How many hours

[Werk]

Do you spend cleaning your house per week? For reference it is a 4 bed, 2 bathrooms, 2 receptions house.

After another Saturday morning spent cleaning, I wonder whether I am doing things right.

I spent 3 hours this morning thoroughly cleaning the bathroom, en-suite and downstairs loo, putting the week's washing away, doing two loads of washing, hoovering throughout, mopping the bathroom floors. Kids rooms needed tidying before I could put the hoover round.

During the week I changed all the beds, dusted throughout, cleaned the upstairs windows and hoovered through the downstairs twice and ran the handheld dyson round upstairs. I do a load of washing every day, I spend 15 mins or so tidying every day and I also wipe over the sinks and loos every couple of days. I probably did 6 + hours during the week if I add it all up.

The kitchen is wiped over every day and I potter doing odd bits in there when I cook (which is 6 days out of 7) - the kitchen floor is swept every night and mopped a couple of times a week. My DH is good at keeping the kitchen clean and is very tidy but he would never just get the hoover out and is very anti having a rota or set jobs - he cleans when he feels like it.

I feel like I do loads but it never really feels spotlessly clean. I look around and there is still more to do. I probably spend a good 10 hours a week tidying, cleaning and washing. Add to that cooking and ironing. I never stop. I don't know when I would have time to pull out furniture and do a deep clean etc.

I am thinking about hiring a cleaner but I honestly feel I would have to hire them for at least 5 hours a week to make a dent which isn't affordable at the moment.

Is this a normal amount of time to spend cleaning a house this size? (We have only lived here a couple of months, we had a little 3 bed terrace before).

"My DH is good at keeping the kitchen clean and is very tidy but he would never just get the hoover out and is very anti having a rota or set jobs - he cleans when he feels like it."

Well there's part of your problem. Your total time of 10 hours per week could be halved if he did his fair bit. I don't often feel like cleaning either, but I do it because it needs to be done and unfortunately I can't afford a housekeeper (fingers crossed for a lottery win!). Tough titties if he doesn't like rotas or set jobs, he lives in the house so needs to pull his weight. Are the kids old enough to start delegating some jobs to? And is there anything you could lower your standards with?

If you can afford to get a cleaner I'd thoroughly recommend getting one. How about having one in every other week.

Could you afford 5 hours once a fortnight? Then in between you only have to do light maintenance cleaning and not a thorough scrub of everything That's what I do.

Perhaps it's not the answer you wanted but for me it's money well spent and my weekends are free to enjoy doing whatever I want.

A lot depends on the house. I have a house that is never spotless. But we’ve lived (during building works) in a house that I could clean in under 2 hours. Carpets and heavy curtains and lots of grooves and details hold more dirt.

Get a cleaner in for a look and let them estimate what time they need. It will be quicker for them because they’re professionals and not as subject to distractions, and much quicker if your family have tidied before hand

In regards to cleaning when your dh feels like it- that’s really not on. I’m sure he doesn’t do his paid job only when he feels like it. Being an adult sucks but it might be time he put his big boy pants on.

6 bed 3 bath 3 receptions here

I probably spend around the same time as you but spread over the week so it doesn’t feel as bad. I only do 30-45 mins of actual cleaning a day plus 15 mins morning and evening of basic jobs.

For the deeper clean look up TOMM, she basically does what I do but explains it way better than I can-you go round one room a week on rotation and do a deeper clean/declutter of that room

I meant to say you already sound on top of the general cleaning so specifically look up the Friday focus part of TOMM, that’s the only bit I use.

I reckon it takes at least 30mins a day for basic maintenance cleaning, then another 30 mins per person.
So 2 adults plus 2 children, would be 2.5 hours of cleaning a day. Divide the 2.5 hours between 2 adults its 75mins each. Divide that by the 4 of you that is 37.5 mins each. But if it's into you going it it will be 2.5 hours a day. Which would be unmanageable on some days, so leave tour with a longer catch up session at the weekend.
You need to share the load. Your DH doesn't like rotas because he is the one benefitting from not having one. So either he pulls his weight without having it all laid out for him or you do a Rota

Ages! I've worked out that to keep the place looking good but not Instagram perfect, it's at least 2 big cleans of 5 hours each, plus bits and bobs that we do every day like 30 minutes clean up in the kitchen and every other day 10 minutes cleaning the en suite, 5 minutes cleaning the cloakroom loo etc. Then there's the washing, ironing and cooking dinner. I would guess at least 20+ hours of domestic work (cleaning, cooking, ironing, tidying etc) is done in the house each week. I can maintain Instagram perfection if I clean mostly all day every day (I tried it once). As a result I have accepted that good and clean is better than magazine perfect. I've also realised that I spend too much time cooking and cleaning and need to save some time to do other things, and so I've been trying not to be too uptight about it. I still feel like I'm missing a trick and there should be some shortcuts (I found batch cooking gave me a lot of time back) but have yet to find a remedy for cleaning that doesn't involve actually having to do it, or delegating (or paying) someone else to do it.

FYI We have a 4 bed, 2.5 bathroom house (12 rooms) and 5 people, 2 dogs, 2 cats. Not much clutter. Husband helps most days by cleaning the kitchen and putting the odd load of washing on. Kids help putting washing away, polishing, tidying their own rooms, emptying and filling dishwasher sometimes.

You spend a lot of time cleaning. Is your husband spending equal time doing something to contribute to family life too? When we both follow our set chores it takes about 3 hours each a week.

@ZoeMaye I like that theory. I realised I haven’t counted tidying or laundry in my timings, only actual cleaning.
Our house is basically clean (if a bit crumby) but it’s not immaculate-too many people live in it for that!

I have the same size house and it takes me similar hours over the week. Pre covid I had an excellent cleaner for 3 hours a week. Her plus me tidying for an hour before she came made a huge difference as she was so much faster than me. I also used to feel less compelled to do bits during the week as I knew cleaner would be in on x day. (Not in a bad way, I mean I can live with sticky finger prints on the glass when I know there’s a plan).

You really don't need to spend 2.5 hours every day cleaning a house. If I lived with you and you told me I needed to spend over an hour cleaning after I got home from work, I'd tell you to sod off.

Maybe an hour, hour and a half a day, in bits and bobs through the day. Plus 1-3 hours every other Saturday morning which everyone in the house does, 2 DDs and I, plus DP if he's home.

My DP doesn't like cleaning on a rota either, and he works shifts, so we can't just do a set time of the week to blitz through things. He would be happy to just do which ever jobs I asked him to every day, but I hate having to project manage the whole house, and remember what needs doing and when. So he has a couple of jobs that he's solely responsible for, and on his days off will do any and all laundry that hasn't been done yet (I tend to chuck on a load every other day) and/or whatever most needs cleaning.

He doesn't like lists much, I do. He's not keen on rotas, I hate having to carry the mental load alone. So we compromise. You can't just have a set up that works well for one person, but leaves another picking up all the slack. Does your DH have any suggestions as to how he can pull his weight regularly?

4 bed, 3 bath, 2 lounges, kitchen and utility- 4.5 hours roughly. Over 7 days. I follow The Organised Mum Method.

Probably about 6 hours a week plus daily top ups . Always put everything in his place daily . Tidy rooms that aren't used so they are left tidy!