@atomom your post made me smile. That is how my house was growing up. We rarely had visitors, usually just my grandparents. And when they came we would do a mad dash to shove everything in the closet. I’m not sure where my desire for neatness and open empty space came from. Nobody else in my family is that way.
But you lost me on windows. I hate them. I would do them occasionally in our old ranch when we got the tilt in replacement style. But my current house is a 110 year old Victorian. All of the windows are best to impossible to open. And they are huge! The average is 3-3.5’x6.5’ and we have 45 windows! I will sometimes do the inside part and call it good. We keep our shutters and blinds shut almost always anyway. But the last time they were thoroughly cleaned was when we moved in almost 15 years ago. My MIL did them and even got out on our porch roof to get them done well. That is one job I would pay someone to do.
@Hoggirl I have a Shark steam mop. It is one of the early models and is very basic. I do not have a problem with pumping the handle. It pumps itself while pushing and pulling the mop. It has the removable pads that velcro onto the mop, then you just throw them in the washing machine. They probably don’t even make this model anymore. The newer ones have a pad that slips over the mophead kinda like a sock.
When I need to replace the mop, I will look for an on/off switch and a longer cord. Most of my house is tile and I have big rooms so I usually use a 10-ft extension cord with mine.
@BunsenBurner I am intrigued by the rubber broom! I have a dog and lots of hair. Coincidentally, my DIL is selling Norwax products and there is a rubber brush that she has demonstrated on FB. Looks like the same idea as the broom and probably costs at least twice as much.
I deeply dislike cleaning the house and one luxury I pay for is a housekeeper every 2-3 weeks.
I will take care of laundry, bedding, wiping down the kitchen & sweeping daily, washing the shower curtain liner, running vinegar thru the coffee maker, cleaning out the fridge, the yard work, minor home repairs & maintenance, but I cannot bear cleaning bathrooms, mopping, dusting…on the regular.
I guess what I’m saying is even with a housekeeper, there are still plenty of chores left to do around the house.
Yes! This is what I try to impress upon DH and kids. Even though we have a housecleaner every 2 weeks, it’s not like there is not cleaning going on every day! The normal keeping up plus seasonal things that the cleaner doesn’t do.
I bought a cordless vac a year ago and it is fabulous to just grab it and do a quick once over of the floors, especially kitchen. I am definitely cleaning the floors more often because it is so convenient and I love seeing all the crumbs and dust bunnies getting removed daily instead of weekly!
@BunsenBurner I am intrigued by the rubber broom! I have a dog and lots of hair. Coincidentally, my DIL is selling Norwax products and there is a rubber brush that she has demonstrated on FB. Looks like the same idea as the broom and probably costs at least twice as much.
We have tilt in. I swear my SIL does her windows like every other month. I am happy if I get them a complete inside/outside (from inside) wash once a year. Just did mine last month or so when WFH. Made myself a deal that I would take a work week and each day built in 10 minute breaks to wash a window so that by the end of the week I would have them all done. Worked!
We have a split level and 50+ yo windows, so suffice it to say they haven’t been cleaned in the 22 years we’ve been here. The exception is the kitchen and living room windows/glass doors, since I can reach them without ladders.
The cleaning service I had didn’t clean the inside of anything – fridge, pantry floor, cabinet doors. Also didn’t clean the outside of the cabinet above the stove, which picks up grease. My kitchen floor has textured tile and their mops never got it completely clean.
OTOH, they were very thorough in the bathrooms, dusting and vacuuming.
Typing this makes me think I should look for another company when things settle down.
@Hoggirl You may also want to consider a McCulloch steamer. I’ve had one for about 4 years and it’s still going strong. Lots of attachments, including two reusable pads for floors.
We basically have walls of windows. We used to use a window washing person but my husband started doing it himself. He has a brush he uses for the dust. A window washing kit I think he bought at Costco. I think his solution is a mix of dawn, vinegar and water. He does a great job.
Over the course of our married life, we’ve had a cleaning service at two different times, both of which I fired because no one can clean a house to my satisfaction and, I guess, I just enjoy doing it. Now that we’re retired, we have time to spread things out a bit and keep the house the way we like it all the time. Our routine does a full-house clean over two mornings every week, although we only clean the guest suite and casita as needed for guest visits as we don’t use those spaces otherwise. I do all laundry and clean the master bed/bath/closet/powder room on Wednesday AM. DH does the kitchen and steams the floors on Thursday AM while I dust and polish the rest. DH is also responsible for keeping the garage in check. The rest of the week, we spot clean as needed and keep everything picked up and in it’s place. We maintain a schedule for things like changing filters, polishing cabinets, cleaning grout, paint touch-up, paver refurbishing, tile sealing, etc. We have a twice-monthly yard service that keeps the plants trimmed and the yard blown out, but we tend to the garden and detail stuff ourselves.
It’s going to be 103 today, so I washed windows at 6AM after our morning walk before the sun was fully up. I wash windows all year long.
We have walls of windows too. I’ve tried several systems (pretty good ones too for commercial use) but my husband found a system that works strictly with microfiber cleaning cloths and a super long adjustable length pole (I think it goes to 12 or 15 feet). Think it was around 80 bucks. He can do our huge bank of windows (and it’s a LOT) in around two hours with no ladder (a huge plus) and just the long pole and a water hose–no cleaning chemicals. Works like a dream. Think he bought it on amazon. I’ll ask him if anyone is interested. It used to take me forever trying to get it done.
I use microfiber cloths for all sorts of cleaning but they definitely vary in quality The “as seen on TV” are fantastic (especially windows and mirrors) and the ones by big name companies aren’t worth anything. If someone doesn’t like them for dusting or windows then they aren’t using the right ones. They LOOK alike but they aren’t.
We just put in some new vinyl plank flooring and I bought a mop from microfiberwholesale dot com. Similar to other mops but the actual mop has adjustable length, made of aluminum (very lightweight) and the microfiber pads are nicer (and cheaper to buy separately). They make pads for both wet and dry. I love it. Just scoot it around and you’re done! I got the middle size mop–they make several widths. I have a steamer mop too but it’s a real pain in comparison.
Also bought Fuller Dust Spray (yeah, the brush company). You spray it on your cloth (only!) to make it attract and latch onto dust better (DO NOT spray on a floor or surface! It goes on the dusting cloth!) Sort of expensive but it seems to work great and will last a long time.)
I don’t like to clean so I’ve spent awhile looking for every short cut possible!
For a general spray cleaner I like “Whip It” for nearly everything. It cleans, is a stain remover, does multiple surfaces. It does the job, I only need one spray bottle to carry around no matter what. NOT for window/mirrors! It does glass and windows but needs to be diluted much further so I pass on that. Best of all it smells good–I can’t stand strong bleach smells.
I don’t like house cleaning but the other people who live here like it less than I do. They don’t seem to notice the dirt.
I clean the kitchen every time I use it…except the floors. Those get swept and mopped when I feel like it.
Bathrooms get cleaned at least twice a week…with floors done once a week. It’s not hard work.
The thing I can’t keep up with is vacuuming…I need to get two Roombas…one for upstairs and one for the main level. Since the don’t do stairs well…I guess I will need to move the main level one down one step to the family room once a week.
I really miss my cleaning person. She became a family friend. We exchanged gifts, and she was invited to our kid’s wedding (but couldn’t come). When we went away for our family vacation in the summer, she took apart the whole fridge and cleaned everything. I loved that!
I need to hire someone to clean when I have my knee surgery in October. I can do the cleaning before the surgery, but won’t be able to do much for four weeks after.
We also use microfiber cleaning cloths with an adjustable length pole for windows. Definitely a time saver!
I do something else that others find odd, but works great. We have a window wall along the back of our house that opens that entire side of the house (living room, family room, foyer, kitchen) to the back patio. About once a month, I open the wall and use the electric leaf blower from the inside to blow out the house to the outside. I know, I know, you’re shaking your head and thinking I’m nuts, but it really works. I turn the blower on low and start top down (and no, it doesn’t blow things off surfaces if you stand far enough away to just blow the dust and not rock the items), then I wait a bit for any settling, and finally turn it on high to blow the floors/rugs out. It’s an amazing way to get dust and loose particles out of large area rugs, especially natural fiber rugs that can’t take harsh vacuuming.
Now, what I’d really like is a drain in the floor in the middle of the house so I could just hose out the whole house…
^ I periodically use a leaf blower to blow the dust out of my radiators. I close the doors to that room, because it makes a mess! In a good way. I then vacuum the dust up.
I use the leaf blower OUTSIDE to blow all the summer spider webs, bugs, etc. that seem to attach on the house siding especially around the front and back entry.
@ChoatieMom – that rocks! Unfortunately it won’t work for me but if it did I’d be first on board to try it!
I have read that people have designed their houses with drains for cleaning just like they do for commercial spaces. It’s always the “pretty vs. practical” unfortunately.
The hard floor cleaner @BunsenBurner mentioned above is on sale at COSTCO starting soon - for $179 ($60 off regular price).
I am thinking hard about it.
