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.

Usually:
Daily..
2 Loads of Washing/Drying/Hanging
At least 2 meals worth of dishes
Empty kitchen bin
Anti Bac kitchen worktops and floor
Anti Bac bath/sink/toilet/floor
Make beds

Every other day:
Hoover front room/dust

Weekly:
Hoover all rooms/dust round
bleach kitchen and bathroom floors/tiles
Strip beds/wash/replace bedding

Fortnightlyish
Oven clean
Pull bedrooms out to clean

@maddiemookins16mum Haha, yeah I don't really know anyone else that wipes them either

When I'm out I either wait for someone to open a door (especially if it's the toilets!) or I use my elbow/foot/sleeve/bottom of top etc.

op if it wasn’t for the amout of wipes you use and my lack of door cleaning effort i would think we were the same person!
Honestly all sounds so similar im the same with meat or if something doesnt look right it has to go.
The thought of having a raw chicken in my kitchen gives me palpitations!! Trying to conquer that before end of this year hmmm!
My fear is the sick to if i know someones been ill i cant go near them for ages. Hate public toilets etc. Oh and i also love a mini egg lolxx

That is very kind of you, @minieggsqueen I am a complete slattern, but am still severely, miserably emetophobic. Work that one out!!

Everyday-

Wash up 3 times
Wash kitchens sides/cupboard doors/fridge door 3 times.
4 loads of washing
Hoover downstairs
Mop floors downstairs
Bathroom (we only have the one so it gets done everyday)
Dust
Clean mirrors and tv screen
Empty the kitchen bin

Once a week-

Clean all the windows inside
Wash bedding
Wash dogs bedding
Clean out fridge and microwave
Do the ironing
Hoover upstairs
Dust upstairs
Clean all the mirrors upstairs
Empty all the bedroom bins

I'll deffo clean my toilet every evening now!

Oh minieggsqueen I am so sad that your post has added to your workload, not made it better. I am very haphazard, so one week I am very good, another one terrible. Loved Prismguile’s post . There are lots of lovely cloths like ecloths that you can put in the washing machine and you can save on wipes. Agree that wipes aren’t very environmental and there is some evidence that being exposed to too few allergens when young means you are at greater risk of allergies as an adult. Hope you can get a routine that you can work with - you must have very little free time.

I absolutely understand about the compulsion to clean. The wipes thing is incredibly environmentally wrong, as you've already acknowledged. I find I feel much better when I've done the surfaces with hot water and fairy liquid or vinegar, and the loo with bleach or harpic (or similar generic product) (not both at the same time - that causes a chemical reaction which is very very bad!)

You can make a way to manage this OP. xx

@Betsy86 ahh we are twins! don't even mention chicken- I get hives! my boyfriend doesn't buy it anymore unless it's already cooked because he got sick of my constant crying and panic attacks/crazy cleaning whenever he cooked a raw chicken!

I just ate a packet of mini eggs..

The only thing I'd have an issue with is the amount of wipes you use, but you've explained why you feel you have to use those.

Don't feel like you have to increase the amount of cleaning you do just because somebody else has mentioned the toilet - you are quite right that people wash their hands after touching it.

I wonder whether some of you needing to do it isn't so much OCD but needing to do something to use the energy you have from anxiety? Perhaps you'd find it more calming if you looked for nice, perhaps lavender smelling antibac spray or used essential oils (not tea tree because of the dogs)?

@minieggsqueen I don’t think this thread is helpful for you if you have OCD and it’s encouraging you to clean more. People are telling you you clean a lot / too much already but what you’ve taken from it is that you should clean your toilet more. Please, for your own mental health, step away.

Is your OCD stopping you from doing what you want in your life? I have similar tendencies and use Mumsnet as a bit of a barometer for 'normal'.The other day there was a thread about washing bath mats separately to other washing, which I totally got. But since reading the replies I have made myself wash them with other things. You can get better from it. I am a long term Prozac user, and wouldn't come off it as I have no side effects. How did the psychiatrist know it wasn't working for you?

@nettie434 Thank you, it's okay- I'm always adding little things anyway. Putting my makeup on is a nightmare! It's a constant switch of washing hands then moisturiser then handwash then concealer etc etc.

I really don't have much free time, it makes me exhausted too. Sometimes I just want to stay in bed all day. I lost a lot of friends too (only one left to this day!) due to the ocd and anxiety during my secondary school and college years. I guess I was a weirdo and everyone got sick of it.

@AlpacaLypse thank you

@MitziK that's a good point, I do often feel full of anxiety and the cleaning definitely relieves it!

Yes that was my reasoning behind the toilet, I think it's best if I do wipe it down daily at least just to protect myself. X

Hoover daily and mop all floors (live in a bungalow, all open plan except bedrooms, obvs) but I have 3 small dogs that bring in a lot of garden crap and my floors are light grey laminate and don't hide the dirt.

Clean all kitchen work surfaces several times a day, there always seems to be crumbs and crap all over them

Load dishwasher maybe 3 times a week (only me and other half, we try and avoid using lots of cups, plates, glasses etc, wine straight from the bottle, microwave meals from the carton suits us..:-)

Clean bathroom daily, clean my loo twice a day as my OH seems to miss with the piss !

Clothes washing probably twice a week, once a week if I can hold off not having enough clean knickers

Don't think I've ever wiped my remote control, in fact I'm not even sure I have one...

@PaintBySticker I'm okay, don't worry- thank you though

I quite like talking about it as it's a release for me weirdly enough! x

How the hell do you do two full loads of washing a day? So each of you goes through enough clothes every day to fill a washing machine? How is that possible? And surely you could use cloths and boil wash them instead of using disposable wipes? With your issues it amazes me that you allow a dog in the house tbh.

i do the loos and sinks every day. Takes 2 mins.
a load of washing a day
a dishwasher full of pots a day
We have a cleaner who does windows and dusting and wiping and floors.
We spend an hour at the weekend doing a big sort out of either one room / the garden / outgrown clothes etc.

@MrsCherry Yes it is, I'd love to go to a normal university and be able to drink and have fun but I can't. I can't even kiss my boyfriend some days due to it.

I usually wash bath mats with towels tbh, I don't see an issue as it's a hot wash.

My psychiatrist decided since I expressed a desire to maybe change to a different medicine to get me off of it. But he's suggested nothing else for now as I'm the same on it as I am off it.

@Deadringer the dog is an anxiety reliever for me, gets me out and he's great when I have a panic attack. I bath him when he needs one and wash my hands afterwards. I love my weekend walks in the woods and parks with my bf and the dog.

Lots of towels, pillow cases, clothes etc I get though (mentioned why further up the thread).

There was a radio (4 ?) programme on the other night about how pointless anti-bac is unless you've got a specific esp. nasty (unusual) pathogen you're after. You kill a huge amount of the good bacteria (lack of which can make you ill), and not quite enough of the bad bacteria to stop you getting sick, by using anti-bac wipes.

We don't use antibac anything. I tidy a lot, but I do almost feck all cleaning on an ordinary day, maybe average 20-40 minutes on whole weekend. DH does about 20 minutes /day mostly keeping kitchen surfaces wiped down and sorting out the dishes (kitchen is his domain).

Am guessing that ‘wine straight from the bottle’ means no decanter or jug, grannieanne, not glugging from the bottle, bypassing glasses!

I'm not fussy at all but I'm shocked that some leave dishes to pile up for days o r clean the bathroom once a month 😟

I seem to do dishes about 5 times per day, bathrooms daily (still looks horrendous after 10 minutes) and hoover downstairs most days. My house still looks like a midden.

Daily: at least one load of washing, load and unload dishwasher, general tidying.

Couple of times a week: hovering downstairs, cleaning kitchen.

Weekly: hoover upstairs, clean bathrooms, change bedsheets, mop the floors.

Dusting and skirting boards etc are when I get round to it.

I have 2 young children and it’s a push for time. I used to be very house proud before I had them but now I have to make do. I have recently started trying to do one thing extra a day that I don’t usually get round to like cleaning insides of windows, dusting display cabinet, that sort of thing but our household is currently struck down with illness so I don’t have much time as I’ve been nursing my babies.

I would say your use of antibac wipes is quite excessive yes and as other have said, not good for the environment. I do use them also but often it’s for the toilet and I try and use a cloth for other parts like the kitchen. Just bleach the cloth to get it clean.

This thread has really stressed me out for you! It has ended up you now vowing you will clean your toilet every day!

Please OP, if you do anything for yourself, do not start cleaning the toilet everyday.

You do not need to clean your toilet every day. I am sorry but this thread and the people contributing need to realise this thread is doing someone with genuine OCD no good at all. I am upset for you.

Please, take the toilet off your list. For yourself and knowing it is COMPLETELY unneccessary and unhealthy to your mental health.