Serious question
7So it’s just your husband and you living in a house, no kids, no pet. How often do you deep clean your house? Meaning, clean the bathroom top to bottom, vacuum/sweep and wash/wax the floors, dust, polish furniture, and clean the entire kitchen. And your house doesn’t get dirty besides everyday traffic for the two of you, which are pretty clean people. I’m not taking about what you do during the week to tidy up or clean up after cooking, I’m talking a full house clean. And I don’t want answers to make yourself look good, I want real answers. If it’s once every once a month or more please be honest. I’m arguing with my partner bc 1950 housewives don’t exist anymore and no one has time to do this shit on a weekly basis (maybe you do). If you do, what do you do for a living? And how do you have time to do it. Please let me know. I really try to do it every two weeks but sometimes it goes to three weeks buts that’s not saying I don’t clean stuff in between (like the toilets, vacuum the floors, wipe down all of the kitchen, clean the couches, dust). At the very most I might wait a month inbetween a full house clean when I’m super busy but I’ve still been cleaning stuff inbetween. I’m talking the kind of clean like your cleaning for having lots of company coming over and you want you house to look good ( my partner is an ocd neat freak when it comes to the house being clean and things being put away). Please let me know.
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The housekeeper comes once a month
/showme suddenly gay
Enough to keep stuff visibly clean and no more because I don’t like doing it
I have no idea how often that is I just do it when things start to bother me
If I lived with a partner, we would have a minimum standard. We both agreed to meet and we would have reached that standard in an equitable way accounting for the taste of both of us
I would expect the partner to tidy up after themselves all day long as I do, and to do 60% of the cleaning as I would do also 60%
I know what that adds up to, but that makes sure things get done in a way where nobody feels cheated so it’s a psychological principal, not a mathematical one
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Someone who wants serious beyond that needs to pay for it or do it themselves if they cannot make a strong health argument that the other partner is willing to agree with
Nobody is anybody else’s servant here
I have never been able to deep clean this house at all. Bits and pieces get done as opportunities present themselves, but the level of clutter and the overburden of possessions that probably would be better off done without makes the task insurmountable.
Never. I don’t do whole house, I do whatever needs to be done when I can get to it.
The biggest problem I see is if your “partner is an ocd neat freak” then why is your partner not cleaning? Sounds more like your partner is trying to control you, not the neatness of the house.
@callow came here to say this!
Depends on what is creating the mess… decent vacuum job when cat hair gets too much on the floor. Kitchen floor and counters when they look like they need it. Dusting… um well with blow heat that is a hopeless task that I am not doing daily. I’ll do it prior to vacuuming the floor since dust ends up there too when you dust…
My fucking landlord treats us like we are 5 year old inmates and does a once a quarter literal white glove inspection (any other place I have ever lived no inspection until I have moved out - moving out of here though, because it is hud, is complicated and the neighborhood the others are in removes some of them from the list) so 4 times a year everything gets done at the same time.
One parameter you did not ask is: how big is the house. I live in a 12 room, 3 bath house. If my significant other wanted it literally cleaned from top to bottom, he had better have a mop and duster in hand, because no one has time to do the entire house in a weekend. It is like the golden gate Bridge here… finally finish and it is time to start all over again.
@mikibell Yeah size does matter. I live in 2 rooms. Actually makes it harder than when the same stuff was in a bigger place though as you have to move stuff and put it back, but all can be accomplished in a couple of hours. When I lived in a 1900 sf house it took the better part of a day to deep clean.
Well, I think about cleaning a lot. The moon and weather have to align just so for me to do it.
Like, is the sun shining? Is it nice enough to open up the house? Does my back hurt? Am I hungry? Is a cat asleep on my lap? Are we having company? (never!) Are my white socks turning black from walking on the floors? Is it humid?
Yeah, it’s not a big thing around here. As long as the clothes are washed and put away, it’s pretty laid back. We have a bunch of cats and a stinky little dog, in and out of the house 24/7, bringing in crud. My husband’s shop is in the back yard and he does a lot of metal grinding and it sends a lot of black dust over everything (even though it’s not close to the house).
For some reason, my lower back starts to scream when I do things for an extended period. Like vacuuming, and folding laundry, I have to take breaks (or OTC pain stuff before I start).
And even though I’m at home almost all of the time, I try to do this stuff on the weekends when we have cheap electricity (we’re on a tiered plan).
Yesterday I swept the floors (the only room with carpeting is a room that is closed off to the animules, the rest are tile or cement) in the living room, dining room and family room. I swept the crud right over to the Eye Vac (pet flavored).
Not to say I don’t like a clean house, but there are other things I’d rather be doing.
My husband doesn’t mind a messy house. I used to be good at cleaning when I was pissed off, but he doesn’t piss me off. Nice, right?
@lisaviolet I LOVE the Eye Vac! I have the non-pet one but it’s fantastic for sweeping the cat litter to. I got it for a great price probably because it’s one of the older style. Now THAT’S something Meh should try to offer. It’s so convenient!
@Kyeh Agreed, it’s very convenient.
@Kyeh @lisaviolet I just looked that up and now I REALLY WANT the Eye-vac+. But it’s sold out. Everywhere.
@Kyeh @llangley There aren’t any on eBay, either. Hmm, I find that very odd.
@lisaviolet @llangley Am I missing something? I’m seeing it in stock on their site:
https://eyevac.com/product/eye-vac-pet/
And on Amazon (the url is obnoxiously long)
And the non-pet specific models on other sites, too.
@Kyeh @llangley The EyeVac+ - it’s a trashcan.
https://eyevac.com/product/eye-vac-plus/
@lisaviolet @llangley
OHH - the “+” - I missed that, sorry.
@Kyeh @lisaviolet Isn’t the EyeVac just a Roomba with extra steps (literally)?
@blaineg @Kyeh Well, the EyeVac doesn’t move, it stays in place and you bring the dirt to it. It also holds more stuff.
It doesn’t get stuck under furniture or grab electrical cords. I spent more time getting the house ready to run a moving bot vacuum than I do sweeping the crud over to the EyeVac.
And since it doesn’t have brushes or anything, there’s not much that needs maintenance. When you have longish hair and are molting, or lots of pets that shed, or pine needles that get wrapped up in the brush and prevent the flow of crud from the floor and have to clean the brushes more than you like, the EyeVac is way better.
And another plus. If the cats pee on it, it doesn’t die. Like my last robot vac did. The robot vac needed to be put away after each use. Kind of defeats the purpose.
YMMV.
@blaineg @lisaviolet They use one at the Supercuts salon I go to; it’s perfect there. Each time a patron leaves, the clippings just get swept over to the vac and it’s done.
araT has a weekly and monthly (loose) schedule - this on Thursdays, that on Tuesdays, this on the first week, etc. No big day or two, just that (in theory) it all gets done once a month. That way it never gets away. Of course, holidays etc can alter the schedule, but there’s no expectation and certainly none from me. The way I see it, if it bothers me enough to tell her about it, it bothers me enough to do it.
That said, she’s the one with OCD, so it’s pretty rare that anything gets way past even “noticeable” for normal people. I’m usually the one telling her it’s fine, let it go another week, so there’s that.
When we had the bigger house, there was more to do and elkcirP and I had a few more assignments, like vacuuming the stairs. Apparently I’m pretty good at it. I think that may be a ruse…
The bigger question may be why he feels it needs to be a certain way. Rather than fuel for a fight, it could be an opportunity to connect differently. For some people I know, it’s a germ thing (especially since COVID). For others it’s a “this is the way my mom did it so this is the way it has to be done” thing. For others it’s literal (diagnosed) OCD. Understanding the root (and him knowing you care about it) can go a long way toward finding a happy medium.
Just some random thoughts from an anonymous idiot in the interwebs, FWIW.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The whole house, top to bottom? Never. No schedule either. What needs doing gets done when it needs it.
I guess I lied about no schedule, the robot vacuums the whole house three times a week.
Life is too short to spend it “cleaning” stuff that’s already clean. Do you pull all the clean dishes out of the cupboard and run them through the dishwasher on a regular schedule? Why not? (Or why?)
Roborock robot vacuum was the best purchase I made 2 years ago. It does a decent job of vacuuming the entire house (including vacuuming vinyl floors in the kitchen and bathrooms). I run it once a week usually (but I set it to do a double pass most times)…would be more often but I’m too anal about getting everything out of its way so that it can get to every possible nook and cranny. Dusting maybe once or twice a month? Swiffer wetjet on the vinyl floors maybe once a month (but I do a LOT of spot cleaning the kitchen floor with paper towels whenever I see something). Shower: I use a daily “clean shower” spray after showers and it does a really good job of keeping it clean (just mist it and forget it). I’m constantly spot cleaning counters and sinks. The wife will do a deeper dusting and also cleaning of sinks every once in a while…Maybe once every couple months.