For people without a cleaner - how long do you spend cleaning your house?

[northerner]

And I don't mean general tidying up. I mean bathroom, toilet, floors, skirting boards etc.

How long in one go and how regular?

Am looking for some timesaving tips now I have a bigger house!

santabops, you could be me! Although I do have to hoover at least once a day, but usually leave it until DD goes to bed.

DH cleans the bathroom, I do it occasionally as the smell of bleach & cleaning products makes me feel sick (honest)

I can't remember the last time I wiped my skirting boards over, but they do look clean, so DH must be doing it.

I do odd things like polish the photos frames & don't dust. At the moment we are living out of the ironing basket! DH looked in the ironing cupbaord today & was shocked by what he saw! He tolds me that he was starting to wonder why his wardrobe was so empty! Hey, I'll get it done before Christmas tho, what's the rush???

Too long and it's exhausting. Today as I was going round I seriously started thinking about a cleaner again (I go back adn forth on this one). It's not hard to justify imo - I don't have a spare minute in the day and I could really do with just half an hour when I can have a brew and do nothing - that seriously never happens.

Today I've barely sat down:

Up, shower, make beds
Get kids ready for school (hell, nightmare, hate it)
School run (about an hour round trip with ds1 to school, ds2 to nursery)
Home to do housework (with ds3 following me around) - in about an hour I tidied up, put washing away, emptied drier, reloaded drier, reloaded washing machine, hoovered all downstairs, dusted downstairs including skirting and doors, removed black out card from boys' bedroom windows, tidied their room
Ds3 to bed - me, office to work for 2 hours (Friday deadline looming)
Pick up ds2 from nursery
Straight to Tesco with ds2 and ds3
Stop at old house trying to sell to put heating on for later viewer
Home to put shopping away
Straight back out to pick up ds1 and friend from school (with ds2 screaming all the way there and back as he was shattered)
Unloaded drier, put clothes away, reloaded drier, reloaded washing machine
Made kids tea and supervised all 4 of them at feeding time (managed a coffee while doing this)
As soon as friend gone, boys ready for bed, teeth brushed
All tidied playroom
I washed up
Dh home so I went straight upstairs to work at 7pm - worked till 8.10pm
Cooked dinner and ate it
9pm - unloaded drier, reloaded drier, reloaded washing machine
Watched end of I'm a Celebrity (oh yes, sorry, sat down and relaxed for half an hour)
Now, apart from MN, ordering Xmas presents adn sorting finances (shit, must do tax return)

Sad eh?

That's ahell of a day gdg.

I'm very tidy,but don't do more than an hour a day.
Have a big blitz (all day job) about once a month.
Do a lot of cooking at night when the children are sleeping or during ds's daytime nap (when I get other stuff done.)

Always tidy after the children have gone to bed (7:00 pm sharp)put out breakfast stuff and so on.

Get my bedlinen ironed,but that's my only outside help.
Dh mostly away-fortunately is an absolute fiend on the cleaning/tidying front which is great.

Live in a new house now which seems much more low maintenence than our old Georgian one.

I do a regular clean of 3 hours once a week, this is basically what I got my ex-cleaner to do:-

Clean bathroom
Dust all furniture
Hoover & Mop (have hard floors throughout)
Wipe leather suite
Wipe down banisters and dado rail in hallway
Dusting lights, wiping light switches, skirtings, doors and door frames, pictures all cleaned in rotation

Kitchen worktops get cleared and cleaned every day (in theory ), do about three loads of washing every day and about three hours of ironing a week.

I'm just amazed at how much washing people seem to do. I thought I was bad but bloody hell.....three loads a day??
For how many people??

Just the four of us. DH's DIY and my keep fit obsession doesn't help matters.

Oh and DS2 still in cloth nappies at night. Also use tons of cloths (don't use kitchen towel) and like to give them a very hot wash in a load of their own.

I never iron but I do lots of folding!!

Cleaning is hit and miss and I do it when I need to if I see the place needs a dust or hoover.

My Mum is over on Wednesday though so I will have to clean or there will be comments.

sigh

Same here collision. I never iron but do lots and lots of folding and putting away laundry.
I never do skirting boards and am not even sure what there is to do with them.

I clean the lavatories two or three times a week (I have three young boys).

Otherwise it just gets done when I have a spare couple of minutes.

I don't think I could ever have a cleaner. I'm not tidy enough.

I have a crawling baby and just one big open plan room downstairs kitchen dining and living room. Means that have to wash and hoover everywhere downstairs at least daily - sometimes twice - as she always seems to find something. Have just introduced naff but very effective 'no shoes' rule in house which has helped on grubby floor front.

I am desp for a cleaner and have said I will pay for one - but my dh does "not want anyone nosing round our house....." We had a cleaner at our last house who was useless and smashed everything.

Watch this space

I clean skirting boards just before they are re-painted - once every 3 years.
God, life is too short.

Manage a blitz everyday for about a couple of hours. Hoover and mop floors, clean bathroom, polish, etc.

Blossomhill - I'm another one who never irons. I hang up shirts and trousers in the airing cupboard to dry - things only look like crisp packets when they come striaght out of the tumble dryer I find.

I will show this thread to dp, obv I do FAR too much

With you, gb. If someone thinks worse of us for having dusty or dirty skirting boards I would (1) feel sorry for them (2) pmsl (3) probably never invite them back, LOL.

I really can't be arsed to pull out the sofa and sterilise underneath, LOL.

I tidy up every day, try to keep the kitchen clean , do the bathroom weekly, and hoover every 3days or so. I iron the girls' school blouses when they run out, and I clean the skirting boards before I paint them.

I hate housework, and need it to be appreciated. If you keep your house spotless, no-one notices, but when I make a big effort in my house, DP (or any visitors who know me well) comment on what a lively job I've done!

Or even lovely

I have no set routine and i refuse to time myself it makes me !!

I tidy every day but with 2 little ones i need to, i have a huge clean whenever i can find the time, which at the moment seems to be wednesday mornings when i have dropped ds1 at playschool and dp is still home to entertain ds2!!

someone once directed me here i read it and ran away but apparently it is really good

and i had forgotten i had skirting boards so am off to clean em now ;)

bathroom and downstairs loo -everyday
skirting boards- I hoover them everyday (if they need a wipe I will give them one, when needed)
floors -hoover or mop everyday

washing around 3 hrs a day- spent on washing, drying and folding (dont iron)

I spend around 3hr in total each day
but on a weekend I blitz the house properly

Moondog - y'see where I lose out is when they are sleeping I'm working. If I didn't work it wouldn't be an issue.

Sorry, I had a right old rant and a very boring post last night - was tired and fed up!

3 hours a day
that's what I'd call blitzing it properly!

Not sure how long I spend cleaning.
each day I go to work at 5am and get home at 9am, I then feed ds his breakfast and wash up/tidy kitchen, put washing in machine if needed, then I shut kitchen door!
I then have quick tidy in lounge- this is usually tidy anyway, I then put ds down for a nap, make the bed properly (dh not too good at this!) and pick up dirty laundry etc and get changed.
I then make a cuppa and sit down!
Things like the loo and bathroom - do this at the weekend, generally hoover every 1-2 days and mop kitchen floor once or twice a week!
Skirting boards I tend to hoover these when Im hoovering and a wipe down every now and then.

Bathrooms (one full bathroom, one shower ensuite and a downstairs cloakroom) are done twice a week

Floors downstairs are hoovered every day, upstairs prob about twice a week. Stairs once a week. Hard floors are mopped twice a week if I'm being really good, once most of the time.

Laundry is the thing that takes longest in my house. The pile is never-ending.

I lied, the ensuite is done once a week. I hate cleaning the shower cubicle, I have to do it with a toothbrush cos of all the nooks and crannies.