s/o Do you clean your own house?

[Anonymous]

We've never had cleaners, and both DH and I both come from families where no one ever had cleaners either. But I admit, hearing that basically every family we know now has them makes me jealous. But DH won't budge. We could afford it, I think he just thinks it's frivolous. So, I hate Saturdays because we're either cleaning or getting a stressed out DH complaining about what isn't clean yet (and yes, he participates - more than me, TBH). It's a lot with two little kids.

[Anonymous]

We have biweekly cleaners and I would give up so much before I gave up them.

$200 every two weeks, 3000 sq/ft house, 3 kids, 2 dogs.

I clean constantly, picking up toys, spend anywhere from 1-3 hours a night in the kitchen cooking dinner and cleaning up for the day/prepping for tomorrow. I am not spending my weekends in the toilets. And I know actually cleaning toilets doesn't take very long but its the whole thing. We do maintenance cleaning all the time, the cleaners come and do the rest. I have a full time job and want to spend a small amount of my life not doing chores.

[Anonymous]

Yes- one lady I've had for 13 years
Weekly- every Thursday
$140/wk- 3 levels, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
Vacuum, mop, dust, scrub, etc.

We do laundry, and vacuum in between, tidy as needed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No it’s a waste of money. Everyone should clean their own homes!

I used to think that. We grew up with no cleaners.

But--we both work full-time, have kids and we prefer to use that time elsewhere since we basically have no time. Our teen boys do their own laundry, vacuum in between as needed----and they mow our lawn (husband refused to hire landscaping; small yard--we prefer to do it ourselves--only ones in the neighborhood that do ).

I WAH--but for what I make an hourly rate--it's not worth it to use those hours cleaning.

[Anonymous]

We did until the pandemic (started when the kids were 5y when we started having more weekend commitments.) Now that we aren't running around all weekend and we have teens who can help we do it ourselves. It take about 90m once a week to clean 3 bathrooms, dust, vacuum, mop, and clean kitchen....plus some assorted stuff.

[Anonymous]

Even when you have cleaners you still clean your house, unless it’s daily.

[Anonymous]

We've never hired cleaners, but we currently have two small children who make a huge mess every day, and our only down time is when they're asleep at night, so we're considering it. Would probably do biweekly or once a month, and keep up with spot cleaning in between.

[Anonymous]

Pre-Covid we did have a cleaning woman come every other week. $125 for 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, 1400 square feet. She would straighten up a little, but mostly did bathrooms, the kitchen, the floors (vacuum or sweep) and change the sheets. It was worth it for no other reason that it encouraged us to clean up before she came. We had to make an effort to put stuff away because she couldn’t vacuum the floors if they were covered in toys! We haven’t had her back since everyone has been at home all the time (3 kids doing virtual/hybrid school, DH working from home and I SAH) and our house is too small for us to all move around places so she can work. I will definitely hire cleaners again when the kids are back in school. I am super ADHD and while I clean the bathrooms and sinks when they get gross, I am never motivated to deal with the clutter until I absolutely have to.

[Anonymous]

No. No cleaners either. Our house is just kind of dirty.

[Anonymous]

No cleaners. But I'm single, so only cleaning up after myself. I could probably stand to do more dusting, but my weekly cleaning routine takes less than an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope, I hire cleaners just like everyone else in this area.

Uh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. No cleaners either. Our house is just kind of dirty.

I think this is the case with most people who don't have cleaners TBH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even when you have cleaners you still clean your house, unless it’s daily.

This really depends on your standards. I posted above that we have monthly cleaners. After dinner, we do dishes, and we spot clean the counters and floors after dinner, primarily around the table/in the kitchen. But beyond that, we do nothing. We do not vacuum, dust, do anything in the bathrooms, etc. Some people would find that gross/lazy, but we're fine with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. No cleaners either. Our house is just kind of dirty.

I think this is the case with most people who don't have cleaners TBH.

+1 I agree. I grew up in a house with no cleaners. My parents both couldn’t afford it, and then even when they could out of lifestyle they just never did. Things were always organized, but the house was never clean and always felt dirty to me. Neither of my parents were hoarders, messy etc... they were actually quite tidy, but they both worked and there was no deep cleaning happening despite daily organizing.

It drove me nuts because there would be dust in books, under tables, on baseboards, windows etc... to really have a clean clean house you need to regularly be deep cleaning things on rotation. My parents seemed used to it but I was so uncomfortable in their house.

Getting a cleaning lady was the first thing I did when we had a kid.

[Anonymous]

Before Covid, we had cleaners come twice a week. It was great - they did all the things I really hated to do - scrub the bathrooms, scrub the stove and sinks, and wiped/dusted throughout the house. They also vacuum and wipe down visible surfaces. My kids and husband are cleaning and organization impaired, so it just felt like a huge weight off my shoulders and a big lift to have at least one other person to assist me with keeping the house clean.