Do you clean your own toilet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would never want someone else to clean my toilet. I think it's weird. It's so easy to do too. Cleaners are a huge waste of money (obviously fine if you have money to burn).

Cleaners are some of the best money we spend. Of course we keep our house clean on a daily basis but we have about 5,000 sq. ft. and it takes 2 people about 4 hours to clean it all. That's 4 hours that we're able to work or spend time with our family. The cost is totally worth it to us.

And FWIW, my best friend and her husband are both in education (she's a K teacher, he is an admin at a local college), so their HHI is about $120K. They have had cleaners for years even though they have to budget carefully for it. They live in a LCOL area and have a pretty big three bedroom house with a finished basement so given that they spend their time working and shuttling their boys around to sports all the time it's so worth it for them to have someone clean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's also crucial to teach your kids to have these skills. We all knew the person in the dorm who couldn't do their own laundry or couldn't do basic sewing or ironing. And I think many of us have found excuses to leave when confronted with a date or friend's filthy apartment

How hard do you think it is to clean a toilet? Or frankly do laundry?

I never cleaned growing up. We had a maid who came every day. I never did laundry and I didn't even make my bed because she did. When I got to college I was fully able to make my bed and do my laundry. And I was also able to clean a toilet when I moved into my first apartment. These are not difficult skills.

Same. My kids never did it. We had a weekly cleaning service and I'm a good at maintaining in between their visits. Kids weren't required to do house chores as their schools had long hours, activities, commute, homework and advance curriculum with regular testing. They only had weekends to relax and and socialize.

My kids have all that, minus the long commute. They take turns cleaning their bathroom on a weekly rotating basis. They also make their own beds and put their dishes in the dishwasher. These are the most basic of chores, which is why they're expected to do them. The point is to teach personal responsibility and respect for shared space, which is part of being a good family member / future roommate.

I'm the first PP who asked how hard those tasks are.

My kids make their beds, they put dishes in the dishwasher and empty it, they are responsible for cleaning up their own stuff around the house, and while I do their laundry, they have to fold and put it away. They have to keep their bathrooms neat for the cleaners (i.e. things can't be left out on the counters, etc.), so they are learning about personal responsibility and respect for shared space without having to clean toilets.

[Anonymous]

We have cleaners every other week, but I scrub them on the off weeks and make my kids/spouse clean debris if they leave any.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never want someone else to clean my toilet. I think it's weird. It's so easy to do too. Cleaners are a huge waste of money (obviously fine if you have money to burn).

Cleaners are some of the best money we spend. Of course we keep our house clean on a daily basis but we have about 5,000 sq. ft. and it takes 2 people about 4 hours to clean it all. That's 4 hours that we're able to work or spend time with our family. The cost is totally worth it to us.

And FWIW, my best friend and her husband are both in education (she's a K teacher, he is an admin at a local college), so their HHI is about $120K. They have had cleaners for years even though they have to budget carefully for it. They live in a LCOL area and have a pretty big three bedroom house with a finished basement so given that they spend their time working and shuttling their boys around to sports all the time it's so worth it for them to have someone clean.

You're not going to convince me it's money well-spent, but you do you!

[Anonymous]

We have weekly cleaners. So i don't clean toilets routinely, i have and will if warranted (sickness etc).
I do clean the kitchen and dishes daily.
I frew up without cleaners and know how to clean everything. At this time of life, i would rather focus on other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely not. What’s the point of going to college and then getting an MBA if I’m still going to clean toilets. Ugh.

+1

[Anonymous]

I did for years. My husband does it now because I have lower back problems. I do other things that don’t involve bending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely not. What’s the point of going to college and then getting an MBA if I’m still going to clean toilets. Ugh.

Dumbest post ever. Unless you have a daily cleaning service that’s kind of gross.

[Anonymous]

If anybody ever starts this thread again, make sure to ask the gender of the person responding.

[Anonymous]

I think I made the comment recently about someone probably doesn't clean their own toilet, but I couldn't find the thread. I clean my own toilet. It's ironic that people who think they are above cleaning their own toilet, are actually disgusted by their own filth which makes them dirtier because they refuse to clean it. I think it's kind of shameful to make some stranger clean your toilet, as if you are better than them, when you're not. In order to have a clean toilet, you have to get down and dirty, and that ultimately makes you cleaner and more noble than someone who doesn't want to get their hands dirty and pawns the task off on someone else.

[Anonymous]

I do and I take pleasure in maintaining my home. I can appreciate that others don’t necessarily take pride in completing household tasks well but I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have not cleaned a bathroom in 25 years.

I'm not above most housework, I love to cook and I cut the grass and garden, I paint my house when it is needed. I finished my basement... not the drywall but everything else, floors, I framed it.

I don't think it says much about me.

I worked at a sub shop and they told me I had to clean the bathroom as part of my duties. I was a very good worker, on time, very efficient. It was so funny I was like, yea... no thanks. I gave my boss my apron and was like, I'm not cleaning bathrooms. He called me a week later and said, okay no bathrooms, then I came back.

You’ve got a weird phobia or early trauma with a toilet or something. You use the toilet don’t you?

[Anonymous]

I have had a housecleaner since I graduated law school in 2006. I've cleaned toilets periodically since then - if someone vomits, when we've moved and haven't found a housecleaner, for several months during covid. But it's very rare to have a number 2 that can't be cleaned with a few flushes, so I'm not cleaning between the housecleaner visits. I work a ton at my job (in a service industry! Often with clients treating me like crap) and make seven figures. I don't want to clean my house or mow the lawn on the weekends.

And honestly, my kid with ADHD barely does chores around the house. It's not worth the effort, and there aren't that many chores to do. Clean up his dishes (often only because I yell at him; he's terrible about remembering himself), sometimes I make him clean his room or make his bed, or fold laundry. We have a lawn service, so with the housecleaner, there just aren't that many chores.

Sometimes I consider that I'm raising a lazy kid. But honestly, I grew up with a sahm who did all this stuff and never asked us kids to do anything. Despite that, the day I left home I was still hardwired to work hard and keep a clean house. My sister has a totally different personality and did not. Eventually (maybe age 30) she developed more internal drive to be clean and handle chores. We grew up in the same house, neither of us having real chores. DS is probably going to grow up being terrible at chores - but that's going to be because he has severe ADHD, and not because I didn't make him do chores. If I made him clean toilets now, it would just be more work for me to oversee the whole process and wouldn't teach him anything. He wouldn't suddenly wake up and be dedicated to chores or have a new outlook.

So I will keep on having my housecleaner and lawn guy come.

[Anonymous]

I have cleaning people come every other week, but I always make sure to give the toilets a quick clean before they arrive.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Never put much thought into it. Toss a dissolving toilet bowl cleaner strip in. Give it a scrub and wipe down the outer part of the toilet and done. Once a week or so bleach it.