What/how much cleaning do you do daily?

[minieggsqueen]

Just curious as my boyfriend says I do way to much anti bac cleaning of surfaces! (I have diagnosed OCD & anxiety).

Daily I:
•Wash up at least twice
•Wipe down all kitchen surfaces & cupboard/fridge door handles with anti bac wipes.
•Wipe front door and other door handles/baby gates with anti bac wipes.
•Wipe remotes & tables down with either anti bac spray or wipes.
•Put at least 2 loads of washing in & out on the driers.
•Anti bac spray the sink before bed and clean it.

Weekly I:
•Bleach and anti bac wipe the toilet
•Clean the bath
•Anti bac spray the sink and rinse with hot water (usually do this sometimes 3x a week)
•Hoover twice (Boyfriend does this usually)

Am I crazy or to neurotic?
We ran out of anti bac wipes yesterday and I've been freaking out about not having them! He's just gone off to the shop to get an emergency supply before I go to Aldi tomorrow for a big stock up.

Hi, minieggs! I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing so much distress. It sounds really dreadful. You come across on this thread as such a lovely, kind and gracious person. I wish I could wave a wand and reduce your suffering!
I think you said you are only 20? Please keep studying as well as you can and try to focus on the future. Things can get better for you and a much better life is possible. Previous posters have had some good advice about therapies etc. I do know that some things are simply not possible because of costs, which is utterly shite. Wishing you all the best.

Also, you sound like a friend anybody would be glad to have, and your boyfriend clearly adores you. You have so much going for you; things can get better and you deserve all good things. X

I would use fewer wipes and ask your partner for more help.

Pointless asking her partner for more help. He won’t do it right and she’ll have to do it again. That’s the very essence of OCD.

I'm a bit grubby BUT I would never hoover up food waste, crumbs, random kid droppings, bits of pet food, etc ugh. Dustpan and brush, cloth, whatever. But not hoover. Is that just me?

I do not use wipes. I always clean my front door as it is white and it is a busy area.
Every day I wipe surfaces, dishes x 3 times, laundry,
Weekly I pull out all chairs, sweep and wash floors, wash leather chairs, work tops, front of cupboards and appliances, dust, shine.
Change beds DC every 10 days.
My home is not sparkling, but doesn't stink. I grew up in a home with lazy parents amd wore wrinkly smelly clothes our bath tub was the laundry basket, I needed yo empty the bath of dirt clothes to wash.
I would hate my DC to feel smelly and unkempt.

Daily: load and unload the dishwasher
Laundry (have four under-ten’s so there’s a lot of it!)
Sweep and mop downstairs flooring
Anti-bac kitchen surfaces
Bleach the toilets and kitchen sink
‘General tidy round’ which literally means making sure there aren’t toys and books scattered all over

Weekly:
Vacuuming bedrooms
Scrubbing the bathroom
Dusting
Cleaning the fridge out

Tend to change everyone’s bedding fortnightly.

I don’t think what you do sounds excessive.

What's the difference between hoovering crumbs into one container, compared to sweeping it into another longway? They both get emptied into the bin.

I would get anything wet or damp off the floor, I wouldn't subject my hoover to baked beans for instance but crumbs? Yeah, if it can't handle that then it's a failed hoover.

Er, dunno. Fair point and I suspect its just my own quirk. I don't empty hoover after every use, its heavy to manage, and the thought of leaving food in hoover for a couple of days is horrible. Dust and dog hair? Tolerable.

Lol, this thread is confirming me as a total slattern.

Daily; unload dishwasher, clean up and wipe down kitchen, sweep up crumbs on floor with a brush. That’s it.

Laundry as and when it needs done.

Hoovering, floor washing, bathrooms, dust around all happens weekly.

Anything else is very intermittent . I’m not entirely sure what deep cleaning is.

And I don’t use antibacterial anything. Awful stuff. Or bleach.

Wow MNetters love to clean! I’m pretty disgusted that pp have made op feel like she needs to clean MORE. There’s literally no reason for a toilet to be cleaned everyday unless you have constant explosive shits.

I try and do about half an hour in the evening while dp puts the baby to bed. That mainly involves tidying up though, plus cleaning the kitchen and loading the dishwasher. I do a load of washing every other day. Cleaner does bathrooms, hoovering, dusting plus any ironing once a week.

I have no desire to do more, it would add nothing to my life.

I have a form of OCD. You really do need to stop the compulsions. Limit them first ie only allow yourself to hand wash say 5 times a day or for 19minutes rather than 20. Whatever you are doing, halve it.Then gradually reduce he compulsive behaviour. I give myself a rule ie I am only allowed to do x once in the morning and the evening for example.

Although you think the compulsion stop your anxious feelings and obsessive thoughts, they are feeding it. Making your anxiety much much worse. Initially not doing the compulsion will make you more anxious but this will start to reduce as you limit them.

That's the difficult but about dealing with OCD you have to be brave as whatever therapy etc you do will make you feel worse initially.

And start a mindfulness course. This will help you manage the anxiety. You can be referred on the NHS. Mindfulness is great and worked better for me than CBT as it almost treats he anxiety from the side rather than head on.

While you are waiting for the course you can try lots of exercises online. The main thing to to is stop fighting the anxiety. Every time you have a compulsion decide not to act on. Sit and focus on your breathing. Don't worry if you are breathing fast or your heart is racing. That's ok, just notice itv Let the anxiety. sit there. Watch it without adding your narrative and focus on your breathing. You will start to notice that it ebbs and flows and isn't constant. If your mind starts racing bring your attention back to your breath. Don't try to change how you are feeling or your thoughts. Just change your attention. Eventually over time you will see that the anxiety starts to ebbs away.

I think it took me 6-8 weeks of mindful practice to stop feeling constantly anxious so it's not an overnight fix but you can't go on like this. You are going to need to be brave and tackle this.

Good luck.

Hi OP, I have OCD too, not cleaning related usually but I am becoming a bit more fixated on that, and I know that I have a terrible habit of coming online and comparing my behaviour to others and then panicking that I'm not doing 'enough' etc and reading threads on here is the worst for making you feel like everyone is doing 'more' than you. Someone will always say they bleach their entire house every day and if you dont you're wrong. As a cleaning slattern I definitely do less than your regular mn user (and no ill effects) So please don't read all of everyone else's excessive cleaning habits and feel like you're not doing enough cos that is just your OCD talking.

@ATBhinchers are you the real Mrs Hinch?

It's actually helping my OCD reading this 😁 I can be sure that when I'm combatting it and not doing much at all, it's actually okay.

LaurieMarlow what do you use for yoir toilet? If you don't mind me asking.
We don't use any bleach either. (Though that is an OCD issue because I'm too scared to)

Yes. Yes I am.

@Alsohuman
"Pointless asking her partner for more help. He won’t do it right and she’ll have to do it again. That’s the very essence of OCD."

100% right

@SoftDay Wow what a lovely, kind comment! Thank you you sound like an amazing person too!

I will deffo keep on with the studying- I'm starting my Law degree in September. x

Everyday;

• the whole kitchen- surfaces / dishwasher / pots away / move the junk back to rightful places/ change tea towels
• wipe toilets & sinks
• hoover downstairs floors
• wash on
• general tidy about

Weekly;

• clean bathrooms
• clean & tidy bedrooms
• sweep outside front & back
• dust

Quarterly;

• windows inside & out
• oven trays / racks
• tops of kitchen cabinets
• light fittings / cobwebs hunt
• picture frames
• doors / light switches/ skirting boards
• bookshelves / ornaments
• big clear out - charity shop clothes / toys & games / anything broken

You want some washable microfibre cloths. I got mine from aldi use them constantly.

Daily
wash up at least once
clean kitchen worktops after use with Method spray

Weekly
laundry, probably 2 or 3 loads a week (2 children)
hoover
clean bathroom and kitchen sinks

Monthly
dust
wash kitchen and bathroom floors
clean shower glass
clean kitchen cupboards and fridge with a damp microfibre cloth

I am not especially organised or houseproud , though I don't like dirt I don't mind mess if that makes sense -and definitely don't have ocd so my way likely to be very different to yours - I mainly just do things when I see they look dirty! Bleach lasts an awful long time in this house, even the Method spray probably lasts 6 months! There is a far bit of evidence that over-cleaning is unhealthy and makes us iller/less resistant to everyday germs so wonder if that idea could help you to do a bit less wiping?

But I have never thought about cleaning the door handles or remotes - might do that now and then now!

If you are now concerned about the toilet, there is a way to add it into your routine without it becoming a massive 'thing' - just swish over the seat with some toilet roll and a tiny amount of cleaner when you last use it before going to bed, flush it, squirt a bit of cleaner into the bowl, put the seat down, wash your hands and you've got a clean loo, clean hands and nothing to worry about overnight.

I'm more worried about your hands if you're washing them so much and touching so many wipes full of chemicals - you could end up with very dry and even cracked or split skin - perhaps if you used some light handcream or something like E45 lotion after washing them, that could give you the message that you're 'done' whilst protecting your skin? It might help to resist the urge to get up and do 'just one more' thing/washing them again?

Feel free to ignore me, though. I wouldn't want to add to your worries.

Clean the kitchen worktops and breakfast bar with Ecover multi surface cleaner and hot water. As needed.

Wash dishes with Ecover washing up liquid. In the dishwasher we use whichever tablets are on offer in poundland.

Do 6 o 7 loads of washing per week (4 adult sized people).

Cleaner does 3 hours weekly, mainly hoovering, dusting and the bathroom.

Wipe switches, taps, loo seat, flush etc with bleach water only if there is a sickness bug in the house (extremely rare).

No anti-bacterial products and no wipes allowed in this house.

what do you use for yoir toilet? If you don't mind me asking

Method bathroom cleaner. I love Method, all my cleaning products (lol all three of them) are theirs.

I'm another Method cleaning product user here. Spray bottles of flash etc give me breathing problems, they are incredibly toxic to humans and the environment.
Microfibre cloths are terrible for the environment. Bits break off and end up in the water systems and in the sea, get swallowed by fish etc. Much like microbeads in scrubs.