To think I'm a bit scruffy?

[fishface343]

I've started watching cleaning videos on Tik tok (yes, mistake number one) and I've realised how rarely I do deep cleans. Rarely meaning never.

My bathroom and kitchen is cleaned thoroughly regularly. I keep up to date with laundry and ironing. I clean my windows indoors when I can see they look grubby and I have a window cleaner who comes monthly for outside. I hoover a lot.

But I never move furniture to clean. I hardly ever empty the fridge to clean it properly, I just wipe around stuff. My skirting boards are terribly dusty. And I just looked at a bookshelf that hasn't been touched in a while and my god, the dust and cobwebs on my books is disgraceful.

I work and have two kids and struggle to keep on top of what I'm already doing. But is it scruffy to have all these mucky, dusty hidden corners? What's everyone else's cleaning schedule? Do you use any apps or plans to keep on top of it?

Meh. Mine are the same. No one ever lay on their deathbed wishing they had cleaned their skirting boards.

I agree with @MotherofGorgons. I feel a bit sad for people that spend so much of their time cleaning rather than enjoying life. They only seem to be online too. I don't know anyone that regularly cleans their skirting boards etc.

It never really occurs to me until I'm on the floor playing with dd and I'm at the level where I can see the dust and dirt on the skirting boards. The videos that I watch show people moving beds and sofas to clean under/behind them all the time. The end result does look very satisfying but I just cannot be arsed.

This - in a way - but a lot of influencers actually make quite a lot of money with this kind of content, so they're definitely enjoying life!

My house is tidy but not exactly super clean. It gets hoovered, I clean the bathroom, wipe down the kitchen sides and sink, dust the fireplace occasionally but the skirting boards are pretty bad😆

Oh and inside the oven is definitely past the point of return !!

I regularly clean my skirting boards but not as frequently as I could - probably monthly and they could do with weekly really. Two dogs in the house creates a lot of general dust, dirt, loose hair collecting on things, no matter how much you hoover. (I also don't hoover enough, but there we are.)

I’m the same. Our house is tidy and what I would describe as ‘surface level clean’!

I dust down the skirting boards every couple of weeks because I really notice the dust, but I’ve not moved our (enormous!) sofa since my last big clean last Christmas.

Our bed is a super king storage ottoman, so that has never moved since the bed shop set it up for us about 3 years ago 😬

I clean skirting boards and the inside of the fridge thoroughly every few months. The time it takes me is equivalent to the time someone else might be... asleep, watching tv, scrolling on mumsnet... so you can have enjoy having a tidy home and enjoy life!!

Though I agree with other comments that YouTubers and Tiktokkers do this as a business rather than it necessarily reflecting their real lives.

I never dust. The bathroom and kitchen get cleaned. I don't hoover every day. The house is relatively tidy.

I aspire to be like you @fishface343

I have never cleaned my self cleaning oven.

I don’t move the sofas to hoover.

I gave most things a through clean at the weekend- as in actually got the proper Miele hoover out instead of the hand held Dyson. Bloody hate hoovering but it was satisfying to get rid of dust bunnies and cobwebs. And the window ledges looked like fly armageddon. So, I don't do it that often but I do give things a more thorough clean from time to time.

Most of the people you see online are being paid to clean and produce that kind of content, it's not representative of real life.

I move furniture perhaps three or four times a year to clean thoroughly, other than moving the dining table when hoovering.

I have a cleaner who comes once a week. Even she can't be arsed to get rid of half the dust and cobwebs! But at least she gets rid of half of the whole lot!

My house is 400 years old, built before skirting boards were invented. No skirting boards = no visible dust at floor level

I do the skirting boards I can see whenever I notice they need doing. Moreso in the spring/summer as we have three pets and they shed like a m*f'er.

I never used to move furniture out to vacuum behind it etc., but we just moved house and found that the underneath of the bed was mouldy and had about 100 dead carpet moths under it. And we had wooden floors... no carpets. It was VILE.

So now I move furniture out of the way as often as possible. Not every day or week, but whenever I can be bothered. And we got new beds that are open underneath, so I can vacuum underneath every time I vacuum properly, which is at least once a week.

Stuff like fridge, oven, etc - literally maybe once a year or only when moving house.

I just set a reminder on my phone to go off monthly, to remind me to do generic stuff like clean the filter on the washing machine, rotate the mattress, etc.

I don't do any of this to be "clean". Literally only because I'm now paranoid about bugs and stuff. So in short, I'll move stuff around every month or two, to clean underneath. Fridge probably never or once a year. Oven, only if we pay someone to do it.

What exactly are skirting boards for other than to collect dust?

OP YABU to compare yourself to people who clean things as a hobby or because they get sent freebies to promote.

Surface level clean is a great description. It's tidy and the tops are always wiped down and floors hoovered. I get weirdly annoyed by crumbs or bits on the floor and sides. But mine is also an old house with children and dogs living here so the amount of cobwebs, dust and muck would be impossible to keep on top of too often. I sometimes toy with the idea of getting a cleaner in even if it's only once a month to do one big deep clean of all the stuff I don't bother with. But meh, money.

I also like the idea of those daily/monthly job lists but when it comes down to it, I don't want to spend a Monday morning stripping beds and emptying cupboard to clean inside.

every so often I'll spot something that looks revolting and sort that out.
Next on the list being behind the fridge, now the dust has started creeping out. Not been done since we moved in and bought it - 2 years ago!
I'd rather be doing other things, there's probably some very important tea drinking and reading/messing about on the internet to be getting on with.

Stop comparing yourself to social media. They only show the perfect shots.

That said, I haven’t done a deep clean in 2 years. We moved into a new build so didn’t need to do much cleaning.