKate it's good to know I'm not alone. And if Mr NanKate is available to borrow for short periods, please can he come round and bring his dustpan and brush?

My particular bugbear is cleaning the oven which I only do when stressed or not happy, so it is a good indicator of how I am feeling. Fairly clean at present as I am finding the incessant rain very lowering. It seems sensible to turn mild depression into something constructive and therefore I am considering cleaning the silver and brass bits and pieces today. Only considering, mind you .......

I'm so pleased that there are others on here who recognise themselves in this thread - and NOT JUST ME .

I'm another who cleans when I get annoyed with it, when there's 'company' expected or just before Christmas - when the decs/tree are ready to go up .

The standing joke within my family is that the iron is kept at the very back of a 'low-down kitchen cupboard' - ie it's THERE but not easily accessible. Even my grandkids have been known to ask if I actually possess one - cheeky blighters !

I'm NOT a lazy person! I retired about 7 years ago - work part-time (voluntary) in a Charity Shop on 3 days each week - help out with my grandkids whenever I'm needed. I can't just sit down to watch TV in the evenings - I always have knitting/crochet/sewing 'on the go', so that I can actually 'justify' sitting on my derriere while watching Emmerdale/Corrie/Vera !

This thread has made me smile, I think I’m a bit in between the extremes. I do keep the house clean and relatively tidy, but there are things that could be done more regularly (life is too short to dust the skirting boards every week ?)

LuckyFour that was my life exactly, but DH did take pride in laying out the table for my wine club buffet while I was busy pouring wine! ( He always knew he would get a glass or two!). And he was so kind and very generous and loving in other ways, so I am not really complaining.

Thank you Clare for the ideas. But it's not just doing nibbles, which would be easy. We normally provide a full buffet supper, as some don't eat at home before they come in anticipation! I find it a lot to do now that I am on my own. Late DH was very good and would do a beautiful table.

I do all the shopping, cooking and deciding what to eat, cleaning (yes all of it), washing/tumble drying, ironing, changing bed sheets etc. tidying, socialising, working part time, and all the gardening except mowing the lawn and I even do that sometimes. DH does his hobbies and sometimes washes up.
Nuff said.

Love it Valkimob t sweep the room with a glance ?

I freely admit to being a domestic slob - we are two middle aged adults in a one bedroom flat and, yes, the place is a tip unless we are expecting visitors. I do keep the bathroom, and kitchen work surfaces, clean for hygiene reasons but the rest gets done when I am fed up of looking at it. Living room rug needs hoovering, so does the runner in the hallway which is covered in sawdust from the new front door that was installed last week. I'll get around to it in the next few days - probably

I used to be part of the team that provided home care, four calls a day, to a lovely lady who was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis and needed personal care and help with everything from morning to night.
When she was younger and fitter she'd been very houseproud, to the extent that if a friend invited her for a mooch round the shops and a coffee on a Monday morning she would refuse, as that was when she always washed her kitchen floor.
She used to say to us, "Never turn down an invitation girls, look at me now. Can't go out, can't wash my floor, just have to sit and look at it."
So minimum housework from me as well, in her honour ?

I have recently received a cordless vacuum, a ‘freebie’ obtained with the accumulated points from scanning my shopping. Not having to lug around my heavy old plug-in, I almost enjoyed running it around the ground floor.
I’m still waiting for my live-in son to attach the charger to the wall, so had to plug it in and leave it lying. Amazingly, my son couldn’t resist taking it upstairs and vacuuming his bedroom! Of course, he didn’t plug it back in to recharge, so I had a good excuse not to clean up this morning.
It’s good to know that there are far more non-domestic goddesses on here than there are dedicated cleaners. I keep the kitchen and bathroom clean, but everything else is done either when I notice just how bad it is getting, or when visitors are due. Life is far too much fun to waste time dusting and cleaning windows.
Reading just how much some of you do leaves me quite exhausted!

Valkimob I just sweep the room with a glance. Great one-liner!

kittylester I identify with your 'clean sink' response, my house is never cleaner than when I'm cross about something.

On the whole the house is in a state of visitor readiness at all times, but as no-one 'visits' my bedroom that's where the clutter gets deposited until I have a clear out.

Ok I own up.
I love housework,it really does help with my mental health.
My hubby says I’m over the top as the oven gets cleaned every Sunday after roast.
Hoover every day
Toilet gets bleached and scrubbed
I do other bits in the day also.
By the end of the week the whole house has been done?‍♀️

Redecorating lemon - it's a brilliant excuse!

Smug here- we use real cotton hankies.

One of the worst domestic disasters - a tissue in the washing machine. From experience I have found the ones made by the well known company beginning with K do not disintegrate hence I bulk buy the make.

Paperback writer I do what I 'm good at and my OH does what he's good at..its called team work.He does gardening and decorating and repairs and shampooes carpets and all the things I'd rather not do.My son and daughter were both taught to cook from around 4 years old ,both can sew on a button or fix a hem and my son is an amazing has been a hands on dad since his daughter was born 11 years ago.Surely feminism is about CHOICE...its my choice to do the housework etc ,that doesn't affect my feminism in any way

Paperbackwriter I think it is changing and hope so but old habits die hard and if we watched the roles taken by our own parents and grandparents, unless we had the opportunity to see other ways of living, it isn't surprising that we chose to take on those same roles.
All my 3 sons cook and do housework and are more domesticated than most, but one has a wife who is rather conventional and houseproud and would probably prefer him away from the kitchen.
TV ads still perpetuate the role stereotyping. The first ad to be banned was only banned last year. Philadelphia cheese.

I like housework and have celebrated my retirement by getting back to the standards of my young days.

There is nothing like scrubbing a floor to get me in a good mood.

Gardening? Hate it, would love to be able to afford a gardener.

I’m not a domestic goddess, since housework bores me rigid. I only clean to preserve basic hygiene and if guests are expected. I worry that my house will start smelling that musty old person’s house smell though, which prompts me to get the vacuum cleaner out. Last week my Dyson wouldn’t work properly and signalled a blockage. I nearly fainted at the wedge of compacted muck that I winkled out. But if I only “Hoover” every few weeks what can I expect? I’ve had a word with myself.