Does anyone never/rarely clean their house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess we are low level cleaners. My DH and I clean the house in earnest once a month. This means sweeping, mopping, and dusting. I regularly declutter so the place looks picked up.

Once a year we do the baseboards and ceiling fans, or more often if we have houseguests. If we are having people over for a playdate or BBQ, we'll mop and scrub the kitchen and bathrooms, and clean the front and back yards. Every blue moon we clean the blinds and wipe the walls (grubby kids). About once a month or every two months we wash bedding. But we do laundry every few days and dishes every day and wipe down the kitchen and bathroom counters frequently, and vacuum at least weekly, so the place doesn't look or feel like a hovel.

When we do our monthly clean or our pre-houseguests clean, we have our 8 and 10 year olds help (they are getting good at cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, and doing yardwork).

This is me except my kid is little so I pretty much always feel like I'm behind on cleaning everything because they're not much help yet and really contribute to the level of clutter I need to tidy before I can vacuum. I'm seriously considering taking some time off work to do a proper deep clean before my new baby comes this winter.

[Anonymous]

Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

[Anonymous]

We have extended family who live like this. Their homes are like pig sties

[Anonymous]

What I want to know is are these same people with the filthy houses the hoarders of all the disinfecting Lysol wipes last year? I wondered what all those people were going to do with them since clearly a lot of people don't care about the cleanliness of their home and probably would never use the wipes anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

Yeah, I thought my DH was kind of gross before we moved in together and he was better than this. He did his sheets once a month. When I told him I washed my once a week he was like "How though? It's such a pain because you have to wait for them to dry before you make the bed, ugh." Like it had never occurred to him to just have a second set of sheets so that you could change them out more often.

I would love to vacuum twice a week because our home is small and we have a toddler and a cat, so the floors get messy quickly. But during the pandemic, it's been hard to do it more than once a week simply because everyone is always home and people are on conference calls and everyone is underfoot constantly. And even with weekly vacuuming, I still sweep the kitchen almost daily because otherwise it's gross. I find it weird that people think that's overzealous cleaning because it takes maybe 2 minutes to sweep the entire kitchen dining area? You don't have to do a really meticulous job because you do it a lot. But it really cuts down on the amount of debris that gets tracked through the house.

And that's what people don't seem to get. The more frequently you clean, the easier and faster it is. I clean our bathrooms once a week and it takes about 30 minutes to do both of them. Cleaning a toilet takes a few minutes. Same with wiping down surfaces. The tub or shower takes the longest, but if you do it weekly it's a 5-10 minute activity. Just wet the surface and spray with some scrubbing bubbles, then clean the rest of the bathroom, then go back and scrub/wipe it down with hot water. Done. Literally everyone has time to do this, and you don't have to wait for your cleaners to come to have a clean bathroom.

Maintenance cleaning is simple. It's like brushing your teeth versus going in for a cleaning. Complaining that it's too hard to do some basic cleaning around your house 1-2x a week is like saying it's too hard to brush your teeth twice a day, so instead you just hire a dental hygienist to come to your house and scrape the plaque off periodically. Like, okay, I guess that would get the job done but what an weird way to handle some basic personal hygiene, you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Part of the reason I don't hire a cleaner is because the house is a mess and dirty (which is ironic).

I'm one of the messy PPs. This is what stopped me from hiring a cleaner years earlier than I did. Two comments on that:

One, sometimes I do feel like the most beneficial part of having a cleaner is the picking up I'm forced to do beforehand. Yes, it's a pain, but it's really just 5 minutes the night before. And honestly I forgot she was coming a few times so I didn't have a chance to tidy up, and she just made neat little piles everywhere and I did not die of shame.

Two, there are some rooms she doesn't clean, and that eases my stress over her visits tremendously. There's always somewhere to dump all my crap if I just don't have the energy to put it away the night before she comes.

Exactly the same here. On both points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

Yeah, I thought my DH was kind of gross before we moved in together and he was better than this. He did his sheets once a month. When I told him I washed my once a week he was like "How though? It's such a pain because you have to wait for them to dry before you make the bed, ugh." Like it had never occurred to him to just have a second set of sheets so that you could change them out more often.

I would love to vacuum twice a week because our home is small and we have a toddler and a cat, so the floors get messy quickly. But during the pandemic, it's been hard to do it more than once a week simply because everyone is always home and people are on conference calls and everyone is underfoot constantly. And even with weekly vacuuming, I still sweep the kitchen almost daily because otherwise it's gross. I find it weird that people think that's overzealous cleaning because it takes maybe 2 minutes to sweep the entire kitchen dining area? You don't have to do a really meticulous job because you do it a lot. But it really cuts down on the amount of debris that gets tracked through the house.

And that's what people don't seem to get. The more frequently you clean, the easier and faster it is. I clean our bathrooms once a week and it takes about 30 minutes to do both of them. Cleaning a toilet takes a few minutes. Same with wiping down surfaces. The tub or shower takes the longest, but if you do it weekly it's a 5-10 minute activity. Just wet the surface and spray with some scrubbing bubbles, then clean the rest of the bathroom, then go back and scrub/wipe it down with hot water. Done. Literally everyone has time to do this, and you don't have to wait for your cleaners to come to have a clean bathroom.

Maintenance cleaning is simple. It's like brushing your teeth versus going in for a cleaning. Complaining that it's too hard to do some basic cleaning around your house 1-2x a week is like saying it's too hard to brush your teeth twice a day, so instead you just hire a dental hygienist to come to your house and scrape the plaque off periodically. Like, okay, I guess that would get the job done but what an weird way to handle some basic personal hygiene, you know?

All that is fine. Seems like you have a system that works for you.

I have no interest in spending 30 mins a week cleaning bathrooms. I work FT and have little kids. So I'm glad I have an alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

Yeah, I thought my DH was kind of gross before we moved in together and he was better than this. He did his sheets once a month. When I told him I washed my once a week he was like "How though? It's such a pain because you have to wait for them to dry before you make the bed, ugh." Like it had never occurred to him to just have a second set of sheets so that you could change them out more often.

I would love to vacuum twice a week because our home is small and we have a toddler and a cat, so the floors get messy quickly. But during the pandemic, it's been hard to do it more than once a week simply because everyone is always home and people are on conference calls and everyone is underfoot constantly. And even with weekly vacuuming, I still sweep the kitchen almost daily because otherwise it's gross. I find it weird that people think that's overzealous cleaning because it takes maybe 2 minutes to sweep the entire kitchen dining area? You don't have to do a really meticulous job because you do it a lot. But it really cuts down on the amount of debris that gets tracked through the house.

And that's what people don't seem to get. The more frequently you clean, the easier and faster it is. I clean our bathrooms once a week and it takes about 30 minutes to do both of them. Cleaning a toilet takes a few minutes. Same with wiping down surfaces. The tub or shower takes the longest, but if you do it weekly it's a 5-10 minute activity. Just wet the surface and spray with some scrubbing bubbles, then clean the rest of the bathroom, then go back and scrub/wipe it down with hot water. Done. Literally everyone has time to do this, and you don't have to wait for your cleaners to come to have a clean bathroom.

Maintenance cleaning is simple. It's like brushing your teeth versus going in for a cleaning. Complaining that it's too hard to do some basic cleaning around your house 1-2x a week is like saying it's too hard to brush your teeth twice a day, so instead you just hire a dental hygienist to come to your house and scrape the plaque off periodically. Like, okay, I guess that would get the job done but what an weird way to handle some basic personal hygiene, you know?

I absolutely agree. But it doesn't work for some people's minds, you know? Like my DH. He's messy. He walks around dropping things wherever he happens to be, takes things out, doesn't put them away, unwraps things, doesn't throw the wrapper away.... drives me insane. Forget remembering to sweep the kitchen on a daily basis. He just cannot maintain neat habits as an everyday matter. But if we need to clean for a couple hours, yes, he will focus on the task of cleaning for a long length of time and it will get done.

Of course I would prefer that we just maintain a general level of cleanliness so we can enjoy neatness and cleanliness all the time and not let it get to that stage, but this where he's at. I'm not going to follow him around picking up after him. This is where we at so the resentment doesn't build.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

I think your response gives us some insight. The people who have to clean excessively must generate more dirt somehow. Are you eating in bed? Is your child's sandbox in the living room? Or what medical condition do you have that requires daily vacuuming? I'm the PP who said I only vacuum the whole house once/month, and clean my kitchen (that includes sweeping) daily. I'm not sure what makes you think I'm walking on debris or living in filth. I don't get around to vacuuming the guest room except monthly, and yet there is no debris covering the floors. And yes we remove our shoes...perhaps you should try it!

[Anonymous]

Except for the kitchen and bathrooms, there is not much to clean in our home. This is escpecially true for us because we do not wear shoes in the house.

I used to mop the entire house weekly (wood floors). There was no dirt on the floor - the water in the bucket would not change color at all. I decided weekly mopping was a waste of time. I now mop the entire house once a month(and the water is still surprising clean after mopping).

I mop the kitchen at least twice a week -it gets dirty when I cook. And I sweep it at least once a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

I think your response gives us some insight. The people who have to clean excessively must generate more dirt somehow. Are you eating in bed? Is your child's sandbox in the living room? Or what medical condition do you have that requires daily vacuuming? I'm the PP who said I only vacuum the whole house once/month, and clean my kitchen (that includes sweeping) daily. I'm not sure what makes you think I'm walking on debris or living in filth. I don't get around to vacuuming the guest room except monthly, and yet there is no debris covering the floors. And yes we remove our shoes...perhaps you should try it!

There is absolutely no way changing sheets 2-3x A YEAR is acceptable. That is simply filthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is are these same people with the filthy houses the hoarders of all the disinfecting Lysol wipes last year? I wondered what all those people were going to do with them since clearly a lot of people don't care about the cleanliness of their home and probably would never use the wipes anyway.

I'm the person who said I gave up and basically don't clean. Since the pandemic I've been going through one container of Clorox Wipes - it's over a year now, and just this weekend I used one to clean my kitchen sink. It was probably the second or third time since the pandemic since I cleaned it. I should clean my bathroom sink and my stovetop too. But then again, I should do a lot of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you all are seriously gross.

Sweeping/vacuuming once a month?! Does it not bother you to walk on debris all the time? Or let me guess... you just walk around in shoes all the time?

And change the sheets 2-3x A YEAR? A month, fine. But changing your sheets every 4-6 months is outright nasty.

I think your response gives us some insight. The people who have to clean excessively must generate more dirt somehow. Are you eating in bed? Is your child's sandbox in the living room? Or what medical condition do you have that requires daily vacuuming? I'm the PP who said I only vacuum the whole house once/month, and clean my kitchen (that includes sweeping) daily. I'm not sure what makes you think I'm walking on debris or living in filth. I don't get around to vacuuming the guest room except monthly, and yet there is no debris covering the floors. And yes we remove our shoes...perhaps you should try it!

There is absolutely no way changing sheets 2-3x A YEAR is acceptable. That is simply filthy.

Agreed. Unless you literally don't have sweat glands, never go outside or always shower right before bed, and don't use any form of soap somehow. And even then, you'd be shedding hair and skin cells. You spend 1/4 to 1/3 of every day in your bed. Changing sheets 2-3x a year would be like if you only washing your clothes once a year. It is gross. Even before the advent of washing machines, people washed their bedclothes more frequently than that. It's just incredibly lazy and gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess we are low level cleaners. My DH and I clean the house in earnest once a month. This means sweeping, mopping, and dusting. I regularly declutter so the place looks picked up.

Once a year we do the baseboards and ceiling fans, or more often if we have houseguests. If we are having people over for a playdate or BBQ, we'll mop and scrub the kitchen and bathrooms, and clean the front and back yards. Every blue moon we clean the blinds and wipe the walls (grubby kids). About once a month or every two months we wash bedding. But we do laundry every few days and dishes every day and wipe down the kitchen and bathroom counters frequently, and vacuum at least weekly, so the place doesn't look or feel like a hovel.

When we do our monthly clean or our pre-houseguests clean, we have our 8 and 10 year olds help (they are getting good at cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, and doing yardwork).

that’s actually a lot of cleaning.

I'm the PP. Thanks for saying this. I was feeling kind of bad reading about people hiring cleaners to come once a week. It's tough to do more with both of us working full time with two kids but without hiring outside help. But as the kids get older, the easier it is to add cleaning and tidying more and more to our schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank god I do have a cleaner come every other week, because prior to that (and now) I do not clean. I was never taught those skills and I dont care enough to learn. I have never mopped or dusted anything, ever. I would only vacuum or scrub the ring in the toilet bowl if I had company coming over. Bedsheets got changed 2 or 3 times a year. I'm just not bothered by it on a day to day basis. That said, it is nice to have the cleaner every other week so that I can have guests over without having to dedicate the day before to cleaning.

Excuse me, 2 or 3 times a *what* bedsheets?

And guess what happened as a result?????

Absolutely nothing.

Do you not have sex in your bed on a regular basis? Sheets need to be washed.

Super gross. All sheets in our home are cleaned every Monday no matter what. More often if needed. How do adults live like this?