Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cleaning and housekeeping

Housemate doesn't clean up after himself. Help.

dunkadunc — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:58:24 -0800

My housemate doesn't clean up, like ever. How can I do to make things work, or at least more bearable? I've been sharing an apartment since the beginning of September with an old acquaintance, and everything's been going well enough. EXCEPT:
My housemate doesn't help out with the cleaning. Every day I come home to even more mess, and it's starting to really bug me.

Some background here: My housemate and I are both 23, male, and college seniors. We went to high school together but lost touch after graduation. I was looking for a housemate for an apartment I found this August, and a mutual friend said Housemate (whose mom died last year) was looking for a place as well. We signed a lease, moved in and started school, so far so good.
The first hint I got that Housemate wasn't very good at cleaning was about a week in when he asked me what "rinsing" dishes meant. Since then, he's remained pleasant, but the amount of housework he's done has gone from little to almost none.

The main problems:
-His dishes stay dirty in the sink either until I wash them or there are no more clean ones, whereupon he washes a dirty one, uses it, and puts it back in the sink. The same thing goes for pots and pans. I can count the number of times he's washed all the dishes in the sink on one hand, and even then they've come out covered in brown curry grease and needed to be washed again.

-When asked to wash his dirty pots and pans that were filling up the sink, Housemate was surprised that I would want them to be cleaned even if I wasn't immediately going to use them. Housemate said that he would wash them before he needed them again "only as a favor". He cooks about four gallons of curry every two weeks.

-Although he was willing to split the cost of a $50 vacuum cleaner, the only time he's picked up a broom was when he broke a glass. He's been leaving brown greasy globs of curry on all the kitchen surfaces and covers the floor in oil when he cooks. All these problems with cleaning up have carried over to the bathroom as well.

Apart from all this, he's been a decent housemate, asking if I want to watch cartoons or split a pizza or whatnot, or coming out to parties with me.
I've talked to him about washing dishes and cleaning up around the apartment, and he's always said "sure"- the problem is it doesn't end up happening. He tends to drink beers and watch cartoons when he's done with schoolwork and doesn't have anything to do, so it seems like a combination of procrastination and just not knowing how to run a household: his mom used to do all the housekeeping.

What can I do to encourage him to do his share of housework, or failing that, what can I do to minimize the amount of mess I have to deal with? Ideally, we would clean up after ourselves, and if someone else missed something then the other would clean it, no problem.
I don't want to be that passive-aggressive guy, but something's got to change, since I'd like to be able to have guests over without feeling embarrassed. I'd be tempted to only clean up after myself, but I'm afraid the apartment would be taken over by maggots.

Help me make a happy house

cloudsandstars — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:12:07 -0800

Is it possible to be a domestic goddess AND have a full-time job? If so, how? It is my heart's desire to be a frugal yet excellent housekeeper and cook. However, I have a demanding full-time job and a 45-minute (one way) commute so I don't have a whole lot of extra time to devote to accomplishing all that goes into keeping a peaceful, clean, comfortable, organized, efficient home. I am married and thankfully my husband does help with the chores and the lawn. I just can't seem to get a system established for some reason. We don't have children yet, but do plan to in the future, so I'd like to get my routine together before then (and yes, I know a kid will throw things out of whack, but at least I'll have some practice under my belt). To put this all in a nutshell, I would like to be able to succeed in keeping things clean and organized, doing laundry/ironing, planning meals (possibly including gardening), and creating (and staying within) a budget, and other stuff with enough time left over for visiting with family, pursuing leisure activities, and getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

I'm interesting in hearing your suggestions on blogs/websites/forums I can visit for ideas, inspiration, and motivation to assist me in achieving (and maintaining) this goal. Also helpful would be great books or magazines on the subjects pertaining to the art of homekeeping. Or tips and tools you may have personally used.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I have looked at FlyLady, but I don't think it's really my style - a little too "momish" for me at this point in my life.

Most recommended roomba, hopefully sub-$200

lrodman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:42:27 -0800

Most recommended roomba, hopefully sub-$200 I'm looking for a first roomba, I'm a student and will be upgrading from almost never vacuuming, so any results should be impressive. No pets, no shag rugs, apartment.

Is it worth it to get one of these $400-600 new roombas, or is there one that goes in the $100-200 range that is almost as good? I'm looking for bang for the buck here (also, horror stories if you have a roomba and find it doesn't clean enough - but we're just looking for it to pick up crumbs and dust).

How to deep clean vinyl floors

otherwordlyglow — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:03:52 -0800

What's the best way to deep clean vinyl floors? We have a vinyl floor in our kitchen - you know the kind that's supposed to look like individual tiles but is actually a rolled out sheet of faux tiles. It's a rental, not my choice of floors but it'll do. I'm kind of lax about regular cleaning though I've been trying to be better and at least use a Swiffer Wet Jet every other week on account of the baby crawling all over the floors. It's hard to ignore the state of the floors when the evidence is smeared all over the knees of your child.

Occasionally I do the old hands-and-knees service with a bucket and a scrub brush. However, it seems to me that there's a layer of grime that I'm not getting to. I've heard all kinds of things to try: ammonia, borax, vinegar, isopropyl alcohol but really have no idea what I need to do to strip the floors of grime. Hopefully this is the kind of thing I can do once or twice a year and then return to my swiffering for more regular maintenance. And then, once I really have them clean, do I seal them somehow? With what?

Ideas? The less toxic the better.

Cleaning in New York

AnyGuelmann — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:11:15 -0800

Please recommend/warn me about cleaning services and independent housekeepers in New York City I need your recommendations and warnings about cleaning companies or persons you have hired before. (Manhattan here.)

Please be as specific as possible! I'm not looking to learn more about the inner workings of the housekeeping industry. I want to hire a person or company with the help of your personal review about their performance. What's the company you hired or the name of the person? Did they clean under the bed? Did they leave the shower mat in place and just cleaned around it? Did they meet your expectations or were not as thorough as you wished? How much did you pay, and was it worth it?

If you're not comfortable posting the phone number of an independent housekeeper, please e-mail it to me. Really, I want to call them.

(I have read the previous threads on housekeeping and cleaning services. I know about big cleaning companies underpaying their employees. I know they are more interested in making stuff look clean (smear furniture polish, rearrange objects) as opposed to actually cleaning everything with real products down to every corner. I know I should look for independent housekeepers because they'll get all the money I pay for the service and I can have more control over what and how things get done - they'll listen to me rather than their management's instructions on how to clean my house. I know that if I have more serious problems (stuff getting broken, lost, stolen) I'm better off dealing with an established company rather than a person. That's not really what my question is about, as I have considered all of this and I'm up for trying either kind of service. I want to know about specific companies/persons and how they performed.)

Clean and mean here on the Green

oflinkey — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:53:35 -0800

What are your favorite heavy-duty cleaning products and super-cleaning secrets? I know about FlyLady. This question is about products and large-scale techniques.

I am moving out of my apartment very soon. I do not relish the apartment-clean that will take place, as we have lived here for 6 years. While I have kept a good house, there are some trouble spots involving recurrent mold/mildew in the bathroom (that will not stay away!), rust stains, and a terrible kitchen floor that I have to make look at least passably good.

I am looking for product recommendations mostly for bath and kitchen, but I welcome all advice. I do not have a ton of money to try out CLR and all that other fancy stuff, so recommendations for excellent products are what I am after. However, if a product really is THAT good, I will spend lots of money on it. I know that sometimes the price is worth the performance (see Anti-Icky Poo versus Nature's Miracle-- only the price is a miracle).

Also, if any of you have clean hacks or other tips/tricks you have learned when it comes to massive, move-out cleaning, please share. While I have plenty of elbow grease myself, I am tackling this alone as DH will be away (lucky bastard).

"This is not my beautiful house!"

joe lisboa — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:39:01 -0800

Please recommend some upbeat songs about cleaning, housekeeping, etc. Looking for upbeat songs of any genre (though rock, especially indie rock, would be great) that address cleaning, housekeeping, chores, doing the dishes, that sort of thing. Bonus points if the cleaning theme is included in the title. Thanks, all.

Is there a Flylady for FlyFulltimeworkingCouples?

tastybrains — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:46:18 -0800

Is there anything like FlyLady but for people who actually work outside the home? Lazy 20-something couple is looking for help keeping our apartment from being a sty. I love Flylady, but I can't keep up with her ... are there any similar systems that work better for people who work outside the home? Flylady seems mostly geared towards Stay-at-home-Moms, and while I am envious of people who are able to squeeze in a load of laundry at 10am, I am not one of them.

My new husband and I are trying to work out our household chores angst so that we stay on top of basic cleaning, but I guess our parents didn't teach us how to act like grown-ups.

Any links, books, or suggestions on how to set up a *realistic* plan for cleaning/organizing and splitting up chores between two lazy people who work long hours would be great.

A housekeeper is, unfortunately, not an option right now. And, as often as I ask, the cats refuse to pitch in.

Kitchen Organization

majcher — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 12:07:12 -0800

I've got too much junk in my drawers. How can I make it easier to get to? [MI] Like every other kitchen I've been in, we've got one or two "utensil drawers", which are just filled with a jumble of mixing spoons, measuring cups, ice cream scoopers, can openers, ladles, spatulas, basters, brushes, thermometers, skewers, beaters, graters, slicers, corkscrews, and who knows what else. We've mitigated this mess somewhat by installing a big pegboard on one wall to hang the larger utensils, but there's still a good number of randomly shaped and sized doodads rattling around in the drawer, making them difficult to find and use. Does anyone have any suggestions for the organization of arbitrary kitchen utensils like this?