How often do you have to clean your house?

I tidy my house each and every day, ie pots and dishes, laundry etc. I give the whole of the house a thorough clean once a week
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I clean every day. I’m a stay at home mom, so I have the time and I actually enjoy the work now that I’m in a home that I love. We have two children in the house, two dogs, and my husband works on a farm (we also live on a farm). Lots of dirt and dust get brought into our house, so it gets dirty very quickly. Especially now that it is harvest season.

@ucme‘s household : Two children, one daughter, one son. One pet, doggy named Penny. Another addition to the fold does all the cleaning….Mrs. ucme. Job done! Only kidding, I mean can you imagine such a thing? No… no.. no.. no.. no…..I help on Sundays XD

@partyparty that’s probably a more accurate description of what I do. Tidying. Dishes, laundry, picking up stray shoes, running the vacuum, etc. I do clean probably 3–4 times a week, but that might just make me a neat freak.

I clean my house everyday too. We have pets and things just get moved to different places. It’s horrible. Nvm! I tidy. We clean every weekend.

You don’t know what “a bomb going off” looks like till you’ve put off cleaning for 6 months.

@papayalily we wouldn’t be able to move in here.

I have got to call Lucy. Glad I read this. I need H E L P !

Here in the south, people complain about cob webs. I often have said that for some reason, I don’t have that problem. Well, when my daughter came…with her much younger eyes…she confirmed that, “Yes, Mom…you have them, too.”

Dishes and picking up is a daily task for me. I usually do a
deep clean” 3 – 4 times in a month.

Well, I live in a house with 4 other college guys, so…

And I’ve pretty much taken over the cleaning. I put dishes in the dishwasher every day and I make sure nothing gets too dirty every day. But I vacuum every couple of weeks or so. We usually all clean up pretty thoroughly after a party.

3 adults, no kids or pets, we take our shoes off by the door, and we only eat in the kitchen unless we have company, then we go to the dining room.
I am going to make many of you salivate now.
We have a full house air circulation system, 200 cfm, that pulls air from floor registers and passes it through a screen filter, followed by a 6 inch HEPA filter, followed by an electrostatic filter followed by a UV stage that I designed. It runs all the time. In winter, it circulates heat from the wood burning stove. In summer, it circulates cold basement air upstairs. Our air is C-l-e-a-n! Dust is gone. Granted, there is the usual mess, shoes, newspapers mail, dishes, lab experiments (and now a gecko in a container ) But as far as the deep cleaning goes, it is not necessary very often.
We do it when company’s coming. Nice.

Our household is just me and my son right now (and whatever friends of his that are funning in and out all day during the weekends and after school).

I straighten up a bit each day (dishes clean, stuff cleared off the table) and do a thorough clean once a week.

@worriedguy my allergies want me to live in your house.

@worriedguy my inquisitive mind wants to live in your house and watch over your lab experiments.

I tidy every day and do the usual chores (dishes, sweeping, etc). I’m an organization freak.
At least once a week I clean the whole place up. I have pets, a messy S.O. and allergies.

@worriedguy I want your clean air!

We have a small space, two cats, two kids under 5 and we clean only when we are seriously disturbed or offended by something on the floor and it’s undeniable that we must at the very least pick that up.

A full cleaning every three weeks by a professional service or when my cat leaves a little surprise for me on my favorite carpet—whichever comes first. I should add that I lve alone and am pretty neat.

I devote 10 – 30 minutes a day to cleaning up, so I never have a huge mess, and never have to spend a huge chunk of time cleaning up. It works really well.

As often as I am in the mood.

OK, I’ll open the door for the slobs out there. Hi, my name is Jill and I’m a slob. I clean my house when people are coming over and I don’t entertain much. I’m clean, my dishes are clean, and my clothes are clean. My house is cluttered and somewhat icky and I don’t care enough to do anything regular about it, but that said, I’m a lovely person and always a great (and tidy) guest in other people’s homes.

@JilltheTooth – I like you. ;-)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir lol, I love it.

@JilltheTooth I like you, too. :)

My house is great for allergy sufferers (like me)
@TheOnlyNeffie There’s a spare bedroom. (Bring the double zip sleeping bag.)
@MissA Being a physicist/engineering consultant, I do all kinds of experiments here. UV, Biotech, RF, etc. About 20 years ago, I was working with some UVC and accidentally exposed a large section of the kitchen to the radiation. A few days later my wife was doing something in the kitchen and noticed the rubber plant that she had for years was dropping leaves -but only on one side. After a few more days all the leaves that were exposed to the beam were dead. It looked like they were sheared off. The ones in the shadow of the cupboard were ok. She finally asked me: “Were you testing something when I was away last week?” All in a day’s work.
@PluckyDog Here! Open your window. I’ll send some your way. Pssssst.
@JilltheTooth There’s a room for you here, too.

You’re supposed to clean it?

Aw, shucks, guys :-)
@Simone_De_Beauvoir, you are welcome in my house. The dust bunnies have formed their own civilization, it’s quite fascinating, really.
@worriedguy ; You won’t regret it, I can be very entertaining.

When I do help out I like to indulge in this! I like to dress up, who says cleaning can’t be fun? :¬)

I follow my father’s philosophy from when I was little. My mother was freaking out one day about our house not being spotless like a couple of my aunt’s houses. The aunts were always screaming at their kids for making the slightest mess. He told her to relax, it’s not just a house, it’s a home. It’s got people living in it, expect a little clutter from time to time.

@JilltheTooth I’ve used high voltage, (50,000 volts DC) to attract dust bunnies in my barn and have them burst into flame and vaporize when they get between the ground and the electrode grid. It is awesome. Think giant bug zapper.
My kids new what a plasma was when they were in 3rd grade.

@worriedguy I don’t want to know what your security system must be like but I bet it works.

@Adirondackwannabe Yes, it does…yes, it does. And congrats on the 10K!

@worriedguy ; You’re starting to scare me a lttle and yet, I find myself strangely drawn to you
And, for God’s sake, will someone please push @Adirondackwannabe over the top before I have a stroke??!!

Thanks guys. That number looks pretty cool from here.:)

(I confess, I did it. I’m following you now. You’re welcome!}

OK, everyone can run over to meta now and shower him with praise ;-)

@worriedguy; Zen’s claiming credit over there. Better go straighten him out. Jelly fight!!!

I need a dust bunny zapper in my life.

Lol I want a dust bunny zapper too.

It sounds like you are cleaning and tidying up enough times, it’s just that you might need a differenty type of organizing system. I read a good idea in a magazine that says to put a basket at the top and bottom of your stairs, so when you are tidying up you can put the stuff in the baskets and then just move them up or down at the end of the day.

Another thing a friend told me about is the clean sink theory. Never leave dirty dishes in the sink. Either load or unload the dishwasher, or wash the dishes if you don’t have one, every day. It makes a lot of difference in how your kitchen will look. Also, wipe down the counters every day, keep them clean and clutter free.

You might want to invest in some organizing products like shelves and baskets for your mudroom or closets. It’s easier to keep things clean and organized if you have a place to put things.

One of my favorite cleaning tools is those microfiber dusters, but with your pets, you may also need one of those pet hair/lint rollers, a mini broom and dust pan to pick up the daily stuff your pets bring in attached to their fur and then you just have to vacuum about every other day.

I have dogs, I tidy most days, once a week I take a vacuum round and every few weeks I do a really big clean.

I tidy everyday and work on it like a 16th century serf on saturdays

@Leanne1986 Vacuum once a week? I need to sweep our hardwood floors twice a day or our floors will be covered with dog hair. You lucky dog!

My dog doesn’t shed. :-P

@JilltheTooth Nah. No sense fighting about it. You guys know the truth. You were all witnesses.

The dust bunny zapper is awesome. Besides the obvious fire hazard the other problem is the transformer. The thing weighs 800 pounds. Really. It’s made by Kilovolt corporation for laboratories. I abuse it something awful.
I once used it to power my electric fence. Don’t ask.

@worriedguy; Venison for dinner?

@JilltheTooth You did notice that the fist part of Kilovolt is kil. Coincidence?

I think not! Bet your freezer is pretty full. I’ll be right over, I love game!

When the dust bunnies start doing the tango under my bed.

I live by myself and I don’t have any pets.
I don’t have any carpeting so my place accumulates dust at a very slow rate.

I tidy up every day, I clean up all spills immediately, and I sweep up any dry spills whenever they happen.

I have my house given a thorough cleaning every 6 weeks.

@jonsblond Luckily the hair doesn’t show up so much on my carpet even though my dogs shed quite a lot. It’s definately there but what I can’t see doesn’t worry me. This is the only thing I appreciate about carpet!

Every day. We have parquet flooring with a few throw rugs, and dog hairs necessitate daily sweeping. Mopping about once a week. This apartment was dusty even before the dog arrived. There are three people who live here. Dishes must be done, and bathrooms and common areas must be cleaned daily. I clean out my closets of junk about every 3–5 months. There a spring and autumn deep cleaning. Fridge has to be cleaned out every couple of weeks. I have to dust every week or it will affect my electronics.

@Kardamom I’m actually a very organized person. Organizing is one of my hobbies, but those are good tips :)

@aprilsimnel I keep my mini shop vac in the kitchen just to vacuum up the fur that collects in a day’s time. I just put it away if someone is coming over.

I am with the slobs and my mate is even worse plus we have an akita, a little brown dog and a dingo, so you can imagine. But once a week or so, we go through, usually on a Sunday morning, and pick up the strewn clothing etc. then he vacs and dusts and I follow after with the steam cleaner and the whole place is spotless again (for about 10 minutes anyhow!). I gotta say though, my dogs are brushed and very clean so while there is hair, there is no doggy smell, I have a sensitive nose and can’t stand yukky smells!

No children that live with us but we do have 3 outdoor dogs and an indoor cat. Ideally our house could use a weekly cleaning but we both work horrendous hours and haven’t paid to have anyone else come in. If my mother didn’t live with us and take upon herself to give our floors a mopping down then we’d be in trouble.

Every week, unless I am bored.

I try to clean daily. I have three teenage sons, a husband and three dogs, three cats, and then some! If I don’t do something each day it would be a disaster. I try to do a load or two of laundry, all the dishes, and general picking up. Then every couple of days I will vacuum, mop, dust, sort papers, put laundry away and other neccessary cleaning.

@autumnsunset You are a better person than I, that’s all that I can say. :)

Saturdays are my real cleaning days, where we’ll vacuum, wash floors, thoroughly clean bathrooms, do all the laundry etc. I do the dishes as and when necessary, and every couple of days i’ll give the kitchen a good clean. We forget to dust most of the time, so that’s usually done just before we have guests…which isn’t often either. Messes on the floor are cleaned immediately (or at least within a few hours after it happened). Needless to say we sometimes get lazy and skip a week of washing floors, or don’t vacuum every room, and stuff like that. But the house is never so dirty that one would think “ew”. There’s not much dirt anyway other than dust-fluff balls on the floor and kitty and puppy toys laying around (or other pieces of random torn up stuff thanks to puppy).
Oh, but as for tidying up, that’s a constant thing around here, because things are always being put where they don’t belong, and this is where i slack the most. Things can lay in the wrong place (eg random things cluttering up the kitchen table) for DAYS (or more than a week or sometimes for weeks!) before i finally decide that NOW i’m putting it away. It’s terrible. :/

‘Have a 94-year old dear friend who says that one’s home should be clean enough for someone to stop by…dirty enough for them to be comfortable.

@MissA I love that. :)

@MissA – That is my house. lol

@MissA : I have to work on half of that. At this point there are probably 10 people who would be comfortable dropping by. @Simone_De_Beauvoir : C’mon by, Darlin’, I’ll bake you a cake…

I should clean like every 2 days, but normally it’s not until either someone is coming over or every Sunday. You would think it was more then just 2 people living in our house with the mess we make. It’s mostly us being lazy leaving laundry and mail everywhere. I used to think my husband’s clothes had a timer on it that once he stepped foot in our house they exploded off of him and all over my living room. I work soooo much ( I get every other Sunday off of work, so I am working 13 days straight at a time) that I have been considering a housekeeper, since what I clean is mostly the “visible” areas, I still need someone to do all the “tough” stuff ie dust everything, move furniture and vacuum, clean ceiling fans, scrub sinks, etc. But for some reason I’m too ashamed or empathetic to make someone do what I think I can but am too lazy or tired to do. I dunno.

@CFi lol about the timer.

You do work a ton, you should just get a housekeeper. You deserve it. :)

@TheOnlyNeffie True Story ;)
I do work a lot but it’s not strenuous, it’s just a little stressful. Because it isn’t manual labor, I can’t seem to justify getting a housekeeper.
I tried it once for a party I was going to have, I wanted her to do more than my quick pick-up and wipe. Instead of doing the party prep while she cleaned as I had told myself it would be, I ended up cleaning areas she was eventually going to clean as part of her contract.
That experience was way awkward, I felt a lot of guilt since it was a small apartment and I could have made time during the week prior to the party to do what she was doing. In the end it was not cleaned the way I thought it was going to be, she was kinda slow and she did more of the quick pick-up and wipe than the scrub and scour that I was looking for :/
So once again I feel a lot of guilt because I think I know I can do what they are doing and they won’t do it as well as I think they should. I hate how I complicate things and over think sometimes, lol. I’m building my nerve to call a cleaning lady soon though.

@CFi I can understand that, I could easily see myself doing the same thing. Although you and I both know that I don’t work right now, even when I was working a ton I think I would struggle with letting someone else do it.
However, I still hold that you deserve it.

@TheOnlyNeffie Thank you

We tried a cleaning lady, but it would upset my husband that I’d “clean first”. I wasn’t really cleaning though. I’d have everything done so that she could focus on things I wasn’t getting to. Seemed reasonable to me.

However, I didn’t find someone who would clean hourly that would deep clean. If you pay per job, then they’ll race through like I might have time for. I must be living in another time.

~ Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~ Phillis Diller