Lets be honest: how often do you vacuum your house? for those who do not have maids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How big do you think our houses are that we can't carve out 20 minutes 2x a week to vacuum? I mean Jesus, this is hardly proof of a person with nothing to do with their time. I'm not scrapbooking all my shopping receipts for the year or bleaching everyone's shoelaces. It's vacuuming. It's not THAT time consuming.

We don't have a big house - about 2000 sq ft - but vacuuming takes more than 20 minutes if done right. We get under the carpets, under furniture, behind the beds, and try to be very thorough. We also have a dog, so there's dog hair. But it's a 45 minute effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This is interesting. We vacuum every day, at least once without fail. Using a Dyson stick to make it easy. It's my husband's thing - while I bathe the kids and get them ready for bed, he does a massive vaccuum/clean of our main first floor rooms, pulls up the rugs and gets under the sofa, etc. We have a small house and while I might not be so intense about it myself, I really appreciate it and now do it myself when he's on the road. We all have our things - I hate coming downstairs in the AM to dirty dishes - but clean floors just feel more hygenic and livable. Bathrooms are spot cleaned as needed (they each have Ergorapido stick vacs and cleaning supplies so I can clean up a bit while kids are in the tub). House cleaners come every two weeks, wish it could be more often! Wow, this seems OCD in comparison to some of the PPs but it sure doesn't look or feel like that.

Yes. It does seem OCD.

+1

[Anonymous]

Daily due to allergies. I hate carpet and want hardwood floors when we buy a house

[Anonymous]

Funny how so many people who have cleaners replied

[Anonymous]

every 2 or 3 days - no pets.

[Anonymous]

Couple days a week, sometimes none. Cleaning lady once per month. Two dogs.

[Anonymous]

2-3 times a week

We have hardwood and a few rugs. With 2 cats, I find that the hair shows MORE with the hardwoods (old house had 1/2 wall to wall). I can't imagine how much hides in carpet. I can't stand the dust balls. I really want a roomba!

[Anonymous]

Once a week. We both work out of the home and the kids are in daycare, so we're not home much to make too big of a mess. Usually. No pets.

[Anonymous]

No pets; one child. Before we got a Roomba, maybe once a month on average. Much more now that we use a Roomba.

[Anonymous]

Dining room, pretty much every day.

Downstairs, once a week.

Upstairs every two weeks.

I SAHM, no pets, two toddlers. No cleaner.

I am the opposite of OCD, but we have hardwood floors downstairs and cannot stand seeing Cheerios, or anything else, on hardwood floors.

[Anonymous]

I am also impressed with those who vacuum so often! We have one majorly shedding dog and a toddler - plus one due any minute now. Downstairs we have hardwood and a couple small area rugs. Probably gets the broom once or twice a week. Rugs downstairs and carpet upstairs get vacuumed closer to once every two weeks. We are also a no shoe house and food stays in kitchen... so for us it's all about when the dog hair gets visible (or if guests are coming over) that it gets done. DH only gets home about half an hour before DS goes to bed - and I guess we prefer to spend the time we have with DS during the week doing things with him, most of the housework gets done after he goes to bed (which means vacuuming is out during the week) and on weekends. We usually alternate fully cleaning the bathrooms and doing a full vacuum every weekend - so both get done 2x a month. Agree with the PP - how does it take some of you only 20 minutes to vacuum? With a shedding dog, it takes a long time to really get up the hair, especially on steps and in corners/along the walls. And the bathrooms? Pregnant me and my toddler do not want to go near the bathrooms for several hours after the cleaning supplies so once every couple weeks is inconvenience enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Wow. This is interesting. We vacuum every day, at least once without fail. Using a Dyson stick to make it easy. It's my husband's thing - while I bathe the kids and get them ready for bed, he does a massive vaccuum/clean of our main first floor rooms, pulls up the rugs and gets under the sofa, etc. We have a small house and while I might not be so intense about it myself, I really appreciate it and now do it myself when he's on the road. We all have our things - I hate coming downstairs in the AM to dirty dishes - but clean floors just feel more hygenic and livable. Bathrooms are spot cleaned as needed (they each have Ergorapido stick vacs and cleaning supplies so I can clean up a bit while kids are in the tub). House cleaners come every two weeks, wish it could be more often! Wow, this seems OCD in comparison to some of the PPs but it sure doesn't look or feel like that.

Yes. It does seem OCD.

Unless DH is a SAHD, this is sad to me. Rather than being involved with his kids and part of the bath and bed routine he is pulling up rugs and vacuuming under sofas on a daily basis. How does he feel about having to appease your OCD by giving up time with the kids?

For real? Only on DCUM would vacuuming be used as evidence of bad parenting! Fwiw, if there's OCD in this situation, it's my husband's - he is the one who insists on vacuuming every night. I've considered getting him a roomba for his birthday! And maybe you are still in the infant stage, but once your children are older there really isn't any "bathtime bonding" that's really viable or necessary. I have two boys, a preschooler and a young elementary kid, and shepherding them in/out of the shower or tub and dressed for bed is hand-to-hand combat. My husband's cleanup rituals downstairs probably take 15 minutes most nights; by the time I wrap up the bathing madness, he is usually watching the news hour. Then we both read with the kids, although less so with the older one who reads solo now. Where is the negligence here? And honestly are there really this many people who consider it excessive to spend 15 mins cleaning up their houses each night? And our house is hardly spotless, not by a long shot, so I really can't imagine what it's like to vacuum once a week or less. Maybe you have incredibly neat families?

It isn't that you vacuum that is OCD. It is the time spent, the focus and the fact it takes away from time with the kids. Very few people vacuum under the sofas and under the rugs and do the thorough cleaning that you described EVERY DAY. And bedtime with preschoolers and elementary kids is important in our house. We have a routine and read with them and we both like to be involved in it. Obviously since a clean house is your biggest priority then I get why you rush the kids through bath and into bed so you can get back to cleaning but you might find if you gave up a little cleaning time that bedtime can be a bonding time. We have some great chats and enjoy reading with the kids.

And I think your 15 minutes is a big backtrack now that you see all the posts saying you are OCD. One doesn't do a "massive vaccuum/clean of our main first floor rooms, pulls up the rugs and gets under the sofa, etc." in 15 minutes. Massive cleans take time.

[Anonymous]

I have a vac stick in the dining room and use it after ever meal. I break my vacuuming into chunks like that so it never takes a full 45 minutes.

[Anonymous]

SAHM, 2 kids 3 & 5, one outdoor dog, one indoor cat and now a puppy. Hardwoods with a few rugs. I vacuum at least 2x per week. Cleaner comes every other week. It probably takes me about 30 min in all, house is 1800sf. I clean a lot bc I like a clean house & I want my boys to grow up valuing an orderly environment.

[Anonymous]

Once per week. 3 jobs between the two of us, 1 large dog, hardwoods up, carpet down. No time for more often. No cleaning service.