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.

You sound like my wife.

Does your wife live by herself?

Anonymous wrote:i mean, in my 20s. in my 30s, my spouse came with a family housecleaner, so now someone comes once a week or so.

my place would slowly just become a cluttered dusty mess, and then once a year i'd spend days cleaning and shoving things in closets if i had someone over. i also rarely cooked, which helped?

If you don't mind me asking, why did you rarely cook/clean?

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.

Anonymous wrote:PP here...I just want to add that we're not hoarders or similar. We don't leave dishes in the sink, we take out the trash. But some of the walls have lots of fingerprints on and the baseboards are dusty. We are terrible about putting clean clothes away so they often just stay in the laundry basket after being washed. Things like that. I think not cleaning might be my rebellion and unfortunately it probably affects me the most.

I don’t think you need to clean just to hire cleaners. We have cleaners every week and it does encourage me to make sure things are put away though.

PP here...I just want to add that we're not hoarders or similar. We don't leave dishes in the sink, we take out the trash. But some of the walls have lots of fingerprints on and the baseboards are dusty. We are terrible about putting clean clothes away so they often just stay in the laundry basket after being washed. Things like that. I think not cleaning might be my rebellion and unfortunately it probably affects me the most.

It still amazes me that so many people hire housecleaners even if its just every other week. We never hired one growing up and mom did work full time (as well as my dad). None of my friends' parents hired cleaners growing up. We were solidly middle class. I don't have many friends now, but none hire cleaners (that I know of). My parents did end up hiring cleaners for a few years as empty nesters. My mom tried to talk to me into it. I know it makes sense and we can afford it. But I can't pull the trigger.

Part of the reason I don't hire a cleaner is because the house is a mess and dirty (which is ironic). We do comprehensive cleaning whenever guests are coming over which is maybe 2x a year now. I'll sweep the high traffic areas (including the kitchen) maybe 1x a week. (We don't have pets anymore.) I clean the bathrooms I use when they start to bother me and the main floor bathroom a little more often. I'll do a more complete clean of the kitchen maybe 1x a month. Randomly I may get inspired to sort-of deep clean another room like 1x a month.

So what the result/impact of this? The resentment I feel at having to be the one to do 95% of the cleaning. Otherwise no cleaning would ever get done. Not wanting to have people over because the house is too messy. I never really encourage my kids to invite other kids over to our house. I'll sometimes put off having repair people come over because I don't want them to see the messy house. I do think it can affect your mental state. After we've had people over and the house is still clean, its a nice feeling.

So maybe this year I'll aim to get the house clean enough to actually hire cleaners.

We are minimalists so only have like a bed couch a dining table and my kiddo’s stuff. I don’t clean I used to but once covid happened and we work full time and I had to cook 5 meals and snacks and I got pregnant, I just stopped so it’s been around a year plus of not cleaning. I do vacuum every week or two and do laundry a lot but I don’t wipe toilets or sinks or tubs. House is just a bit dusty but honestly that’s the least of my problems right now in first trimester. The secret is not to have junk so it’s just dust ans floors that are messy haha

By problems do you mean allergies? On hoarder shows people have major health problems due to mold, allergens, mice droppings, fungi, etc. But those are extreme examples. I rarely clean some rooms like my kids' playroom. I only vacuum the whole house maybe once/month and don't dust, but don't have a lot of furniture/stuff that requires dusting. Otherwise I focus on cleaning the kitchen (daily) and bathrooms whenever they are visibly dirty, about twice per month. We have guests sometimes, so my house isn't too dirty to be embarrassing.

This thread inspired me to wipe down baseboards last night, which is something I'd never dream of doing. I only made it through three rooms though and I'm worn out from crawling around on my hands and knees.

My mom. She never cleans. Her counters are covered with stuff, and literally has years of dust. Vacuuming hurts her back. She has four cats. It’s disgusting. I don’t sit down at her house, and I started sneezing and getting itchy eyes as soon as I walk in. It jakes be very sad, but she is not embarrassed at all. She thinks her house is cluttered not dirty. It’s filthy.

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.

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.

You obviously don’t have white sheets.

I cut back drastically since COVID. I used to clean constantly. Now, it's not regular. Just do whatever looks like it needs it. going with flow. something has to give!!

I mean, my husband never/rarely cleans the house and also won't hire cleaners. It's works out great for him.

Anonymous wrote:Pre-pandemic we had weekly cleaners but have not had them back since March 2020. At first I kept up cleaning but then realized that I had to pick and chose. My DH does not clean and I got overwhelmes. The main bad things that happen is that I feel gross and unhappy, but eventually you do stop “seeing” some of the filth, like really dirty sinks. (The sink thing really is not rational because they only take a second to wipe out, but even that got daunting when I was working FT, midpandemic, dealing with DL, totally overwhelmed.) The worst thing is indoor allergies from dust, and carpet beetles.

Ugh! Did you ever get rid of the carpet beetles? I’m fighting them now.