Please tell me the bare minimum

[thecakebadge]

...of how frequently I should do these things before I should get environmental health involved.

I don’t have particularly high cleaning standards as a general rule although I like to think I’m not totally gross. I’m currently 11 weeks pregnant with DC2 and suffering really badly with all day nausea, it just never goes away. DD (nearly 2) is still a terrible sleeper and generally quite hard work and I’m having to look after her most of the time at weekends as my DH is trying to do up our house which we just moved into, before the baby comes (this all sounds like awful timing now I type it out!). I’m getting next to nothing done around the house, most stuff is being done by DH in between everything else he’s doing (cooking, washing up etc). People keep telling me to ‘just lower my standards’ but I’m pretty sure they can’t go much lower. So how often can I get away with doing these things before it just becomes disgusting?!

1. Change bedding
2. Change/wash towels
3. Basic bathroom clean ie. wipe down sinks, clean toilets (just typing that makes me want to vom)
4. Proper bathroom clean including shower, tiles, bath
5. Vacuuming
6. Mopping (all of downstairs is hardwood flooring)

I’m intrigued*^^

@Georgeoftheinternet

HG=Hyperemesis gravidarum (severe morning sickness)

unbelievably it has a smell depending on the hardness and added bits and bobs. There are a few others on mumnet who also had the same reaction to water so I'm not the only one.

DH can clean the loo if you gag. Bleach and a wipe, takes 30 secs.

Most of those things, every 2-4 weeks. I'd prefer weekly, but if it has to slip it's not the end of the world.

Essentially, the bed needs changing when you feel icky being in it. The towels need cleaning when you start to fringe using them or they are smelling a bit grim.

Bathroom depends. When it's visibly grimy or you've got guests coming as a minimum.

Floors, more often as you have a crawling baby, but if the carpets feel crunchy underfoot, it's definitely time to hoover.

With mopping/sweeping, again once crunchy as an absolute minimum, though once time a loooong time ago, it did get a bit bad and the cat swept up loose bits into a pile with her paw one night, sat next to it and glared at me when we came down. It was definitely time to sweep.

@mogtheexcellent thanks! Oh yes water is full of chemicals so it will have a smell just most noses aren’t sensitive

@mogtheexcellent, oh god yes, the smell of water when suffering from HG*! Processed tap water is full of other stuff than H and O!

*so much more than severe morning sickness. Debilitated me for 3 months in both pregnancies (I usually run/swim/cycle most days and happily put in 12 hour shifts, I am not naturally a bed lover). Couldn’t move without being sick. Was probably sick 20 times a day. Couldn’t brush my teeth. Couldn’t sip water. Certainly couldn’t eat. I literally stayed hydrated by ice lolly or hospital drip. Lost 2 stone in a month. Have had 3 teeth pulled due to the damage from so much sickness.

Once every 2-3 weeks for all of it except maybe once a week for the vacuuming.

1. Weekly
2. 3 times a week
3. Every evening
4. Once a week
5. Twice a day downstairs. Upstairs a few times a week.

I'm feeling thankful that I don't have severe sickness like some posters did! That would be awful. I'm finding that I feel horrendously sick most of the day but if I can manage to build up the courage to eat something then I do actually feel better and I get a window of about 30 mins where I don't feel like I'm going to throw up and I can actually function like a normal human being. But then it's back to feeling sick again...

I have managed to wash some towels and do a token gesture of wiping down the bathroom this morning so yay for me!