Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => This 'n' That => Topic started by: babyjane on November 04, 2014, 10:54:16 AM
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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?
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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.
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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
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oo-er, I sound a bit of a slob by comparison :-\
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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 :)
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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.
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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
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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.
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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 ;D. He was right.
Honeyb
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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
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:-\ ………….. 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 :-\ :-X …….. floors :-\ :-X I look round and wish I had time/energy to do more around the house ……..
Beds changed as necessary ;)
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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! ::)
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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 ;D
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
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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!
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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.
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Bathroom once a week thoroughly, plus odd wipe down if needed. Dusting once a week, hubby hoovers.
Kitchen done pretty much daily, well the worktops. Doors & cupboards once in a while.
My mum dusted & hoovered every single day, which I used to also. Nowadays, I can't be bothered if I'm honest.
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That's what my mother did and now expects me to do the same when I'm at her house :o
Honeyb
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Does your Mum follow you around Honeybun whilst you're working ?
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what a lot of lovely interesting posts especially about life in the military :)
most of us seem to be the same in that a clean bathroom and kitchen are a top prioroty. I have just done some baking so the kitchen has had a clean. The bathroom gets a spray and a wipe most days, gets a thorough scouring if I have bathed the dog and hubby de-moulds the grout when black specks start to appear.
I think having a dog means you have to keep a certain standard or it gets grubby and dirty so I do. The dog is my responsibility so I clean up after her. I would hate someone to come into my house and think it smelt, it is not pristine but it is comfortable. Husband is a clutterer and I have given up fighting it now he is retired he can do his own tidying up. I don't mind some clutter but I don't like dirt. Clean bedding feels lovely so I do that regularly.
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Dusting?!!!! What's that? ;D
Don't worry bj I'm a slob too! Ditto have a husband like yours! My answer is the minimum I can get away with that is hygienic.
Hurdity x
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Just remembered some more stuff about Service life, we had an Ayah and a houseboy in Aden, mum use to give him his meals, she tried to teach him to eat with a knife and fork, but he didn't take to it and use to eat fried eggs with his fingers. Also a dhobi boy who starched our clothes so much we had to pull the sleeves apart to get our clothes on.
In Singapore we had an Amah, she was lovely, and a gardener who my little sister loved and followed him around everywhere, she seem to understand him what he said though he chattered in Hindi.
In Germany we had house frau, she use to sit me on the floor bumper and rush up and down the hall polishing the floor at the same time, with our dog Zoe grabbing at the duster under the pumper, we all had such fun.
Lovely memories.
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I love these stories :).
Hurdity a woman after my own heart, not quite Quentin Crisp though ::)
'after the first 4 years the dust doesn't get any thicker' ;D
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Dusting - It gets done when it's noticeable.
- In the parts of the house with big windows - when it's sunny - (been awkward this summer)
- Darker parts of the house - when it becomes a fire risk
;D
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:rofl:
When we had a very gentle cat who would walk through cut glass without pushing any onto the floor, I could see dust ………. she would leave paw prints along the mantle piece or shelves. :-*
DH did the windows yesterday - the double glazing plastic frames had got black and mouldy >:( so he took Cif cleaner and a thick cloth to it whilst I did the kitchen. We have glass panels on our doors throughout the ground floor ::) : wonder whose bright idea that was ……… :-X :P
I love these stories too! Good Thread :)
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Mmm! I have the touch of the OCDs, but not the energy or time or family to accommodate it. So when I feel up to it I tackle a room and do it thoroughly. Between times, well...... I have a carpet cleaner, but simply haven't the strength or energy to use it, but hubbie says he will help me......one day.......!
When the children lived at home, I cleaned my son's room as he functioned so much better when it was tidy. He is dyslexic and was always so grateful if I restored order. I left my daughter to it, once she was capable, much to her relief. I considered her room tidy if I could see the carpet! ;D I was very conscious that I could not impose OCD on the children and be rigid, so I explained the issues I had. I think having a family kept these tendencies within liveable limits, but not without internal battles.
I used to teach in a school where many of the children came from service families in the 70s and had to comfort some young mums, who had had scrubbed their previous house from top to bottom, only to be allocated a new house that was filthy. I was unimpressed with the support these families were given, with husbands posted to Northern Ireland.
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Teenagers bedrooms!! :o oh the stories I could tell about things I found............. ::)
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Anyone watch 'obsessive cleaners' last night at 8.00 :o
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sparkle I physically cannot do heavy housework like hoovering, bed changing or moving furniture so that is why my husband pitches in. Before he retired I had a cleaner once a month to go right through but he does it now. I wet dust or use those cloths that 'grab' the dust as otherwise I spend hours sneezing for England.
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Sparkle - that's our house too!
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I quite like housework but since finishing work I seem to be far less organised. I tend to do some cleaning everyday so it never really gets untidy. My kitchen floor is a nightmare - only been down 18 months and it's a sort of rustic tile. I swear it absorbs dirt dust and anything else - a nightmare to keep clean - literally scrubbing brush on hands on knees to get it really clean!
OH does very little. Big problem since I retired - :rofl: I'm busier than ever but he is self employed so gets very tired pity for him :cuss: he will Hoover if I ask him. Cooking - big no no. I suppose my house is the only thing I feel in control of so yes it is generally tidy :)
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DH has always cooked.
We had a lino many years ago which was pebbled pattern, like being on the beach: if a bag of peppercorns was dropped they disappeared for ever - unless I got on my hands and knees and went over the flooring with my hands >:( ::)
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I hate kitchen floors in general. They always seem to need washing. Ours is marble tiles, cold, unforgiving if you drop something and not easy to keep clean..Actually can't see if it's dirty or not ::)
Honeyb
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Hate it, hate it, hate it ;D. Love gardening 8) :-*
We have a scum mark around the bath ........ I've tried "CIF", bleach, other cleaners - used bicarb earlier, left it on then rinsed. I think that it may have worked a bit. Any hints?!?!
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Elbow grease! :D I love cleaning, when I have the strength to do it which is not so much these days. Gives me great satisfaction. I was a housekeeper in my younger days.
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I've tried elbow grease but the price of it has risen sharply ;D
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;D
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Elbow grease! :D I love cleaning, when I have the strength to do it which is not so much these days. Gives me great satisfaction. I was a housekeeper in my younger days.
Would you like to visit :). I need someone like you, I'd much rather muck out stables/sheep pens than do housework.
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I'm with sheila on this - put me into a garden, stable or hen house and I'm whistling while I work ;D
Bath looks shinier this morning 8)