Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How the hell do people clean bathroom only once a week?!

410 replies

Pinkbabe1 · 01/09/2016 21:05

I'm genuinely interested here because I've read many a MN thread of ways in which to save time at home and almost always, people say clean the bathroom once a week! Now, I clean my bathroom everyday and even doing that the amount of scum I clean away each day surely would be unhygienic after a whole week? It leaves me baffled, I'm genuinely interested to know if the people that clean once a week have really dirty bathrooms by the end of it?! To put into perspective I thoroughly wipe the sink, toilet and bath surround - spray the bath and tiles and wash off before bleaching the toilet and wiping the floor which takes all of 10 mins. How do people get away with it?!

OP posts:
Notso · 01/09/2016 23:24

cardibach because,
despite my endless reminders my kids manage to get piss on the seat,
or wash their hands and drip soap and water everywhere,
or I think it looks dusty
and we have a stupid toilet seat that cannot be replaced without changing the whole toilet and it leaves rusty marks that look like shit.
So most times I go to the toilet I wipe the seat and under the seat with a bit of toilet roll.
It's my Mums fault, I can't go on a grim toilet.

cardibach · 01/09/2016 23:26

OK, piss wiping is normal. If it looks dusty to you twice a day, you do seem a bit obsessed. Ditto a bit of water/soap splash.

celeste83 · 01/09/2016 23:27

Reading through this some people are being a bit nasty on here. I do think 'cleaning' the bathroom everyday is not exactly necessary however. When i mean cleaning i mean getting the dettol and cif out. Yes i swish round the bath after bathtime with the shower head, yes i wipe off toothpaste marks with my hands as and when needed but not a full on clean. The loo i'm a bit more fussier about, that gets a flushable wipe of the flush handle and seat daily and bleach down every other day. The bathroom is deep cleaned with cif and dettol once a week.

cardibach · 01/09/2016 23:29

Sorry posted too soon. Also 'grim'? I can't see how any toilet can produce marks twice a day which constitute grimness by any normal standard.
Fair enough, clean as much as you like, but there is always an undercurrent of judginess -'I can't go on a grim toilet' = the rest of you will go on any old grim horribleness.

MrsJayy · 01/09/2016 23:29

I do sweep every 2 days though bloody white floor you see every hair who thought a white floor was a good idea Grin

multivac · 01/09/2016 23:30

All this bleach is making me feel sick.

We rinse the bath after we use it (which is far from every day - anyone fancy the 'how often do you shower' thread, again?)

We have efficient plumbing, ample clean and hot water and a flushing toilet.

And things get wiped, for cosmetic reasons mostly, once a fortnight.

We are immensely privileged, in comparison with much of the world's population - and we're not intimidated by advertising campaigns aimed at scaring us into paying for products that will 'kill germs' and stop visitors judging us. That, essentially, is how we 'get away with it'.

celeste83 · 01/09/2016 23:31

The loo by its very nature is grim though card i think it warrents a wipe over daily.

blueshoes · 01/09/2016 23:34

OP, how soon scum builds up depends on how well you clean.

Do you scrub. If you just spray cleaning products and wipe, it does not last as long as a good scrub. I know from experience with aupairs' cleaning ... some are more thorough than others.

barefootinkitchen · 01/09/2016 23:42

I just ignore until I notice it needs cleaning. Probably about a week between cleans. We're not eating off the surfaces so the dirt doesn't bother me. I have been known to pull across the shower curtain when guests pop by if it's a mess. ( scum , mould )

blueberryporridge · 01/09/2016 23:49

Far too much bleach and other assorted cleaning products being splashed about wrecklessly on this thread in my opinion - all going down the drains and causing problems in the environment.

Our bathroom always looks clean despite having two manky small children using it. It gets a good clean once a week, the loo seat etc gets a wipe over at least once every day and the basin probably every second day. Cleaning materials are Dettol wipes for the loo seat etc (only used because of DS's poor aiming) and very small amounts of Cif for everything else. I can't understand why people need to put bleach down the loo every day...

paxillin · 01/09/2016 23:55

Feeding the kids is the only task that must be done daily, they tend to complain otherwise.

Just try it. Don't clean the bathroom tomorrow. Leave the sheets on for a few more days. Don't mop the floor for a day. You can free loads of time for more interesting stuff and nothing changes at home.

MargaretCavendish · 01/09/2016 23:58

God, this thread is a bit depressing. There are about five mentions of 'we' rather than I in the whole thing, even though lots and lots of posters mention partners as users of the bathroom. Are there really so few men occasionally pouring a bit of bleach down the toilet they shit in?

Iggi999 · 02/09/2016 00:01

10 minutes a day?! Every day!?
I can't be arsed to spend that wanking

That has to be comment of the week, Mooslikejagger Grin

LeSquigh · 02/09/2016 00:04

I :used: to be the type of person that spent a lot of time cleaning and would have a dizzy spell at the sight of a watermark from a splash on the bathroom sink :but: I didn't have anything better to do.

There are 2/3 of us and the bathroom gets done once every week, sometimes as long as two! The bath is always rinsed off with a shower head and the sink is tidied up a bit from toothpaste marks. It doesn't get really dirty in over a week, if anything it gets a bit dusty (from towels presumably) but it's no big deal.

I work anything between 48 and 72 hours in a week (no working time directive here!) and I would rather spend what free time I do have with my DP and DS. There's a lot more to life than cleaning.

Notso · 02/09/2016 00:24

cardi I didn't say it looks dusty twice a day.
I wipe it for any one of those reasons,
so it might look dusty in the morning = wipe,
then the next time I'm in there piss on the seat = wipe,
then the next time there is soap/water and I don't want a wet arse = wipe,
piss again = wipe etc.
I suppose I could leave it and do it once a day but it would probably Be a bigger job the end of the day needing a product not just a bit of bog roll and we would all have piss and soap on our arses and legs. I am actually terrible at housework and my house has been a right state in the past. I try and create tiny habits to keep on top of things and the wiping is one of them.

almondpudding · 02/09/2016 00:38

How do you clean a whole bathroom in ten minutes?

It would take me ten minutes to sweep the floor, fill the mop bucket and then mop the floor.

How do you do it so fast OP? I'd love to cut down on the amount of time it takes.

BarefootCuntessa · 02/09/2016 01:19

Well we must be a right mucky lot in this house -one bathroom shared by two adults and three kids and I have to clean it everyday! My sink is forever covered in toothpaste and the loo is always covered in wee thanks to DS (and DHHmm ) . I give everything a spray with an antibacterial spray and a quick wipe and dust the mirror etc.Shower is cleaned every day by either me or himself usually while we are in it and I hoover the room at the same time as I hoover the rest of the house .All in all takes me 5 mins tops so I don't mind doing it everyday just part of my routine

HeCantBeSerious · 02/09/2016 01:47

Once a week?! We do ours 4 of them probably once a month if that!

foreverandalways · 02/09/2016 01:59

Disgusting leaving it that long.....each to their own though I suppose....but still, come on everyone it takes minutes to wipe around with a bathroom wipe, bleach the toilet at least once a day....surely!!!

HeCantBeSerious · 02/09/2016 02:12

What are you doing to your toilet that it needs bleaching once a day?!

And what are you doing to your family's immune systems and the environment?!

Our bathrooms are clean enough to use - baths and showers get rinsed down after use (just water from the shower head), room gets aired (so no damp) and each person takes responsibility for leaving the loo and sink clean after use. We rarely need to use cleaning products - perhaps we're using them more thoughtfully than you are?

CanadianJohn · 02/09/2016 02:18

Pardon my ignorance here, but when you bleach a toilet - do you mean bleach as in the chlorine compounds, such as Clorox or Javex.

I thought bleach was primarily a whitening agent for laundry. What is the point of pouring it down the toilet? I can imagine a weak bleach solution being used as a disinfecting agent... is that the purpose?

mathsmum314 · 02/09/2016 02:22

once a day? wtf OCD, where is the dirt coming from?

hollinhurst84 · 02/09/2016 02:26

I'm lucky if I bleach the toilet once a week. I'm rarely in TBH but I would rather be doing anything more interesting than cleaning
If it looks dirty when I'm walking past something, I clean it
Adulting doesn't come naturally to me GrinGrin

PerspicaciaTick · 02/09/2016 02:46

I assumed that people rinsed the basin immediately after cleaning their teeth. I didn't know that they left it dirty, building up as each family brushes their teeth, so that one person has to go in and do a big clean to remove all the scum.
Ditto toilets - why isn't the scum being washed away with flushing?
And don't you rinse the bath immediately afterwards and use a squeegee on the shower before you get out.

It sounds like the OP and her partner prefer not to clean up after themselves (and the DCs) as they go along, but to save the cleaning as a special, separate task.

Ilovecharliecat · 02/09/2016 02:57

I clean my bathrooms once or twice a week, we're all still alive, no nones died. I wish that I have the time to clean every day.... Or perhaps not 😂😂😂😂