How often do you clean behind heavy furniture?

[MrsSteveHarrington]

I live in a dusty Edwardian semi. Just about manage to keen on top of the visible superficial cleaning . If you look behind beds and chest of drawers or wardrobes however it’s awful. Thick dust and cobwebs. This house has a lot of cobwebs …..

Problem is moving these is almost impossible . When I have moved furniture to decorate the dust seems to build up very quickly.

how often realistically do most people do this kind of deep cleaning ?

Erm, when I have to decorate!

Honestly? Never. Lived in our house 13 years, so the wardrobes all have 13 years of dust behind/underneath them.

I prioritise. So beds about 6 monthly-annually (otherwise get wheezy), sofas similar. Cabinets etc maybe once every 2-3 years? Sounds a bit grim but moving the furniture is a multi person job. Behind bookcases only when we paint a room.

A couple of times a year. I’ve just done the whole house, moved beds, furniture, sofas, fridge and washing machine for a deep clean.

I clean under and behind beds and smaller furniture every few months I would say. Heavy bookcases and the like only when decorating or moving. In the meantime I try to reach as much as I can with the hoover crevice attachment.

Heavy furniture like bookcases - when decorating.

Under the beds (which are heavy and unwieldy but not impossible) - well my son is 3.5 and I just cleaned under our bed for the first time since we moved his cot out of our room when he was six months... To be fair it was grim and I should have done it sooner, but I just never have time. I do under his much more often as it's lighter and he has asthma.

Under sofas (heavy and not much room to manouver, but we lose toys all the time under there) - maybe every three months or so.

Can I ask, do you work and have kids? I can't imagine getting so far down my to do list that cleaning behind the fridge is the next priority!

Sofas annually. We have a vacuum that goes flat so is able to get under beds, and it has an arm that gets behind the bedframe, so I just do those now and then.

Ok well I feel a bit better now.

sofas I can move reasonable easily so do occasionally. But the heavy wardrobes / drawers etc only do when we decorate which isn’t often. It just feels pretty awful imagining what is behind there and what I’m sharing a bedroom with .

About 2/3 times a year. 4 bed house. Just grab the Miele (has to be the heavy duty one and not my dyson), some damp cloths and mild disinfectant. Move and Hoover behind beds / desks/ sofas / etc - the whole thing takes less than an hour

And yes - work, kids, etc

Both dh and I work full time and we have 2 young dc.

I find it very calming having a clean and organised house that I make it a priority.

Ok, so please tell me your secret - what do you do with the kids while you're cleaning? Don't they come and bother you? Aren't they scared of the hoover noise? How do you get it all done in your limited free time?

I don’t. Out of sight, out of mind… 🤷🏻‍♀️

Having just had the house redecorated I blush at the detritus discovered behind the furniture- some of which hasn’t been moved for 24 years 😱
I rarely spring clean so hardly surprising.
Now everything is pristine I hope to keep it that way!

Practically never and I actually like cleaning

Behind wardrobes etc, never unless redecorating, I let the robot hoover loose upstairs so it gets under the beds and under any drawers with a gap underneath about once a month. He is traumatised after and requires cleaning himself. I also live in a very dusty Edwardian semi, where does it all come from?!

My beds are easy to clean under and behind as they are bed frames rather than divans.

Sofa and arm chairs can move on my own.

Wardrobes are fitted.

Chest of drawers and similar annually.

I deliberately don't have book shelves anymore so I can't hoard books. This means when my piles of books gets too big I have to get rid of some. So far it's worked for the last 5 years.

God I like a clean home but there's a big difference between, say, the back of the sofa, under the bed and behind ceiling height bookcases and dressers?! Surely people don't get behind these massive heavy buggers a few times a year? If so, I envy all your free time and energy!

This. I generally like a clean home but am not up for lugging heavy stuff about on a regular basis.

This thread has made me feel better!

Under beds, fairly regularly because my Eufy is quite low

Behind the couch, desks, cupboards and lighter stuff, maybe every couple of months (a room at a time). Behind wardrobes and bookcases, when we decorate (or when a cat goes exploring; they helpfully come out of places with their ears draped in cobwebs fairly regularly).

I'd like to do it more often because I love knowing the place is clean, but I generally just can't be arsed.

They've been hoovered fairly recently, we only moved in last year. Next time will be never when the room gets moved around or decorated.

Only when it gets moved, which is never as far as I'm concerned! DH sometimes makes the effort, bless him.

Bookcases, wardrobes and chest of drawers get cleaned behind when we decorate or move house. They're not jutted right up to the wall so we can get down the sides but they never get pulled out to do underneath. The bed and the sofa doesn't have anything under it so it gets cursory vacuum with the normal cleaning during the week. The fridge and freezers get pulled out once a month - old habits from working in professional kitchens.

i was horrified when I looked behind my fridge as my cat’s hair had clogged up the vent. I think I will clean behind there a lot more often now.