Honestly how often do you clean...

[bambu101]

Once a week for the bathroom, changing the sheets, vacuuming, and laundry.

Not to be rude, but I cannot imagine sleeping on the same sheets for a "few weeks". Sounds nasty to me, but to each her own!

[Brandi]

I change my sheets once a week. But not the blankets. To much grit and stuff get's on the sheets from having hardwood floors.

[spokewench]

I clean the sheets one, twice or three times a week and the blankets (I don't use a comforter right now) cause I have a 23 year old cat who leaks small drops of urine - yes, it's kind of gross, but I can't put the cat down for a little leakiness; so lots of washing. I also have blankets on all the couches, chairs, etc. that have to be washed a couple of times a week. I am known as might washing machine woman! I should have a cape, but then I would have to wash that too!

I clean the bathrooms every week to week and a half. The kitchen really well once a week; and I vaccuum twice a week and mop once or twice a week, because the cat also drags lots of the pine shaving cat litter around the house all the time. Ah the joys of owning a geriatric kitty!

[Flur]

I wash our sheets every 2 weeks like clockwork. I wash the comforter cover about every 2 months in the summer (when we usually just toss it off the end of the bed to sleep) but more often in the winter.

I wash our bath towels every 2 weeks with the sheets, but I usually change them out once a week. I used to not change them out, but DH will wipe his hands on them when he's got extra shaving cream or hair gel rather than washing his hands so I swap them out more often.

I used to clean the bathroom every two weeks, but after about 3 years with DH NEVER cleaning it and me hating to do it, one day I got fed up and just stopped cleaning it. It got really gross and DH started cleaning it and now he does it about once a month, although I'll jump in and clean it when company is coming over. Out shower is a nightmare which is why we both hate to do it - it's stained from when our landlord had a non-professional come in and re-grout it and you could scrub for days and it wouldn't look clean, and we have these really ugly doors on it that we both hate. I'm thinking that auto-shower cleaner is in order...

I clean the kitchen once a week. This is the one cleaning task I really like to do. I used to like to vacuum, but that's the one cleaning task DH really likes to do, so I let him handle that.

[Grog]

My husband cleans a bit of the bathroom now and then, and I usually brush everything pretty thoroughly about once a month.

My parents were there for a week, the four of us shared a bathroom. 7am on the 3rd morning, sure enough my mom was on her knees cleaning the bath.

*sigh*

[vinbek]

My mom worked when I was a kid and made us clean the house weekly. If not done to her expectations, we had to do it again. I hated it. Couldn't wait to be old enough to get out on my own. Full circle now - I clean weekly and do it myself. I use the disenfectant wipes for spot cleaning and X-14 for the real cleaning. This stuff is STRONG. We have 4 bathrooms, but it still doesn't take me much time. I would gladly clean your bathroom if you would vacuum my house. I HATE to vacuum!!!

[carpaltunnel]

I HATE to vacuum!!!

With good reason!

I was a study participant at the local medical school a few years ago. The study was started by cardiologists (who apparently all have cleaning ladies and don't vacuum themselves) who kept hearing from their patients that they got really tired when they vacuumed. We strapped on this mask thing with a backpack that recorded how much oxygen we consumed when vacuuming using a variety of different vacuum cleaners. They recorded our heart rates, blood pressure before and after, etc.

The study results found that vacuuming was hard work. Suprise!

When I look at people doing tai chai (sp) it looks like the same kind of effort and physical control as vacuuming.

[OakLeaf]

Not to be rude, but I cannot imagine sleeping on the same sheets for a "few weeks". Sounds nasty to me, but to each her own!

+1. My floors can get disgusting, and they frequently do. But when my sheets start to get that slimy feeling, they get changed, and that's at most a week. And yes I do shower daily. But I know how gross my skin is when I wake up in the morning (which is why I can't bear to put on clean clothes before a shower) - and all that is getting transferred to the sheets as I sleep.

More often in allergy season when pollen wafts onto the pillows.

Blankets, about every two to four sheet changes.

[Tuckervill]

I never use the same towel twice between washings. My husband thinks I should, but I don't know who touched that towel while it was hanging in the bathroom. So, I will happily wash towels every day if I have to, just to make sure I have a sparkly clean towel AND washcloth before every shower.

Same trait makes me take all the unused towels in a hotel room and throw them in a heap on the floor before I leave. Doing the next guest a favor, that I hope the previous guest did for me (::cringe::.

Karen

[Irulan]

There is way TMI in this thread for me.

[wackyjacky1]

There is way TMI in this thread for me.

LOL!

I used to be the world's worst housekeeper, the result of having an overly picky mother and bad memories from ruined weekends that were spent cleaning house. The weird thing is that something changed for me a few years ago, and now I'm nearly as meticulous as she is. Everything -- bathroom, sheets, blankets, towels, floors, rugs, kitchen -- gets done once-a-week (on Mondays, which is like a Sunday for me). Every so often I get a little lazy and stretch it out an extra day or so, but I just can't let it go longer than that.

[Crankin]

Ah, I've had a housecleaning service for about 25 years (minus the first 3 years we lived in MA). They come once a week. Anything less than that would be gross to me. I grew up in a spotless house and that's how I like my house. Both my husband and I clean up after ourselves after showering, using the sink, etc. I wipe it down with a cloth I keep in our bathroom for that purpose, along with Windex, if I make an unintentional mess. The powder room (which gets used a lot) gets cleaned every week, too. We have 2 other full baths, which get cleaned every other week, but sometimes more, if we tell them to (like if my son has stayed over, or I used the bath tub in there).
I change my sheets once a week.

[Mr. Bloom]

There is way TMI in this thread for me.

Then you'll love this...

Several years ago, we were visiting my parents and for some reason, I had to use their shower. To my shock, the white tub and tile looked like they hadn't been cleaned for years. (It was disgusting and unhealthy! I won't get more descriptive than that!). This was after their retirement when they let the cleaning woman go since they had "time" (but apparently not "ability") to clean.

So I went to my parents and asked how long it had been...my dad's honest and sincere response was "why do you need to clean a shower? There's only soap and water in there".

I think I spent about 4 hours in there scrubbing every square inch.

It will suffice to say that my partner is way neater and cleaner around the home than I. He will voluntarily clean certain areas. Part of it is just his nature but also he is suspectible to allergies if a place is too mouldy or dusty.

I think I'll start calling you "Silver" and him "Mr. Silver" The ongoing joke in our marriage is that I like things "clean and tidy". Silver doesn't care about "untidy" as long as the untidiness is on top of something "clean". But how can you see the "clean" through the "untidy" (I love you Silver! no matter how messy you are)

[sfa]

Gak! Not nearly often enough. I wipe down the bathroom surfaces every couple of days to keep them looking clean, but only manage a deep cleaning once a month. Changing sheets is about the same, and yes, that's really gross and I know it. Vacuuming about once every week or two. Same with mopping. Dusting happens maybe twice a year. Laundry is the only thing I really keep up with--I do five to seven loads every weekend to get clothes and towels clean. Adding sheets and blankets adds loads I don't have time to do. If I'm lucky someone throws up or wets the bed (dog, kids, I'm not picky) often enough that the sheets and blankets get done more often. If I'm *really* lucky we have guests coming over and then DH and I will stay up until three in the morning the night before cleaning the whole place.

What I want to know is when do you find TIME to clean? I get home from work, cook dinner, help kids with homework, walk the dog, put kids to bed, clean up from dinner, pack lunches, declutter the main living area, check and send email and by then it's 11:00 and I'm done. I save actual housework for weekends but only manage to do it on weekends when we don't have other things planned. I'm looking at the next couple of months and I've got whole day things planned every Saturday between now and the week before Thanksgiving. Sundays aren't much better, but I do at least have two of them free in the next two months. So those are the days that the house will get cleaned. I don't think my schedule is particularly unusual--most people I know have the same work/family/activities balance. I hate how filthy my house gets between cleanings but have learned to live with it and I just tell myself that like most things, this is a temporary situation.

Sarah

[Tuckervill]

There are so many more fun things to do than cleaning, I just don't stress over it if it doesn't get done. This is for my child's sake. There have already been people in this thread who said they hate cleaning because their moms made them. I don't make my kids clean. They will eventually find a good reason to clean up after themselves and they'll do it. My adult sons both keep their houses acceptably clean. I do ask the one at home to do specific things (Son, would you unload the dishwasher while I take the biscuits out, and then I can load it up after dinner?), but if they don't see a good reason for it, that's okay. It works both ways, when he asks me to do something.

But, when the house is really dirty, I will usually invite someone over, which forces me to get motivated to clean it up. A clean house is a wonderful thing.

Karen