Used Omlet outdoor rabbit run Width 2.2m Height 2.05m Length 3.1m vgc.

[Olly]

Oh Cathy I love you ... 'outsourcing' is what I do, and that sounds so much better than 'I have a cleaner'!

 

I work full time, and don't enjoy cleaning, so I have a lovely Romanian lady come in once a week and she hoovers upstairs, and mops/sweeps the laminate floor/tiles downstairs, I have one big not-fitted carpet in the living room. She gets it far cleaner than I ever could, but when I did it myself it would be once a week if I wasn't away at the weekend, otherwise it could be a couple of weeks.

 

I realised the other day when I had to get the hoover out for something, that I couldn't remember the last time I used it! I do sweep up bits in between her weekly visit, I sweep up the hearth around the woodburner, and in this weather I'll need to mop the floor when I've been in and out to the hens.

 

Can I just add that my cleaner has a newer car than I do, for anyone who thinks that perhaps I'm exploiting cheap labour ... she is worth her weight in gold and I would give up a lot of other luxuries before I turned her away!

[Blackrocksrock]

I do mine every year, whether it needs it or not.

 

thats a great saying - actually I do the whole place at a weekend and during the week if it needs it - we bring in sticks and the sawdust is usually all over the place! - roll on the new oil heating and just a woodburner for the winter time.

[Wolfie]

When we became animal-less, the place was gleaming. But soul-less. Now we have two rescue Birman pudds who bring large quantities of the garden in on their sweet lickle white paws.

 

Doesn't "anima" mean soul in latin?

[chickencam]

The hall and lounge get done most days, because of the woodburner and bits from the logs. the cats and children also seem to make a mess everywhere. The stairs and rest of downstairs gets done twice a week, once roughly and once well. Upstairs landing and our room get done twice a week.

 

The children are responsible for their own rooms, so little and not very often there DS did spend last week spring cleaning though. I didn't see my vacuum for most of the week, the rest of the house was looking pretty bad by Friday.

[WarrensWorld]

We only have a large Turkish rug in the lounge, it gets vaccumed when the pattern disappeares........

[Plum]

[bigmommasally]

My whole house gets done once a week but not by me I too work full time plus 2nd job on Saturday mornings so I "out source" to my lovely lovely mum who's 74 but does it far quicker and better then I could ever be bothered to.

 

OH or I sweep the kitchen floor daily as we always seem to traispe hay and straw in on our socks, and I sometimes hoover the lounge at the weekend (usually only if visitors are coming)

 

What I want to know is why do unexpected visiotrs turn up when it looks like a stinking pit but no one ever comes on a Tuesday night after mum has cleaned

[jlo]

When the bits are sticking to my socks too much!! I'm with Snowy on this one

 

I think it was ANH who suggested leaving the vacuum cleaner out as though you are just about to/just in the middle of vacuuming - just in case any unexpected visitors arrive!

 

Vicki - if it wasn't you - apologies for the libel!

[chickencam]

I have been known to do that when I see OH's car pull onto the drive, I switch on the vacuum and look busy, mainly when I feel guilty for spending too much time on here.

 

We have a friend who must think we like like pigs, because he always manages to call round when we are in a mess.

[Lewis]

I'd say probably once a week - we don't have cats or dogs who moult ... just the sitting room has the gerbils and doves in, so that needs doing a bit more just because they kick sawdust/bird seed + feathers everywhere

The kitchen + breakfast room is all wooden floor so mother steam mop's it - new toy

 

My room ... when you can see the floor to notice it needs doing

[henriette]

We don't have any carpets, just rugs on tiles downstairs and old floorboards upstairs. You would think that cleaning would be easy but with three large dogs and 2 cats we get tumbleweed of fur on a constant basis so sweeping the floors is almost an ongoing thing. Rugs get vacuumed either daily or every other day depending on my energy levels. I rather like the once a year idea

[Seagazer]

I have all wooden floors apart from the carpet on the stairs. I do downstairs a couple of times a week, kitchen a bit more often. Upstairs usually (not always ) gets done once a week.

 

I have two cats and a non-shedding dog but the mud that comes in on her paws is just horrendous and I live with a constant battle against mud, dust, drops up the walls

[patsylabrador]

Downstairs - every day. Upstairs - once a week. Husband also says he is aware of frantic activity when he pulls up on motorbike. Putting that to bed gives us a few moments grace.

[Leicester_H]

Thanks all - don't feel so 'guilty' now.

 

We don't have any indoor pets, children etc. and all outside doors enter onto vinyl flooring (downstairs only lounge/diner has carpet) and we don't wear outside shoes upstairs so I think once a week is OK.

 

I work full time but OH is retired - so I think my request of him to vacuum round once a week is not unreasonable!?

 

H

[Busybird]

I alternate each week starting at the top of the house or the bottom of the house. I rarely get the whole way through in the course of a week though Having just survived half term at home I will start on the playroom today (when I get off here ) and will first have to find the carpet under the sea of Lego that the boys have spent the week excavating. The boys bedrooms offer similar 'delays'.

 

I don't mind vacuuming once I can get to the carpets. I'm not so keen on washing our tiled floor downstairs (which covers all but one room) and generally try to bribe a child to do this for me.

 

I HATE dusting. So does everyone else in the house so that tends to get done when we can draw on the surfaces or when visitors are due

[The Dogmother]

...... but with three large dogs and 2 cats we get tumbleweed of fur on a constant basis so sweeping the floors is almost an ongoing thing. ......

 

I know that feeling; I get dust bunnies of fur around the house.

 

I am happily planning a mass clean once the builders have gone

[Happy chickens!]

All these cleaning posts - is it nearly spring?!

 

Once a week here, twice if it looks grubby (3 cats and 2 teenage boys ). But...... no one but me really notices, so if sunny outside (I wish!) and the garden beckons, can get away without it for a couple of weeks before I crack!

[kerryegg]

Quickly every day. Large dog, muddy garden, old house and husband and I don't work except Wednesdays. Easier than leaving it and makes me feel good. Rarely dust much in winter. Loosing battle with a wood burner. Will sort everything out next summer!

[fluffyknickers]

I dont...Husband does!

 

He has a fetish for vacuuming - he does it all the time and it drives me crazy. My friends have asked to send him round their house.

 

I told him that I could never ever vacuum again after having my first c-section 5 years ago. Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

[cathybc]

I do mine every year, whether it needs it or not.

 

 

phew! all these 'twice a weekers' were making me feel bad!

[Willow]

Downstairs once week with hall more often. Upstairs aim is once a week but happens less often especially the kids rooms where it can be hard to see the floor. I should do more often with dust/cat allergies but working full time makes it impossible and every time I'd decided that's it we're getting a cleaner DH takes the floor up again somewhere else and it's too hazardous.

[Tiggy]

I dont have any

[chickweed]

Some of you are making me feel guilty. I only vacuum when I think it is needed.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

Roomba pootles round downstairs every day and picks up fur from the moggies and dust from the woodburner. At least 3 times a week though, he is foiled by something the kids have left or the cats have dropped - bouncy balls don't agree with his brushes - when he grinds to a halt and we find him beeping mournfully in the middle of the room surrounded by fluff bunnies.

 

On Saturdays I (or OH if I'm lucky) hoover the stairs (removing a thick layer of fur from the cats who like to play there) and upstairs.

 

Dustpan and brush in kitchen and bathroom in between, and if anyone is coming OH goes on a cleaning and dusting frenzy, while I keep out of the way and let him

 

I have been promised outsourcing, but we haven't found anybody yet.