What's the bare minimum for a house that's"clean enough"?

[SmallBluePenguin]

I've been trying to re-establish some regular cleaning routines 6 months into being a mum.

I'm interested- what do other people consider the acceptable bare minimum for the house being "clean enough"? How often do you clean your kitchen, bathrooms, hoovering etc and do you have help to do this?

No faeces on the floor.

Generally in our house - Kitchen - daily including running the dishwasher
Bathrooms - loo every couple of days, the rest weekly
hoovering - weekly

BUT first year of being a mum, whatever you can manage!

Made me laugh. There are definitely days where I class this as a win.

If by clean the kitchen you mean a quick wipe of the benches after cooking , mop up spills and brush up crumbs when they annoy your bare feet - that’s daily / whenever you are cooking

floor washing - minimise by making sure people take their shoes off indoors

fridge - mop spills as they occur
shake out the veg tray when you are about to do a shop

cupboards ovens, tiles and skirting - mop spills when they occur and clean when you get an urge or when your mother is coming to visit when you do a deep clean

i tend to do half an hour weekly to clean the loos and vaccum the house. Only move the furniture occasionally sort of vacuum. Usually DH helps too so the skirting and shelves get a duster over them and any irritating mucky bits get scrubbed

edit to add - with any child under 5 , you don’t do a deep clean when your mother comes , she does the deep clean when she arrives

Don't worry about what anyone else does, life's to short to be conpete in a housework league

Obvious hygiene issues aside do what you and your family are comfortable with

I'll be honest, when the kids were little (3 under 4) after they were in bed I simply picked up everything that was scattered around the living room - clothes, toys, books, discarded paperwork, old apple cores, empty bottles - and flung them all into a cardboard box behind the sofa and shoved it out of sight.

Then I sat down with my feet up and closed the door. That ws 'clean enough' for me.

I paid someone to do it once a week!

We have dogs so no poo and no vom is always a good start lol. Beyond that clean floors and bathroom weekly, kitchen is daily.

This had me laughing! Thanks everyone, this is helpful.

I think it’s unlikely ‘your’ level of cleanliness is going to be so bad it’d be a genuine hygiene issue so just do what you’re comfortable with. Everyone has different standards.

As so often happens the first reply nails it

I set up all my cleaning tasks at 20 minute mini jobs. Loaded them into a project management app (Asana). When I tick something as done it appears again at the bottom of the list.

Whenever I have 15-20 minutes spare I just fo the thing at the top of the list and dont sweat the rest of the rest until I next have time, then I just do the next thing.

The fact that you started a thread on it means your minimum is fine.

Wipe kitchen worktops as you go daily.

Wash up at least every other day.

Hoover/ mop/dust once a week.

Bathroom once a week, loo seat or whole loo daily+ depending on family habits. (Young kids hold onto the loo seat)

Laundry away asap when dry.
Tidy dining table several times a week (or the dumping ground)

Windows in winter monthly or more due to mould.

I'm disabled parent of disabled kids and have stress tested this routine by not always doing this. It gets out of hand if you don't.

Load of laundry every day or every other day.
Fold and put away dry washing.
Quick clean of one loo and basin plus shower when needed.
Make beds
Put dishwasher on at night, empty in morning.
Kitchen clean down each evening after dinner (tidy sides, wipe down, sweep floor)
Do floors once a week

Bogs and bathrooms, thoroughly and weekly
Kitchen as you go along
Hard floors weekley
Vacuum carpets weekly.
Mirrors weekly
Beds fortnightly

Dust, when I see it, thoroughly every three months
Paintwork - every six months
Vacuum cushions, sofas, lampshades, etc, every six months
Kitchen, cupboards and kickboards, tiles, etc, three monthly
Inside windows every six months

I tidy and plump every night before bed
When the children were small we had tidy up time every night before bathtime

I vacuum large rug in sitting room daily because my 2 cats are loosing their winter coats and bits of fur everywhere. Normally it's get done twice a week. Cleaner cleans bathroom and kitchen twice a week. She steam mops all wooden floors on ground floor twice a week. Left to just me far less would get done.

This is my goal nowadays, I have an elderly border collie who has lost feeling for pooping!

Hello Katie price!