Does cleaning your home come naturally to you?

[chrono]

Date: 10/8/2007 9:28:14 AM
Author: zoebartlett

Are you pleading the fifth, Zoe?

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 10/8/2007 9:32:48 AM
Author: Chrono

Date: 10/8/2007 9:28:14 AM
Author: zoebartlett

Are you pleading the fifth, Zoe?

No comment.

Actually, I think Musey started something...my FI...MY FI, was on a cleaning spree last night. I woke up today to a kitchen with clean counters, an empty sink, a dishwasher that had already been emptied, and the trash taken out. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. I''m astounded.

I have a ton of laundry to do today but now I''m more motivated. I can''t let me FI show me up like that. No way.

 

[Keepingthefaith21]

I''m a total neat freak. I clean all the time. Under my sink it looks like the cleaning product aisle at the market. The only chore I hate doing is laundry. Otherwise, the house is always in tip top shape ready for visitors which is a very good thing because friends are always stopping by and my SO''s parents have a nasty little habbit of calling as they are on there way to our home.

 

[DivaDiamond007]

I think that my DH and I make a pretty good effort to make sure that our house is clean. We have four pets (2 cats, 2 pugs) so the floors must be swept every day. I don''t really like dusting but I do it about once a week and he''s in charge of the dishes/kitchen. DH does most of the cooking so and we do not have an automatic dishwasher so it''s his chore to make sure that the kitchen is in order. We both pitch in on on the laundry. Like some of the others, 363 days of the year I''d not be embarassed if you just decided to drop by. I''d say the bathroom is okay - I wipe it down daily with disinfecting wipes and scrub the toilet once per week and the shower gets scrubbed about once per week too so in my mind that''s okay.

I will say, however, that my DH is a pack rat and will create all sorts of piles of stuff if I don''t help him keep in under control. The kitchen table is by far the worst clutter spot in our house. We don''t even eat at it because there are usually piles of magazines, bills, junk mail, newspapers, etc.

I try my darndest to not let it get that way but it is so hard!

Jess

 

[luckystar112]

I HATE cleaning with a passion. I think it''s because growing up I was the one who did all the cleaning. If for some reason I didn''t, my mom would b*tch and moan when she came home from work. And so now when FI wants me to clean, I get extremely annoyed with him because it reminds me of my childhood. We got into a little tiff about it yesterday, actually.
FI works over 60 hours a week, and I''m in school full time and I work part time five days a week. Yet, for some reason he seems to think that I have it so easy compared to him and I should be doing all the housework. Sunday is our only day off together and we usually spend it cleaning. Correction...it''s football season, so he cleans from about 9-11am and then I''m expected to do the rest.

Yesterday I was emailing my bridesmaids some information about dresses, and he got all huffy puffy about how I was on the internet when "we" should be cleaning. He was sitting on the couch NEXT to me watching football. How is that fair? lol. He doesn''t get that school+work+planning a wedding= time consuming. I just want to relax!!! And I''m just blown away by how he seems to imply that I don''t do anything. I practically do everything!
I''ll admit I''m not the neatest person. I usually wait until the last minute to do laundry. And then sometimes I forget it''s in the washer for a couple days and I have to do it over again...or sometimes I''ll keep the clean basket of laundry on our bed with the intention of folding it and putting it away later, and then never do. Nothing steams me more than when he wakes me up before he goes to work and asks me to do laundry for him. How hard is it to start a load of laundry yourself? You took the time to put everything you need done in a basket...what''s stopping you from picking up said basket and puting the contents in the washing machine yourself?!?!?
But to be fair, it''s not like he doesn''t do anything. Yesterday he scrubbed our floors on his hands and knees. But that''s a rare occurence. I was doing the brunt of the yard work for a LONG time, but he recently took that over. He takes out the trash, cleans the litter box, and other little things every once in a while. But when it comes to laundry, dishes, putting away clutter, wiping down counters, or any of the other chores, he participates probably twice a month at the most. But when he''s in one of his cleaning moods, he expects me to be in it with him.

So, obviously I''m still bothered by yesterday. lol! Thanks for letting me vent. Sometimes I feel so unappreciated. But if he''s in one of his rare cleaning moods and I don''t feel like it, that''s when it gets frustrating. We seriously need to work out some sort of cleaning arrangements and split things up evenly. Or hire someone. We had a maid for a while and I want to get her back....but we have four pets now so I''m not sure how much it will cost. Even if she came bi-weekly I think it would help a lot. Both of us like a clean house, but both are worn out at the end of the day. The difference is that I can understand that he is worn out, where as he seems to think I sit on the internet all day and let the house collect dust.

 

[Gypsy]

Well. I have two modes. Compulsive and what thing2 described with clothes and shoes everywhere. When we had more room (when we didn''t live in this tiny little apartment) it wasn''t a big deal-- my mess was confined to my closets, but here the closets are overflowing when they are neat... so it spreads. John has one mode ... slightly lived in. So I get compulsive... and then when I see he''s doing the ''lived in'' thing of his... I try for that...I get messy. We have a cleaning service, thank god. But we only get them every two weeks, and if it''s a stressful two weeks, I need to tidy BEFORE the cleaning service comes, or they''d run screaming from the 50 pairs of shoes all over the place!


We use the ''if I had someone stop over'' thing too, it''s a good measure. And I will tell you that right now? The answer woudl be NO. So we''re tidying and the service will be here this week (hallelujuah!).

 

[eks6426]

Well, I''m pretty good at keeping the main parts of the house "surface" clean. If company came over, they would think it was ok as long as they didn''t look in the corners. I too tend to be a piler. Magazines and paper stuff are my downfall. I tend to stack them but the stacks can get out of hand.

I tend to go on organizing binges. Like in one weekend clean out all the stuff in my closets & drawers and throw out stuff and organize. But I don''t do it well in small doses such as "take this drawer and clean it out for 15 minutes." It''s an all or nothing thing with me.

I am not very good at washing as I go while cooking. Most of the time I''m so timed pressed to get dinner on the table that I''m cooking as fast as I can. I can start cooking even if the kitchen is dirty which drives my husband insane. He won''t start something until an area is clean. He will pretty frequently pick up after me as I''m cooking and it''s almost comical because I''ll set a knife down, turn around and put something in the oven, then go back for the knife and he''s already washing it. I feel very lucky to have a husband who feels the need for the house to be clean too. My first husband was a slob and that was very challenging.

I''d love to take a full week of work to just get stuff cleaned and organized but since I only get a couple weeks of vacation time I can''t justify spending them cleaning

I''d be a darn good stay at home wife!

 

[Picos]

I like cleaning. I also like relaxing.

When I come home, you can take a guess which is more important. If I had time to relax a bit & clean, I''d do both but lately the mess has been piling. The living space is bigger.

Having a cat, dog & fiance to clean up after doesn''t help, either.

It''s kinda bumming to spend a good chunk of time cleaning up the upstairs only to find it messed up. So now, I restrict my cleaning to stuff that will stay clean, pluth.

Of course, compared to say a frat house or an obessive horder, my apartment looks quite nice.

 

[MoonWater]

I chose other because I''m a weirdo. I can be very OCD about a LOT of things and there are times when I go nuts and clean. When I was younger I would rearrange my bedroom every 3 months like clockwork. Except, it wasn''t intentional, there was some weird...body clock making me do it. I would literally stay up all night moving heavy furniture by myself and I could not sleep until it was done. I''m like that about a lot of things. Painting my apartment, decorating, if we buy a piece of furniture that needs to be put together, I can''t rest until it''s done. Crazy stuff. But strangely, my bedroom tends to stay messy because I HATE laundry. I clean clothes and then throw them on a chair, and they just sit forever.

I tidy the living room about once a week. My bf and I are both in school and work full time so we''ve grown accustom to pretending the mess isn''t there until the weekend. I ALWAYS clean if company is coming over. That is something I''m also insane about. I can not stand company around when my house is messy. I think that has a lot to do with visiting people with messy homes. It makes you feel so uncomfortable (where do you sit?!?!) so I always clean to make my guest feel at ease.

Oh, one last thing, I HATE KITCHENS! Thank god my bf doesn''t mind doing it. I will do the bathroom over the kitchen any day.

 

[MoonWater]

Okay so this thread reminded me...what is the name of that website, with that woman, she has all of these cleaning tips? It's a image of a maid. My god, that site was amazing and really had me keeping up the house. She had suggestions like, put on a timer for 15 mins and clean until it goes off. You would be so surprised the difference 15 mins made. Or clean during commercial breaks during your favorite program. Really simple things and great tips.

Oh and it's funny, the comment about leaving glasses of water around the house....I do that too (Did you ever see the movie Signs? I am so that little girl!) We go to get glasses out the cabinet and we have no idea where they are. Oddly, bf complains about me but he leaves glass after glass after glass in the bathroom! I found five once. I just let them pile up to see if he'd ever notice. I couldn't believe it. How much can you drink in there?

Oh and cooking, this was the rule in my mom's house and it's my rule now: If you cook, you do not have to clean, if you clean, you do not have to cook.

ETA: I found the site! not sure why I thought it was a maid outfit! FlyLady.net

 

[Linda W]

I straighten things up and let my cleaning lady do the heavy cleaning. The way I figure it, I am in my late 50''s, so I deserve it. ha ha ha ha.

Linda

 

[Evelynn]

This thread makes me laugh! I litterally just sat down for a bit of lunch and popped in to see whats happening here, low and behold - a thread about cleaning! I''ve been doing just THAT all morning!!

I can totally relate with Thing2of2 and Ephemery!.

On a good morning, I only change clothes twice before I go to work! I have such a bad bad habit of changing clothes in a pinch and just leaving the rejected ones there on the floor/bed/chair/door/sofa/table/etc etc! DH just knows to leave well enough alone, when we first moved in together he would have this compulsive urge to pick up my things and hang them back up where they belong, but then how would I know where they were? Last I knew, they were right there on the sofa arm, how am I supposed to find them NOW? I have organized messes!!

Clothes are the only thing I can handle sitting about. Like you, Ephemery I get a satisfaction after having sorting, straightening and "clearing." DH likes to just toss the mail on the office desk so at the end of the week theres a big ''ol pile of junk mail, magazines (how DARE he not give me my Instyle, Elle and Midwest Living!) and the familiar bills. I get a great satisfaction of going through the mess and putting all the pills into their correct "Due Date" slots in the mail organizer, and clearing off the desk. Same goes with the counters and all sitting spaces - I like them clean, and free of clutter! When it comes to "gloves on, hair pulled back" type of cleaning, it takes a bit more to get me motivated to get those things done!

 

[larussel03]

Cleaning such as dusting, windex-ing, cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, vaccuuming come naturally to me. I actually enjoy cleaning and feel productive afterwards. I'm allergic to dust so I've just become accustomed to doing some form of cleaning every day (today I windexed the mirrors, windows, tv, etc). I do a little every day so I rarely have to spend more than an hour cleaning at once, and that's alot. Yesterday I cleaned out our walk-in closet and reorganized the cabinets to fit all our new things from shower gifts in.

Before you think I'm super duper clean, I'm also a messy person. I leave my clothes around everywhere and I HATE doing laundry and put it off forever. Then I'll do it and leave it clean on the floor or in the basket for days. I like things to be clean and sanitary, but I can be very messy and will spend lots of time just putting my things away--I just hate putting things away period.

 

[Pandora II]

The only person in the world that I know who is a bigger ''piler'' than me is my father.

My mother says the first time he took her home when they were dating, there was a kind of tunnel from the front door to the sofa made up of piles of books and papers!

I feel nervous if my house is too tidy (not that that happens much), but I do like it clean.

However, I hate cleaning and it hurts my back (I''ve have major spinal surgery), so we have a cleaning lady!

FI is equally messy, but tries to make out he''s not.

Strangely, I am quite obsessive about things like how tins are arranged in cupboards and the direction spines on books face - and height order.

One thing I noticed when I was working as a designer (textiles), was that those of us who did very tight, precise designs tended to have very messy tables; whereas those who did very free designs had immaculately tidy spaces.

I have a very organised mind and I am very big on presentation when it comes to work. All my spreadsheets have to be laid out in a certain way, with properly measured columns and pretty colours; I''m anal about spelling, grammar and correct form; things have to be perfectly laid out and no smudgy marks, coffee stains etc. However, you couldn''t tell what my desk is made of, it''s covered in so much crap!

 

[anchor31]

It''s important for me that things are clean, but it doesn''t come naturally. I''m lucky to have an FI who''s just like me, so neither of of are big mess-makers and we can encourageeach other when cleaning.

 

[monarch64]

I spent 6.5 hours cleaning the house top to bottom today...I do it about twice a month but do about an hours'' worth of cleaning every day after work just to maintain. We would hire a cleaning person but we have two crazy dogs and I don''t know what we''d do with the dogs while a "stranger" was here cleaning...typically I put them outside but I have to keep a constant eye on the youngest one because she''s a digger and would ruin the entire yard if I didn''t stop her and I don''t expect a cleaning person to handle that responsibility. Plus they''re beagles and there is a huge risk that as cleaning people came and went they could escape and be gone for good (they''re scent hounds and known for getting away after following a trail and getting distracted by too many other scents along the way.) So I have to save the cleaning help for times when DH or I can be home and supervise which sort of defeats the whole purpose.

I felt so productive today...once I get into "cleaning mode" there is no stopping me. Even at 6 p.m. when I stopped and hopped in the shower I found myself inspecting the shower and tidying up/re-organizing there too! LOL!