Changing housework style!

Just come back to say that I realise that I'm very lucky to be able to afford a cleaner and exceptionally lucky to have found Claire who is a good friend and completely dependable but the amount I pay her means I am so much more laidback than I would otherwise be.

Thanks, kitty, that's a help.

Claire now does whatever occurs to her because she has been doing it so long but I would expect a cleaner to Hoover, including taking cushions off chairs and sofas, moving furniture where possible, loos, sinks, wash hard floors, definitely dust skirting boards, lamp shades, clean the work surfaces in the kitchen, the cupboard fronts and the cooker top.

I don't expect her to clean the windows or the oven.

Most importatntly though - I expect an update of village gossip!

I'm sure to have forgotten stuff but, so Claire can clean well, I always tidy up first or ask her to leave bits that I haven't got to

I'd actually really like to know what one would expect a cleaner to do. Does it include skirting-board cleaning, banister rail polishing, floor polishing etc. not just hoovering and dusting?

(You can tell I'm actually seriously considering this now, can't you...? )

Claire comes for 3.5 hours and does downstairs one week and one week up. On an 'upstairs week', if we've not had visitors, she does the kitchen as well! She has been with us for years so knows what she's doing and has us under control now!

The thing is, had I been to her house before I employed her and seen the state of it, I would never have employed her. . She cleans five mornings a week to fund her horses and rides every afternoon so has no time for her own house! .

(Well, Petallus does, of course)

Surely not! I assumed (after googling) that it referred to the sabre-toothed, acorn-obsessed squirrel from Frozen, but who knows...?

you can't mean this can you?

What is a "scrat" anyway? .

PETALLUS!!!

Can I ask what your Claire does in that one morning, kitty? Surely it can't be much more than hoovering and dusting. I think I'd need to get industrial cleaners in to get my house fit to warrant just a weekly whizz-round!

I have had a cleaner since our third child arrived! It stopped me stressing about the mess and grime! In the beginning I had someone twice a week but now I have the wonderful Claire for one morning a week. I rarely need to do any cleaning between visits apart from the loos, sinks and cooker top! I intend to hang on to her until she can't cope with us any longer!

I feel I should feel guilty - but I don't! I'm really busy with the family, mum and volunteering so consider it an investment.

When we moved here, to a slightly ( 3 bedrooms) smaller house, we thought we couldn't really justify a cleaner, so I did what most of you do, pottered and wiped and kept it looking OK. However, as the knee got worse, I was aware that things were a bit grubby; when I came out of hospital, we brought in a cleaner. This was after trying to give Theseus blow by blow instructions on how to..... I had not realised how much I was struggling. She whirls round every Friday, (leaving out the spare rooms) and I am so pleased with it all. I cannot stand dust and mess.

I am now quite mobile, but have booked her to come in once a month to keep it up to scratch! It may be every fortnight...

Thanks for that Jingle. I neglected to test the link. Silly thing turned blue and everything so I thought it would work. Will know better in future! to you.

!!!

especially that Bags

I have just realised that Purpledaffodil had a little failure with the Fly Lady link ( it happens to all of us sometimes ) so I am putting it on HERE

As it is clearly very much needed As you may enjoy a quick glance at it.

I keep the important bits clean (loo, kitchen worktops) but the rest gets left for months! I sometimes have to search for the Hoover. I have a small house with no cupboard to put it in.

Dust is a protective covering for furniture

Indeed "Petallus" - what is housework?

I clean up spills and wipe off dust when it is getting too noticeable (usually in the rare flashes of sunshine!), but have no regular cleaning programme - I do what needs doing when it needs doing. My OH will confirm that my filth threshold is pretty high - i.e. it needs to get pretty bad before I notice!

But the children can come in and mess about without me hovering around them and worrying about tidiness; and a friend once said she liked my home because she could chill out without worrying about making a mess, and she felt she could wander in and make herself at home. That suits me fine.

I am constantly mind-boggled by people who have nothing on their surfaces - no books, photos, newspapers, half-completed crosswords, no trash out of Christmas crackers, toys, child's paintings, pencils, shopping lists. Where is all this stuff? Where do they keep it?!

I remember a workman asking if he could use the vacuum when he finished and I blithely agreed, before stopping to think that I did not actually know where it was kept!!! - he was quite shocked.

I do agree with most of the posts here. Only do housework of there is nothing more interesting to do or if guests are expected. We've just had our French friends here (for the Twinning weekend) so things aren't too bad at the moment, apart from our shower room which they didn't go in. It is in need and might get done if it rains and I can't garden.

I have turned into a complete slacker since retirement. When I was working I seemed to fit in far more housework than I do now I have all the time in the world. I have just returned from Slimming World and am about to zoom off to have lunch with a friend and to walk her adorable dog. The bed is not made and I am looking at last night's dinner things still strewn round the kitchen. Sod it, I'll do it later, has become my motto. Thank heavens people come to stay from time to time as this is the only thing that stirs me into activity.

Oh Tegan I can really identify with you on the tidy-but-never-seen areas!! When I was selling my last house people viewing actually commented on the fact that the cupboards/wardrobes and, particularly, the linen cupboard were so organised - they failed to comment on the tidiness (?) of the rest of the house

I remember reading somewhere years ago of someone who used to spray a quick squirt of lavender furniture polish into the air before anyone visited, so that it gave the illusion that she had been busy polishing

Sometimes I just park the vacuum cleaner in the middle of a room, with the flex unwound, and the plug in the electrical socket. Then I wander off and do something interesting instead.

#joiningana'sslutbrigade

Though, actually, I clean a lot of things (loos, shower surround, sinks, cooker, fridge, gardening tools, etc, etc) that nobody else even notices need cleaning, so maybe I don't qualify. I think I might be about that

I am a bit of a neat freak so things get put back where they came from when I am finished with them so the house looks tidy mostly. Bathroom and kitchen get a real clean often ( cannot bear hair) but the rest of the house gets clean when it looks dusty, the hoover only comes out once a week if that.
I too find 30mins is about my limit at one time so short bursts works for me. OH has his space that I don't touch where he keeps all his (rubbish) important stuff I dust around it now and then . I don't do housework if I have something better to occupy me that's for certain.