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?

3 bed, 2 bath Victorian terrace. I am a bit of a clean freak anyway (as is DH) so I usually do "bits" throughout the week -wiping kitchen surfaces, cleaning windows which the dogs have pressed their faces against, sweeping or mopping the kitchen floor (again, dogs) etc...

Then a proper clean on a Saturday which takes about 2 hours.

I tend to keep on top of things daily, not letting it build up, but do deeper cleans as and when required. We've decluttered a lot over the last couple of years, sorted out cupboards etc, and also decorated. We also don't have a huge house, but it's big enough for us to have space for everything.
I would only ever get a cleaner as a very last resort because I actually think it's important, and therapeutic, to keep my house clean. I appreciate others have different perspectives, and that's fine too.

Genuinely - how can you find three hours of stuff that needs cleaning every single day? Surely if you’re deep cleaning once a week (again, why?!) there’s very, very little to do afterwards?

Honestly there are so many variables

We have a four bed, three bathroom house. In total across DH and myself it's about an hour and a half a day. We have a very minimalist house and put things away as we use them. I deep clean one room a week on a rota so whilst things might not be showhome standard the skirting boards and carpets do get cleaned several times a year. However we both WFH so always two of us in the house, kids come home straight from school at 3.15pm. However if we were all out of the house every day for long hours cleaning would probably be less.

Everyday, clean as we go: tidy, make bed, swill round bathroom basin, check loos are clean, wipe down kitchen and clean sink.
Laundry and ironing about twice per week inc towels and bath mats once a week.
Weekly: clean shower when in it and clear hairtrap. Deeper clean round bathroom basin and waste. Hoover, dust and change bed, pile of ironing.
About fortnightly, mop hard floors and clean fridge.
Monthly, deeper clean moving some furniture and hoovering skirtings, washing out kitchen bin.
Windows as and when I see them, usually about every other month, along with wiping kitchen cupboard fronts etc.
Couple of times per year, bit of a spring clean.

Probably not enough TBH - I am a bit sporadic!

I think in theory if you do a little bit every day it doesn't have chance to build up so it doesn't take as long. I know Dana K White (aka A Slob Comes Clean) calls this "Dishes math" - she says if you wash up the dishes from one day, it takes maybe about 15-20 minutes. So you'd think, if you have the dishes from two days to wash in one go, it ought to take 30-40 minutes.

However, it doesn't. It probably takes closer to an hour. Because firstly everything is all dried on so it takes longer/more hot water/more scrubbing to wash it. Secondly, two days' worth is more than one dishwasher load, or more than one sinkful of water, and probably doesn't fit on a single drying rack, meaning that you have to dry the dishes and put them away to make space for the next load, and/or drain the sink and refill it, and/or wash the pieces by hand which don't fit in the dishwasher. And, because half your stuff is still dirty from the first day, you probably had to use the less-optimal utensil or whatever meaning that you have awkward shapes to fit in etc. And lastly, it's an incredibly unpleasant job with a lot of smells and textures which are not nice, like cereal milk which has sat out for 2 days.

This was a bit of a revelation for me, because I'm crap at routines, I tend to be at the sticky end of the "dishes math" and my assumption is that cleaning just does take forever and is hard and boring and disgusting work. The fact that cleaning things before they get dirty is not only quicker, but also easier and more pleasant was a genuinely new concept.

So I am a semi-reformed messy person and I live on my own currently.

I reckon it's about 5 mins on dishes in the morning, 5 mins in the evening. 5-10 mins general tidying.

Then maybe 20 mins on washing once a week? (5 mins gathering stuff up, 7 to hang out and 7 to fold and put away?)

And then I pay a cleaner who spends 2 hours a week cleaning.

So that would be 15-20 mins * 7, which is 2 hours ish, plus the cleaner plus washing. So about 4.5 hours a week would keep reasonably on top of the house?

I think I’m noticing a trend in the several replies I’ve read about people with no partner and/or DC spending little time on cleaning 😅
I confer with that as when I lived alone in 1bed flat I don’t remember having to clean that much.
Now 3 of us (one aged 6) in 3 bed, 2.5 bath house we’re constantly micro cleaning / picking up toys etc / washing, & that’s with a cleaner doing the bathrooms once every 2 weeks - before her I would thoroughly clean the bathrooms most weeks in 1h - 1h 30.
I tend to hoover downstairs most days, kitchen clean / wash / dry clothes every day, hoover upstairs and stairs at least once a week and wipe down surfaces lounge / upstairs once every couple weeks. Change beds once every 2 weeks. Empty all bins every couple days. Everything else as and when / if!

Toilets, as people keep being surprised about, is a good example.

I would guess OP does not clean her toilet every day. It takes 20 minutes to scrub off ingrained limescale. It doesn't take long to wipe it over and swish a brush around to dislodge any soft, just-formed limescale. But you have to do that very frequently in order to prevent build up. I don't actually know how frequently... certainly more frequently than I do it

It's a bit like brushing your teeth to remove soft plaque, vs the hard calculus the dental hygienist has to chisel off the parts you frequently miss.

Greenwriter76

Tbf, it is just my partner and me at home full time.

He's far tidier/cleaner than I am naturally! I have got into some very good habits because of him 😁

I'm a cleaner and clients expect you to do a whole bathroom in 20 minutes. It's possible of course but it won't be a really thorough clean. It's impossible and I don't care who says otherwise.

I also have ADHD and I don't know for sure why, but it does seem to make some tasks take longer. I've timed myself emptying the dishwasher, because I don't understand people saying this is a 5 minute job. It takes me 12/13 minutes if I don't get distracted. About an hour when I do (I appreciate I shouldn't be counting the distraction). And with the 12/13 mins I round that up to 15-20 mins or so because I like to wipe the counters down after I empty the dishwasher, and sometimes that gets a bit extended if the hob is dirty.

I suspect I move quite slowly when I'm not interested by a task, and I tend to not do things in a very optimal way and I also tend to be quite thorough - e.g. I will get a cloth and dry all of the plastic things and put them away, whereas DH lines them up on the windowsill to air dry. If I did that, they would never find their way back into the cupboards and it annoys me not to be able to open the window without knocking things flying.

Oh god, way less then hot of these. I cannot be fucked!

5 minutes in the bathroom in the morning (Give the toilet a quick once over and Squeegee the shower walls down, wipe the floor and spray a bit of daily shower cleaner....if I didn't live in a RIDICULOUSLY high hard water area then I would do this way less...like once a week less😂)

Kitchen will be relatively tidy from the night before in the morning so at some point in the morning or when home from work ill empty the dishwasher and in the evening I tidy up cooking as I go, sweep and run a swiffer over the floors, wipe the surfaces down, clean out the sink and clean the hob (because it catches the light and you can see every smear you ever made...v annoying)...so 20 mins at most?

Sofa takes 30 seconds before bed

Dog toys get put away, again 30 secs

and general mess gets tidied as I go...maybe another 15/20 mins at most

Hoovering, mopping dusting gets done once a week...probably

I also have ADHD and completely agree with moving slowly when im not interested in a task. I have been known to call a friend to yell at me to clean the damn surfaces on more then one occasion.

I briefly lived with a friend who I nearly drove to absolute insanity by half jobbing everything then coming back to it later...and its not that I only half unload a dishwasher then sit down, this week I started to unload the dishwasher, put the chopping boards away, noticed some crumbs in the cupboard (toaster also lives there), swept the crumbs out, thought gosh there's loads, emptied the cupboard, cleaned the cupboard, put the surface spray away, thought that cupboards a mess, tidied that cupboard, then noticed a tea towel was a bit dirty so used that to clean off the surface spray int he cupboard, took the tea towel to the bathroom, put a wash on, noticed the box where the cleaning items live was gross, paused the machine, took that tea towel back out, cleaned the box out, put the tea towel back in (note didn't start wash agin) then went back in the kitchen and was surprised at the half full dishwasher. Its actually quite exhausting sometimes

My mum comes round and cleans our house on Thursday for three hours. I pay her by the way, she used to be a cleaner before she retired and honestly she’s the type who needs something to do or she will get in everyone’s business.

We (me and DH) probably spend a total of an hour to two hours cleaning per day. A big part of it is I put my kids outside. If it’s not a blizzard, they’re outside because that’s what my parents did with me. I thought they were big on outdoor play but my mum just kicked us out to keep the house clean lol.

I do about 20 -30 mins each morning before work - mainly cleaning kitchen, put dishwasher on (DC unpacks after school), toilets, put a load of washing on and stick the robot vac on. On the weekends more like an hour on top - wash sheets, bathrooms, tidy, mop etc. We have a cleaner for a couple of hours alea h fortnight who does a proper vac, cleans showers and dusts etc so I don't do those.

I have hotspots - kitchen sink, kitchen work surfaces, the loo, and bathroom basin. They get cleaned daily. I make sure dishes are washed and put away and the living room is tidy both before bed - I find both those make a big difference to the feel of the house. I also spray my method daily shower spray after each morning shower of mine which seems to keep the shower screen clean in-between deep cleaning of the shower, and I strip and change the beds every Sunday.

Everything else gets done as and when needed.

No idea, probably 30 minutes most days max..out the shower, clean bath, basin,loo, worktop, couple of minutes. Toilet gets cleaned many times a day now we're retired. Friday, window/sills, plants watered, floor washed. Make bed, couple of times a week vacuum dust, change bedding weekly. Open plan bungalow, kitchen at the end of the living room,has to be tidy. Sink cleaned after each use. When I got up today opened the bedroom Venetian blind,saw dust,dusted it straight away.. while the washing machine is on,am busy doing other stuff. Today with hosepipe ban,a lot of watering in 200 foot of garden..I had 4 DKs, worked ft, never let stuff mount up. We've got 2 long haired border collies, always had animals.

Not enough! Daily stuff like loading the dishwasher, wiping surfaces and emptying litter trays takes maybe 20 mins. Laundry maybe an hour over the week. Vacuum once or twice a week. Bathroom clean once a week or so. Mop kitchen floor once a week.
I have teenagers who mostly clear up after themselves so we don't have much mess.
I'm considering getting a cleaner to do a better clean of kitchen and bathroom once a fortnight as I'm not very good at it!

2-3 hours a week, 3 bed, two bathrooms. This doesn’t include washing up/ cooking/ kitchen or the washing

Max two hours a week, not including washing up (which is less than 5 mins a day).

The house is tidy, because I am very anal and everything has its place. It could be cleaner, but it's good enough.

"I don't understand how people do so little?"

"I spend 1.5 hours when the kids leave the house on school day..."

there's your answer 😀

you either don't have a job, work reduced hours or have flexible working that accommodate your cleaning.

take the toilet seat off? 😮

Probably about half an hour a day to keep on top of kitchen and child mess but then usually a couple of hours at the weekend to do bathrooms etc.

None.

but I am severely disabled and have a cleaner.

now when I wasn’t disabled and had young kids it was bloody constant.