How often do you clean your home?

[Spencer2]

I must have this wrong. All I do is clean?! I have two young children so maybe that is just why. But then I suppose the question really is.. how do you keep a house tidy with children around without cleaning everything 24/7 or is that just not possible?

How long do you spend cleaning your bathroom / toilet ?

And how ON EARTH do you keep on top of the dishes……….

I really resent spending any part of the weekend cleaning -that's my time off! So I use a modified version of the Organised Mum Method to do a bit every day - broken down into chunks that are no longer than 1 hour in total

• 15 min every day tasks (ie.g. sling a wash on, wash up, wipe the worktops, vaccum main areas of floor)
• 20 min attack one room (this changes every day so over a week all get done)
• Once a week a deeper clean on one area so that over 8 weeks or so each gets done (example clean windows/skirting board/under furniture)

Other tips that worked for me are:
Minimise clutter - less to move and dust and put away.

Above is admittedly hard with young children. But certainly organise their toy storage so it doesn't get out of hand and is easy to put away - and put a third of them in the loft/garage on a rotation basis.

Never, never, iron. Line dry or tumble dry and fold up neatly - never squash it in an ironing pile to get more crumpled! If you are anal about ironing you're making a rod for your own back.

You need far less cleaning products than you think. One basic spray bottle or even better a damp cloth and soapy water will do most things. But you do need Method shower spray.

Who the hell cleans their bathroom daily?!

If I manage once a week I'm proud of myself.

Obviously swizz some bleach down the toilet in between if it needs it.

@ChiChaNaYubi a "deep clean" once a week is not low standards!

What exactly are we calling a 'deep clean' though?

To me that's a full room strip down. Windows skirtings furniture moved tiles in bathroom/kitchen washed down.

Not that I've ever done a deep clean in my life. Well, not all in one go lol

We try our best to keep the house tidy and clean. Some days we succeed, other days, we don’t. We have a toddler and a 14 week old baby.
Dh is more of a clean freak than me, so it bothers him more than me when it’s messy. I’ve just accepted that until we have more time on our hands, I’m ok with the house just being ‘ok’. It’s good enough & when we have guests round, we don’t have to frantically tidy, which I take as a good sign.

I do bits little & often, everyday I do a quick hoover in the living room whilst baby is in the bouncer. A quick spray & wipe down in the bathroom in the morning. Dh does the dishes and cleans the kitchen & dining room every night whilst I get the kids ready for bed. It doesn’t take him long, maybe 20 mins.
The laundry - that’s another story. It seems never ending. I haven’t quite found a way to tackle that yet!

I have a cleaner once a week...that's it 🤷‍♀️ (literally nothing else!!)

Kitchen cleaned daily. Bathrooms weekly - though mine hasn't been done properly (other than toilet) for more than that now.
Vacuum every week, though not always upstairs.
Dusting - taking things off shelves etc, um, once every two or three months....

Anything from one hour a day to three hours including washing, hanging out clothes, hoovering, dusting, washing floors etc in the week but outwith keeping on top of the washing and cleaning up after breakfast etc I don't do much at the weekends. I do like my house pretty clean though. Shame my 3 kids and 2 cats are petty determined it shouldn't be.

I do something every day, but it probably isn't enough!

I am trying to declutter as well ATM in the hopes that will help. Challenge is to get rid of a back of stuff every week

It really depends on your standards. My house is presentable and tidy but I spend as little time cleaning as I can get away with. 2 DC 6 and 8. Bathrooms cleaned once a week, upstairs hoovered once a week. Stairs as needed. Downstairs floors zapped with hand held most days and cleaned weekly. Hardly ever dust. Tidy things when it's a mess. Husband cleans kitchen every night before bed. I probably devote about an hour a week to the weekly jobs and turn other things as they come up. Cleaning the house takes up a very small part of my life!

Hover downstairs daily sometimes twice a day because of my children and cat.
Also because we have tiles in the kitchen and laminate flooring in living room so I personally can't stand the site of dirt hair or crumbs on the floor.
Bathroom weekly unless either of my two have made a mess.
Bedrooms hover maybe once or twice a week again all depends on mood and if it needs it.
Polish again once a week.
Kitchen is daily wiping down worktops frontals because of my children.
Washing the floors downstairs shamefully I have been known to not do that for two weeks 😬 if there's any mess I will spot clean instead rather than get the mop out it all depends on how busy my week has been and what other cleaning I've had to do.
As pp said whilst my house probably wouldn't pass white glove test it certainly feels and looks clean to us and should anyone pop in they would think so too.
But I'd say on average just under 2 hours if I'm cleaning upstairs and then downstairs.
Majority of that time is mainly cleaning bathroom and kitchen.

Ohh and I wash and put away dishes as soon as they've been finished with don't have a dishwasher so it's done daily as well don't like dirty dishes being left.

cleaner comes every 2 weeks, in between that i do a quick wipe down of bathrooms on week she’s not here, we always empty dishwasher and clean and tidy kitchen before bed and i have a lot of storage so everything gets tidied. quick hoover downstairs every cpl of days We’ve trained ds (7) to put stuff away after he’s finished with it or moves onto the next thing

We have a cleaner who comes once a fortnight. She’s a bit rubbish but I’m struggling to find someone else and I’m time poor so some cleaning is better than none. She really does a surface whizz round but once a month pulls out furniture. Should do windows, skirting boards etc. We otherwise do what I call the bare minimum - clean ups after breakfast/lunch and dinner (dishes, wipe surfaces, sweep/vacuum floor as needed). Also do laundry (endless), change beds once a fortnight and keep kids rooms tidy, which usually means we tidy up toys up once a day. Once a month I deep clean the bathroom. The loos I bleach and clean every few days as needed.

ideally I would like a really thorough cleaner who comes once a week so don’t need to touch the bathrooms. Despite what feels like a lot of cleaning, the house never feels brilliantly clean. It gets dusty and grimy so quickly!

In a normal week...

Dishes & cutlery go in the dishwasher, and run when it's full.
Pans are washed immediately & kitchen surfaces wiped down after use.

Bathrooms are blitzed & bedding changed Saturday mornings. Three loads washing at the weekend.

Hoover once a week, basic tidying before bed.

Probably 30 mins per day and 2 hours on a Saturday morning.

I'm a full time working single mum so no time (or inclination) to do more. Not having a man in the house helps keep things clean.

I work full-time so to be honest I just focus on cleaning the kitchen tops, the bathroom basin and the loo so I clean those most days. Dishes I like to collect up and wash up in the evening but I don't always dry them and put them away straight away. Oh and I make sure the living room and dining room are clear of any clothes, toys etc each evening before bed - I find that one makes a difference in the tidiness. Then on a Saturday or Sunday morning I'll whizz round with the hoover downstairs only, mop the floors, clean the bathroom and strip the beds. Everything else such as dusting, hoovering upstairs, etc, gets done when we have visitors.

Daily:
Make bed
Wash dishes (after every meal)
Wipe kitchen sides (multiple times a day)
Vacuum (we have four animals)
Sweep the hard floors (again, animals!)
Clean toilet and shower (spray around shower and rinse).
Wash pet bowls, sort litter trays, poo-pick the garden.

Weekly
Wash towels
Wash bedding
Change the beds
Wash dog blankets
Clean the bathroom

Our laundry is done on an "as needed" basis and we don't have DC to worry about so it really doesn't take long to do it all - maybe an hour a day between us.

The same as you, everyday the same, cleaning and then extras every six weeks like windows ect.

Why are people surprised at daily bathroom clean, how could you leave a toilet for a week, without cleaning. I'm not surprised so many folk keep getting Covid and D &V. I am surprised at how many people have Hoovers however,last time I had one was nearly 50 years ago,noisy, smelly, and messy with a bag to empty. Much prefer my various vacuum cleaners.

I think the number of people in a home, how many hours they spend in that home and how competent each person is at cleaning up after themselves, makes a huge difference. So, yes, some people who want a clean and tidy home have to put more work in to achieve it and others can sit back in horror at the number of hours you do.

My house is a pigsty at the moment.

DH is working away from home and I work too. So bare minimum getting done.

When he's home we spilt the work.

I couldn't let anyone visit at the moment.

These people with daily checklists, weekly deep cleans and repetitive vacuuming have lots of time on their hands.

No daily checklist here. I grew up in a messy/chaotic house hold, friends were not allowed in, because of the state of the place. I can't live like that. I had 4 DKs,worked 50 hours a week, huge garden, chicken,cats,dogs, so I don't think I had too much time on my hands. I just keep on top of stuff. Clean bathroom when I leave it,go make the bed,it's aired by then.

People have very different standards, I used to work with someone who vacuumed every single day.

I have a dishwasher so that’s easy. Kitchen tops and sink every day, I sweep the kitchen floor every 2 to 3 days. DH does a whole vacuum of the house every Saturday. The bathroom gets cleaned properly on a Saturday, it gets cursory wipes etc when needed. Dusting and kitchen cupboard fronts every couple of weeks. I now have a roomba so set it off on occasion. We have always shared the laundry, whoever puts a load or two on in the week and again Saturday it’s folded and put away. We chuck it on the bed and chat while doing it. I wash stuff as little as possible, we both keep a set of scruffs for diy and gardening, we wear them a few times.

Your issue is small children, it’s probably just the clutter that small people make. They also touch stuff and leave their dear little handprints everywhere.

My friends and I all had children around the same time. Myself and a couple of others had similar standards, around average if I think of all the houses I have ever been in. Three of my other friends like immaculate homes, really show home standard. They maintained that when they had small children. Roll on 22 years. The kids talk about fun stuff they did when little, we had some friends round for dinner last week, they never mention how Mum still had sparkling skirting boards. As long as a house isn’t a health hazard it fine.

You do know people say ' hoover' whenvthey mean vacuum clean? Not necessarily meaning...an actual Hoover?

I do some cleaning everyday. It stops it all becoming too much and an even bigger job.