If you do your own cleaning…

[Wavymaevy]

How often does it take you and how often do you do it. I work full time - hybrid, have a 10yr old and live in a two bed house and I feel I can never get on top of it. Been furiously cleaning the last few hours and it’s still such a mess - and there’s always big jobs to be done that I never get around to because of all the small jobs!

Any tips or advice?

Fair enough, I was trying to be extreme without calling you a hoarder 😂

If you are both untidy then perhaps both of you do a 15 minute tidy every night before his bedtime. He concentrates on living room, hallway/landing, his bedroom and puts everything away, you do kitchen, bathroom and your bedroom. I suspect if your house was tidy and "clean ready" the actual cleaning wouldn't seem as arduous. Maybe even run a celebratory hoover around every third day.

You can program them the not go in certain places and I just lift stuff up ie my floor fan goes onto the sofa. I don’t move my dining room chairs and the robot just goes around them.

They’re very sophisticated at avoiding obstacles these days. Having said that, I am a minimalist and don’t have much clutter.

1. you just have to accept that with kids and full time job it’ll never be perfect!
2. as long as the bathroom and kitchen won’t kill anyone I’m happy!
3. robot vaccuum is AMAZING!
4. does a cleaner cost less than your hourly rate- if so it’s better value for you to employ one than to do it yourself.
5. look up the organised mum method and do a small job each day.

Any house is much easier to keep clean if it is tidy.

An idea is that one should only have as much stuff and one has storage for. You’ve got to be pretty ruthless to adhere to this principle, but it does work.

My house is pretty full now, so I’ve largely started operating a one in, one out policy. If I buy a new mug and my mug cupboard is full, my least favourite mug goes in the recycling bin, for example.

It takes much less time to clean a clutter free house.

They avoid obstacles as much as possible. I have 3 kids with all their usual toys/paraphernalia lying around and we have a robot hoover.

We have a 4 bed, 3 bath house (5 people living here) and no cleaner. I don’t do it all myself though, everyone mucks in.
I clean the main bathroom while I’m bathing my youngest. I do the en suite thoroughly on a Sunday morning just before I get in the shower. The older kids (13 and 11) do their bathroom.
Kitchen is done every evening after dinner is cooked, with a deeper clean on a Sunday morning. Kitchen is my husband’s domain though so he does that.
The robot Hoover does the main living areas most days due to children and dog. Everywhere else hoovered once a week at the weekend, along with dusting etc.
No idea how long it would take me to clean the whole house in one go, I have never attempted it!

DH and teenagers also do cleaning so maybe an hour or 2 at the weekend plus a wipe of the surfaces and stacking the dishwasher Paul during the week.

You say you work hybrid, how many days from home do you do? I work from home pretty much full time and I do 15-30 minutes of housework every morning after the school run before sitting down to start work. I have a list of jobs and choose one or two. It might be something regular like clean a bathroom or hoover, but also includes the less frequent jobs like dusting skirting boards/blinds, moving the bed to clean underneath etc. I pick what I have the time and energy for on the day. Kitchen is cleaned while cooking and wiped down afterwards. Might also do another short job later in the day if I feel like it. My husband also does bits as and when he sees the need, he has a list that he updates as he notices and ticks off when he finds himself with a bit of time to fill (could be housework, an admin job, bit of diy or whatever).

I never spend more than 30 mins at a time cleaning. Couldn’t stand to waste hours on end when I have time off just doing that, it would make me miserable! My house is perfectly clean and tidy.

I clean once a week week (about 2/3h for basic clean)
I will choose 1 bigger thing to do along with the weekly clean. (last week blinds,this week skirting and doors)
During the week i only really stick an astonish fizzy down the toilet if it's looking grubby and give the kitchen a quick mop and wipe if needed.

I do a tidy up of main areas every day, like wiping down counters, putting dishes in dishwasher, picking up apple cores someone has set down somewhere. 🙄 I hoover and mop maybe every week or other week. We only properly clean every other month or so when we have houseguests. Takes a couple hours.

Yeah its not the hoovering that takes time, its moving tables and brushing down the sofa.

I live on my own in a three bed. I am a slattern but the kitchen and bathrooms are always pristine. Everywhere else is passable and a quick vacuum/dust at the weekends is fine. Once every six months or so (yes that's right) I'll tackle the skirting boards and doors. That's it really.

I'm a very tidy person though and have very little clutter, so it always looks ok. There's a huge difference OP between cleaning and tidying. Maybe (said with diplomacy 😊) being a bit more tidy and putting things in their place or making sure they have a place would make cleaning so much easier, and not so overwhelming.

Bear in mind this post comes from someone who always has something far more interesting to do than cleaning!

It gets done every week. 4 bed, 2 bath townhouse. DH and I divide and conquer, he does the ground floor which is kitchen diner, hallway, downstairs loo and conservatory. It’s a big space with a lot of glass doors and windows to clean so I then take the next 2 floors which are living room, master bedroom and en-suite, boys bathroom and kids bedrooms. I wet dust all surfaces in living room, bedroom furniture etc, hoover everywhere, dust all skirting boards, fully clean bathrooms, tidy etc. it takes us probably 3 hours, so if I was doing it alone then 6.

I'm fanning myself reading that!

I'd go without food or drink in order to get someone in to do all that for me! No way would I spend three to six hours cleaning. You only have one bedroom and a conservatory more than me and see my post above! No I couldn't, there are far too many books to read!

Would you mind coming over to visit me and do mine? I have mops, brushes, feather dusters, a vacuum, and a karcher window cleaner. Anything else you need? 😊

Written down it sounds nuts but DH and I both work FT and with 12yo and 8yo boys I just have to keep on top of it. We had a cleaner pre-Covid and still have a gardener so it’s literally the house to take care of. I need a clean house and i enjoy the feeling of it all being nice and clean. We also have a dog and I couldn’t bare it if someone thought my house smelled like wet dog! I have a routine and I just get on with it and I’m naturally tidy so always keep on top of putting stuff away, clearing worktops etc. it genuinely doesn’t feel like a big job.

Bedtime is my reading time, I read a book a week usually 😁