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[babyjane]

how do you like to tackle housework?  Do you keep it ticking over each day or go right through top to bottom once a week. Or do you do the bits you can see when you see them and do a deep clean once or twice a year.

My mum was a bit OCD about housework and mess and I learned to be the same. I got quite stressed about it especially when the children were young and then messy teenagers.  As I have got older and less able to keep on top of it I now do the bits I can see but don't go looking for it. My husband does the heavy stuff like hoovering and he deep cleans each room once or twice a year and does the spare bedrooms when visitors come.

I still look at bits on the carpet and crumbs on the side and hear my mother tutting but I am trying to remember that bits and crumbs are not a health hazard and try to ignore them. I still feel I am being judged by an invisible person though if there is anything needs doing.

I know there are no hard and fast rules but how do you approach housework?

[Rowan]

Being a Service wife and moving every couple of years and also having COs inspection, I was quite particular about house work and clutter. My mother as a Service wife too was the same, we were brought up to be tidy.

Not so now, the kitchen and bathroom are cleaned daily but I am afraid the rest is hovered and dusted one a week, and since OH moved in I have given up on clutter though it can still stress me I do try to ignore it, we seem to have acquired two of everything, once in a while I have a blitz and stuff is taken to the tip and charity shop. Luckily the clutter is not on show, just cupboards, drawers and wardrobes.

I do like a sweet smelling home though and have a cold water humidifier that uses cold water and essential oils, so home always smells nice and fresh.

[thorntrees]

I too was a service wife and was used to keeping down the clutter and keeping up with the housework in case of a quick posting and march out. In my husband's last posting we had a steward who came in daily to do the cleaning, see to uniforms etc. It sounds great in theory but I found myself tidying up at night so he wouldn't think the place was a mess!. Now we are civilians again its taken me a while to get out of years of habit about the state of the house but I'm getting there- still get obsessed about the oven though, too many memories of march out inspections-those were the days☺

Thorntrees

[babyjane]

oo-er, I sound a bit of a slob by comparison 

[Greyhoundgal]

I don't approach it at all!  I have a wonderful cleaning fairy who comes in once a week and cleans from top to bottom 

[Rowan]

They were good days thorntree though  Civvy street is just not the same.

Do you remember sheet changing day once a fortnight, when you took your used sheets and pillowcases out to the lorry and they were exchanged for clean ones, and exchanging broken crockery at the Barrack Stores to be replaced.

Also cleaning out quarters and going through the Inventory list to check everything, all had to be laid out, and marching into the next quarter that was never as clean as the one you left.

[honeybun]

I approach it far too much to be honest as basically I keep two houses. I "do" for mother. Three days a week I clean her house way more than is reasonable or necessary. She is so damned picky.

At home I have a good clean through on a Monday. I do my bathrooms properly once a week. Dusting a couple of times a week. My kitchen is mostly daily. I trained as a chef and kitchen hygiene is ingrained in me.
Beds once a fortnight.
My daughter is in a loft conversion. I don't go up there EVER. She is so untidy and it stresses me out so I decided to avoid the stress completely. What the eye doesn't see 
I am basically a tidy person and I am much happier with an organised house.

We down sized radically four years ago. Our last house was like the Forth Road Bridge. I had no sooner finished than I had to start again. I don't miss that at all.


Honeyb
x

[Rowan]

Have to be honest HB its OH who does the kitchen and bathroom daily, he seems to have about it, it did annoy me at first about it, especially the kitchen as I was use to

doing it myself and getting on with things in the mornings, now I leave it to him to get on with it, have my breakfast at the computer and read the Papers online.

When he was working two days a week before he finally retired, I use to enjoy it, my kitchen was my own again and I whizzed through the housework.

Its surprising what you get use to, and I am glad of his help now.

[honeybun]

Hubby potters about after me and when he doesn't I notice the difference.

My son told me that my ideal bathroom was one that no one used  . He was right.


Honeyb
x

[thorntrees]

Remember all those things Silverlady. We once arrived at our quarter to find the curtains down and no hooks. Went to stores to be told they only gave out hooks in an emergency! Still not sure what constitutes a curtain emergency except lack of hooks. They did eventually reluctantly give us some but they counted them out and hubby had to sign for them-I couldn't be trusted to do that only being 'wife of'. As you say though its not the same in civvy street.

Thorntrees

[CLKD]

   ………….. I do our bathroom weekly unless it requires extra.  Kitchen surfaces on a Monday, thoroughly.  DH has taken over the hooverey thingity ……… once a week downstairs and stairs on a Monday, bedrooms on a Tuesday. 

Dusting         â€¦â€¦.. floors        I look round and wish I had time/energy to do more around the house ……..

Beds changed as necessary 

[Morwenna]

I live by myself and tidy up as I go along. Everything has it's place and I don't do 'clutter' so it's easier to keep clean. Vacuuming, dusting and beds get done about once a week. It's a small house so this job takes about 1 hour. I don't cook much these days either - I used to say the kitchen is just somewhere to keep the corkscrew! Since I went off alcohol (one benefit of menopause) the kitchen is simply a room I pass through to get to the garden! When my son's home it all soon becomes a bomb site though! 

[honeybun]

My son is very very tidy. I think it's part of his dyslexia, he copes better when everything is in its place.
He now lives in a flat with two other people. He cleans up after himself and he tells me his question. to himself is....would mum think this is clean. He employs a cleaner for the rest and also sends his washing out. Just like being at home really 
Don't know where my daughter gets her chaotic gene from.

I hate dirty carpets, always have. I am now the proud owner of a carpet washer. Good job too as all my carpets are cream.


Honeyb
x

[CLKD]

DH washed our lounge and bedroom carpet earlier this year - luckily the weather was lovely so he was able to have the windows open.  Nice and fresh again!

[Limpy]

OH does vacuuming and helps me to change the sheets.
He does all the outdoors stuff.
I do washing, dusting and bins. Also, the cooking, with his assistance.