Help I don't like cleaning

Yes, I do have a need for order in my life when there is so much going on that I am unable to control.
I don't particularly enjoy hoovering or dusting (it takes me at least ten minutes to do the entire flat!) but I do enjoy a really big clear out. Last time I was in Manchester I cleared out two outside sheds for my disabled sister and made several trips to the tip. Even the huge spiders did not bother me as I was wearing my Marigolds! Then I did her understairs cupboard and a big walk-in cupboard in her bedroom. She found clothes she had forgotten she had, and we also unearthed her Christmas tree, decorations and wrapping paper. She was suitably grateful and I had a great feeling of satisfaction.
My daughter in New Zealand is fretting at the moment, because she has her broken ankle in a boot of some kind. Her husband and teenage children are good cooks and very helpful, but she has inherited a bit of my longing for tidiness and she thinks things are not being done to her standard - but she is smart enough to hold her tongue! She loves gardening and won't wear gloves - she enjoys getting her hands into the soil, whereas I can't stand anything under my fingernails.

Grannylin - An insightful post. To have calm, order and a place of serenity and peace can be very important. It's certainly a way I find of controlling, safely, my environment. I know where your friends are coming from.

I do the minimum as I quite enjoy mess but now and again I blitz the place.However, I wouldn't criticise anyone who enjoys cleaning and keeping things meticulous.I have two such friends and both come from similar backgrounds- left to fend for themselves at a very earlier age in a state of chaos and neglect.The structure of a tidy,well run house is one of the mechanisms they have used to achieve very successful lives.

It's when things get broken - when you do cleaning. If you could just leave the stuff sitting there, untouched...................!

Errr.................think I'm missing something, are there actually people who enjoy cleaning, find it creative or satisfying or somesuch?. I am not talking about that odd feeling of satisfaction you get when you manage to clean something like the cooker or finally clear out a cupboard, but the day to day grindingly boring stuff that just has to be done? I am not too bad at getting it done on an ad hoc kind of basis but I cant say its a pleasant pastime or anything. I have always seen it as something thats got to be done or we would all be living in squalor, I do it, but only so I can then get on and do something I want to do with a clearish conscience!

Being on crutches for the last 2 months and no quick prospect of any improvement this side of Christmas, I have acumulated the most extraordinary pile of things on the coffee table next to me - it has spilt over onto the floor underneath. I have tried very hard to sort it out, but when you have to move stuff around in your teeth as you have no hands free there is a limit to what you can do! When my arms are free of the crutches, even I might decide to do a bit of tidying!!

There was a wise man!

I posted a nice joke about housework a few days ago.
I have solved the housework problem for myself. Just live alone in a very small flat, have very few possessions, no pets or plants, no visitors except those coming by invitation for a holiday, put things away as soon as you have finished using them, clean the bath as soon as you get out. I doubt if I spend more than half an hour a day on tidying, cooking and cleaning.
I do my clothes laundry once a week, but I take bedding and towels to the laundrette every couple of weeks. I can put them in the machine and then just have time to shop in the nearby supermarket. I iron nothing but cotton trousers.
My only unpleasant job is cleaning the French windows. They face due South and the sun shows up any smears. Fortunately, they don't need doing very often.
Might be a bit drastic to get rid of your partners and downsize , though.
When my very messy daughter vacated a rented house, she paid a cleaning company £175 to clean the 4 bedroomed, three storey house . They did a wonderful job and it was worth every penny.

Wasn't it Quentin Crisp who said after 3 years the dust doesn't get any worse!

phoenix Probably not, if you're wearing your thong sideways.

patti we are two of a kind. When I moved 12 years ago, DS1 came and filled two (or was it three?) skips with the accumulated junk of 15 years. Now, in a smaller house, the hoarding habit has continued unabated. I am useless at putting things away but at least I can usually find things if they're not stashed in drawers or wardrobes! I did get a cleaner in when I was incapacitated after a couple of joint replacements, but felt I couldn't justify it after about three months. The garden is a similar tale but at least I can blame the weather for that. As for dust - keep the lighting low and don't allow sunbeams to enter!

VQ , I rather like the sound of "a good bottoming" , much more fun than housework!

Torn between doing one room at a time and getting someone in to blitz

As DH is having hip replacement next week (umpteenth orthopaedic surgery in past 9 years) aaagh!! I could use the time he needs me around to get started

Patti no need to do that. Having seen house cleaners come in and sort out my next door neighbour's mess (elderly man who never does anything except sweep rubbish off the cooker to light the gas! honest!) they will tackle the most awful messiness. I suppose they'd draw the line at dead vermin, but untidiness is what they are paid to sort out.

Thanks everyone for the advice and comments that made me smile

I know it's not just me now and that helps

Would get someone in but would have to clear the rubbish and clean first

Ooh!
I like the idea of the 15 minutes sit down!!

Seriously though thanks for the link

Thank you my lovely soop received in the way it was intendedxxxxxx

I have to admit that if it needed a good bottoming and I could afford it I'd get in a cleaning company for a one off then just keep on top of it. Why waste your life cleaning if you don't have to.

NellieSmol ...you're a true-blue trooper. Don't know what that means. But, hey, it's meant to be a compliment.

Hate housework,but do just enough to keep it hygienic sinks etc having two dogs means hairs need hoovering every day ,but don't spend too long just keep on top of it,if beds made and things put away dishes hidden in dishwasher then it's ok but not very motivated for garden,windows ,just do when and if I have the urge....love nellie

This website

www.flylady.net/

takes you through a cleaning plan. The main two features are that if you have a clean sink your kitchen looks tidy so you feel better and you must never clean for more than 45 minutes without stopping for 15 minutes me time when you do something you like.

A bit carrot and stick lol

I usually manage to keep the sitting room and kitchen reasonably clean and tidy (OK don't look at that cobweb in the window!) but I'm afraid the rest of the house gets a bit of a lick and a promise (as my old grandmother used to say!).

My problem is I have one room, which used to be DH's office and I need to sort out the paperwork, shred what I don't need and file away the rest, there is also another room right at the top of the house (my house has 3 storeys) which is filled with all the rubbish my DH got out of the attic, he thought it would be helpful after he was gone, and which needs to be sorted, thrown away/donated to charity.

Every time I think about it I get a dizzy spell and have to sit down!! OK I know I'm just lazy!

Housework is the waste of a good mind.

I think one of Shirley Conran's nuggets was that if a room looks tidy, no-one will notice the dirt
I think it is a personal thing as to how much dirt and disorganisation you are comfortable with.
If the levels exceed your own personal comfort level, you have to do something about it, either employ someone or do it yourself, otherwise you will end up feeling stressed and dissatisfied.
When I worked I had a cleaner every week but after I retired she started coming once a fortnight. This is partly because I like my house reasonably clean but would rather spend my time in the garden than cleaning. The other reason is that I am fortunate to be able to afford it and feel I am putting money into the local economy.
I hope that doesn't make me sound like Lady Muck

patti I hate cleaning and tidying. One of my daughters has a strategy of one in, one out. She shifts anything she can find whenever she brings something new into the house. Her house is always immaculate. I tend to tell myself the day will come when I feel like cleaning a whole room, and in between I just do the minimum. Sometimes, I will fill a bag to either take to a charity shop or put out with rubbish. If I do that enough times, the place looks tidy. Meanwhile, life's too short. If you don't like what you see, close your eyes, clean it, or go in another room, but don't fret about it!