To have no idea what normal people do to clean their houses?

[ItWasNeverASkirt]

I'm in my early thirties and realised recently that some of my friends do all sorts of civilised household chores that have never even occurred to me. Also, reading on here, you seem to clean your loos in much more sophisticated ways than I have ever done! I vacuum and dust, but that's pretty much it. I give the loo a quick brush and the sinks a desultory wipe when I remember. I have a guilty feeling that I should give the kitchen floor a wash every once in a while, but I usually don't.

I'm beginning to think I've missed some kind of important ' how to be a grown up' manual. Please help! We've recently moved to a new flat and it's immaculate and I'd like to keep it looking beautiful so am thinking of creating a 'to do' list to remind myself of what will need doing over the year.

What are the things you are meant to do around the house to keep it clean and in good repair? And how often? Any good tips and tricks?

The best way is to pay a cleaner! Ours is like part of the family she changes the bedding and gives the house a good thorough clean then all we do is pop the Hoover on daily, wipe down kitchen surfaces and throw bleach in the loo! £10 an hour well spent!

MattDillon that's not a slattern

You really just up have to do what Saucy said, get up and get on with with it.

Anyone else need just one more first?

I'm like you OP, I grew up in a "lived-in" type home and a family where the older women rather meanly laughed at others who seemed more organized (think: Oh I can tell it's Monday, haha, Sheila-next-door's got her bedsheets drying on the line") and now I crave to know these things .

You could check out www.flylady.org, she suggests an order/rhythm to do things in, and how to get them started. She suggests for example racing through the home once a week vacuuming all the "middles" of the rooms, and rotating through the rooms monthly to detail-clean them. She also adds in days to clean the car/clean out the handbag/check of your bank statement and tells how to do your bathrooms, shopping & paperwork and run your calendar, if you need that stuff too. (I do.)

Or you could get a cleaner, one who explains their system to you (I say this as it has been hopeless for me when I've had a cleaner who says "right, what do you want me to do?" as I don't know. Let an organized cleaner get on with it and then finish off what she hasn't had time to do and adjust your requests as necessary.

Enjoy your new home. Here's a cup of tea (don't know why there's a pic of a cannabis leaf on it)

Cheezyweez, it's the MN logo!

I'm like you OP. I do thinks when they need doing. However a few months ago I took delivery of a new Dyson. It comes with a small attachment that fits into the hose and it was a revelation. It sucks up the dust from the edges of the floor and gives that finish I'd seen in other places. I love it! I feel like a proper grown up every time I use it.

Decluttering helps too.

We hired a cleaner (via hassle.com, pm me if you want a discount code). It's been a revelation! Best of all, I had a message last week to say our cleaner had an emergency and couldn't make it, and they found a replacement who could come in last minute within an hour or so.

Other than that, bedding is changed as and when, towels washed every week or so, kitchen floor swept daily, and I occasionally set the children loose with wet wipes, they think being allowed to clean the skirting boards and cupboards is the best treat ever

X-post HeadDreamer, only you go the website name correct

One tip of mine is to see what your family like doing and let them do it (my DH for example loves to clean the kitchen floor with floorwipes, so I don't do that any more. He never notices the surfaces, so I do those).
My son is v interested in recycling since they "did" it at school, so he polices/takes out the recycling now.
My daughter loves organizing cupboards / chucking out redundant stuff so I've stopped doing that.

I second or third little and often, don't let it become a big problem. If you keep things tidy then when you come to clean the job is half done. . I have set days when I do set rooms,so Wednesday is kitchen, Thursday bedrooms/landing, Friday living room and Saturday bathroom and have done this since the dc were small (I did work) and now they have their own homes. In between just normal keeping on top of so, tidy up after the end of a meal etc. I keep a tub of appropriate coloured emulsion and a small brush handy so you can touch up scuffs easily. Window cleaner for outside and when the sun hits and I see how dirty they are then I do them inside!

Temporary so it is!

I love my Dyson too. Hand-held, long reach, cordless, so good for the stairs/car... I just have to GET UP AND USE IT...

Cleaner here. I don't mind cleaning, it's just that with children and going out to work, I'd rather not spend my time doing it if I don't have to. And they do do it so much better than I could. On her weeks off I do it, and it takes longer and is never as clean. I'm going to follow her round the house one day and see what she actually does.

I can't understand those who mop kitchen once a week or less...aren't there loads of marks from dropped tea bags etc?

We always seem to have blobs of cake mixture or gravy too!

Hoover daily
Mop non-carpeted floors daily (and several times a day around the cat litter tray)
Bleach loos - and wipe them with disinfectant wipes daily
Clean bath/showers/sinks with bathroom cleaner daily
Buff up taps with window cleaner daily
Dust fornightly
Clean windows inside only when they look smeared
Clean cooker and kitchen work tops after every use and then buff up stupid shiny granite worktops with window cleaner several times a day to get rid of smears
Change beds weekly
wash paintwork and walls down 2 x year top to bottom but give dirty fingerprints a wipe whenever noticed.
Defrost freezer every month
Clean Oven with Ovenpride every couple of months
wipe down all kitchen cupboards and clean inside every three months and wipe smears when required
Clean inside of dishwasher, never (shit, I never realised you had to do that!)

I actually like cleaning, my house that is, not anyone else's.

I'm a total slob. My top tip is to invite someone over for coffee every weekend, preferably Sunday morning when it's light so I cannot get away with darkness and dimmed lights, plus I have no excuses as I can carve out time on Saturday to do some cleaning. Works for me.

I was Hoovering the other day and my son said "Oh, is someone coming round?"

"I can't understand those who mop kitchen once a week or less...aren't there loads of marks from dropped tea bags etc?"

Yes, but where as you might think "This floor is dirty. I need to clean it right now ", I'd think "Fuck it. It was clean yesterday. It can sit there and fester for a few weeks days until I next get the mop out."

It's just standards.

A little everyday.
I wake up, wash any dirty dishes and wipe down the surfaces inc windowsills, fireplace etc.
Put a clothes wash on.
Then vacuum and mop.
Any clean but damp clothes go on the radiator or outside if sunny.
Make the beds.
Have a cup of tea

Wash bedding once a week, clean the leather sofa when it looks dirty and give the dog bed a brush every now and then.
My DH does the Windows maybe once a week or so.

Threads like this always make me feel like a proper sloven! We had a maid when I was growing up (overseas) so the house was always tidy, dinner was always made elsewhere, clean clothes magically appeared in my cupboard etc. As a result I got to university and was hopelessly ill-informed. I washed my clothes in the bath once because the washing machine seemed far too complicated it wasn't until I owned a flat of my own aged 27 that I actually 'got' the idea of cleaning and was introduced to bleach. That's my preamble to excuse the current situation

Bedding is changed once a month, maybe every six weeks (DH says he likes his bed to 'smell of him') - we don't have sex very often tbf so it's not minging!

Downstairs floor is hoovered once a week if we've got visitors, once every 2 weeks otherwise. Upstairs floor..... once in a blue moon (every 2 months?)

Towels are boil-washed when I remember (once every 6 weeks maybe)

Kitchen is generally wiped down from time to time but spills get mopped up immediately (this is true in general for the household)

Toilet is cleaned when I think it's looking a bit brown

We do so much cleaning before people visit - it's a good thing we're relatively sociable!!

I hasten to add that the house doesn't smell and people don't recoil when they walk in (in fact they voluntarily come back)!

Different houses have hot spots of things that need cleaning. For instance
If you have kids, you might need to Hoover a bit more often.

If you have sun facing windows, the dirt will be visible more frequently
If you like cooking, you will definitely need to clean the kitchen more often.
Think about how you use your house, have a look around it / get a friend to look around it, see what gets dirty. I find it you concentrate on these things it really makes a difference and then every so often have a spring clean of the less urgent jobs!

We tend to do:-

Washing up twice maybe 3 times a day
Hoovering at least twice a day. Once all over and then once again in the living room after children have gone to bed
Bleach the floors once a week
Put all the toys away daily
Bleach toilet once a day
Clean the sinks every other day
Polish every other day

I have a few things which have to be done or i can't relax. So all done by 10am at latest are:

Downstairs hoovered, sofas tidy.
Table clear and clean. (our dinning table is in the living room and is used as a bloody dumping ground for who ever walks through)
Kitchen properly clean and tidy (including hob)
Laundry on and yesterdays put away (2 or 3 loads a day)
Animals sorted (cats fed and litter tray clean, rabbit fed and put in run in garden)
My bed made bedroom tidy and nursery tidy and ready for DDs nap (teens can sort their own rooms)

EVERYTHING else depends on what else i'm doing all day. I admit to being lazy about the bathroom, the oven, dusting, and hoovering upstairs, although the house always looks good on the surface because i hate clutter and it's always pretty tidy.

The trick is to get into a routine of the things which matter to you. Keep it doable.

I've never dropped a tea bag on my kitchen floor and if I did, I would wipe the tea up with kitchen roll and it would be fine.

The floor has been laid about 4 months and it has never been mopped and has probably been vacuumed twice. it could do with being cleaned but isn't visibly dirty.

Daily mopping - are you insane? Surely weekly/fortnightly is plenty? Same for bathrooms etc - I don't see the point of cleaning something that hasn't had chance to actually get dirty.

saucyjack - I mop once a week/every 10 days. If there's a spill or a drop it gets spot cleaned/wiped up there and then. I don't clean the entire floor (v large kitchen)

Sorry saucy, just realised that wasn't your quote.

You just have to decide if you want to spend your time on this.

You know the floor needs mopping, but you don't, so it's not a question of not knowing really (though FlyLady website does help if you are stuck), it's a question of lack of motivation and making a choice not to bother, which I do all the time!

I wouldn't dream of spending lots of time mopping floors every day, mine is done once a week and use a robot hoover inbetween. Bathrooms are done thoroughly once a week, with a 'swish and swipe' (Flylady again) technique in between.

If you like your house to look a certain way, then you can certainly learn more tricks but there's just no substitute for effort and time dedicated to cleaning. I don't want to do it so now have a cleaner and accept that we are reasonably clean but not tidy or sparkling.

I think you just have to own your choices on this one.

I clean/do chores whilst waiting for the kettle to boil and tea to brew. Amazing how much you can get done in 5 or so minutes.

You know, I watch all those programmes about OCD cleaners and their opposites and I think, hey, none of them have died, however much cleaning they do or don't do. As long as you're cleaning up the really dangerous stuff like raw chicken juices and clearing food remnants so you don't get mice/ants/rats, you'll be reet. Just do what you want to do.