How much time do you spend cleaning?
June 5, 2021 11:55 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to get a feel for what a "reasonable" time spent cleaning every week is. A few snowflakes inside.
I've been working hard on unfucking my habitat, but I have a lot of anxiety around cleaning plus exhaustion (cancer patient who grew up in a hoarded house). So maybe a year ago, I committed to twenty minutes six days a week plus an hour on Saturday. It's made things better, but it's still not where I want to be. I should throw in that I'm including downsizing in this, so in my case, it's not just cleaning. The downsizing is going to take a long time, and when that's done or at least further along, I'll probably do better at cleaning.
Online surveys are telling me people average about six hours a week, but that includes laundry, which I don't count, since it's not really time consuming for me. I don't count doing the dishes either, since that's a daily thing. I live alone in a three-bedroom townhouse, so that's obviously going to be different from someone with a big family with a huge house (though I would hope that several people are cleaning in that case).
I know I get to make my own decisions about this, but I'm not really happy with where I am now, and I feel like I'm not doing enough - though obviously dealing with cancer makes it harder, and one of my symptoms is severe anemia (two blood transfusions in the last month). And I'm trying to get a sense of what really keeping a clean house would be like in terms of time. It just seems like it might be helpful to know where other people are.
If you share, please also indicate house size and family size. The more details, the better.
Thanks!
I've been working hard on unfucking my habitat, but I have a lot of anxiety around cleaning plus exhaustion (cancer patient who grew up in a hoarded house). So maybe a year ago, I committed to twenty minutes six days a week plus an hour on Saturday. It's made things better, but it's still not where I want to be. I should throw in that I'm including downsizing in this, so in my case, it's not just cleaning. The downsizing is going to take a long time, and when that's done or at least further along, I'll probably do better at cleaning.
Online surveys are telling me people average about six hours a week, but that includes laundry, which I don't count, since it's not really time consuming for me. I don't count doing the dishes either, since that's a daily thing. I live alone in a three-bedroom townhouse, so that's obviously going to be different from someone with a big family with a huge house (though I would hope that several people are cleaning in that case).
I know I get to make my own decisions about this, but I'm not really happy with where I am now, and I feel like I'm not doing enough - though obviously dealing with cancer makes it harder, and one of my symptoms is severe anemia (two blood transfusions in the last month). And I'm trying to get a sense of what really keeping a clean house would be like in terms of time. It just seems like it might be helpful to know where other people are.
If you share, please also indicate house size and family size. The more details, the better.
Thanks!
2 adults (man/woman), a few cats.
It really depends. I try to keep my areas clean so that putting things away and tidying is a 5 minute job. Since I don't have kids, I think mine is going to sound like FAR LESS than most people who do.
I do about 20 minutes cleaning the whole kitchen up on Saturday usually. I run the Roomba a few times a week (I have to clean the roomba which takes 10 minutes). I do a load of laundry on the weekend as well usually.
About every other week we do an hour clean of our tiny bathroom and other areas wiping them down and putting everything away if it got out of place.
I try to do about 10 minutes a day if I can, but I have found what's best with me with ADHD.
1. Have an hour with no one else around
2. Start one task
3. Notice second task, start that
4. Repeat 3 about 10 times
5. Spiral back in to other tasks until I finally complete the first task
That's how I get a fully clean room and other parts of the house.
edit: It is really important with my ADHD that the task is a manageable size OR I am ok in my head with just starting to tackle it. If my partner leaves a huge sink full of dirty dishes, I have to really actively push my brain to tackle it because my inclination is to shut down and not do it.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:07 PM on June 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
It really depends. I try to keep my areas clean so that putting things away and tidying is a 5 minute job. Since I don't have kids, I think mine is going to sound like FAR LESS than most people who do.
I do about 20 minutes cleaning the whole kitchen up on Saturday usually. I run the Roomba a few times a week (I have to clean the roomba which takes 10 minutes). I do a load of laundry on the weekend as well usually.
About every other week we do an hour clean of our tiny bathroom and other areas wiping them down and putting everything away if it got out of place.
I try to do about 10 minutes a day if I can, but I have found what's best with me with ADHD.
1. Have an hour with no one else around
2. Start one task
3. Notice second task, start that
4. Repeat 3 about 10 times
5. Spiral back in to other tasks until I finally complete the first task
That's how I get a fully clean room and other parts of the house.
edit: It is really important with my ADHD that the task is a manageable size OR I am ok in my head with just starting to tackle it. If my partner leaves a huge sink full of dirty dishes, I have to really actively push my brain to tackle it because my inclination is to shut down and not do it.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:07 PM on June 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
We have a ~2000 square foot house with two older adults and one older dog. Cleaning day is every other Saturday and it takes the two of us about five person-hours each week. This includes dusting, vacuuming, bathroom (2.5) and kitchen cleaning; we keep things pretty tidy so very little time is devoted to straightening up. Over time, we've learned what needs to be done every time we clean and what tasks can be done periodically.
posted by DrGail at 12:12 PM on June 5, 2021
posted by DrGail at 12:12 PM on June 5, 2021
I'll just go ahead and say that I've never particularly enjoyed cleaning (outside of dishes and laundry, which for me are no big deal). I probably do 10 minutes of "tidying" per day -- putting things where they belong, making sure the dirty clothing goes in the hamper, etc. -- and then have a cleaners come every other week to do the big stuff. It is absolutely worth it to me to pay for this service. (3 people x 90 minutes = 4.5 person hours for a 1400 square foot, 2 bedroom house.) It absolutely sucked having to do this work myself during quarantine, so I heartily endorse you hiring out if you desire.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:20 PM on June 5, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:20 PM on June 5, 2021 [6 favorites]
Apologies for the double post, but just remembered: when I worked as the scheduler for a cleaning company (in NYC, if it matters), I was told when handling a new client to advise they book 1hr for every room. The idea was that bedrooms/living rooms would be a little under 1hr to deep clean, bathrooms/kitchens a little over, but it would generally average out to 1hr.
posted by coffeecat at 12:27 PM on June 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by coffeecat at 12:27 PM on June 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I live alone in a ~1600 square foot, four-bedroom house, I work from home and I tend to cook at least once a day. I have a multi-tiered cleaning/organizing/decluttering approach.
- I have cleaners who come every other week. They get the bathrooms (one and a half baths) and kitchen really really clean, dust (which I do not do), etc. My circumstances have changed a lot since I started using professional cleaners, and this is probably not an optimal use of my money at the moment, but I appreciate their work very much and I know they have had a tough time financially over the past year, so I'm sticking with it for now. There are two of them and they spend about two hours, so call that two hours a week.
- I probably spend 10 minutes every day picking up after myself/doing dishes/etc.
- I do still tend to let the house get pretty messy in between cleaner visits, so I also devote 1-2 long podcasts worth of time every week to aggressively picking up, light cleaning, and laundry.
- I have a robot vacuum that runs almost every day on the first floor of my house, and one upstairs that I run once a week or so.
- I also spend a couple hours a week on straight-up decluttering and organizing, but I'm extremely distractible and inefficient about this, partly because it tends to involve a lot of decision-making and sometimes it involves using my phone to take photos of things or sitting down at the computer to list stuff on eBay, facebook marketplace, freecycle, etc., which tends to lead to distraction (and indeed that is how I ended up here today). I'm OK at getting rid of high-value items like electronics and low-value stuff that I can take to Goodwill or put in the trash, but the middle stuff that feels too good to just toss but maybe the return on investment for selling it is not that great - that stuff is really hard.
All in all it's probably around 6 person-hours of cleaning (plus several robovac hours) plus some amount of inefficient decluttering. My house still feels messy to me, but I can pretty much always get the first floor company-ready in well under an hour (my mom is one of the few people I have over nowadays and she is very cleanliness-conscious!).
If you're at all interested in trying out a cleaning service (I totally understand that it's deeply uncomfortable for some people plus you may not want strangers in your house during even the tail end of a pandemic), you probably qualify for two free cleaning sessions from Cleaning for a Reason, a charity that partners with local cleaning companies to provide this service to cancer patients.
posted by mskyle at 12:40 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
- I have cleaners who come every other week. They get the bathrooms (one and a half baths) and kitchen really really clean, dust (which I do not do), etc. My circumstances have changed a lot since I started using professional cleaners, and this is probably not an optimal use of my money at the moment, but I appreciate their work very much and I know they have had a tough time financially over the past year, so I'm sticking with it for now. There are two of them and they spend about two hours, so call that two hours a week.
- I probably spend 10 minutes every day picking up after myself/doing dishes/etc.
- I do still tend to let the house get pretty messy in between cleaner visits, so I also devote 1-2 long podcasts worth of time every week to aggressively picking up, light cleaning, and laundry.
- I have a robot vacuum that runs almost every day on the first floor of my house, and one upstairs that I run once a week or so.
- I also spend a couple hours a week on straight-up decluttering and organizing, but I'm extremely distractible and inefficient about this, partly because it tends to involve a lot of decision-making and sometimes it involves using my phone to take photos of things or sitting down at the computer to list stuff on eBay, facebook marketplace, freecycle, etc., which tends to lead to distraction (and indeed that is how I ended up here today). I'm OK at getting rid of high-value items like electronics and low-value stuff that I can take to Goodwill or put in the trash, but the middle stuff that feels too good to just toss but maybe the return on investment for selling it is not that great - that stuff is really hard.
All in all it's probably around 6 person-hours of cleaning (plus several robovac hours) plus some amount of inefficient decluttering. My house still feels messy to me, but I can pretty much always get the first floor company-ready in well under an hour (my mom is one of the few people I have over nowadays and she is very cleanliness-conscious!).
If you're at all interested in trying out a cleaning service (I totally understand that it's deeply uncomfortable for some people plus you may not want strangers in your house during even the tail end of a pandemic), you probably qualify for two free cleaning sessions from Cleaning for a Reason, a charity that partners with local cleaning companies to provide this service to cancer patients.
posted by mskyle at 12:40 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Honestly, if you work a standard full-time job, it's totally reasonable to hire a housekeeper.
Here's what this looks like for us:
Daily: Wash dishes, generally tidy up (meaning, put objects back in the place they belong)
2x a week:Wipe down kitchen counters
Weekly: Laundry, incl. towels. Take out trash and recycling and compost.
Every 3 weeks: House cleaner comes for $100 and sweeps, mops, vacuums, cleans kitchen and bathrooms, changes sheets, wipes down all surfaces and tables and desks, etc.
posted by amaire at 1:14 PM on June 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
Here's what this looks like for us:
Daily: Wash dishes, generally tidy up (meaning, put objects back in the place they belong)
2x a week:Wipe down kitchen counters
Weekly: Laundry, incl. towels. Take out trash and recycling and compost.
Every 3 weeks: House cleaner comes for $100 and sweeps, mops, vacuums, cleans kitchen and bathrooms, changes sheets, wipes down all surfaces and tables and desks, etc.
posted by amaire at 1:14 PM on June 5, 2021 [4 favorites]
I think it's probably like 4 hours a week for me since we have a dishwasher, and not including laundry. For me, the secret is cleaning up as you go as you're doing other things, plus a sprint at the end of the week for the more "project" types of cleaning that happen. We are two adults with full time jobs and one dog in a two-bedroom that is a little small.
So I'm putting dishes away from the dishwasher, using some to cook dinner and make lunches, and putting more dishes in the dishwasher as I am done with them. Either when dinner is in the pot cooking and doesn't need attention, or right after dinner, I do all the handwash things and wipe down the counters. It's not its own event-- cleaning is a part of the food process. Same with tidying-- if you're done using the thing, you're not done until you put it away. If you keep up with it, you never really have to do very serious deep cleaning since you catch it before it gets bad.
The sprint at the end of the week is about 2 hours and it includes doing the kitchen counters, stovetop, bathroom counters, and floors. Shower, tub, and toilet are like once a month, and then there's the "once a year whether it needs it or not" stuff like windows and wiping down the whole fridge. Sheets on the beds are like every couple weeks and down to whoever blinks first (usually me.)
Obviously, it also depends on how much you care about how clean it is. The person I live with will pitch in as needed, but we aren't super-tidy perfectionists. We have a policy that the individual is responsible for their own things/mess/needs but can negotiate that based on what is up (work, illness, etc.) For example, she has like 5x the laundry that I do, but I have to wear clothes that I have to iron, both due to the nature of our jobs-- but we can pinch hit for each other if it comes down to it. FWIW, we were both AFAB, which comes with different ingrained expectations about chores than people who were AMAB, so that may play into it.
Then again, time is the one thing in your life that you don't ever get back, so hiring a housecleaner is sometimes worth it-- I have hired them for move-out cleanings and don't regret it one bit.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:40 PM on June 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
So I'm putting dishes away from the dishwasher, using some to cook dinner and make lunches, and putting more dishes in the dishwasher as I am done with them. Either when dinner is in the pot cooking and doesn't need attention, or right after dinner, I do all the handwash things and wipe down the counters. It's not its own event-- cleaning is a part of the food process. Same with tidying-- if you're done using the thing, you're not done until you put it away. If you keep up with it, you never really have to do very serious deep cleaning since you catch it before it gets bad.
The sprint at the end of the week is about 2 hours and it includes doing the kitchen counters, stovetop, bathroom counters, and floors. Shower, tub, and toilet are like once a month, and then there's the "once a year whether it needs it or not" stuff like windows and wiping down the whole fridge. Sheets on the beds are like every couple weeks and down to whoever blinks first (usually me.)
Obviously, it also depends on how much you care about how clean it is. The person I live with will pitch in as needed, but we aren't super-tidy perfectionists. We have a policy that the individual is responsible for their own things/mess/needs but can negotiate that based on what is up (work, illness, etc.) For example, she has like 5x the laundry that I do, but I have to wear clothes that I have to iron, both due to the nature of our jobs-- but we can pinch hit for each other if it comes down to it. FWIW, we were both AFAB, which comes with different ingrained expectations about chores than people who were AMAB, so that may play into it.
Then again, time is the one thing in your life that you don't ever get back, so hiring a housecleaner is sometimes worth it-- I have hired them for move-out cleanings and don't regret it one bit.
posted by blnkfrnk at 1:40 PM on June 5, 2021 [5 favorites]
2100 square feet, two adults, a one year old.
Probably an hour - hour and a half a day.
I spend about 30-45 minutes total cleaning in the kitchen per day. I clean after every meal because it gets way out of hand otherwise, baby is a messy eater.
10 minutes daily in the bathroom. We wipe the shower dry after every use which seriously cuts down on the need to do other cleaning of it. Lysol wipe on the sink, toilet, whatever else is handy. Stick vacuum lives in the bathroom and I vacuum bathroom and the hall outside it where the litter box is with the morning clean.
Roomba whole house once a week when we all go out.
Feather duster and alcohol wipe on random surfaces about the house here and there while baby is playing.
15 minute tidy in the evening.
No deep cleaning or long cleaning sessions. I think the house is acceptably clean but not pristine.
posted by acantha at 2:05 PM on June 5, 2021
Probably an hour - hour and a half a day.
I spend about 30-45 minutes total cleaning in the kitchen per day. I clean after every meal because it gets way out of hand otherwise, baby is a messy eater.
10 minutes daily in the bathroom. We wipe the shower dry after every use which seriously cuts down on the need to do other cleaning of it. Lysol wipe on the sink, toilet, whatever else is handy. Stick vacuum lives in the bathroom and I vacuum bathroom and the hall outside it where the litter box is with the morning clean.
Roomba whole house once a week when we all go out.
Feather duster and alcohol wipe on random surfaces about the house here and there while baby is playing.
15 minute tidy in the evening.
No deep cleaning or long cleaning sessions. I think the house is acceptably clean but not pristine.
posted by acantha at 2:05 PM on June 5, 2021
Not including the post dinner kitchen tidy up, laundry and yard work. 20 mins a day (a different room every day) with a deep clean every 3 to 6 months depending on the room and how much use it gets. So at least a spring and pre holiday deep clean and declutter. So curtains washed, carpets cleaned, floors polished etc which takes me an hour or 2 a day, doing one room a day for a week. It is only my husband and me and our 2 dogs, but one is incontinent so lots of accident clean ups and regular carpet cleaning is a must.
posted by wwax at 2:10 PM on June 5, 2021
posted by wwax at 2:10 PM on June 5, 2021
The main thing for me is that I don't keep a lot of stuff. I keep it simple. Pretty much everything I own, I use. If I never use something, I donate it to charity. I keep things very neat and tidy (a place for everything, everything in its place) and so I always put things away as soon as I'm done using them. I think a lack of clutter goes a long way in making a house look clean. I have my windows, blinds and carpet cleaned professionally once per year. I wash my bedding once per week and I vacuum all my floors once per week. Other than that, there is no routine - I just clean stuff when it starts to look dirty. I really don't spend that much time doing housework. (I live alone in a two-bedroom, two-bath, living room, dining room, kitchen, garage.)
posted by SageTrail at 3:25 PM on June 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by SageTrail at 3:25 PM on June 5, 2021 [8 favorites]
I do very little cleaning. Yeah, I wipe down the kitchen and clean up after meals, but the dishwasher is great. I rarely wash the floor on the first floor unless it obviously needs it. I have a Roomba for vacuuming the first floor, which I set and forget once a week. I use the regular vacuum on the second floor because I have really long hair and if I don't vacuum, the cat eats the hairs off the floor and makes little bead-strings of poop. I clean the toilet whenever I think of it and wipe down surfaces in the bathroom litlte bit every week or so. For laundry the biggest time consumer is folding it. I wipe down the surfaces in my study every other week or so. I periodically dust the bedroom because otherwise the dust-balls accumulate.
I don't have wall-to-wall rugs and I have whole-house AC/heat, so my house is really easy, even though I watch my toddler grandchild twice a week and he's at the food-flinging age.
I used to feel bad about how little cleaning I do, but then I went through an epic declutter the last few years. Now everything I still have is put away out of sight. I put things where they belong right after using them, So now my house looks absolutely peachy and it smells perfectly nice.
Cleaning is over-rated.
posted by Peach at 3:25 PM on June 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I don't have wall-to-wall rugs and I have whole-house AC/heat, so my house is really easy, even though I watch my toddler grandchild twice a week and he's at the food-flinging age.
I used to feel bad about how little cleaning I do, but then I went through an epic declutter the last few years. Now everything I still have is put away out of sight. I put things where they belong right after using them, So now my house looks absolutely peachy and it smells perfectly nice.
Cleaning is over-rated.
posted by Peach at 3:25 PM on June 5, 2021 [3 favorites]
I think there's a difference between "deep cleaning" and "maintenance cleaning". The "deep cleaning" is the big-time cleaning you only do once every few months or once a year - dusting along the wainscotting, washing mattresses, cleaning along the tops of door frames, all the really annoying anal shit that takes a good while but only needs doing once every few months. Meanwhile the "maintenance cleaning" is the daily "wipe down the counter to make sure you wipe up any spills from when you made dinner" and "tidy up all the stuff you got out to do stuff with during the day" and "make your bed when you get up" stuff. That's daily or weekly, but it's a lot faster, especially if you're kind of tidy anyway (if you have takeout for dinner one night, there's a lot fewer dishes to wash than you'd need to wash on the nights when you make pressed duck or whatever).
Something you may want to consider - a one-time cleaning service to come in and do a good deep clean, get you back up to a good place and set you up so that all you have to do for a while is the maintenance cleaning. It's something I was seriously considering doing when our cleaning went to the wall a bit after I broke my knee. But I actually have found I can manage okay on my own, and I've given some of the worst bits of the house a good deep clean and we're doing okay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:33 PM on June 5, 2021
Something you may want to consider - a one-time cleaning service to come in and do a good deep clean, get you back up to a good place and set you up so that all you have to do for a while is the maintenance cleaning. It's something I was seriously considering doing when our cleaning went to the wall a bit after I broke my knee. But I actually have found I can manage okay on my own, and I've given some of the worst bits of the house a good deep clean and we're doing okay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:33 PM on June 5, 2021
The class aspect of housekeeping makes me uncomfortable.
Where I lived before, we cleaned once a week always on Saturdays before our friends came over for the weekly potluck.
Right now I'm just living with my partner and dog due to pandemic.
- I pick things up once a day.
- I take my dishes to the kitchen when I'm going there.
- I make the bed if I feel like it.
- Today I mopped the kitchen floor, but it had been a couple months and it was pretty bad. We'd been meaning to get to it forever, we're always meaning to get to it forever, because it only stays clean for like 5 minutes.
- I did not mop the bathroom floor today, because we're not having guests right now due to pandemic, so I can procrastinate it and the bathroom sink and mirror a little longer.
- I don't ever clean the tub because it has weird flaking paint and probably some plumbing issues and I don't want to make anything worse. But I empty out the hair trap when it's full.
- I brush my cat-sized dog for 2-4 minutes 3x/day, and pick up "tumbleweeds" of dog hair when I notice them.
- I sweep maybe every couple weeks and dust when things look dusty.
- I take outbound things to the little free library or local free pile when I walk my dog.
I know I missed things, but I think the general idea is "I do cleaning things when the mood strikes".
posted by aniola at 4:12 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Where I lived before, we cleaned once a week always on Saturdays before our friends came over for the weekly potluck.
Right now I'm just living with my partner and dog due to pandemic.
- I pick things up once a day.
- I take my dishes to the kitchen when I'm going there.
- I make the bed if I feel like it.
- Today I mopped the kitchen floor, but it had been a couple months and it was pretty bad. We'd been meaning to get to it forever, we're always meaning to get to it forever, because it only stays clean for like 5 minutes.
- I did not mop the bathroom floor today, because we're not having guests right now due to pandemic, so I can procrastinate it and the bathroom sink and mirror a little longer.
- I don't ever clean the tub because it has weird flaking paint and probably some plumbing issues and I don't want to make anything worse. But I empty out the hair trap when it's full.
- I brush my cat-sized dog for 2-4 minutes 3x/day, and pick up "tumbleweeds" of dog hair when I notice them.
- I sweep maybe every couple weeks and dust when things look dusty.
- I take outbound things to the little free library or local free pile when I walk my dog.
I know I missed things, but I think the general idea is "I do cleaning things when the mood strikes".
posted by aniola at 4:12 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Living by myself in a sub-550 sq ft apartment, I would guess around 20-30 mins. a day, plus a couple hours on the weekend. I don't always reach that level, but that's about what gets it to acceptable for me. I really dislike cleaning, so I'm mostly aiming at avoiding vermin, smells, and social stigma.
If I had cancer (and could afford it, of course), I would not hesitate one second to hire a cleaning service.
posted by praemunire at 4:17 PM on June 5, 2021
If I had cancer (and could afford it, of course), I would not hesitate one second to hire a cleaning service.
posted by praemunire at 4:17 PM on June 5, 2021
Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers so far. Just to reiterate, I'm specifically asking for information on the amount of time people spend cleaning, not just a list of tasks. Time spent on individual tasks is great though.
posted by FencingGal at 4:18 PM on June 5, 2021
posted by FencingGal at 4:18 PM on June 5, 2021
I think the materials in your home as well as your tools will also play a role here so for reference I live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom bungalow with 2 other adults and two kids. Our floors are hardwood + area rugs upstairs, vinyl tile + area rugs downstairs, tile in the entryway, kitchen, and upstairs bath, vinyl downstairs.
Our house is not a showroom but is generally decluttered and storage is pretty decent.
Every day: 30 minutes in the kitchen, 10–15 min in the bathroom, 10 minutes of tidying.
Weekly: 45 minutes on floors (vacuum/steam mop/attachment on baseboards and vents/dust attachment on shelves), depending on the week a few minutes of tidying, 20 minute deep clean per bathroom, 15-20 minutes on the fridge, 15 min garbage cans/recycling done and then a “deep clean” one of the following zones: bedrooms, kitchen, hallways/living room/etc room. Some rooms in the house are my MIL’ domain and I don’t touch my husband’s office. The deep clean varies and is usually about 2.5 hrs.
There’s also gardening.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:27 PM on June 5, 2021
Our house is not a showroom but is generally decluttered and storage is pretty decent.
Every day: 30 minutes in the kitchen, 10–15 min in the bathroom, 10 minutes of tidying.
Weekly: 45 minutes on floors (vacuum/steam mop/attachment on baseboards and vents/dust attachment on shelves), depending on the week a few minutes of tidying, 20 minute deep clean per bathroom, 15-20 minutes on the fridge, 15 min garbage cans/recycling done and then a “deep clean” one of the following zones: bedrooms, kitchen, hallways/living room/etc room. Some rooms in the house are my MIL’ domain and I don’t touch my husband’s office. The deep clean varies and is usually about 2.5 hrs.
There’s also gardening.
posted by warriorqueen at 4:27 PM on June 5, 2021
I tidy a bit every day. Usually it's minimal. The extent of my daily clean is usually keeping the kitchen counters clean and washing dishes. My husband or I usually does this and it could take around a half hour.
I tend to do biweekly thorough cleanings. I am a great deep-cleaner and a thorough cleaner -- especially if I am having guests and I want the place to shine. With that being said, I have always struggled with being scattered while cleaning. I tend to make it harder by flitting from one thing to the next without direction. This directionless method could take me all day if I'm cleaning every room thoroughly. 6-8 hours.
Recently I have been using the left to right, top to bottom method -- keeps me organized and it takes less time and it's kind of fun. Last night I deep cleaned using this method and it took about three hours. Less messy people could probably do it in two hours.
posted by loveandhappiness at 5:06 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
I tend to do biweekly thorough cleanings. I am a great deep-cleaner and a thorough cleaner -- especially if I am having guests and I want the place to shine. With that being said, I have always struggled with being scattered while cleaning. I tend to make it harder by flitting from one thing to the next without direction. This directionless method could take me all day if I'm cleaning every room thoroughly. 6-8 hours.
Recently I have been using the left to right, top to bottom method -- keeps me organized and it takes less time and it's kind of fun. Last night I deep cleaned using this method and it took about three hours. Less messy people could probably do it in two hours.
posted by loveandhappiness at 5:06 PM on June 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
For various health and brain reasons, I also struggle to clean to my liking, and feel bad about it sometimes. I've found KC Davis' work really helpful in being more compassionate with myself while also getting more of the stuff that's important to me done. She has a book called How to Keep House While Drowning and an excellent TikTok.
To answer your question directly, I live alone in a small-but-packed 1-bedroom apartment with a small patio, and on an average week when I just need to keep the place safe and navigable I spend 1 to 1.5 hours each week cleaning if we don't count dishes and laundry. That includes wiping down the sink and counters a couple times a week, vacuuming the carpet and swiffering the kitchen floor once a week, wiping down the toilet and (maybe) the tub once a week, and basic neatening-up to get stuff out of the way and back to its proper place as needed.
If I have guests coming, or get bit by the deep cleaning bug, it can be 2-3 hours in a week. The extra time can include (usually some but not all of) dusting, a deeper toilet and/or tub clean, wiping down the windowsills, cleaning the corners the vacuum and swiffer miss, cleaning out and wiping down the fridge, sweeping the patio outside, and organizing or purging stuff.
posted by rhiannonstone at 6:27 PM on June 5, 2021
To answer your question directly, I live alone in a small-but-packed 1-bedroom apartment with a small patio, and on an average week when I just need to keep the place safe and navigable I spend 1 to 1.5 hours each week cleaning if we don't count dishes and laundry. That includes wiping down the sink and counters a couple times a week, vacuuming the carpet and swiffering the kitchen floor once a week, wiping down the toilet and (maybe) the tub once a week, and basic neatening-up to get stuff out of the way and back to its proper place as needed.
If I have guests coming, or get bit by the deep cleaning bug, it can be 2-3 hours in a week. The extra time can include (usually some but not all of) dusting, a deeper toilet and/or tub clean, wiping down the windowsills, cleaning the corners the vacuum and swiffer miss, cleaning out and wiping down the fridge, sweeping the patio outside, and organizing or purging stuff.
posted by rhiannonstone at 6:27 PM on June 5, 2021
- I pick things up once a day. (0-10 minutes)
- I make the bed if I feel like it. (1 minute - I just shake the bedding out so it covers the mattress and maybe put the pillows back if they've strayed too far)
- Today I mopped the kitchen floor, but it had been a couple months and it was pretty bad. We'd been meaning to get to it forever, we're always meaning to get to it forever, because it only stays clean for like 5 minutes. (I spent an hour cleaning, and I think most of that was mopping, but I also took out recycling and trash and swept and tidied and misc. So maybe 30 minutes on the floor? -ish?)
- I did not mop the bathroom floor today, because we're not having guests right now due to pandemic, so I can procrastinate it and the bathroom sink and mirror a little longer. (0 minutes)
- I don't ever clean the tub because it has weird flaking paint and probably some plumbing issues and I don't want to make anything worse. (0 minutes) But I empty out the hair trap when it's full. (10 seconds)
- I brush my cat-sized dog for 2-4 minutes 3x/day (total 10-15 minutes, this is required to get my dog to eat), and pick up "tumbleweeds" of dog hair when I notice them (10-30 seconds?).
- I sweep maybe every couple weeks (5 minutes? 10?) and dust when things look dusty. (15 seconds whenever. 5 minutes if it's the toilet)
posted by aniola at 7:05 PM on June 5, 2021
- I make the bed if I feel like it. (1 minute - I just shake the bedding out so it covers the mattress and maybe put the pillows back if they've strayed too far)
- Today I mopped the kitchen floor, but it had been a couple months and it was pretty bad. We'd been meaning to get to it forever, we're always meaning to get to it forever, because it only stays clean for like 5 minutes. (I spent an hour cleaning, and I think most of that was mopping, but I also took out recycling and trash and swept and tidied and misc. So maybe 30 minutes on the floor? -ish?)
- I did not mop the bathroom floor today, because we're not having guests right now due to pandemic, so I can procrastinate it and the bathroom sink and mirror a little longer. (0 minutes)
- I don't ever clean the tub because it has weird flaking paint and probably some plumbing issues and I don't want to make anything worse. (0 minutes) But I empty out the hair trap when it's full. (10 seconds)
- I brush my cat-sized dog for 2-4 minutes 3x/day (total 10-15 minutes, this is required to get my dog to eat), and pick up "tumbleweeds" of dog hair when I notice them (10-30 seconds?).
- I sweep maybe every couple weeks (5 minutes? 10?) and dust when things look dusty. (15 seconds whenever. 5 minutes if it's the toilet)
posted by aniola at 7:05 PM on June 5, 2021
1300 sf. house with two people
As little cleaning as I can possibly stand.
On average 10 minutes a day for both of us - 5 minutes each.
I’d say we keep the dishes and toilets clean. Counters and floors not as often.
The dust is getting pretty thick in places.
Stop-gap cleaning twice a year for floors and counters deep clean.
We had a caretaker when my dying parent lived with us. She cleaned while my parent napped. Those were the days! When the parent died, it felt like we were doubly bereft. We had a very disappointing experience with twice-monthly housekeeper.
Why so little? We are in a phase where we haven’t had many guests and we are going through a lull in cleaning. It’s more important to us to read and create or work at the moment. Our privacy and security - also more important to us at the moment.
posted by rw at 8:47 PM on June 5, 2021
As little cleaning as I can possibly stand.
On average 10 minutes a day for both of us - 5 minutes each.
I’d say we keep the dishes and toilets clean. Counters and floors not as often.
The dust is getting pretty thick in places.
Stop-gap cleaning twice a year for floors and counters deep clean.
We had a caretaker when my dying parent lived with us. She cleaned while my parent napped. Those were the days! When the parent died, it felt like we were doubly bereft. We had a very disappointing experience with twice-monthly housekeeper.
Why so little? We are in a phase where we haven’t had many guests and we are going through a lull in cleaning. It’s more important to us to read and create or work at the moment. Our privacy and security - also more important to us at the moment.
posted by rw at 8:47 PM on June 5, 2021
The stuff you are cleaning makes a huge difference. My kitchen floor takes an hour to mop, because there is too much stuff in a small kitchen and a lot of it has to be removed. I prefer to do this on a dry warm day as the easiest way to empty it all out is to put it on the porch just outside of the kitchen. Failing that it all has to be carried down a long narrow hall. By the time the chairs, recycling bins, over flow storage of cleaning products, box of tupperware, cat food dishes and the hibatchi stored under the kitchen table are all out on the porch and the floor is swept ready to mop I am already at least twenty minutes in. My floor is wood and the finishing is wearing off and there are some inconvenient baseboard radiators. I have to make sure it doesn't get too wet.
If you have a situation like mine cleaning is going to take much longer than if the only furniture in your kitchen is a stool, the floor is well sealed so you can get it quite wet and leave puddles on spots that need to soak, and you are not going to be interrupted by someone trying to get a snack while you just about to finish sweeping. A floor like that would only take fifteen minutes.
A roomba is nice, but if you have the wrong kind of furniture, a house that is not open plan and stairs for it to fall down it will disappear under one of the armchairs and never manage to get into the thicket of table and chair legs in the dining room if it is not found dead upside down at the foot of the stairs some morning. In my house again, sweeping or vacuuming takes a lot of time to get around all our possessions and under them or behind them and it has to be done by someone patient with a broom. Five minutes to sweep the library will just do the walk through area. To get behind the art carts on wheels and the totes full of photographs and behind the library table and the love seat is going to be at least forty-five minutes. If the full job isn't done at least once a month the dust on the floor in the walk through area is going to accumulate so fast it needs to be swept every two or three days.
I suspect you are on the right track with the decluttering, and that will make all the difference. Probably the reason it is taking so long is the kind of stuff you have. People who do things have more stuff than people whose leisure time is just spend on line. The more types of different things you do, the more stuff there will be to clean and the longer it will take.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:49 AM on June 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you have a situation like mine cleaning is going to take much longer than if the only furniture in your kitchen is a stool, the floor is well sealed so you can get it quite wet and leave puddles on spots that need to soak, and you are not going to be interrupted by someone trying to get a snack while you just about to finish sweeping. A floor like that would only take fifteen minutes.
A roomba is nice, but if you have the wrong kind of furniture, a house that is not open plan and stairs for it to fall down it will disappear under one of the armchairs and never manage to get into the thicket of table and chair legs in the dining room if it is not found dead upside down at the foot of the stairs some morning. In my house again, sweeping or vacuuming takes a lot of time to get around all our possessions and under them or behind them and it has to be done by someone patient with a broom. Five minutes to sweep the library will just do the walk through area. To get behind the art carts on wheels and the totes full of photographs and behind the library table and the love seat is going to be at least forty-five minutes. If the full job isn't done at least once a month the dust on the floor in the walk through area is going to accumulate so fast it needs to be swept every two or three days.
I suspect you are on the right track with the decluttering, and that will make all the difference. Probably the reason it is taking so long is the kind of stuff you have. People who do things have more stuff than people whose leisure time is just spend on line. The more types of different things you do, the more stuff there will be to clean and the longer it will take.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:49 AM on June 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
Interesting question. I live in a 50 square metres (538 sq feet) 1 bed apartment. All the floors are old and wooden, except in the spare room/study, which has carpet. Usually 2 adults, no kids, no pets, but I'm living alone at the moment.
For context, I would say I am a clean and tidy person, and I don't like mess. My tolerance for what is 'dirty' is low. In fact, I've recently been trying to relax a bit about instantly cleaning up cups and plates etc. as I can get a bit too anxious about it.
As requested, I've tried to separate out by time as below:
1. I clean up after every meal, load dishwasher, and thoroughly wipe counter/stove (~5-10 minutes per meal including unloading dishwasher, so say 20-30 minutes per day). If i've spilled something I will sweep it up or spot clean (usually just with a damp cloth rather than mop).
2. I tidy up after myself putting away cups/plates/bags/books etc. around 10 - 20 minutes per day
3. I am only doing my own clothes washing at the moment and I probably do that twice or three times a week depending on exercise-related clothes. I don't have a drier, so hanging up clothes (most annoying bit) takes about 5 minutes per load, and putting away another 5-10. I would say averages out to 8 minutes a day over a week.
4. I change my bed linen once every 2 weeks. 15 minutes including setting sheets to wash, hanging up and putting away. I make my bed every day. so say 2 minutes per day to average bed-related stuff.
5. I wipe down the bathroom (taps, annoying square sink, toilet and bowl) twice a week or so, which takes five minutes. So about 15 minutes a week = 2 minutes a day. I use a microfibre cloth and a little bit of cleaning liquid if needed.
6. The main issue in my flat is dust. I dust, including skirting boards and windows and woodwork (old flat, there is a lot of woodwork), also properly clean the bathroom (more scrubby than wiping) once a week. I hoover the whole flat after. This usually takes an hour per week. sometimes I dust the in the bedroom once during the week as it's more noticeable, so add 10 minutes per week and that's 10 minutes per day for the 'big' clean and extra dusting.
7. I mop the floors every two weeks or so- takes about 15 minutes, so say 1 minute a day.
So, if I average all of that out it's 1 hour 13 minutes a day, which I must say is more than I thought! I would have originally said my timing was similar to what OP originally stated (~20 mins a day and an hour once a week). But having typed it all out - with tidying up after meals, and generally tidying up after myself, it's more like 40 minutes a day for tidying/kitchen, and then an hour once a week for dusting and hoovering/sometimes mopping.
But a three-bedroom place will require more time, and completely agree on the decluttering aspect too making it harder. As well as cancer - that all sounds very tough, and I wish you well in getting better. I tend to declutter as a completely separate job than cleaning.
I would agree with the suggestion that a good idea might be to get a cleaning service to do a deep clean of the bathroom/kitchen if at all possible (and it may not be during the pandemic, or for budget etc. so apologies if not). Or, perhaps one week you could forgo smaller jobs, do a big clean of the bathroom, for example, and then get back to more of a balance after. I find that if you can then spare a few minutes to wipe down surfaces, that keeps things under control. Same for always cleaning up thoroughly after eating, although I can appreciate that can be quite a lot of work.
Hopefully this is helpful and you find something that works for you!
posted by sedimentary_deer at 6:33 AM on June 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
For context, I would say I am a clean and tidy person, and I don't like mess. My tolerance for what is 'dirty' is low. In fact, I've recently been trying to relax a bit about instantly cleaning up cups and plates etc. as I can get a bit too anxious about it.
As requested, I've tried to separate out by time as below:
1. I clean up after every meal, load dishwasher, and thoroughly wipe counter/stove (~5-10 minutes per meal including unloading dishwasher, so say 20-30 minutes per day). If i've spilled something I will sweep it up or spot clean (usually just with a damp cloth rather than mop).
2. I tidy up after myself putting away cups/plates/bags/books etc. around 10 - 20 minutes per day
3. I am only doing my own clothes washing at the moment and I probably do that twice or three times a week depending on exercise-related clothes. I don't have a drier, so hanging up clothes (most annoying bit) takes about 5 minutes per load, and putting away another 5-10. I would say averages out to 8 minutes a day over a week.
4. I change my bed linen once every 2 weeks. 15 minutes including setting sheets to wash, hanging up and putting away. I make my bed every day. so say 2 minutes per day to average bed-related stuff.
5. I wipe down the bathroom (taps, annoying square sink, toilet and bowl) twice a week or so, which takes five minutes. So about 15 minutes a week = 2 minutes a day. I use a microfibre cloth and a little bit of cleaning liquid if needed.
6. The main issue in my flat is dust. I dust, including skirting boards and windows and woodwork (old flat, there is a lot of woodwork), also properly clean the bathroom (more scrubby than wiping) once a week. I hoover the whole flat after. This usually takes an hour per week. sometimes I dust the in the bedroom once during the week as it's more noticeable, so add 10 minutes per week and that's 10 minutes per day for the 'big' clean and extra dusting.
7. I mop the floors every two weeks or so- takes about 15 minutes, so say 1 minute a day.
So, if I average all of that out it's 1 hour 13 minutes a day, which I must say is more than I thought! I would have originally said my timing was similar to what OP originally stated (~20 mins a day and an hour once a week). But having typed it all out - with tidying up after meals, and generally tidying up after myself, it's more like 40 minutes a day for tidying/kitchen, and then an hour once a week for dusting and hoovering/sometimes mopping.
But a three-bedroom place will require more time, and completely agree on the decluttering aspect too making it harder. As well as cancer - that all sounds very tough, and I wish you well in getting better. I tend to declutter as a completely separate job than cleaning.
I would agree with the suggestion that a good idea might be to get a cleaning service to do a deep clean of the bathroom/kitchen if at all possible (and it may not be during the pandemic, or for budget etc. so apologies if not). Or, perhaps one week you could forgo smaller jobs, do a big clean of the bathroom, for example, and then get back to more of a balance after. I find that if you can then spare a few minutes to wipe down surfaces, that keeps things under control. Same for always cleaning up thoroughly after eating, although I can appreciate that can be quite a lot of work.
Hopefully this is helpful and you find something that works for you!
posted by sedimentary_deer at 6:33 AM on June 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
I was an Airbnb host for a few years and it helped me figure out what it takes, and how long, to make my home guest friendly and complaint proof. I made a list, kept track of what I needed to do so I could follow it almost by rote.
For a 1500sq 2bed/2 bath townhouse, I got a streamlined list and order of attack:
strip beds and put on laundry wash (15 minutes)
empty rubbish from bins, recycling bin etc
dust and wipe kitchen n bathroom, coffee and dining table surfaces (20 minutes)
vacuum starting high (eg ceiling cobwebs, ledges, bookshelves, window sills n blinds, then floor) (30-45 minutes)
hangout wash (10 minutes)
spray n wipe shower, loo n bathtub, polish chrome tapware, (20 minutes)
wipe out fridge/oven/MW/DW and sink (20 minutes)
change linen (30 minutes, lots of styling zhuzing for guests, 10 minutes if just for myself)
If windows are dirty with finger marks or whatever, I squidgee them (20 minutes)
Sweep front n back porches (15 minutes)
So for high stakes cleaning = ~3 hours each time. It did take longer before I devised my list of Must Dos, now it’s autopilot.
When I’m living in my house, half that. Same tasks but only every fortnight.
posted by honey-barbara at 9:56 AM on June 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
For a 1500sq 2bed/2 bath townhouse, I got a streamlined list and order of attack:
strip beds and put on laundry wash (15 minutes)
empty rubbish from bins, recycling bin etc
dust and wipe kitchen n bathroom, coffee and dining table surfaces (20 minutes)
vacuum starting high (eg ceiling cobwebs, ledges, bookshelves, window sills n blinds, then floor) (30-45 minutes)
hangout wash (10 minutes)
spray n wipe shower, loo n bathtub, polish chrome tapware, (20 minutes)
wipe out fridge/oven/MW/DW and sink (20 minutes)
change linen (30 minutes, lots of styling zhuzing for guests, 10 minutes if just for myself)
If windows are dirty with finger marks or whatever, I squidgee them (20 minutes)
Sweep front n back porches (15 minutes)
So for high stakes cleaning = ~3 hours each time. It did take longer before I devised my list of Must Dos, now it’s autopilot.
When I’m living in my house, half that. Same tasks but only every fortnight.
posted by honey-barbara at 9:56 AM on June 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
I live alone in a 700 sq ft apartment and have a place that is cluttered but not super overfull. My timing stuff is usually like this
- 15 min a day spent doing something that isn't just the routines (dishes are the biggest routine). Sweeping, cleaning off frequently used surfaces, picking up clothing from around the house. Straightening.
- maybe 5 min every hour just relocating things to go closer to where they need to go. Literally as I am walking from point A to point B I move things that need to also go that way. It doesn't FEEL like time spent cleaning but it also means that time spent cleaning isn't also this relocating stuff
- a few hours maybe every other week doing bigger stuff that isn't routine but like one thing at a time. so maybe it's clean all the bathroom stuff, or mop floors, or dust everything, or bleach and really scrub down kitchen stuff. So that kind of stuff only happens once every few months but I'm a single person with no guests and I don't get things very dirty
- maybe an hour every week or other week moving big thigns into more seasonally or situationally appropriate places. This can be fans, AC, taking things to thrift store, breaking down boxes, etc. Again not cleaning exactly but kind of cleaning.
I do laundry very infrequently so I am not counting that. So I think maybe it's between 3-5 hours a week including the random five minuteses.
posted by jessamyn at 11:39 AM on June 6, 2021
- 15 min a day spent doing something that isn't just the routines (dishes are the biggest routine). Sweeping, cleaning off frequently used surfaces, picking up clothing from around the house. Straightening.
- maybe 5 min every hour just relocating things to go closer to where they need to go. Literally as I am walking from point A to point B I move things that need to also go that way. It doesn't FEEL like time spent cleaning but it also means that time spent cleaning isn't also this relocating stuff
- a few hours maybe every other week doing bigger stuff that isn't routine but like one thing at a time. so maybe it's clean all the bathroom stuff, or mop floors, or dust everything, or bleach and really scrub down kitchen stuff. So that kind of stuff only happens once every few months but I'm a single person with no guests and I don't get things very dirty
- maybe an hour every week or other week moving big thigns into more seasonally or situationally appropriate places. This can be fans, AC, taking things to thrift store, breaking down boxes, etc. Again not cleaning exactly but kind of cleaning.
I do laundry very infrequently so I am not counting that. So I think maybe it's between 3-5 hours a week including the random five minuteses.
posted by jessamyn at 11:39 AM on June 6, 2021
Four adults, two cats. Share house. 4 bed, 1.5 bath, 1 living space.
We have a cleaning weekend every month where we do about an hour of cleaning each. This doesn't include tidying, laundry, dishes, litterboxes or bedrooms. So it's about an hour per week. Add in the cleaning I personally do in my bedroom, and it's maybe 1 hour 15 minutes.
If I had it in me, I would insist that this was more like fortnightly. But I'm not willing to become the house-nag, so it's monthly, on the assumption that people will spot clean anything they think is too festy in between. I often do a quick wipe of something that looks gross. Also, we're adults, so we mostly clean up after ourselves if we spill something.
We have an ~annual rental inspection when things like windows, walls and spiderwebs get addressed. We probably spend 2-3 hours each prepping for that, although a lot of that is tidying up and making things look neat.
posted by kjs4 at 7:31 PM on June 6, 2021
We have a cleaning weekend every month where we do about an hour of cleaning each. This doesn't include tidying, laundry, dishes, litterboxes or bedrooms. So it's about an hour per week. Add in the cleaning I personally do in my bedroom, and it's maybe 1 hour 15 minutes.
If I had it in me, I would insist that this was more like fortnightly. But I'm not willing to become the house-nag, so it's monthly, on the assumption that people will spot clean anything they think is too festy in between. I often do a quick wipe of something that looks gross. Also, we're adults, so we mostly clean up after ourselves if we spill something.
We have an ~annual rental inspection when things like windows, walls and spiderwebs get addressed. We probably spend 2-3 hours each prepping for that, although a lot of that is tidying up and making things look neat.
posted by kjs4 at 7:31 PM on June 6, 2021
i have a chronic health condition which makes me get tired quickly/easily, plus depression, and a good case of laziness. most all cleaning tasks and other chores get broken into multiple parts, which took me a long time to be okay with. i bring that up as maybe that is a helpful idea for you to have.
i live with 2 cats in a 1BR apartment.
so for instance, instead of CLEANING THE BATHROOM, one day i clean the tub, one day i clean the toilet, one day i clean the sink/vanity/mirror, one day i sweep up all the cat litter. OVER FOUR DAYS it takes me probably 20-25 minutes to do all that. and sometimes occasionally i do have the energy to do all that at once.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:19 AM on June 7, 2021
i live with 2 cats in a 1BR apartment.
so for instance, instead of CLEANING THE BATHROOM, one day i clean the tub, one day i clean the toilet, one day i clean the sink/vanity/mirror, one day i sweep up all the cat litter. OVER FOUR DAYS it takes me probably 20-25 minutes to do all that. and sometimes occasionally i do have the energy to do all that at once.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:19 AM on June 7, 2021
750 sq ft, one adult, one dog, one partner who lives down the street but is here almost every evening. I spend two hours cleaning on the weekend (literally--I have a two-hour Spotify cleaning playlist and I just set it and get to work, pause if I need a break and then hit play when I get up again) and if I'm feeling energetic and haven't totally wrecked the house during the week, that's enough to clean the bathroom, vacuum, change the sheets, do a deeper clean in the kitchen, and tidy up. Partner is basically mess-neutral or often a net benefit since he cleans my kitchen every night to a standard that is higher than my own. In order to get the house truly clean I think it would take four hours a week but I can barely manage the two.
My biggest failing is that I leave a trail of chaos behind me all week long and it takes forever to set right on the weekend and I never completely catch up. The only times in my life when I've kept a perfectly clean house were when I was 1) working in an office and had cleaners in for two hours a week (so four person-hours a week) and 2) when I was not working at all and was home all day being domestic.
posted by HotToddy at 9:47 AM on June 7, 2021
My biggest failing is that I leave a trail of chaos behind me all week long and it takes forever to set right on the weekend and I never completely catch up. The only times in my life when I've kept a perfectly clean house were when I was 1) working in an office and had cleaners in for two hours a week (so four person-hours a week) and 2) when I was not working at all and was home all day being domestic.
posted by HotToddy at 9:47 AM on June 7, 2021
1 person in a 700sqft 1br
dishes = 15 mins / day = 1h45 / wk
laundry = 1h30m / wk
general tidying (plant care, taking out trash, vacuuming, wiping counters, putting things back in their place) = 30m-1h on Friday and similar on Sunday or Monday
So probably around 5h per week, or 1-2h of the activities you count. If i am doing something like reorganizing, I might tackle that on the weekend. I find cooking, dishes, and laundry all rather tedious, so am trying to work back in a schedule / routine for when to do deeper cleans.
I find it's nice to start both the week and the weekend in a relatively clean state, and then let things fall into chaos throughout those times.
posted by internet of pillows at 11:26 AM on June 7, 2021
dishes = 15 mins / day = 1h45 / wk
laundry = 1h30m / wk
general tidying (plant care, taking out trash, vacuuming, wiping counters, putting things back in their place) = 30m-1h on Friday and similar on Sunday or Monday
So probably around 5h per week, or 1-2h of the activities you count. If i am doing something like reorganizing, I might tackle that on the weekend. I find cooking, dishes, and laundry all rather tedious, so am trying to work back in a schedule / routine for when to do deeper cleans.
I find it's nice to start both the week and the weekend in a relatively clean state, and then let things fall into chaos throughout those times.
posted by internet of pillows at 11:26 AM on June 7, 2021
I’ve been thinking about this question since Saturday and have been making closer note of my cleaning behavior. I find I exaggerated on the low end. Even at double or triple the time I stated, it would not be enough to keep ahead of entropy.
Not sure why entropy bothers me so much. We live together, but I’m not happy about it.
posted by rw at 8:07 AM on June 10, 2021
Not sure why entropy bothers me so much. We live together, but I’m not happy about it.
posted by rw at 8:07 AM on June 10, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
We've found that having one day a week in which we both devote to doing a lot of cleaning (which for us is 3-4hrs), is much more effective than the little bit every day method. Basically, we aim to do a major clean once a week and then the rest of the week is spent to (mostly) maintain, but of course, as bad cleaners, by the time the weekly clean day comes around, things have gotten a bit out of hand. That said, this method has resulted in around 4 days a week being pretty clean (by our standards) and then 3 days gradually less so. Whereas cleaning a little bit each day meant the apartment was never particularly tidy, so it's a big improvement for us.
posted by coffeecat at 12:06 PM on June 5, 2021