How clean is your house? - Be encouraged!

THIRZAH

Our house isn't too bad most of the time. The kitchen and bathrooms are clean and everywhere else is tidy . I do get very stressed out when MIL visits though. I haven't actually caught her running her fingertips along the mantlepiece but wouldn't put it past her to do it when I'm out of the room.

She keeps offering to "help". I once left her alone in the house for an hour and when I came back she was cleaning the utility room. She'd unearthed an old apron and rubber gloves that I only used for painting and was wearing them while she cleaned away. DH didn't hear the last about that for a very long time!

Naturally her house is immaculate but so it should be. She cleans constantly and has a cleaner in one full day a week. I've even known her to hoover at midnight.

Alfietinker

THIRZAH wrote:

I do get very stressed out when MIL visits though. I haven't actually caught her running her fingertips along the mantlepiece but wouldn't put it past her to do it when I'm out of the room.

That's like my MIL. She just looks at the skirting and I know what she's thinking

My husband just turns round and says if she doesn't realise we're living on a building site then tough! If he can say that about his mum then so can I. (Still get a bit conscious when she's around though - she too picks up your mug and washes/dries/puts away before you can turn round)

vastsarah_2

hi,i clean and do washing every day but that because i have 5 kids, 5 cats and 2 dogs.
i dont like cooking but cleaning is ok.
if i didnt clean every day then the place would smell bad.ds3 has as and he wouldnt cope with a really mess house.
its not spotless here just tidy enought for a vistor,if my gran come i would run around in a panic"!!the house could never be clean enough
i have other intrest in life but im a naturally tidy person and i cant and wouldnt wont to change that unlike hubby !
sarah

catkins

I was feeling really fed up because my living room is always dusty. I have a large long haired dog and he gots so muddy every day on his walk and when it dries it just becomes dust. As fast as I dust it needs doing again.

I logged on here and saw this thread and it made me put things in perspective. I clean my kitchen and toilet every day as I think these rooms are important to be clean and hygienic, but I don't get time to dust and hoover every day and then I feel a failure. BUT from now on I am not going to worry - life is too short and there are loads of other things I would rather be doing (reading this site being just one of them!).

Thank you so much for this post and from now on I just won't look at the skirting boards etc

Hermia

Alfietinker wrote:

That's like my MIL. She just looks at the skirting and I know what she's thinking

I am so NOT getting married. I didn't realise MILs were still like that in this day and age!

Penny-Pincher!!

Im quite obsessive about cleaning Certain jobs are done daily (toilet, floors swept, kitchen sides, sink, DW,washing) and most others are done 1-2 times a week (polishing house top to bottom, mopping, bedding, bathroom, inside windows, skirting & coving, sofas hoovered, stairs, cabinets, cupboard fronts/whole kitchen, etc etc).

I know Im at home now 24/7, but even when i was working FT I cleaned daily, im just very particular. Because I cant do all the big jobs or little jobs that I used to do every other day, I have a cleaner for 4hrs a week and she does all my little fiddly jobs on top of the normal ones and shes thorough and knows how fussy i am..LOL..poor cow :eek: I think I notice more things now, because I dont go out much and stuck indoors all the time. I am an organised person and everything has a place.

I wish I could chill abit about the housework but cant relax if its not done

PP
xx

squeaky

I don't know if you all followed an earlier thread on MSE but try this one:-


Why do we beat ourselves up?

MrsMW

I have a theory that once things are dusty they don't get any worse, i.e. they only get dusty once, so if I leave it for weeks it doesn't show.

lily_the_pink

THIRZAH wrote:

Our house isn't too bad most of the time. The kitchen and bathrooms are clean and everywhere else is tidy . I do get very stressed out when MIL visits though. I haven't actually caught her running her fingertips along the mantlepiece but wouldn't put it past her to do it when I'm out of the room.

She keeps offering to "help". I once left her alone in the house for an hour and when I came back she was cleaning the utility room. She'd unearthed an old apron and rubber gloves that I only used for painting and was wearing them while she cleaned away. DH didn't hear the last about that for a very long time!

Naturally her house is immaculate but so it should be. She cleans constantly and has a cleaner in one full day a week. I've even known her to hoover at midnight.

MY MIL also has an immaculate house - there was once a cushion out of place about 10 years ago according to my OH.

It took a while for my OH to get used to having a home - rather than living in a display cabinet. He is slowly getting there. Does make me slightly more consiencious than I might otherwise be - but nothing too OTT. When she is coming to visit it is also the only time I mint the house - MIL ready - though this would still not be particularly tidy by her standards. Luckily we get on apart from this - so I think that she has given me up as a lost cause on the housework front.

I find first thing in the morning is my best time for doing housework - I am so groggy and bad tempered it is the best way to wake up. Cleanish carpets, cleanish kitchen and bathroom is about as far as it gets. I did 2 hours in the garden today though, tidying up some of the beds and preparing a veg. patch so that is my weeks achievement.

Alfietinker

lily_the_pink wrote:

preparing a veg. patch so that is my weeks achievement.

Well done you! :T Delicious veggies before you know it!!!