Wednesday, July 2, 2008

How clean are you?


I grew up in a really clean house. So clean that you literally could eat off the floor and it was probably more sanitary than most peoples kitchen counters. My mom is a nut about cleaning. Last year she spent an entire 3 days cleaning out the grout between her kitchen tiles. She put foaming bleach on every single grout line and scrubbed until it was abnormally white. And for her birthday all she asked for was a power washer to clean out the concrete seams in her driveway. Who does that? Apparently my mother. Well, because of her crazy obsession I've always wondered what is normal or sufficient in terms of cleanliness. How often do you clean your bathroom? How often should you change your sheets? Carpet cleaning? When do you replace your rugs? My mother said you should never go a week without deep cleaning your bathroom (for those who are not familiar with her standard of "deep", we are talking about soft scrub, sponges, down on your hands and knees scrubbing the floor clean). Changing your sheets is the same-- not a day over a week. Do people really pay attention to grout? These are the questions that are driving me insane with worry when I don't make it to cleaning my bathroom for a week and a half. So please share with me your feelings about cleaning and what you were taught.

p.s. A little note for my former roomates: You are probably thinking, "Katie clean?, her room was a fire hazard with all her clothes strewn about, but I have to say those years were my rebellion from so much cleaning as a child. I'm much better now!

9 comments:

Harris Family said...

That is amazing! I hope you mom NEVER makes it to my house...unless she is here to clean of course! I'm pretty sure I "deep clean" if company is coming or it's been longer than 3 months...? Other than that a quick wipe here and there seem sufficient to me. Josh usually thinks otherwise so he cleans house a lot! Hope you guys are doing well!

Stephanie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stephanie said...

Kate, you are so funny! Is this keeping you up at night? Your mom is amazingly clean. My mom is pretty clean too - but I sure ain't! Maybe when I stay home and don't work like a crazy lady I will care more about my house. I wash the sheets when I get around to it, same with the bathroom. When stuff starts growing - it's time to deep clean. Ok, so I am disgusting - but with the invention of Clorox wipes - I really don't see the need to deep clean too often ;). Give the sink and toilet seat a swipe, and you're good to go!

For real though - my advice is to keep the house as clean as you can without putting it before your kids! They need mommy time. Just chill with them, play with them, teach them. Don't spend all your waking moments cleaning up after them. It's ok to have some messes! That is all I remember about my mom growing up - she was always cleaning. Never sat still for a minute, and rarely made me feel like she was available to just talk to. My sister and sister-in-law are much better than my mom. The house is relatively clean - and they spend tons of time with the kids. Love ya!

Griffin Family said...

Our house growing up was ALWAYS clean! It must be that generation... For awhile, my house was always messy. When I thought about all that I needed to do just overwhelmed me and I'd never do it. So now on Mondays I deep clean the kitchen. Tuesdays are just the little things that need to be done like vacuuming, dusting... those sorts of things. Wednesday I clean bathrooms and put the laundry in. Thursdays I fold the laundry and on Fridays is my day off. My house isn't amazingly clean, but clean enough to where I'm not going crazy and if someone stops by I'm not embarressed.

Michelle, Jack, Charlie, and Nick! said...

Kate- My Mom had us doing spring cleaning every Saturday of our childhood and DEEP cleaning every-other day of the weeek so I am probably not the best person to give advice on what is normal cleaning. Also Nichole and I did a lot of your cleaning growing up so we could play sooner, so really I have no advice! With just Jack and I in this house we don't get it too dirty, but once a week for bathrooms, vaccuming, dusting, sweeping and moping is what I do. And as far as the sheets go we change them every 2-3 weeks which is probably kinda long, but I am the one sleeping in them and I dont care all that much so people can think it's grose and it doesn't bother me all that much. Anyway the times I have been to your house it looks great so just keep up whatever your doing. Love ya dear!

Amy and Andy said...

Soooo, obviously I have no advice seeing we grew up in the same sterile enviornment. Mom must have drilled this into my brain. I change my sheets and deep clean weekly...but I don't have kids. Things will change I'm sure. I like what Step said! She'll be a great mom. Love you.

{lizzythebotanist} said...

i'm a super clean person. that is, until i got married to a not-so-clean person and had kids. now i just keep things straight and make sure i clean each room once a week. no schedule, just whenever babies are napping, etc. i've made it a rule that i can't clean when the kids are awake. my dad sad that his mom was always cleaning and never played with him and advised me not to be so crazy about things being perfect, but to instead spend my time with my children. this is also super important to me since i have MS and who knows what the future holds. got to live in the now! clean house or not!

Troy, Kristin, and Two Rug Rats said...

So do I don't know if you want to hear anything from me, since I tried to drill in the clean house thing when we all lived in Rexburg together. But I would have to say I am definitely not as nuerotic as your mom. I just try to keep things picked up every night after the kids go to bed, and then about once a week to two weeks I spend the whole day deep cleaning and doing laundry. Elyse watches a little too much tv on that day, maybe I'll need to institute that no cleaning while kids are awake thing like your friend. But don't stress too much Kate, what's really more important enjoying life or having a clean house!

Sarah Stout said...

I really liked Stephanie's advice and agree with it. I just think you have to do your best to decide how often to clean what. I put myself on a schedule to clean certain things at certain times. While this works for me NOW, I know that when I have kids, it all will change! :)