to ask you how clean your house is?

[NaomiCharles]

Long time lurker here and only just plucked up the courage to create my own account... I see a lot of threads where people post regarding their standards of cleanliness/tidiness and there is more often than not, a disputed regarding 'the norm', which has prompted me to join and ask:

• how clean is your house?
• how clean is your car?
• do you clean it yourself?
• do you hire a cleaner?
• what do you do to make cleaning more enjoyable? (I bloody hate it!)

My house is fairly clean but I can see dust building up in corners and my windows need washing. My car is horrid. It's disgusting and I'm getting it valeted on Monday! I'm dreading the looks on their faces when they see it. I can't afford a cleaner, so clean myself, and have yet to find a routine or way to make cleaning fun/easy/more enjoyable...

Can’t remember all the questions but my house gets very dusty. I do the bare minimum of cleaning really. Beds get changed when I remember. Always make sure the kitchen & loo are done. I’m rubbish at cleaning the fridge. We used to live in a much bigger house & I would have loved a cleaner.

Haven’t read the thread yet but it is an absolute fucking state. Depressingly messy and dirty. Eugh.

Sometimes it feels that my car is cleaner than my own house. But I clean other peoples houses (30 hours a week), so don't have much time to sort out my own!
I need a cleaner, but I'd be too ashamed!

@NaomiCharles I don't think you need to worry. Unless you have a complication like SPD you'll more than likely be cleaning like crazy towards the end of your pregnancy - those hormones are powerful things!

I remember at one point I was 39+2 and polishing each individual spindle on my staircase going "WHY am I doing this, I am never going to do it again so it's a complete waste of time" but I couldn't stop myself! I scrubbed all the floors on my hands and knees with a brush when I was 40+2! I must have spring cleaned my house from top to bottom three times when I was first on maternity leave.

Our house is fairly clean, thanks to DH. We don't have a car. DH does all the cleaning.

I've just bought a Roomba (waiting for it to be delivered) - I anticipate a cleaner house at no extra effort. Don't let me down, Roomba! The cats will hate it, but there will definitely be more hoovering than at present.

I'm another one who has worked as a cleaner (when Son was little), but whose house isn't great. When I have a free Saturday, I 'hire myself' for three hours - I always was able to do a house in 3 hours. But I have a very active social life!

It's all tidy, and I vacuum every day, so I'd have no problem with an unexpected visitor. But that's because I don't believe the odd dusty room is a major problem. My living room, bathroom and kitchen are always clean - everywhere else less so, and I've just cleaned a major amount of dust from my bedroom during today's three hours!

However, I've just sat down and can see my living room radiator is dirty where the cats have been jumping on the window sill. Dunno when I'll get around to that..... That's the thing I need to work on - see it-clean it. (No motivation)

My entire house could do with a deep clean, although I do deep clean each room about once a year.

I listen to podcasts as I clean, to make it fun/educational - I don't hate cleaning (although it is never going to be the joy that ironing is).

I clean out the car and do a 'home car valet' before every holiday or weekend away, so it's usually anywhere on a scale from 'pristine' to 'clean'. I don't allow eating in there. Other people's cars sometimes horrify me - but I can imagine my house would horrify some people (not convinced I've ever cleaned a skirting or dado more than once a year).

I'd hire a cleaner if I could afford it, but I was a bloody good cleaner, and not many are up to that standard, so I'd be a nightmare to work for.

Not overly tidy! I don't really work either

I try and do at least 2 hours a week of whizzing round with a bin bag, hoover and anti bac wipes just to make it look vaguely presentable.

I love it when it looks tidy and I definitely see an improvement in my mental health but I just can't be bothered to work hard to keep it looking good

Oh I’m completely feral. I have a cleaner who comes once a week which is worth the £20 because it makes me have enough of a tidy up for her to be able to clean. There’s still lots of clutter though.

As for my car, well I usually clean it once a year, in July, but I missed last year so it’s nearly 2 years since it’s had any kind of clean. It really horrible. Me and my bf went away for the night yesterday and he said he would skip the car out before we left. He came in with two bin bags full of stuff and said “I wasn’t sure how many layers go down so I just took out the top layer”.

Oh, and I once got a letter from the police saying that my car was so full of crap that it might attract thieves to break into it.

And my car DID actually get broken into once. I’d left it in a town centre car park overnight. They didn’t take anything but they tidied my car up for me .

house is a bit of a tip, but to be fair it is always full -

currently 4 teenagers that don't belong to me singing along to Alanis Morissette songs upstairs with one of my teens, dog sprawled on "small" sofa, my other teen "lounging" across the "big" sofa, hubby computer gaming at the dining table and "emptying the dishwasher" whilst his "life" refills - and me flitting about, mumsnetting and hanging up washing when I can be arsed - the rest can damn well wait.

I live in an old, single storey cottage in South Australia....which is in bad repair so it's hard to keep clean.

It's very dry and dusty here so the dust blows in and settles as soon as you've mopped. The floors are almost never clean. Everything else is clean all the time though.

It does sound lovely, though.

My house is an absolute state. My car is not too bad.

I think judging from the other houses I visit that mine is about average. It's clean but messy, if you know what I mean. Like there's stuff on all available surfaces but it's clean under the stuff and it's not cluttered, you know? Laundry takes me forever, the bathroom gets put off as long as possible, as do the beds, but the kitchen and living area that people see regularly are kept to a state that saves me from too much embarrassment lol.

But my car, wow. It's probably got stuff living in there tbf. And I just don't care

Work F/T as does DH
Used to have a cleaner but would rather spend the £40 a week on shoes/gin.
Reasonably clean- teens room I just shut the door and ignore.
Used to spend a lot more time cleaning but as I have got older just don't have the energy as I have also learned you never win,
Every morning I do kitchen surface fill dishwasher and washing machine before I leave for work.
DH does the two bathrooms when he gets in from work
I do kitchen bin surface clean and kitchen floor after dinner.
Quick sweep of lounge and sometimes hall floor with cordless dyson.
Weekends a bit more indepth eg clean out fridge etc
Pay for window cleaner
Big blitz over 2 or 3 days twice a year before holiday and Christmas.

Out house is fairly clean. I have a cleaner 3 times a week - she does the ironing too. I clean on the days she's not here. We're quite tidy by nature so cleaning is easy. Just a constant job though as we live in the ME, have a toddler and a few cats so dust, sand, mess and fur always needs to be dealt with. Our car is cleaned 5 days a week by dh's driver.

@BeyondThePage the fact you have teenagers singing along to Alanis Morrisette gives me hope! I do hope they are doing Jagged Little Pill from start to finish

My hours is very clean.

I have a cleaner, three hours every Wednesday. She does the the mopping, sweeping, hoovering.

I do a light half an hour clean every night with OH, Load dishwasher, a load of washing, wipe sides down, hoover if the kids have spilt crap anywhere.

I also do a two hour clean on a Saturday where I basically just vacuum, wipe and again dishwasher.

I don’t iron any clothes until I am going to wear them.

We have a 5 1/2 day a week housekeeper / nanny

She only gets a day and a half off per week??

Car is a different story. It’s vile. I’ve got no excuse.

It went down hill the day I started letting my toddler eat in his car seat and to be honest it’s never recovered.

Fairly sure there’s a 3 year old McDonald’s French fry under the drivers seat.

House - not too bad, but there's some things I need to keep on top of, such as skirting boards, coving, windows etc but I've not had the time. I keep the house tidy, livable and clean-ish/hygienic most of the time. I'm waiting on DH to hoover the stairs and upstairs though I as I can't manage to do the stairs myself due to back injury. Toilet regularly cleaned/bleached, bathroom needs retiled and redecorating burnt down and rebuilt desperately and the bath resealed properly.

DS's room is behind the closed door. Strewn with toys and clothing that I gave up trying to help tidy it. He has the pathological hoarding tendencies of my parents. I now ignore it.

I love doing the washing, just can't be arsed to put it away afterwards so both bedrooms have their own piles of clean clothing which ends up in a mound after 6 pairs of jeans are pulled right from the bottom. I don't know why we have wardrobes/drawers. I don't iron anymore for this reason.

Car - absolutely manky - mainly under DH's chair and around DS's car seat. Sweet wrappers, half bottles water/pop, receipts, muck - It got hoovered out properly around 4 weeks ago, for my MIL to then give my son a broomstick 2 days later, which shed itself all over the rear of my car. Exterior of car is filthy and covered in seagull shit. I gave up trying to clean it as they make a beeline the minute it's washed.

Do it mostly myself with the help of DH on occasion. House could be better but unfortunately I don't have the time.

Is there an easy way? Nah, I just don't do it

My car is a tip far too much child/horse/dog equipment in it. I do skip it out frequently but we have a busy life and children frequently change in the back of the car and leave socks, shoes etc in it.

Some areas of the house are very tidy others not so. In my defence I have a large house and there are rooms that I rarely go in so don't clean them. The kitchen on the other hand is the cleanest, tidiest room.

I have a Roomba so that's one chore I don't have to contend with; unfortunately it doesn't do the stairs so I feel a bungalow will be the next move.

My house is spotless and immaculately tidy.

BUT!

My DC are grown up and have left home and I live alone with my dogs. I also moved in January and downsized so had no choice but to do a huge de-clutter so now have none at all. Everything has a place and I put away as I go along. I vacuum and wipe around every day and move furniture once a week, same with windows and bed changing. I have a phobia with loo germs so my bathroom and especially my toilet is cleaned within an inch of it's life or I couldn't use it (even though I live alone). Kitchen counters and floor washed daily, deep cleaned weekly.

Yes, I'm mad and fully admit it.

House, regularly informed by my mum is 'filthy ". I dont think it is. I'm a very naturally messy person, I don't tent do notice mess or dirt,and I'm with you regarding cleaning, I cannot think of anything more tedious and boring. Dp only works part time and does majority of house work. House is always tidy when I come home from work. We tend to have friends round for drinks/dinners at weekend and by the end it's often a bit of a bomb site, just stuff around, bins full etc but I like the relaxation and I'm not bothered. Recently I've been working 7 days a week and I just can't be bothered. Much as if it's tidy, I don't stress if there's a bit of dust/crumbs etc I'll just make a mental note to sort it if I can't do it straight away.
Car, absolutely minging. Large dog, a job that involves lugging furniture and garden stuff about, and generally being busy and lazy
Now and again one of us will blitz it or I'll get it valeted.

I'm happy with the arrangement we have whereby I work more so DPS job is the house . housework is not a skill I've mastered! The only thing I've found that is helpful to me while doing it is to invite a friend over for a coffee and have them talk to me while I do it!