To think cleaning is a skill?

[Ca2026]

I obviously clean my house and it’s not dirty or anything like that, but honestly it never looks or feels like when we’ve had an actual cleaner in.

Thinks like the skirtings, always still seem to have tiny bits on them, or the sink it marked again a few mins after cleaning it.

So AIBU to think that cleaning is a skill just like DIY, decorating etc? You can be good at it without being a professional but still takes skill?

Definitely. I’m shit at it, can’t ever get things looking great
and I do put effort in!

It is a skill - I’ve had rubbish cleaners, even when they’re new and enthusiastic.

DH is okay but lazy and runs out of steam. He would never clean our room and it’s the last place he’d get to.

I get a bit lost in the detail so it takes me ages . I would never shove something in the nearest drawer and get distracted tidying the under stairs cupboard as my family are animals.

our cleaners now are amazing and as good as when they were brand new to us. The clean all the things that I’d notice, although I do sometimes deep clean the shower and bath. I think a big part of it is exabtly that - cleaning the things that you would notice as dirty.

It is a skill. I'm a brilliant cleaner. Give me any stain and I'll get it out. I'm incredibly thorough and don't see the point of half cleaning your house, I clean to clean and make sure there absolutely no dust, no dirt, no anything. A lot of people are happy to live with dust and dirt but I can't and a lot of people are very uneducated on how to clean their home. My home is sparkling clean. All brass and chrome polished, even after I use it, I will repolish it. I've learnt over years as I was a cleaner back in my teens and I do have OCD tendencies... I mean, I use to spend every Thursday deep cleaning my home but realised that just wasn't normal so cut myself some slack.

I've had so many cleaners and none of them have been great.

Yeah why is that. Maybe for me it’s because older houses have exposed pipes, radiators with lots of crevices, skirting with crevices, older carpets etc

No I think it's down to the state of the fixtures and fittings. If everything is new, shiny and coordinating then it will look smart even if it's a bit messy. If everything is dingy, scratched/stained, wonky, worn and mismatched because it's been replaced at different times then it will always look dirty even if it's been cleaned.

And clutter makes houses look messy, somewhere you've lived for a long time accumulates clutter whereas a new house is often bigger than the previous house and everything has been put in a place with purpose or you've had a bit of a clear out for the move.

If everything is looking a bit drab even when cleaned I would look at decluttering/checking the purpose of the space and looking at things like light switches and door frames to see if they need a clean/repair/replace and I'd try giving everything that can take it a fresh coat of paint. It makes a lot of difference IME.

Do you think this will happen ? Or am I missing your tone ?

It absolutely is a skill. Check out the British institute of cleaning science!
https://www.bics.org.uk/skills-training/

This with bells on!

I used to be a cleaner, too, and was a good one in high demand. I think the skill is in seeing dirt, and using your head to rotate jobs that you don't have time for every week.
I replaced several cleaners over the years, and was aghast at places they'd clearly never cleaned, even though we were allocated the same time.

100% agree. I think i have dyspraxia and put so much time and effort into cleaning and its as if my hands just cannot do the thing properly.

Pretty much my problem too!

I feel like when my house is clean and tidy my mind is in order. I wonder what will happen when I clean out my drawers and cupboards full of crap.

Today I asked my son to please clean the kitchen. He said, what do you want me to do ? There was dishes and a crying pan in the sink, food left out on the worktops and sugar spilled on the work top. He just doesn't see mess and needed me to tell him all these things

I think doing it well is a skill.
I am utterly shit at cleaning, and I used to do it as a job.

He's done a number on you there. He sees mess. This is how they refine the art of weaponised incompetence, and eventually torment their wives.

It is a skill.
It's understanding products and using the least harsh option that will do the job.
It's understanding so many types of furniture and fixtures and knowing what treatment they need.
It's an instinctive ability to know what can be done in a certain time and getting it done.
It's the ability to see things others may not notice, pay attention to detail, and identify the cleaning that needs doing to give an impression of clean if there isn't the time to do a full clean.

I do not have any of these skills 😂

I genuinely think his baseline for clean is that there can be a little mess and so he just sees crumbs and stuff as normal or something. Which I don't understand because I keep the house so clean unless I'm having bad days with pain or if I'm sick. He cleans his room once a month but it's on a total mess the rest of the time, it smells like sweat so I regularly have to go in his room and change) clean his bedding and open the windows, at least, because I don't want him living like that. He's 18

Yeah, he knows you'll do it for him, so he doesn't bother. Trust me, I'm pretty lazy myself, sometimes I trick my husband into doing the jobs I don't like. But I'm an intelligent woman, I am capable, and I do see that they need doing. These things aren't rocket science, just boring.

While I don’t think it’s a skill as such, it’s definitely a task that benefits from a methodical logical approach as most of the hints and tips here show.

I’ve picked up some really useful processes from professional cleaners over the years.

Damp cloth/dry cloth for the shine - if your shiny surfaces are shiny they reflect light which makes a big difference.
Washing bedding folded - usually comes out relatively uncreased (and as nothing will convince me ironing bedding is a sensible use of time this is a bonus as it makes it easier to fold and put away to be pressed by its own weight. Bingo!)
inside out cover duvet change - that was a game changer.
and other things I can’t recall now.
I remember when fly lady first appeared in the uk - it was a mailing list - I was too overwhelmed with a small child at the time but I do remember her instruction to shine your sink, and I did have a good friend in who’d visit periodically and shine my sink as I wasn’t up to that sort of thing back then and it always looked amazing, even though it was in a battered shitty rental kitchen.

oh, use lots of washable microfibre cloths. They’re good for pretty much everything. But get decent sized ones - not the silly kids hanky sized ones they sell in most shops. Amazon do them - search professional microfibre.

The last point... DM has a cleaning company. Been going for nearly 30 years. She bloody loves a microfibre cloth. It does most things.

It certainly is. I love seeing things clean but I'm not very motivated. I've got builders in at the moment knocking a wall down between two rooms. Place is a tip. I'm going to get a cleaner in once it's finished.

You just have to understand dirt dust and germs.
If it looks worse after cleaning you should probably get a decorator to sand off and put fresh paint on. Then don't let it get so grubby again.
Or even do it yourself. It's given me great satisfaction even if it was a huge learning curve.
You'd be amazed.

Yeah my son is like this but he’s much older than 18! He’s left home now so not my problem anymore.
I think he just doesn’t see it and isn’t bothered by it.
I didn’t though until I had a baby then I became much more aware of dirt.
my partner, his father, was incredibly messy although that was probably the least bad thing about him!
Best thing to do with teenage bedrooms is just keep the door shut and chuck half a can of febreze at it and fling the windows open every so often.

They do grow out of the sweaty phase….eventually…. But I agree it’s grim (although less permanent destruction than you get with things like nail varnish, make etc which is usually more girls)
oh just read back that you change his bed. I’d say make him do it by stripping the bed and leaving the clean ones there but I suspect he’d probably just ignore them and sleep directly on the unmade bed. Kids are a delight…..

@NattyKnitter116 yes, he was sleeping on an unmade bed for a couple of weeks when I noticed his clean sheets and things in a bundle on top of his desk and put them on for him ! He has to date, once cleaned his own bedding and put it back on the bed. This happened about a month ago so I'm hoping this is a good sign for things to come. He's planning on moving out this year and I just think but look how much he needs me still. His place will be so messy

This.

My kitchen needed to be painted last year. The year rolled around and as winter was coming, I decided to put it off. After the last few month's terrible weather and having pets, I don't see the point in getting it done until the summer. At this stage, the kitchen looks completely in need of renovation. It doesn't matter how much I clean it. It won't ever be enough to make it 'sparkle'. It needs to be painted and overhauled but paint alone would help a lot.

I think some people don't clean very well I don't know if thats experience, eyesight, physical ability or something else. And others can clean perfectly well but may not have the time they need to allocate to it.