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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Doing a proper house clean is so time consuming

40 replies

Notcontent · 06/03/2022 01:28

I was doing some cleaning today and just doing the bathroom properly took ages as I wanted to give the shower doors etc a proper clean. My plans to give the whole house a really good clean today were much too ambitious. Anyway, I was just thinking that the majority of people must have homes that are less than ideally clean as it’s really hard work. Even having a cleaner is not a complete solution in my experience…

What’s your experience - do your friends and family have slightly grubby homes? Grin

OP posts:
Skelligsfeathers · 06/03/2022 17:03

[quote TwoCoffeesPlease]@Skelligsfeathers yes 2-3 days out and 2-3 days WFH. I use my WFH days to get 45mins or so of cleaning done before I start work at 9am and on days when I am working out I do it in the evening.[/quote]
Christ, i need to accept that my problem is that I'm an idle cow i think. Byvthe time i get home from work, i am so knackered i can't be bothered starting cleaning.

winnieanddaisy · 06/03/2022 17:56

My DD had a new cleaner starting for a trial 2 hrs. She had asked for a general clean . A couple of days before a brand new kitchen had been installed a DD had cleaned it to within an inch of its life .I was in the living room babysitting 12 month old DGD while the cleaner was working but I could hear her .
She spent the whole 2 hours cleaning the already spotless kitchen Grin.
My DD did not go on to employ her or anybody else .

TwoCoffeesPlease · 06/03/2022 20:42

@Skelligsfeathers to be fair WFH really does help a lot with getting cleaning done and I appreciate not everyone has that luxury. On days when I have been out all day I try to get stuff done while other stuff is happening so it doesn’t drag on e.g. sweep the floors while dinner is cooking. I never used to do anywhere near as much but when we moved to our new house I promised myself I would keep on top of it and so far manage it most weeks

user1471554720 · 08/03/2022 11:30

I think it is very tine consuming and hard work especially if you work full time or nearly full time and have dcs.

I didn't do skirting boards, doors etc for a few years when dcs were small. I just did surface cleaning and kept decluttering.

I concentrate on either a room or an area a week for decluttering. I try and do half an hour to an hour on Sat and on Sun. This is for the jobs I wouldn't do every week, eg tidy presses, wash windows. Outside of this, I do general washing and tidying. Concentrating on a room a week means the full room would get a deep clean every 3 months. I often can't deep clean a room a week esp. the kitchen and presses.

When cooking dinner or waiting for kettle to boil, I clean fridge, may wipe out a press. That way, the place is always reasonable. However, I feel there can be very little downtime the weekend days. I am either cleaning, tidying or taking dcs out.

The good thing about little and often is that I skip a weekend of the deep cleaning from time to time and the place doesn't get awful straightaway.

Re other people, I have noticed a lot of women my age,I am 50, have stayed working very part time even when dcs were teens. I think this is because they want to keep on top of the house and still have free time. A lot of people at dcs school have mothers with 3 dcs, all teens, and do not work outside the home at all. Then there are people who pay for cleaning. I think it is very hard work to keep a place reasonable if you work fulltime are 50s and have no cleaner. You have to sacrifice a lot of free time unless you live alone and are minimalist with possessions.

Suzi888 · 08/03/2022 11:37

Don’t wear shoes in the house - saves so much work.

Notcontent · 08/03/2022 20:18

@Suzi888

Don’t wear shoes in the house - saves so much work.
No, no shoes in my house!!!
OP posts:
DespairingHomeowner · 08/03/2022 21:06

Squeezing in a few cleaning sessions during the week (much easier if WFH) helps me enormously, so does having a cleaning schedule, products both upstairs and down, a cordless hoover for upstairs and a robovac.

I try to wipe down bathrooms & kitchen a couple of times a week and clean up any spills etc straight away so things don’t build up

Larger houses or where DC live I’d say generally most people put up with a little bit of clutter/dust. I have one friend who has 3 young kids and an immaculate house - in her own words she says she never really stops cleaning & I believe it

If you don’t like cleaning much, I think doing your own version of the organised mum method (so 30 min a day) is the best way to keep on top of it

DespairingHomeowner · 08/03/2022 21:09

Second no shoes and keeping surfaces clear which saves lots of tone on cleaning. And wipe while you wait - doing bits while waiting for kettle to boil/dinner to cook etc keeps the kitchen tidy for me & that is often the biggest job

Also having set days for sheets, towels etc & linking that to cleaning bedrooms & bathrooms

DespairingHomeowner · 08/03/2022 21:17

Shower door : make sure it’s either you or your DP (ie an adult) who uses bathroom last & squeegee so that it doesn’t build up. Give sink & taps a wipe & loo a quick clean too

I think the right products at hand (in my case lots of microfibre cloths in most rooms, vileda machine washable mops, the cordless hoover I’ve mentioned etc) make lighter work of it, & means I can actually finish many jobs in ten minutes here or there, as do an occasional really deep clean so you start from a clean slate

But tbh I think it’s about priorities in life: some people like to clean/it’s important to them so it gets done, other people have other priorities, which is fair enough. I find cleaning relaxing & stress busting so that definitely helps

FTEngineerM · 08/03/2022 21:30

Ime cleaners are much better at the general superficial clean than the detailed deep cleaning

Yeah, agree with this with the 3 we’ve had here.

I’ve got an eye for detail to be fair so I spot things around the house and then if they don’t clean them I go around after doing the boys they missed 😬

PermanentTemporary · 08/03/2022 21:32

I'm sure you're right. I don't really do any cleaning to speak of. And my house is indeed pretty scummy. I'm just tired.

DetailMouse · 08/03/2022 21:33

Never Ettington it get to q place where it needs "a good" clean is the secret. Little and often. I can keep my decent sized 4bed at a pretty good standard in about 2-3 hrs a week (with th exception of DC bedrooms). I do it in 20/30 min blocks most days.

Copenhagenoffice · 08/03/2022 21:37

user1471554720

What are presses?

DetailMouse · 08/03/2022 21:56

Pressed are cupboards. I think in Ireland more than England?

Copenhagenoffice · 08/03/2022 21:57

DetailMouse

I'm in England so never heard here but thank you !

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