I've been thinking over the modern obsession wtih cleaning a lot this morning, prompted by this thread, and mulling over "cleaning as a feminist issue".
100 years ago our grandmothers would have spent all day doing the family's washing, scrubbing it, pushing it about in a bowl, putting it through the mangle, hanging it out to dry and ironing it it using an iron they had to heat up on the fire they had to light and stoke. Cleaning of any sort was backbreaking, hard work with no products or labour saving devices. Just look at how the people in "The Victorian House" struggle to adjust to the work required to keep a home clean. When labour saving devices were introduced it freed women from the daily grind of keeping a house clean(ish), feeding her family and keeping their clothes in a state of not-too-griminess. This allowed women to educate themselves, work or spend the time they would have spent scrubbing the hearth doing something more satisfying. It allowed women to spread their wings and investigate the world out there.
However, I now feel that women are under huge pressures to keep their houses in an excessive states of tidiness and cleanliness. From TV advertising to layouts in magazines like "Good Housekeeping", to blogs like Martha Stewarts with tips on topics like "preparedness for the Apocalypse" we are constantly barraged with the idea that we have to keep an immaculate house and only lazy women have dirty floors. It trickles down all through society to the point where you have women like the OP wondering if vacuuming the floor twice a day is enough. The free time that we have gained in being able to stick a load in the washing machine should now apparently used for ensuring that your kitchen cupboard doors are polished to a surgical level - it hasn't gained us anything at all. Plenty of women out there seem to be spending as much, if not more, time cleaning as our great-grandmothers, despite apparently being "liberated" from housework by Dysons, fridges and other gadgets. It's as if women are bound by invisible chains to the idea that They Must Clean All The Time. Except they aren't cleaning to a basic, decent level of cleanliness - they are cleaning to a level expected in a hospital or commercial kitchen. It's not necessary and it's certainly not healthy. The obsession with cleaning certainly doesn't seem to be a societal thing because I've met few men that give a toss if the bathroom mirror is immaculately streak free as long as they can see their face to shave. Which makes me reach the conclusion that society is, albeit more subtly, still consigning women to the kitchen sink because that's their role. How many men do you see in cleaning adverts (unless they are having the mickey taken out of their cleaning efforts) ? The subliminal message is always "women clean".
But whose benefit is this for ? The OP herself admits that it doesn't make her happy, it's causing arguments between herself and her DH because he is fed up with her constant cleaning. Why carry on doing something that doesn't really improve the quality of your life and actually makes it unhappier ? For who ? What ? I know the answer for me was that I was constantly trying to win some sort of imaginary competition with my friends that "I have the cleanest house of all of you" but actually none of them could have given the tiniest shit. I used to clean for hours before my Mum and Dad came round then as I got more confident as a housekeeper thought "actually Mum's house is just comfortably clean, this is not impressing her and she'd rather I was sitting talking to her than polishing the shelves". I have come to the conclusion that, as long as you don't live in a "wipe your feet on the way out" house, that people actually really don't notice your cleanliness or don't care. And actually I don't care if my friend thinks my skirting boards are a bit grimy - but she wouldn't because surely a friend would not make judgements about your house.
it seems to me that actually the only winners out of this race for operating theatre levels of cleanliness are the companies that sell cleaning products. Who have very sucessfullly managed to make a large percentage of the population believe that they need cleaning kits for every room, 5 different sprays, room fragrancers, a million different products and cloths instead a small selection of 5-6 products for your whole house.
I encourage you all to Set yourselves free. OP, instead of cleaning tonight, why not just leave your floor until tomorrow and go out for a walk with your DH ? Or have a drink in a country pub ? Or relax in the garden ?
What have you always wanted to learn/do ? Maybe you wish you had time to learn embroidery or train bonsai - if you cut down your 3 hours a day cleaning to one you could do this. Life is too short and has too much on offer to spend your free time repeatedly mopping a clean floor