Why do we clean like this?

[lipsticklovley]

Surely it's not only me, but in top of everything else I now have this ridiculous urge the the entire house needs to be cleaned, as if Father Christmas will be doing a cleanliness inspection.
Half of me is saying sod it, the other half is saying every inch of the house needs to be scrubbed within an inch of its life.
I have no visitors planned (of course) just DP and kids here.
I'm the same before I go on holiday!
Please tell me I'm not crazy 🤷🏻‍♀️

I already feel guilty for not starting yesterday. I don’t know why. DH and the DC won’t even notice and will doubtless undo all the tidying/cleaning in less than 48h. I’ll probably get the steam cleaner out and do the kitchen today. I don’t have the energy to cajole children into tidying bedrooms though.

Definitely not crazy! I’m the same

Holiday is completely acceptable tho as there is nothing worse than coming home to a house that needs a clean when you’ve got all that washing/shopping to do.

I’m just about to start my Christmas clean! I’m taking 2hrs tops and doing the minimum (toilets, kitchen floor, throw the vac round) I’m finding it hard to not do more but really what’s the point.

I like coming back to a clean house when I've been on holiday, so I understand that. I have been looking round, thinking about cleaning, but am still working till end of tomorrow, so it might just be an urge to avoid work...

I think it makes it a bit easier to relax if the house feels clean and fresh, but I agree doing the basics is fine.

It'll be much easier to clean next week /week after when you've less stuff in the house anyway.

Don't fall into thr trap of doing so much that you fall into christmas eve/day exhausted and cant enjoy it. This year of all years.

I get you OP, however I bet I'm much older than you and have 'done' many more xmas's, I now have a rule, I clean today, the 23rd, and then, apart from cooking and clearing the kitchen I do no more housework until the 27th, well, I might stick a bit of bleach down the loo.

I used to fucking kill myself with it and tbh, its just not worth it, especially when you have everyone at home making a muddle.

I feel like this and I have no idea why; we’re also not having visitors but somehow it still needs to be perfect for me to relax

Can I add to this - housework 'chicken'. You know that game where kids leave it as late as possible to run across the road? It's a similar thing - if you clean too early it will get messy again, but if you leave it too late it'll be horribly stressful and might not all get done and you'll be ruining Christmas eve 😬

We cleaned on Sunday. That will do until next week some time. It's a holiday. Don't keep cleaning.

I haven't done anything more than a regular daily clean. I'm 5 weeks pregnant and my back is killing, I'm not doing the huge deep clean that I normally do. DS (1) is like a hurricane when he starts playing haha.

No one will notice here too, and I will spend today doing it, by tomorrow evening the kitchen will look like a bombs gone off and the living room will be full of presents.
But still, I'm looking at window ledges thinking YES, THEY ALL NEED CLEANING, ALONG WITH FRONT DOOR, ALL FLOORS, KITCHEN UNITS ETC ETC

I always want a sparkling clean house for Christmas, new year and for when I return from holiday.

I'm the same! I can't relax if my home is in a mess and I want to relax (as much as you can with two young children around) on Christmas day, so that's my reason. I always clean before I go away on holiday too, as I hate coming back to a messy house after being away. As soon as everyone and everything is packed in the car I quickly run back inside and whip the hoover around!

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

Can I add to this - housework 'chicken'. You know that game where kids leave it as late as possible to run across the road? It's a similar thing - if you clean too early it will get messy again, but if you leave it too late it'll be horribly stressful and might not all get done and you'll be ruining Christmas eve 😬

@JesusInTheCabbageVan Yes! This is exactly what I have done for years.

Oh I'm so glad we are all the same!!!
I agree it's 100% an "I can't relax until it's done" scenario

I have always done a huge clean before putting the Christmas decks up.
All those boring jobs I don’t do for the rest of the year like taking down the wall light glass shades and washing them and dusting the ceiling lights(you would be amazed how much brighter the light is off a light bulb when it is not covered in dust😁)
I also clean the oven and extractor fan ready to cook Christmas diner.

I can’t relax in a messy house so have a set routine for cleaning anyway. I will bring forward a couple of jobs to today day so that I don’t have to do anything bar cook on the day and DH does half of that so not a huge task.

DH and I were talking about this yesterday - DH had a sudden urge to hoover the stairs and was trying to work out the optimum time to do it so they wouldn't get messed up again before Xmas day!

I just smiled when I read this thread as I had just been looking at the washing machine trying to work out a schedule of how to do the washing over Christmas. Of course santa can't come and see washing drying anywhere 😂 i remember the year Christmas day was on a Monday and I had a mild panic as Mondays are the days I strip and change all the beds. Nice to know we not alone in thinking like this 👍

I’m generally quite a slattern, but I do a ‘Christmas clean’ (I’m actually procrastinating as I type, as I did the tidying bit yesterday but now need to do the cleaning bit).

It’s just nice to relax on Christmas Eve in a tidy house, isn’t it? And then wake up on Christmas morning to the same. By Boxing Day we usually have greasy cooking splashes in the kitchen, stray bits of wrapping paper round the living room and my kids leave melting chocolate coins and sticky, unwrapped sweets on every surface...so I’ll enjoy it while it lasts!
( I also force myself to do the ‘holiday clean’, too, , as there is nothing more depressing than coming back from a hotel level of cleanliness to a messy, grotty house!)

Rainy day today so kids have lego everywhere. Dh is getting more and more wound up with the mess. I'm off to fetch the turkey from the butchers and then will be making bread sauce, etc today.
Big toy tidy up tomorrow along with hoover and mop ready for Christmas day.

I've recently become a fan of TOMM and it's really helped keeping housework more manageable.

I used to feel overwhelmed by trying to get everything done at the weekend, which i hated.

But TOMM is very much a 'little and often approach'.

Today, for example, is 'Entrance Hall and Stairs', which will be an hour, I reckon.

I feel like this. My house is carnage after we had covid. I dont have the energy but I really need to make it clean for Christmas. Stressing me right out

We are the opposite. From today yesterday I do the minimal amount (dishes, loo). We get rid of our tree Boxing Day or 27th and boom the Big Clean starts.

I love having a tidy and clean home for the school holidays but Christmas day causes such a mess that I save the cleaning for afterwards.

I think it’s because over Christmas you are spending more time at home so you want it to be nice? And if you have children with lots of presents and Xmas morning is utter carnage you want to start it with a semblance of organisation? That’s why we do it. I don’t understand the logic of doing it before a holiday though it just gets all dusty while you are away and needs doing again.I never do this!

have this ridiculous urge the the entire house needs to be cleaned

For the record, I do not have this urge. Our house is clean, we tidy as we go, there are no additional cleaning requirements specifically for the holidays.

I urge you to stop for a moment and consider what you are doing to yourself. Please, just skip it for once and observe closely. Most likely, no one else will notice. Anyone who does notice, hand over the responsibility to them.

Try it, I think you will like it.