Kitchen cleaning standards

[Iwonder08]

Hello,

Had an argument with my husband this morning about the cleaning standards.. He pronounced we live in a pigsty..
He strongly believes that the cooker and all the kitchen tops need to be cleaned (kitchen spray etc) after every single meal prep - 4 times/day. He also thinks everyone does it and it is normal
My view it is excessive. Dirty dishes/pots are always washed straight away, kitchen tops are always cleaned after meat preparation. But do we need to clean it every bloody time there are a few crumbs from slicing bread? Do you clean your cooker every time you use it?
Background: we both work from home with long hours/stress full jobs and have 1 yo with us
YABU-husband is right
YAnBU- his cleaning routine is excessive

If he wants to spray chemicals 4 times a day over all the work surfaces, then he can do it. It's not your responsibility if he wants to be excessive.

I’d honestly rather have this issue than a husband who never wipes a worktop or cleans a sink. I think he’s being unreasonable and once a day is fine unless there’s been a soup explosion or something.

I clean the worktops whenever they’re dirty so if I make a sandwich for lunch and the worktop has crumbs on it, I clean it. Clean the hob if any food splatters or grease are on it. Some days this may mean I wipe them 3 or 4 times a day, I don’t think it’s excessive.

People here are nutters about cleaning. I wipe once a day and consider that good enough. My home is generally considered very clean and tidy by other people (I haven't asked, they've commented). Life's too short when you've got a one year old.

Because I hand wash dishes, I wipe over the cooker top when I do the final washing up for the day. I'll wipe crumbs up straight away and sometimes wipe over the counter tops straight away, but it's with a washing up sponge and washing up liquid. Getting a spray out, every time etc is excessive. Soapy hot water is enough to clean with daily. People are buying into needing a range of chemicals. Has he developed a bit of health anxiety during Covid?

Crumbs are easy to clean. If you wipe down as you go it takes a minute. I wish my dh was like yours. He is so lax about cleanliness.

Ideally I would do this but realistically it's done once, at the end of the day after dinner or in the morning if I'm too tired to do it after dinner.
Pre-kids I liked my home to be in show-home condition...now I've accepted it's just not going to be possible anymore, unless I spend every spare minute cleaning and tidying.

I wouldn't be cleaning the cooker 4x a day but I would clean the worktop if there were crumbs on it. I find the 'relaxed' view that crumbs aren't a big deal gross. It takes less than a minute to have a quick wipe down of surfaces. Having kids and working is a piss poor excuse, to keeping a clean kitchen or home.

Your dh does sound excessive but you sound lax, maybe both of you make effort to meet in the middle?

Hob gets cleaned maybe once a week (unless there's a big spill in which case, that evening). However surfaces I do all the time as they are so quick and easy with a cloth and either just water if it's crumbs or spray if I have had meat etc out. Literally takes 30 seconds and makes the place feel brighter.

My hob only gets cleaned approx once a fortnight unlerss there's a significant spillage. Worktops are wiped daily, but only once, and cupboard doors if they look grubby.

The whole lot gets a thorough clean once a fortnight or so, although I hoover the floor daily and mop fortnightly. No-one has ever become ill after eating at my house (unless you count hangovers ).

There's only me living here now though, so it doesn't get very messy or dirty.

I'm with your husband, clean as you cook/prep food, wipe surfaces and fill dishwasher at the end. It's so easy and I dislike a messy kitchen.

Quite a few different opinions.. The problem is we have a very different understanding of what constitutes mess.
We have a cleaner once a week and even she says the house is spotless.
I never ever leave dirty dishes or visible stains, but if I know I will be using the work surfaces and hob in 2 hours I don't want to waste time meticulously cleaning them. I honestly don't understand why once a day is not enough..

Ugh. There is (almost) nothing that I hate more than finding the kitchen surfaces covered in crumbs when I want to use the kitchen.

Does anyone just crack on and work amongst all the crumbs? Thought not. It means I need to stop and clean the surfaces before I can get on with the job in hand.

Leaving the kitchen clean is just the right way to live life.

You’d wipe crumbs up though?

Actually, if you’re wiping visible stains and bits then that’s enough. It just needs a damp cloth on the bit that needs wiping.

Are you saying he does a full wipe down rather than just wiping up the mess? That seems OTT.

I rarely use kitchen spray, I have a spray bottle with water and a little washing up liquid. That helps it be a bit less chemical-ly.

And by covered in crumbs I mean finding any crumbs left behind by the last person.

@FinallyHere
?!
So you want to clean up the crumbs, then say make a sandwich and repeat the process of that all over again?

Maybe I'm weird though because I dont unload the dishwasher for this exact reason

My kitchen side currently has crumbs, a used chopping board and some bowls from breakfast sitting on the side. I will probably leave it as it is until after lunch so I'm not just repeating the same actions time and time over.

For us, as long as the kitchen is tidy by the time we sit down in the evenings, we're happy.

If your DH wants a cleaner kitchen then he can do it himself. His standards are high imo (respect to people who can maintain it but I can't).

@FinallyHere

Ugh. There is (almost) nothing that I hate more than finding the kitchen surfaces covered in crumbs when I want to use the kitchen.

Does anyone just crack on and work amongst all the crumbs? Thought not. It means I need to stop and clean the surfaces before I can get on with the job in hand.

Leaving the kitchen clean is just the right way to live life.

Well yes I can easily make a sandwich in an area that has crumbs. I put a new chopping board down and get to work. Then I'll clean it all up at some point that day.

No one died of crumbs. People need to get a grip.

I don’t clean the oven after every use but I do it every evening. Leaving crumbs is grim, it literally takes a few minutes to clean the worktop after you’re finished.

Personally I think it’s excessive and HIBU to want to use chemicals so much - it’s not good for you. I use a chopping board with goes in the dishwasher at the end of the day so don’t get stuff directly on the surfaces generally. I brush crumbs away as I go and wipe down the hob if I’ve just spilt something on it but otherwise I do surfaces and hob once a week. Oven even less frequently!

I can't cope with crumbs. This is a contention between dp and I.
I also cannot cope with going to bed with any cleaning or washing up left out. No way.

I wipe the sides after every meal and the dining table.

Ours gets a wipe of the surfaces once a day, and we only load the dishwasher once a day. Cooker gets cleaned once a week.
If there are crumbs on the side, so what? I put a chopping board down and use that, then it all gets done in one go.
I couldn't live with having to constantly clean up

@nevernotstruggling I’m with you on this. The thought of coming down in a morning to a sink full of pots🤮

Then I'll clean it all up at some point that day.

This is DH's approach, I so much prefer my own way, which is to clear up as I go along so there is no big clean up required and the kitchen is tidy in between times.

Not sure what he'd think of our kitchen... we wipe up any spills when they occur (mostly) and brush off any significant accumulation of crumbs, but certainly don't do a full clean of the hub and surfaces etc after every meal. Pots may get left for later in the day if we're busy or lazy, sometimes for the next morning.