Do you really spring clean your house every year, and how do you fit it in if you work FT?

[BlueberryFlapjack]

Just that really. I'm gradually cleaning my entire house from top to bottom. It hasn't been done for a long time, for various reasons (me being ill, family members being ill, peri-meno etc.) and I'm already feeling like it's a Forth-Bridge-style task. It feels like it might take several months to get it done in spare hours here and there, and probably won't look amazing when I finish because the first bits I cleaned will be dirty again.

How are you all doing this stuff? Will it ever end?!

I very really deep clean my house in 1 go. I keep on top of the cleaning and normally do a room a day. Doesn’t take very long as never has time to get very dirty

No I don’t, I just keep it clean as I go along.

No advice, just empathy! It’s the small jobs that irritate me the most (wiping skirting boards etc) as it barely seems to make a difference and as you say by the time you get onto the next room the first room is dirty again.

God no, I can barely keep on top of the day to day stuff and the bigger things are piling up and stressing me out. It's a renovation so there's still tons to do and I tend to paint a window or something when I have a spare couple of hours rather than deep clean.

I deep clean each room once a week which takes no time at all as it’s always kept on top of.

I think leaving it to do all at once is too big of a task.

This is what staff did in great houses. It was their work! Modern families surely don’t do this! We aren’t Victorian. I just do housework when it’s needed. Like everyone else I know as sadly (?) we don’t have staff to do it for us.

Do you not just keep it clean as you go? A good once over one day a month should be enough if you keep on top of daily chores.

We did spring clean in lockdown

I don’t spring clean; I try to keep on top of daily cleaning, but with working FT and primary aged DC, deeper cleaning is past me. When you think about it, we get 8 days off per month, and I don’t want to lose a whole day to cleaning! I occasionally pay a cleaning service to come in and do a deep clean, and I fully intend to get a more regular cleaner set up once I’ve decluttered a bit more.

Yes, but each room would have had a fire in and that makes an awful lot of dust that we just don’t have to deal with any more (mostly). Also of course not having hoovers or being able to machine wash sofa cushions and things

OP I’m trying to do this at the moment, but over the course of a month. Last weekend I did the oven and fridge and donated tons of clothes the children have grown out of. This week I’m emptying and cleaning all the kitchen drawers and washing all the cupboards and doors

@Blackcordoroys I don’t wash my cushions in the washing machine! I have two fireplaces! Yes, of course regular cleaning is easier but historically spring cleaning was to get rid of smoke fumes, change curtains, and generally prepare a house for warmer weather. It was a huge job.

If you follow TOMM/Unfuck Your Habitat or similar cleaning methods, the "Friday Focus" is intended that on an 8 week rotation you deep clean something in your house every week so by the end of that 8 weeks you've basically done a spring clean. Also the "bootcamp" phase of a lot of these methods is sort of a spring clean as well.

That being said, there is something about the early May bank holiday that always gets me cleaning and decluttering, probably because it's not quite long enough to go away, and the weather is usually shit just in time for the bank holiday so we're stuck inside with all my own mess.

Today I've cleared and dusted/cleaned the stretch of the kitchen worktop that collects all the "neat piles" of clutter, as well as two cupboards, and it feels cathartic!!

Thanks for the empathy - this is making me feel a little better. So true about only 8 days off a month!

@babystarsandmoon you deep clean each room once a week? Are you moving furniture to hoover behind, and cleaning the insides of your cupboards every week? I’d love to understand how you make that work. I probably can’t achieve that, but if I could get even slightly closer to it I’d feel happier with the state of the house.

Yes! I think we’re agreeing 😁

my point is it is a much smaller job now and can be done over a month by doing stuff every week

Never done a spring clean or a 'deep clean'. Am 58.

I do a seasonal clean ready for the next one, end of Spring ready for Summer. I'll do another probably mid August ready for Autumn.
Clean the house from top to bottom, including the garden. I do sections across a few days.

I'm currently planning my end of Spring clean, will probably take me a week because I also want to redecorate some rooms.
It's exhausting but to me feels necessary.

I used to take a few days annual leave and spring clean in a big bang. This year I am doing a room a weekend takes me hours, but agree that by the time I am finished the first room won’t feel sparkly clean anymore. I am aware I am a bit of a clean freak.

I tried to get a company to come in and do it but could find anyone who would do it to my standards lol!

Growing up, in the 80s and 90s, I lived in a house with my dad, mum, sibling and for various reasons, my mum's mum. They always did a spring clean - Inc taking out stuff from cupboards to deep clean etc. My mum worked part time, my gran was retired.

I work full time and have never done it. I don't have the time, energy or inclination.

I will pick a room and clean the windows which takes me five minutes.
Next I will pull out the furniture and clean the skirting boards before hoovering and putting the furniture back into place and wiping it all down. I’ll finish with another final hoover and be done in 30 minutes.

My house is 1 year old, there’s no clutter and everything has a home which helps massively. Since I make sure I do this regularly no dirt builds up and I tend to do it in ‘zones’ so the living room, downstairs loo and the utility before moving onto the bedrooms and bathroom another day. The kitchen might take me an hour on a Saturday morning but is kept on top off daily.

Takes me about 2 days to spring clean my kitchen 😳😳.

I am sure I am strange!

I think it very much depends on where you live.

When I had a modern 1 bedroom flat, cleaning was a piece of cake.

Now I live in a 5 bedroom 17th century house, complete with beams, cracks and gaps, open fires and lots of cobwebs. As fast as I can clean it, it gets messed up again. It only really gets a thorough clean when we have people to stay 😂