Not realising how much cleaning a house takes?

[Hahaha88]

Growing up our house was always clean and tidy. Sunday was cleaning day and we'd all have a job, the whole house got hoovered, dusting was done, bathroom cleaned, beds changed and bins emptied.
It wasn't until I was an adult with my own house that I realised how much extra cleaning my mum (single parent, not sexisim) must have done when we were at school etc. There are so many cleaning things I didn't realise I would need to do! Like cleaning kitchen cupboard doors and drawers, inside the fridge, house doors, light switches, skirting boards and windowsills etc. Aibu in not knowing about all this? I don't even know how people keep on top of it! I feel like it takes so much effort to keep the place nice.

This!! My mum didn't work though so I guess housework was practically her fulltime job - there never an ironing pile or dishes waiting to be washed etc. Whereas I have a fulltime job and a social life and even though I'm hardly ever at home, when I am it always seems to need cleaning. If I put my mind to it I can dust, Hoover , mop the kitchen floor and clean the bathrooms in just over an hour. Any bigger jobs like cleaning cupboards and the fridge get done very infrequently and ironing mounts up until I have nothing left to wear.

Really depends on the house. I keep mine clutter-free, we have tile or laminate floors, cupboards and drawers instead of open shelves - so despite kids and kids, it really does not get that messy or dirty. We also clean as we go, there is never a pile of pots in the kitchen sink or dirty clothes on the floor.

My late and much-missed DM was a martyr to the housework. I vowed early on that I'd never make that sort of commitment to cleaning.

And my house reflects that. Sometimes I look around at the place and it bothers me slightly, but not enough to be doing the dusting, and wiping down skirting boards, and lining drawers and shelves with old (and ironed wrapping paper, and turning mattresses, and polishing doorknobs, and scrubbing the front step, and laundering curtains like she did. For her it was a full-time job. And a life wasted, especially as it was cut short.

The things you are describing happen about once every three months in my house. (Kitchen cupboard doors about three times a week, because Family seem incapable of making coffee without dripping some down the front of the pale cupboards. But the rest... only on deep cleaning days which happen about once every season.

I know a lot have cleaners and I don't blame them!

Why would you blame anybody for having cleaners? It's a bad thing?

My house stays so much cleaner since all the children grew up and left and the old dog died. 😢 In winter I used to have a bucket and mop permanently by the back door and the floor was washed every time the dog went out and in again.

I have fantasies about an immaculate home. I tell myself it's possible, if I set up a detailed schedule and stick to it. But we have three fur-generators dogs who track in sand and dirt and leaves and grass. My husband has a habit of leaving things out (and has different standards than I do). And personally, I find I'd rather spend my life doing things other than cleaning. ...So I settle for "good enough" (with the occasional moment of wishing for perfection).

God it's awful! My mum used to do all the housework for a five person family (I don't know why we werent brought up to help?!)
And I honestly don't know how she didn't go mad!

I honestly think I could give up work and still be busy all day every day cleaning the house ( I've no kids!)

I do pretend not to see some stuff tho - like dusty skirting boards 😂

I have a theory that clean surfaces attract dust so I hardly dust and just don’t open the windows except in the early morning or after rain lol

@Meruem fair enough. I get that. In the opposite. Lazing about on my sofa is much better for me when I see everything looking lovely, in its place and clean and tidy. I just like coming home/ walking about the house etc and it's immaculate

Yup!! Its bloody crap!

I use to LOVE cleaning, now I loathe it. I'm very anxious about cleaning. My mum never cleaned (think how clean is your house(the programme)) She even went as far as buying plastic forks and papers plates so she didn't have to clean. My nan use to come and demand her to get off her arse and clean. Until I got older I began to clean it.

So I'm obsessed with my house being tidy but it's very stressful. My standards have dropped since having kids, so now I work out a timetable when to get things done and the kids have jobs.

All those jobs are 'as and when'.

When I lived alone, I would take all the furniture out of my sitting room, pile it up in the hall and clean the entire room over a weekend, then replace everything but change everything around. I would do that about every 6 months. Likewise with the bedroom. I would sometimes take all the books out of all the bookcases (many many many) and replace them in alphabetical order by author. They didn't stay like that for long though

DH and I used to share the cleaning on a Saturday, but more recently, due to ill health, frailty and disability, we seem only to be able to do the obvious daily stuff. I can't remember the last time I cleaned a light switch for instance [oh dear]

Those 'extras' you mention are all the things that NEVER get done in my house! No time (and not enough money for a cleaner)! Barely enough time to do the basics so that the house is (relatively) hygeinic, we have food and clean clothes!

My mum had (diagnosed) OCD and cleaning was one of her big things. She’d hoover as soon as she got up - before dressing or brushing her teeth - about three times during the day and it was the last thing she did at night before going to bed. And god forbid we sat on the sofa and deplumped a pillow!

Anyway, she cleaned all the time and our home was always spotless and perfectly tidy. The OCD was a coping mechanism I believe as once she’d divorced my father she became much less obsessive about it.

When I eventually moved out (not far from where she lived) she would look after my son while I worked and wouldn’t take any money from me for doing so. She would however rake money for doing my cleaning while I was at a work.
Consequently, about six months after she died it dawned on me just how much work she actually did because it had never occurred to me that certain things needed regular cleaning (door frames, skirting boards, walls!) especially with mucky kids in the house.
I’d never seen her do it, she’d never made me and my brother help beyond keeping our rooms tidy and doing the dishes, and as she cleaned my house i didn’t realise how grubby things could get and how quickly!

My Mum never did any of that, i don’t think she was even aware of skirting boards!
I like my house to be spotless because of growing up in an untidy home but realistically it’s impossible unless you dedicated all hours of the day to it!

*I agree that MN cleaning levels are ridiculously high.

I hoover, wipe, all the time. The rest only needs to be done occasionally.

Skirting boards get done once or twice a year. That's fine*

It does depend on your standards, and how you want to spend your spare time. I have very little spare time, so I am not going to spend it cleaning. Skirting boards have not been done since I moved in four years ago. I didn't even know that they were a thing until MN said they were.

It probably helps that I grew up in an old and dusty house.

My grandmothers motto, born 1905! Embroidered.

Our home is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.

It means muddy boots and dust and cobwebs behind wardrobe dirty. Not risqué.

I live by this one.

@TwentyViginti I know I know. The way he cleans isnt the way I clean, I end up going over what he has done. I need to change this before it becomes a habit.

I’m more than happy if I stay on top of laundry and Dishes and general surfaces , organised bedrooms and bathrooms Everything else gets done only when we have guests 😂.

20 mins a day is a dream it’s more like 2 hours over here

MIL commented the other day that SIL's house is like a show home, theirs is in the middle and ours is the other end. Can't be arsed to be insulted.

We have just bought our first house and we've been deep cleaning our rented flat before we hand the keys back. I've cleaned parts of the flat I haven't looked at in six years

I'm pretty much in a perpetual state of deep cleaning, I do it bit by bit room by room then start all over again!
But I love cleaning ( I'm weird) and I find it a huge stress relief and actually some jobs are quite hefty and it feels like exercise

Those who grew up in dirty homes, did you not get pests?

My mum cleaned but worth 5 kids in the house it was tough. We had carpet beetles (vom) and clothes moths a lot.

I used to dream of a tidy, clean house as I do feel happier in that sort of environment but it's very difficult to maintain with children. It wasn't bad at all, but there was general family 'stuff' around most of the time.

Fast forward a few years, one is at uni, one is rarely home and I kind of miss it.

I’m another one following the organised mum method.
I’ve got 3 kids, scruffy partner a hairy dog and a tornado for a grandchild. I also work.
Since following this method my house is much cleaner and I don’t need to shove things behind cushions when the doorbell goes!!!
I don’t do it religiously but once you’re a few weeks in you really notice the difference.