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...

Surface-level ok, most of the time but I struggle. I am thinking of getting in some cleaners to do a deep clean.

Car is clean inside, needs its monthly wash outside though which is due today.

House is always tidy and clean, can't abide mess and hate walking into somewhere messy. It doesn't take long to clean a house so no reason for a messy one other than laziness.

I'm currently on maternity leave with 8 week old dd, we've moved into a house that we've been renovating, and isn't finished so there's dust everywhere no matter how often it's cleaned.

Tbh I hate cleaning. Decided I should do without a cleaner whilst off work (had one at old house), and have coped until now, got someone coming to give me a quote in the week!

My car is pretty bad, got 2 dogs and live on a muddy track, I get it cleaned every so often, never done it myself

There is no way of making it enjoyable. Loud music does help though.

The house is fairly clean and pretty tidy.

I clean the bathroom about 3 times a week and the kitchen every day. The rest I tend to do as and when I feel they need it. Usually hoover the living room, hall and stairs about 3 times a week.

My house gets very dusty though. I hate dusting and do it about once a week but do wonder why I bother as about an hour after dusting it looks as though it hasn't been done for weeks!

Windows don't get cleaned that often and skirting boards, tops of doors etc even less often.

Me and DH like to go out for days with our dogs and that, to us, is more important than being home and cleaning

how clean is your house?
It's not as clean as I would like it to be.

how clean is your car?
Immaculate.

do you clean it yourself?
The car gets valeted every six months or so. I don't clean it in between times because it doesn't get dirty. Largely because the dog isn't allowed in the car :) Also it only transports clean adults. DS's younger muddy sporting days are now thankfully over

do you hire a cleaner?
Yes, she comes for four hours a week and has been coming for 20 years. She's part of the family. Her husband does the garden for 4 hours while she does the house.

what do you do to make cleaning more enjoyable?
I really enjoy cleaning actually. I think I do around an hour a day. I love getting everything sparkling and tidy. I tend to clean to the radio - so I save a couple of R4 comedy shows to play while I'm cleaning

Mine is very clean but I do enjoy cleaning and my H does his fair share. We don’t have children either so that makes a big difference. We just set certain days for certain jobs as we don’t want to spend the whole weekend cleaning

I am so upset when I read people with clean bathrooms clean them 3 times a week.
Every morning I go up to sort ours and there is toothpaste all over the sink and on the walls, we seem to have an odd build up around the taps and in the shower and the surfaces are dusty.
EVERY MORNING.

How is mine so bloody messy?

Mine is immaculate on the surface until you open a cupboard. No kids but two messy cats. DH loves a cleaning product and does more than his fair share.
Just had the car valeted so that's looking lovely for the minute.
I do 20 minutes every day - I hate cleaning the bathroom though.

My house and car are both very clean and tidy. I simply can't live with untidiness or dirt. No, I don't have a cleaner.

I just ensure I clean/tidy as I go along as part of daily routine - it takes next to no time. Eg, when I have a shower, I go back and wipe it down and dry the screen etc with a cloth - 2/3 minutes max which means the dirt/grime doesn't build up so I don't have to give it a "deep clean" every few days/weeks. Eg, I always take any rubbish with me from the car and put it in the bin, so there's never any accumulated litter to empty from the car. I vacuum the carpets every few days in a kind of random rotation when "bits" start to appear, so lounge/hallways every 3/4 days, bedrooms, dining room etc every week or two - again, only takes a few minutes to do a room, whereas it would take an hour or two to do the whole house in one go. Quick wipe around the bathroom every few days, i.e. sink, toilet etc. As for kitchen, we wash up after every meal and put everything away, then wipe down all surfaces, so again, nothing builds up, so it's a 5 minute job after a meal.

I really don't understand why people don't just clean as they go. My brother is like that - his house is usually a tip, then every couple of months, they spend a full day tidying it top to bottom - what a waste of a day!

My house is fairly clean and always tidy - I think the latter helps with the former. I don't have a cleaner - cleaning is an ongoing thing so if you have a cleaner once a week it is clean on that day but what happens after that? I try to clear up as I go along and encourage others to do the same. I'm not fanatical - if you came to visit you'd think it was clean, but if you poked in every corner you'd see it wasn't scrupulously so. Clear surfaces, clean bathroom and kitchen are my priority. Oh - and chuck out as much as possible. If you have loads of crap no matter how much you clean it never looks tidy.

Very clean after shouting my head off for an hour whilst dusting... grrrr

Oh my bathroom is always just awful... not unhygienic just a bloody mess

We have a cleaner once a week but apart from that it's a bit of a hole. Living areas OKish with constant picking up but bedrooms and hallway a bit of a disaster and I hate it. Constantly fighting clutter and young kids that exist to create mess. We have too much stuff but I struggle to find the time to sort through it. At weekends especially during the summer months we are extremely busy, or away. During the week we spend an hour or two every night tidying, cleaning etc but that's mostly spent just washing up, trying to stay on top of laundry, basic cleaning tasks, tidying toys away etc. The list of things that need fixing/ sorting/ decluttering/ deep cleaning is insane and so massive I don't know how I can make a dent in it without a child-free week. Any tips most welcome!

We are going through the adoption process, so the house is generally 'social worker ready' = bit like when you put your house on the market :)

Cars = much less so.

As others have said, tidying and wiping as you go is the way to do keep a genuine sense of order. I do that and always have.

A dishwasher is a boon, however, because without it you have a great big chore to face every evening.

Dirty...but slightly less dirty than this morning

Love this thread 😍
From cleanest to messiest:
My 12 year old car looks fresh out of the showroom because my extremely OCD husband washes and polishes it every day. And God help you if you drop a crumb inside or you put a hand on the glass 😂

The bathroom and kitchen are very clean as DH is obsessed with the kitchen and I am the same with the bathroom.
The lounge is also pretty respectable except for under the sofas where fluff bunnies live and breed 🙈
The main bedroom is ok but the windows could do with a wash. And don't look under the bed. 😝
Kids' room... man. Don't even go there. I do the basics every day (make beds, dust, hoover, wash floor) but as soon they are back from school it's like hell in there. 😨

"I do that and always have".

Yes, but not everyone is like you or gives a shrug about being like you RoseWhiteTips.

Your comment sounds like something that would come out of the mouth of a thousand smug judgemental mils or dms on Mumsnet.

Adults who have no issue with doing their washing up the next day don't need lessons in housekeeping from anyone.

I keep my house and car very clean and tidy. But tbh, it’s a total pain in the arse and I wish I didn’t care, but it makes me feel out of control seeing lots of mess.
I’ve often envied my posh friends with beautiful old houses where it’s a super relaxed atmosphere with lots of mess, but that just isn’t me. So, I clean as I go and have a cordless hoover to keep on top of carpets. Also like pp I make sure everything I done before bed and beds made etc in morning. I clear my car out every night too as the dc invariably fill it with shit in the day. And take it for an inside and out every month for £20.

My house is tidy but not always clean. This is because I"m fairly minimalist, apart from books, and live by myself, so find it relatively easy to keep things in order. BUT I also have two cats, work full time and spare much of my spare time gardening, so there's quite a lot of fur and mud in the house and limited time to remove it. My car is similar - it is tidy but quite muddy and dusty, due to lots of trips to the dump and garden centre and limited time to tidy. Never had a cleaner, and can't really afford to. I usually tidy up as I go along, and clean kitchen and bathroom whilst I'm using them, and then have some more focussed cleaning on Sunday morning - ideally during the time that the Archers and Desert Island Discs is on...

My house is clean, but untidy due to the numerous books I leave around it, although I have an Everest size pile of ironing to tackle (I bloody loathe ironing)

My car is immaculate, but then it's just been cleaned inside and out. My DSs car is an absolute shit tip, it seriously is minging and manky.

Once a week I give the bathroom/kitchen a deep clean. DH and DS make sure they're not about as I tend to go mad with the bleach

ChristmasTablecloth

Oh how acidic! What have I done to deserve that!? Everyone else has been saying what they do in a perfectly polite and reasonable manner. And then you spoil the thread.
Well done you.

🙄🙄🙄

I try to clean 'properly' on Saturdays, but if I have a Saturday when I'm away or out all day, then the house quickly collapses into chaos because I don't really clean at any other time. I take my car to a hand car wash fairly regularly because I live on a farm so it does get very dirty. I don't do the inside of the car very often, though it does get a quick clean a couple of times a year when it goes for its service/6 month check, so that keeps most of the grime in check.

I used to have a cleaner come once a month to do a proper house clean, but then I went part-time and couldn't afford it or justify it. I've just increased my hours again and I'm thinking I'll find a cleaner soon.

Normally my house and car are very clean and tidy, but just been away and am knackered so my hall is an obstacle course and my car is full of stuff.

Getting back to cleaning - which is not the OP's most favourite thing - and who could blame her/him?

There's something particularly satisfying in a sparkling loo. There are five loos in the house of Pearls and they do take some cleaning. The family has all been fully trained in the art of the loo-brush. It's just the underside of the toilet seat. I don't know how the underside of the loo seat gets brown splodges.