Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Unlikely to have cleaner for some time. How often do you...

195 replies

Juliet2014 · 07/06/2020 15:53

Vacuum throughout
Deep Clean bathrooms
Changing bedding
Deep Clean hard floors
other odds and ends

Used to having a cleaner for 4 hours a week. She’d deep clean bathrooms, polish hard floors and vacuum throughout. Occasionally clean windows when needed And complete oven clean maybe 2x a year?
She was a whizz. She’s never have to tidy so focus was entirely cleaning.

In addition to what cleaner did, I would clean kitchen thoroughly every day including external cupboard doors etc , vacuum dining area daily. Clean kitchen floors maybe 3x a week on top of cleaner deep clean and change bed weekly (occasionally children’s fortnightly. I change my pillow case 2x a week).

Been furloughed and unlikely to have cleaner for at least short term. So increasing cleaning.
Interested in frequency of the above if anyone cares to share please?!

OP posts:
LaureBerthaud · 08/06/2020 07:06

@mbosnz

Oh hell yes, the toilets get cleaned daily. I don't know how bad it could be with boys (aim and all), but just with teenaged girls. . . . blerch. On the other hand, I thought a good lockdown lesson would be how to clean the bog.
Why are you making teenaged girls feel dirty?
SimonJT · 08/06/2020 07:36

@WhitbyGoth

Wow do none of your husbands clean?
We’re both men, we both clean.
lifestooshort123 · 08/06/2020 07:40

I'm a slob. I clean when something looks dirty then I feel I haven't wasted my time. My oven cleans itself (and tells me when it wants to do it). Bedding changed weekly. Now we don't have visitors my standards have slipped even lower. A bloke's coming Friday to repair our big squashy sofa (that I've lived on for 12 weeks) and I'll work myself up to hoovering up the crumbs down the back. A girl has to have standards you know.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Cleaning
PhilCornwall1 · 08/06/2020 08:05

Wow do none of your husbands clean?

Yes, often, like every day. Smile

Megatron · 08/06/2020 08:19

@saveeno Jeez give it a rest 🤣 You've posted about 10 posts in the space of a couple of hours pretty much saying the same thing - women do the cleaning, women are conditioned, get a life sisters, DH is well 'trained' (imagine the short shrift a man would get saying that about their wife?) blah blah blah.

The OP asked a question and the mostly, but certainly not all, female members (as you said yourself) of this site answered. Plenty of men clean in the home and some don't. Plenty of people on this thread are single parents so lets not make assumptions that they are slaving away while their partner is sitting on their arse watching the telly. I don't assume to know the set up in anyone else's home.

It sounds a little like you're trying to derail the OP's thread with so many posts which are looking for a reaction.

lastqueenofscotland · 08/06/2020 08:21

vacuum - every other day
Deep clean bathroom - every Saturday
Bedding - every two weeks
Hard floors - I have carpet throughout except in my bathroom and kitchen so these get cleaned with a mop once a week and kitchen gets swept every day

Megatron · 08/06/2020 08:22

Wow do none of your husbands clean?

Massive assumption there @WhitbyGoth, there are many single parents on here.

Tappering · 08/06/2020 08:34

Wow do none of your husbands clean?

You'll note from my post that I didn't say that I was the one doing all of these tasks.

MrsKoala · 08/06/2020 08:47

Wow do none of your husbands clean?

No. Mine doesn’t. He’s usually out of the house 7.30am- 8-9pm. Now he’s working from home he does 8.30-6.30.

To those saying no one need hoover every day, here is our rug and I hoovered it yesterday. Not sure if you can see it but it’s covered in bits. When I walk on it now it crunches (same as hall stairs). So I’m going to hoover it again now. It’ll be the same by lunchtime.

Unlikely to have cleaner for some time. How often do you...
lachy · 08/06/2020 09:27

We should be on holiday in France...but since we're not, we're blitzing the house. Today DH is in charge of sorting out the garage, I'm just about to do the kitchen. We're doing the lot because we have let it go and I refuse to be the only one doing the shite jobs. Tomorrow he's tackling the loft, and I'll do the lounge and by end of this week our house will gleam!

OnlyToWin · 08/06/2020 09:32

We clean the whole house - hoover through, wipe down all surfaces, doors, frames, bathrooms and mop floors once as week, as that’s what the cleaner did. We have kept to the same routine. Between the four of us (but with two doing the lion’s share of the work) it takes about an hour and a half, so not too bad really.

OnlyToWin · 08/06/2020 09:33

The worst bit is that, as the teens are home all the time, it does not stay clean the way it did when the cleaner came once a week and for the rest of the time we were at work/school.

vanillandhoney · 08/06/2020 09:59

@WhitbyGoth

Wow do none of your husbands clean?
Yes, but at the moment he's out at work 40+ hours a week and I'm home, so it makes sense for me to do it. I'd be a lazy mare if I did nothing all week and expected him to do it when he got home Grin

In normal times we both work, and it's split 50/50.

Megatron · 08/06/2020 10:55

@vanillandhoney Don't you realise that if your DH doesn't work 150 hours a week, come home and make the dinner then tidy up, do all the cleaning and the garden, before running you a bath then he is a truly shit husband and you are just enabling him? Wink

IndiaMay · 08/06/2020 11:00

Gosh I think we're probably really dirty 😂.

I wipe down all the kitchen sides every day and then sweep the kitchen floor every day. Maybe spray mop it 3 times a week. Laminate in living room swept 3 times a week. Hoover the whole house once every 10 days or so, bed changed fortnightly, bathrooms cleaned once a week. Dusting and mirror cleans, whenever we have people coming over

vanillandhoney · 08/06/2020 11:03

[quote Megatron]@vanillandhoney Don't you realise that if your DH doesn't work 150 hours a week, come home and make the dinner then tidy up, do all the cleaning and the garden, before running you a bath then he is a truly shit husband and you are just enabling him? Wink[/quote]
My bad Wink

I mean, how dare I spend maybe an hour a day on housework while he works 8 hours plus commute? He's obviously just a lazy fecker Grin

mbosnz · 08/06/2020 11:33

I think some people feel that cleaning is degrading, menial work, therefore, to be the one doing it, is to degrade oneself. I don't see it like that. I see it as something that needs doing, that I am currently the one with the time and opportunity to do it.

Equally, if husband is the one with the time and the opportunity, and sees something that needs doing, he will do it, and do a good job of it.

We both have equal standards, and equal ability to clean, the difference is that currently he is working 12-14 hour days and I am not. So I think I'd be a bit of an arse to insist we spent equal time cleaning, just to be someone else's idea of a good feminist.

BarbaraofSeville · 08/06/2020 12:00

I just think its a waste of time to clean so often that things haven't had a chance to actually get dirty.

Also cleaning in response to careless people making a mess of toilets - they should aim properly for a start and then far less cleaning will be required.

vanillandhoney · 08/06/2020 12:06

I think some people feel that cleaning is degrading, menial work, therefore, to be the one doing it, is to degrade oneself

Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

I also think that because some people don't like cleaning (or just don't care about it) they like to take the piss out of people who do like to clean and keep a clean home.

I do probably an 90 minutes a day of housework spread across the day. That includes feeding four animals and sorting three litter trays, washing dishes, laundry, vacuuming etc. It's not exactly a huge chunk of my time considering I'm currently home full-time and awake for 16 or so hours a day!

Megatron · 08/06/2020 12:20

I think some people feel that cleaning is degrading, menial work, therefore, to be the one doing it, is to degrade oneself. I don't see it like that.

Yep, also agree, it's a bit of a shit attitude isn't it.

LaureBerthaud · 08/06/2020 12:22

I think some people feel that cleaning is degrading, menial work, therefore, to be the one doing it, is to degrade oneself

I've not picked that up from anyone on this thread Confused Some people are expressing surprise that others spend so much time deep cleaning

And I'm still waiting to hear why you think teenaged girls using the toilet is "blerch" (or whatever weird word you used)

BiddyPop · 08/06/2020 12:30

Our fortnightly cleaner is due back at the end of June, TG!!

Meanwhile, we are mostly doing what we normally do, just a bit more of some things.

Always keep the kitchen clean and tidy. Clean down after every meal.

Floors - we tend to sweep or hoover kitchen/diner most days, and run the hoover over sitting room a couple of times a week. Rest of the house is done once a week, roughly. But we have a rechargeable dyson, so it makes it really easy to do a space and put it away again, not the big palaver of the old machine to get it out, plug in, haul around.....
We only mop the kitchen/diner when it needs it - sometimes every 2 days, other times we manage 1-2 weeks.

We clean the bathrooms at least once a week, I keep cloths, bathroom spray and bleach in them, so it's a quick and easy job to do when needed.

Dusting is less frequent also - only 1 or twice a month.

Changing sheets as needed, roughly once a fortnight. Change towels at least weekly though, and kitchen towels/cloths changed every 3-4 days (or more frequently if they get dirty).

mbosnz · 08/06/2020 12:40

And I'm still waiting to hear why you think teenaged girls using the toilet is "blerch" (or whatever weird word you used)

What a strange little misinterpretation of what I said, you have there. Of course I don't think teenaged girls using the toilet is 'blerch'. That would be silly. I think the state teenaged girls can get a toilet into, can be blerch, because they need to learn to see when it is dirty and needs cleaning, and how to clean it, and that the magic cleaning fairy can actually be anybody that uses the toilet.

Why be so surprised that people have different standards of cleaning that they are happy to either extend more or less time adhering to? I find it strange that anyone would be surprised by that. I've got friends that no doubt think I'm an utter slob, I've got friends that think I'm completely over the top when it comes to cleaning! We're all different - that's okay. It's no indictment on anybody how often they clean the toilet, the microwave or their skirting boards.

littlemeitslyn · 08/06/2020 12:41

I don't

BiddyPop · 08/06/2020 12:53

Cleaning is absolutely not degrading work - I did it for years myself (DF was not keen on his girls doing bar work, and other than picking potatoes, there wasn't much else I could do as a teen - so I worked as a cleaner in local holiday camp, and in a hotel while in Uni as well). But I just don't have time with massively busy job, DH was away for work more often than not (and it was far from unknown that DD would wake up with a different parent at home in the morning to the one at home when she went to sleep if our work travels overlapped), and DD herself has a very busy life with school and sports commitments. So having a cleaner to keep the worst of the chaos under control once a fortnight makes a lot of sense to me.