Be honest: How much time do you spend on cleaning?

[HappyLittleAGR]

I’m really fascinated by the time people report. I spent 2-3 hours this morning on just one of the living rooms and the kitchen (course, there was a lot of dishes backed up. Gross, I know), and I could do that everyday and probably still not have a sparkling clean home, what with the dogs and the tornado of a child I’ve created. I’ve heard people say they only spend like 20 minutes a week on cleaning tasks and I just feel like they’re lying or trolling! Surely even if you lived in a studio flat, it would take longer than that to clean it ? And maybe people don’t count all of the little things people do habitually, like making the bed and changing the sheets, or cleaning up after dinner, or wiping the sink when you’re done in the bathroom in the morning… And maybe some people don’t have to mop so much if their house is mostly carpeted ?

What do you think?

I find it hard to quantify as I feel like I am constantly mini-cleaning, esp with the kids off school. Making three meals a day plus countless snacks means the kitchen is reset about 5 times a day, although only cleaned properly once a day. I hoover every day and the sofa still has bits on it when god forbid I get a minute on it 😭. Because of all this constant tidying and cleaning I never feel like I’ve done any proper cleaning ie the windows are all smeary, the bathrooms are all pretty dirty (not terrible but def not clean), skirting boards are dusty etc.

I reckon if I put one morning a week aside and spent 4 hours back to back cleaning all at once then the house would look nice. For that day anyway. But I don’t have four solid hours to do that in. So who knows

Not much. 2 bed apartment, live alone . If I don’t count washing up and laundry then probably a couple of hours a week max if that

I don’t wipe the bathroom sink in the morning as it doesn’t need it, cleaning up after dinner is washing the plate, I wash up as I go when I cook, and if I see something that needs doing I do it straight away

As long as it takes to grab the cash to hand over to my cleaner.

I don’t see the point in doing it myself if I can earn more than the cleaner costs per hour. She’s very good at what she does too. Far better than I’d be.

Not very much.

4 bed house

1-2 hours at weekend

daily - 20 mins putting a washing on or loading the dishwasher.

Plus DH does about the same

life’s too short to waste spending hours cleaning

Not enough.

Kitchen wiped multiple times a day, bathroom as needed or every other day, basic vaccuming downstairs twice a week but that's dh department.

Rarely dust anything, upstairs vacuumed when I get fed up of sock fluff. Full kitchen and bathroom clean when I see it needs it, maybe once a month.

So maybe 2-3 hours a week? If I ever get the house sorted I'll get a cleaner.

I don’t understand how people clean so little? Surfaces are all wiped down after every meal. Dinner I cook from scratch so it needs peelings clearing away/chopped bits/herbs clearing and then more cleaning down, if I’ve cooked something like bolognese I’ll clean the hob after. I spend 1.5 hrs when my kids leave the house on a school day, emptying dishwasher from last night, clean toilets, wipe down surfaces, hoover kitchen, dining and through hall to bathroom. Wipe down sink and there’s always a wash on, or drying, or waiting to go away, bathroom constantly gets sprayed down and dog poo in the garden gets picked up and binned and the patio rinsed. How are people doing none?! This is my ‘minimal list’ that I do without fail even if I’m sick or something. Haven’t even started on upstairs.

Two of us, three bed house. Everyday stuff - wiping kitchen, cleaning loo, dishwasher, laundry etc - maximum 20 minutes a day. Then cleaning properly once a week, changing bedlinen and so on is a couple of hours. So that’s about 4 hours a week.

You could add another 15 minutes a week for the once in a blue moon window cleaning, scrubbing skirting boards, cleaning out kitchen cupboards, moving beds and books type of jobs.

We’re in our 70s, so some chores take longer than they used to.

Hardly any. I live alone in a 3 bed house so there’s less to do. Daily maybe 20mins max. Maybe 1-2 hours for a whole house clean.
occasional deep clean maybe every 6monthsish take around 3 hours maybe 4 at a push

It takes me like 20 minutes just to clean one toilet!

I clean up as I go, so it’s harder to quantify. I have never in my life spent 2-3 hours cleaning 2 rooms, but I don’t have dishes “backed up”. Does having a dishwasher make the difference? I notice you say “one of the living rooms”. Maybe, you just have too big a house to manage on your own.

I don’t have DC
if I’m cooking then I keep a small plastic bag or bowl/container on the surface and all waste/peelings goes in that so it’s easier to clean

half the kitchen worktop doesn’t even get used so I don’t wipe it down after cooking, I would clean the hob but it’s a 60 second job. Don’t clean the toilet daily or bathroom
I always think stairs are a pain so not having those makes cleaning quicker!!

How?!

I take the toilet seat off, spray it all down, rinse the toilet seat, wipe the toilet, bleach or toilet cleaner under the rim and done. It’s maybe 5 minutes

I’m the same, I easily spend a couple of hours a day. I know they say life’s too short but I just can’t leave it no matter what. I make my sofas about 5/6 times a day if I’m at home and someone has sat on them. Hoover multiple times a day, clean bathrooms daily sometimes I can wipe the sides down every few hours. Writing this down it would seem I have a problem.

Too much. I'm a slow cleaner and I'm distracted easily.
Podcasts definitely help.

I feel like I “clean as I go” too; it’s just that every time I turn around there’s more to do!

Sometimes other tasks or having to get DD somewhere at a certain time pulls me away from the dishes, and they get put on the back burner for the day, and by the time the child’s asleep, I don’t have the energy to do them… the dishwasher does help, but I might be a little bit anal about rinsing them really thoroughly so I don’t have food buildup in the machine.

It is quite a spacious house, but I think it’s the size we need. We like to have our own spots to curl up and read or watch TV or do hobbies.

What about the sink, bath/shower, window sill, floor, removing empties.
I wash the bathroom bin too.

It varies depending on how busy I am. On average probably 6 hours a week excluding laundry, but sometimes less. Agree with PP that it takes 5 mins to clean one loo- I’ve got four loos, I’m not going to spend 20 minutes on each one 😂

As little as possible really

Probably two or three hours a week

@EmeraldShamrock000 Well the PP said it takes her 20 mins to clean one loo and I took that literally. If we’re talking showers, sinks and floors too then it’s obviously going to be a fair bit longer!

Just dh & I here, so there isn't the work associated with having kids at home...so maybe an hour each day?

I don’t understand how you waste so much time cleaning

Dinner I cook from scratch so it needs peelings clearing away/chopped bits/herbs clearing and then more cleaning down

This is a perfect example of things you could be doing as you go along rather than becoming an extra-time job. Spag bol’s bubbling away on the hob - use the dead time to tidy up.

@EverybodyLTB It sounds like your standards are higher than most I reckon. I hoover most days but only because I’ve got a robot vac 😂 Before I had that I probably hoovered 2-3 times a week. And why are you constantly spraying down your bathroom? I do like to clean loos and sinks pretty regularly (3 times a week maybe?) Daily feels like overkill and the rest of the bathroom doesn’t need constantly spraying.

I dunno. I spray down each section, moving from the top of the tank down to the floor, and wipe until the dust and dirt are all off, and then hit the inside of the bowl with some bleach and a good scrub to get all the stains out.

I think maybe people underestimate how much time they actually spend on cleaning and tidying? My house is far from spotless - lots of dust in corners etc. But even keeping the kitchen clean probably takes me an hour each evening - e.g. I don’t put saucepans or wooden cutting boards in the dishwasher. Also, worktop needs to be wiped down, and everything put away. All that takes time….