Is your kitchen as clean as possible ahead of Xmas?

[Corda]

Just trying to get some perspective.

I will happily put it out there that I am a neat freak. I don’t feel comfortable when things are unclean.

My kitchen is 90% perfectly clean. But there are a few deeper clean jobs I want to do. The thing is we will have people staying over and I just don’t feel comfortable cooking their food in an oven with a door that needs a degrease for example. My lot also rustle through cupboards and help themselves to things. I like that they do that as that is cosy to me. But I’d be horrified if they saw anything messy.

If I took a picture of my kitchen most would think it was spotless and that I was being ridiculous. But there are jobs that definitely need doing.

Dh is annoyed that I would rather clean than enjoy Xmas activities. For example we are due to do gingerbread houses but I would rather do them in a
cleaned kitchen. I am not deviating from the plan ie time wise. So not derailing just not “relaxing” as
my dh would like.

I assume I am not that abnormal.

Oven and hob are clean. Floor hoovered and mopped
Cleaned and buffed sink etc
Worktops clean
Clean enough for me.
I've never " deep cleaned anything"
Still wouldn't if the queen was visiting

No. Its awful. Laundry drying everywhere, including on radiators. School books on table.
Surplus Xmas food on work surface. Trying to chip away at it but my teens don't help and I'm working tomorrow.
We don't have guests though so it can remain messy for a few days.

I was in the middle of vacuuming and washing the floor in the sitting area off our kitchen earlier when DS (aged 23) asked me if I wanted to go for a walk with him. Which never happens. So I wasn’t turning that opportunity down. Had a nice walk and finished the floors when I came back.

And DH was cooking a lamb stew for dinner and has splashed all over the cooker I cleaned before lunch! Oh well. At least I know I was clean at one point today!

The day that men start threads like this is the day I will worry about the state of a kitchen.

I have never ever cleaned my oven or degreased the door. It’s clean enough and with the time saved I live my life and have fun

I’d suggest if you find the thought of your own children finding something ‘messy’ unbearable then you may need some anxiety help

A deep clean seems to have been what my mother regarded as a clean. Dusting skirting boards. Sweeping into corners, Moving lightweight furniture.

Not the “quick going over” that most of us pass off as cleaning nowadays.

I deep clean my house once a week anyway every Saturday. Just moved it to a different day this week.

Nope. It's about to be battered for three days solid, I'll clean it at the weekend.

No. The time for a good clean is the day the decorations come down. Then you can go to town. Give it all a good scrub and get bunches of daffodils to cheer the place up and welcome 2025

Yes. I have deep cleaned inside and out of every cupboard but to be fair I do this regularly anyway because my house is new and I like to keep it pristine 😂

It’s clean enough but I haven’t eg taken everything out of every cupboard and scrubbed the shelves.

There's 7 of us living here, with two dogs and two cats. My kitchen is absolutely not spotless and I don't give a fuck! It's clean enough, we are on holidays, we have lots of food in, what else matters?

My kitchen isn't very clean but I don't care. Its not so dirty anyone will get food poisoning from it so it doesn't matter.

Me too. I grew up thinking that a clean house meant more to my mum than I did. Tbh, I still suspect I may have been right to think that.

The oven is pretty dirty. I never clean it myself, I pay a man to do it but decided this year to get it done after Christmas instead. I’m only putting it off because we don’t have visitors though.

Everything else is good to go. I had a good cupboard sort out a couple of weeks ago and I’ve done some final cleaning and mopping today.

Our kitchen is tiny.
It's functionally clean and that's it.
Zero fucks to be given.
We are all ill; just the 4 of us eating here. Happy days!

I can’t be doing with an untidy or dirty kitchen. We have a working kitchen and a separate kitchen which is ours. We don’t allow shoes on in our house except for the working kitchen where people come and go with boots on. DH cleans it at the end of each day as I refuse to, I cook in our kitchen and take the food through to the other kitchen for the staff. It’s deep cleaned every week which is pointless in spring as there’s normally lambs somewhere in it, you’re always tripping over the buggars.

Edited to add the full house has been deep cleaned in the last week, you can’t beat a full deep clean.

I mean, it's Christmas not a house viewing. It's pretty bloody clean by not a get your white gloves out and check the oven out clean.

A cleaner does mine "properly" once a week. I just try and maintain it, I'm doing no more than that.

Nope. Life’s too short to spend it deep cleaning. It’s clean enough.

Nope. CBA😆

No, it's like a fucking bomb site 😂 I have made Stollen, mini quail scotch eggs and sausage rolls today and the kitchen is a horror show of icing sugar and breadcrumbs and bowls of egg/flour and assorted ordure. I have ordered pizza for dinner and DH is bravely doing the first wave of washing up. I have told the adult kids it's all hands on deck for two hours tomorrow morning to get the house clean and tidy for Christmas. The only person who isn't frazzled today is my dear old dad (84 with Alzheimer's) who has spent the day nestled under a blanket watching old movies and working his way through a mountain of cherry shortbread. He is very bemused as to why I am sweaty and covered in flour 😂

Ours is no more or less clean than on any other day. A choice between cleaning or Christmas activities? I'd choose the fun any day of the week. I think this is why so many women are complaining that they have too much to do and their husbands aren't doing any of it - they're actively choosing to create work for themselves. Stop it. Your dc won't remember how clean the house is but they will remember the stressed arguments and tense atmosphere.

One of the cats is currently asleep on the work top so I'd guess our kitchen could be cleaner. Don't care, nobody eats here except me and DP so if we come down with some strange cat paw poisoning we've only got ourselves to blame.

(DP does clean the surfaces before cooking or preparing food!)

‘I remember the year that mum spent all Christmas scrubbing and cleaning and the oven was so pristine you could lay surgical instruments on it’

or

‘ I remember that Christmas when mum tried to play Mario cart on the wii with us and we made hot chocolate and laughed so hard as she kept holding the remote upside down ‘

I know which one I would look back and remember fondly….