Why do I do this every year? Housekeeping hell

[CheeryCat]

Why, every single year, do I attempt to combine Christmas with spring cleaning and clearing out of spare rooms ready for guests and addressing my laundry mountain and general clutter?

Why can’t I either (a) have better housekeeping standards all year round or (b) have a more ‘take us as you find us’ attitude?

I feel like my own worst enemy as Christmas always seems to merge Christmas into some major life laundry event.

Anyone else do this? I wonder what the answer is. I wish I could have the ‘just one day’ Christmas attitude. I’m making this harder than it needs to be, I suspect.

@CheeryCat, if it makes you feel any better, I finally finished decorating my house recently, after living here just over nine years. (I have fibromyalgia - only recently diagnosed- and it means jobs take aaages.)
I too, like you, seem to need to clean and wash everything in sight at Christmas:

However, this year I^ called a halt to it (yesterday), and while I know there are still some cobwebs in my hallway that I should get rid of, and my back door needs a good wipe over, it might happen or not.^
^If it doesn't, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
This year has been very challenging for me and the people (family) that I'm hosting will have to either like it or lump it.
Besides changing a bed for a guest, and doing my Christmas shop, I'm done - in all senses of the words.
I've lost almost a week of annual leave to it and am not prepared to lose more. I need some downtime too!^

I've no idea where the weird formatting came from, but you get the idea....

Yessss this is my thread and how refreshing to see it’s not full of ‘why do you bother?’

I can’t explain why I bother. I just do but every year it’s the 23rd or 24th that I’m doing it.

We still need to clean the kitchen, wipe marks off the living room walls, clean the bathroom, hoover the stairs, clean the porch and a million other things!!!

But come Christmas Day when it’s all mostly done I’ll be so glad it is.

Same here OP.
My annual leave started today and I have spent the entire day cleaning...and it's not even just regular cleaning...it's the deep cleaning/de-cluttering high level cleaning. New towels, new bedclothes, crawling under beds with the vacuum, wiping windows...etc. It's something my mum used to do and I'm just continuing the tradition, I suppose. Like you, I wish I didn't care!

We have visitors from tomorrow until 27th. All different visitors too, so it's not like I can tidy up and clean once then they've atleast seen the house in a reasonable state before it goes to pot again.

I have two young DCs and two dogs so the tidying, vacuuming and mopping is endless on a normal day, let alone when visitors are coming and it's wet and wintery.

The only good thing is people can't stay as we don't have space so upstairs is ok to stay a mess 🤣

This year, we have no guests and no one staying.
And are fucking off to log cabin with a hot tub on Boxing Day.
I have full laundry bins and grotty worktops. I have no fucks to give. Indeed I have lay on the sofa and watched tik tok videos of fuckers doing deep cleaning, moving furniture and wiping curtain rails whilst surrounded by shite.
Crack on if it "gives you joy"

sorry, I can't be Rsed to read the whole thread, but what is your husband's contribution to all this Angst/

Wow - that is taking prevarication to the extreme. What were you supposed to have been doing before you got sidetracked on to that wholly unnecessary task?!

Yes - what the heck is it with frantic Christmas cleaning - damn exhausting and I usually only hear about women doing it

Thank God I came across this thread. I’ve spent all week like this. The house is still a tip and I’m totally stressed. Every year it’s harder. I too need a van. I don’t understand why it’s this hard.

Please do tell me where I can book this log cabin !!

Buy clear storage boxes with lids (large ones) and for every 3 buy a nice big Xmas fleece or throw that matches your colour scheme .

Put all your admin clutter in one box, coats/shoes you don’t use daily in another, etc etc and the stack them up in the corner of bedrooms and cover with the throw and stick some kind of decorative item on top like a mini Xmas tree or something. Gets the house looking tidy and clear for Xmas but you won’t end up throwing anything away you need and if you put things in carefully it helps to organise things a bit .

hoover everywhere and use some wipes in kitchen and bathroom and then your house should fe much better

fe-feel

Yes! Every year without fail. It starts early December. I have this lovely, naïve vision of putting up all the decorations quickly and efficiently, having a spring clean of the house at the same time, everything looking perfect. Never happens. Tangled lights, threatening to murder DH and smash up the tree, decorations are up, but house is a shit tip by the end of it and covered in tree needles. Repeat the whole process a few weeks later for taking them down.

In the same boat here. Actually resorted to a skip bin so that you could open the garage door without the motorised door catching on all the crap in there. Filled the skip and then caught DH pulling stuff out again. Grrrrrrr!
I've resorted to sacrificing the study. You can barely walk in there but I just close the door and pretend it doesn't exist.
Have a lovely christmas everyone.
Crack open the champagne and forget about it.
Oh I also have a half broken fridge and nowhere to put the massive fecking ham that I stupidly bought.

@EarringsandLipstick
Well done you. It’s the fear of things, then when you are actually doing them, it’s not so bad.
I have many mental blocks
I try every day of my life!

I have an ottoman bed and it’s absolutely crammed with stuff I can’t find a place for .

Generally speaking, if my experience is anything to go by, husbands will say they are going to clear some space for all the Christmas drinks, cans, bottles and whatnot. The first thing they do is create a huge pile of clutter elsewhere in the house. They then wield the vacuum cleaner for 45 seconds before deciding that the belt needs changing, the filter needs cleaning, or some other vital bit has to be fiddled with. You then find your kitchen worktop entirely covered with dismantled hoover innards, which remain there while he goes off to the supermarket to buy all the drink. When he returns, he brings with him a giant bag of ice cubes and then proceeds to try and cram it in the already full freezer...

Not clearing stuff but I remember age 12 my mum, only ones in the house, decided on Christmas Eve we were going to paint the living room before people started arriving on Christmas day

wet paint everywhere for people arriving on Christmas Day and we didn’t start speaking to each other again till at least New Year’s Eve

I liken it to the nesting instinct and the desire to clean out cupboards that comes over us shortly before the baby's due.

I'm so pleased it's not just me!
I thought I'd had a reprieve on this year as my parents told me they weren't coming for Christmas due to illness (they stay a few nights as don't live close by) so no need to go crazy with the cleaning/prep. I've dumped a load of stuff in the spare room (to sort in the new year) ready to give the downstairs a quick spruce up ahead of the in-laws visit (only here for a few hours as they live nearby).
My mum has just text at 10pm this evening to say they're now coming (not asked, told!). I'm fuming as I bought all the food today (and only a small turkey), and DH & I will need to spend tomorrow moving stuff out of the spare room and trying to find places to hide it, cleaning and buying more food. The car boot is looking like a promising hiding place (for either all the crap, or me....I haven't decided yet!!).

#VanEnvy

😂😂😂

Love this idea!

Currently my house is a bit of a disaster - young adult children home, making a mess and not cleaning up after themselves. (and arguing with me when I ask them to clean up after themselves)

We had a close call a couple of months ago with risk of flooding - I lifted everything up off the floor as quick as I could- I have been too exhausted with work and other personal issues, that I haven't had the energy to put some of it back away.

We also have lots of boxes we hadn't unpacked from a move a few years ago - so to solve some of my issue - I have bought lots of storage tubs and am sorting - these will be stored in the garage, then moved to the shed when we get around to building one.

I absolutely do this. I do a mini version of stress cleaning and tidying before visitors anyway but Christmas is 10x worse. Good to hear I’m not alone!

This is my problem. My house is a chaotic mess. I was thinking earlier, WHY is it like this every year. Every year I promise myself I'll do better next year.

I'm considering a big charity shop run tomorrow