how clean is your house?

[epsilonprodigy]

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Anyone else have serious issues keeping up with housework in the middle of classes, work, MCAT studying, etc. etc.?

I am working part time and studying for the MCAT right now. Devoting about 10 hours/day to the MCAT, plus a (little) bit of family time and a quick trip to the gym and shower... I can't keep up! I have always been a bit of a neat freak, but right now there's old mail piled up in the office, a dryer full of unfolded laundry, and the sink and tub are in need of a good scrub! But I'm simply not willing to take such chunks out of my study time... yecch, it drives me nuts though! Only reason I'm posting is because I'm on a quick study break, and it's tough to use breaks to clean 1) because it's not relaxing and 2) because it takes more time than a break should be (at least, for me.)

Anyone else? Moms, lets talk about tricks you have to keep up.....

 

[QofQuimica]

I was positive this was going to be a spam post. I'm going, gee, it's bad enough to get spammed by offshore drug companies and, ahem, personal enhancement products, but now cleaning supplies too??? 😀

I can't give you input as a mom, but as a med student, I found that the trick was to just work in the hospital so much that you weren't ever home to mess things up. Don't want to make the bed? No prob, you just don't sleep! Don't want to do laundry? Time to go trade in your scrubs at the uniform room. Etc.

All kidding aside, the only way I was able to keep up was to not let myself get too behind in the first place. I did dishes every day (rinse and put in dishwasher for the most part); picked up about once a week; and cleaned bathroom/kitchen/vacuum/laundry on the order of every other week. Now in residency I am having the complex's cleaning crew clean my unit every other week, which is quite decadent and reminds me just why I went to med school in the first place!

Of course, I don't have kids, pets, or a spouse that acts like a kid or pet. While this schedule is more than adequate for an averagely dirty single person, obviously if you have more people and critturs making a mess, cleaning every other week likely won't be adequate. But if I may make one humble suggestion, see if you can ease up on the neatness freakness just a little. Prioritize chores. Leaving dishes with food sitting around is always a bad plan, and you should probably clean the tub before the mildew in there evolves into a new lifeform that starts giving you attitude. But it really won't hurt anything if the family's clean underwear sits in the drier for a few days or the junk mail sits on the desk for a few, um, months?

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

I work fulltime, was in school fulltime and took the MCAT Saturday. My house is a mess, all I have are dogs... They don't help clean...

 

[teddy bear doc]

Is this a trick question or something?

You think someone can actually raise kids (and a spouse, LOL!), have pets etc., study full-time, apply to med school and go to the corresponding interviews AND have a clean house?!?!?!?!?

I vacuum when I can. I do laundry when I absolutely have to (i.e. no more clean clothes). My one sticking point is dishes, which are done everyday, mostly because they will be so much grosser the next day. Meals are typically healthy, but definitely semi-homemade, not from scratch everyday. I attempt to teach my children to clean up after themselves, which minimizes clutter pickup.

I really admire someone who can do all that and maintain a more set "tidying up" schedule. My problem is that when it comes down to it, I would rather play with my kids or study or relax with my husband than scrub the baseboards (someone I knew actually did this -- behind the furniture and everything too!). My advice would be to learn to love the mess, within reason of course. I won't be appearing on Hoarders anytime soon, but I definitely have to do the frantic living room sweep before company comes over. Works for us, at least.

 

[0919mmk]

I think I can see some carpet, wait...nope, that's my carpety-soft bathrobe.😀

 

[mauberley]

I am not in the same living situation, but for me, cleaning was what I did when I didn't want to do whatever else I was supposed to be doing.

The period of time I was prepping for the MCAT was the cleanest my apartment had ever been.

 

[Ellipsis1104]

My house used to be clean. . . 🙄

I'm with Q, though. I fully intend to budget in a cleaning service once I'm in graduate school. 👍

 

[jd221b]

--no Cinderella-type child labor, just vacuuming or dusting or something similar.

What's wrong with Cinderella-type child labor. Geez my kids could have seen this.

 

[LifeTake2]

The first line of my signature answers this conclusively NO

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

I mowed my lawn. That is a step... found wild strawberries growing in the backyard... sounded like a good reason to stop mowing... I wish I could find them inside... 😉

 

[MommyMedStudent]

pfftttt, I am a clean freak, that is until I started going to school full time 😉 I homeschool my two young children, go to school full time, run them here and there, attend church, and run, needless to say......my house suffers, oh well! As long as it's not disgusting I am okay with it haha As I was typing this Jimmy Fallon stated that cleaning house actually increases stress.....so there you go, straight from Jimmy Fallon....hahaha

 

[Torr]

I'm the queen of disinfecting and keeping things sterile I guess, but when it comes to neatness during finals, MCAT review, and probably throughout most of med school (I have yet to see) ....it's just not happening.

 

[Randimonroed]

I typically clean the house on Saturday mornings. I turn on music and the entire household cleans. We get things done before we go about our family activities for the day.

 

[shopsteward]

1. Why is keeping the house clean your responsibility? Make your family members understand that a part of their contribution to the household they live in is to take their share of the responsibility for keeping it clean and tidy

2. The kitchen needs to be hygenic and the loo needs not to smell. Apart from that, all cleaning is optional. (You can dust and vacuum, but a couple of months later it just needs doing again.) Quentin Crisp said that after four years the dust doesn't get any worse. A colleague of mine said she refused to wear her driving glasses indoors.

3. Apart from kitchens and bathrooms, tidy is more important than clean, so you are not tripping over things and can find what you need. Even very young kids can pick up after themselves - if they can take something out to play with, they can put it back. If something is spilled, it needs mopping up immediately. The job is not finished until the tidy-up is done too.

4. It's a cliche that no-one ever went to their grave wishing they had spent more time at work. I can't think that anyone ever went to their grave wishing they had spent more time cleaning, either.

 

[EdLongshanks]

It's a cliche that no-one ever went to their grave wishing they had spent more time at work. I can't think that anyone ever went to their grave wishing they had spent more time cleaning, either.

There are some people who may not go to the grave WISHING that they cleaned more, but they may go to their grave BECAUSE they didn't clean more. I've met a few.

 

[n3xa]

Too much dust and my nose gets annoyed and I have hardwood floors so I have to keep up with vacuuming. And even a quick scrub around the toilet bowl is better than nothing.

Compared to some of my grad school friends I think my cleaning/laundry (or lack thereof at times) is just fine. I can't do excessive hairbits and kitty litter bits on the ground.

Oh and living in a studio apartment helps. Hehe

 

[spiderpete]

Clean, but not tidy. My family's method of organization is to have everything 'out'. Despite years of trying, it won't change. It is the single biggest point of conflict in our otherwise happy home. I won't say I've given up, but yeah, I can live with it. Kids and all are good about daily chores, so it keeps the chaos at bay.

When things are really bad, recruit help. We have a somewhat different living situation having horses on our property. We just went from 4 to 6 (two new boarders to help with the $$). More work, but more help. The girls who board their horses clean the barn, feed 'em all, and have boyfriends come over to chop weeds 🙂 In the house, at a certain age you are entitled to have a cleaningperson, once a month or couple weeks. This helps more than you can imagine.

 

[Eik Ooc]

I don't know how some of you manage to schedule HOURS for cleaning. At most, I can give it 30 minutes a week. My closet and dressar are empty. Everything is in a laundry basket or the dryer. I've also been neglecting proper grocery shopping.

 

[Helen Wheels]

My house is a mess. 🙁 Right now, summer is coming and I am spending a good bit of time on the yard. I do not let the yard slide because the whole neighborhood sees my yard. But I can just not let people inside my house. 😳

 

[tigress]

Well I've just skimmed the replies, but my house is clean but not tidy. And the reason it's clean is because I have a woman who comes and cleans it every Wednesday It is one of the things my parents do for me (pay for cleaning woman) to make what I do possible. But if there is ANY room in your budget, or you can make room, for somebody to come clean sometimes, I think it makes a world of difference.

As far as not tidy...well, I have 3 little boys. Enough said. Right now I'm sick, although I'm thinking I ought to clean up...the train set is all over the living room, my twins' room is a wreck, etc. But at least I know that underneath all of it, the floor has been swept/mopped/vacuumed, the bathrooms have been cleaned well (although they need spot cleaning from me too...3 boys), etc. The woman who cleans for me has been cleaning for family for years so I trust her, and she knows me pretty well. She also folds laundry.

When I started out I felt guilty for costing my parents the extra money. At this point I consider it one of my baseline expenses of school.

 

[PostHaste]

Two full-time+ parents, 12 credits, two young kids = cleaning service. They come once a month and I'm doing my best to find the money for every-two-weeks.

There are people who can do it all, but like the pre-med with a 4.0 and 41MCAT they're few and far between. Accepting that you're not perfect is the first step to finding peace.

It all comes down to money and time. Is cleanliness worth giving up one of those?
Clean > MCAT this year?
Clean > Time with kids?
Clean > Sculpted abs?
Clean > $$

If you can't afford a cleaner then you have to give up something else to get the time to do it yourself. Or accept that it really isn't that important.

ETA, that wasn't all that helpful. As far as tips and tricks, here's some of what I've done/do.
- get rid of stuff --> less to clean
- watch out for time sucks (SDN, phone games, facebook, etc). Repurpose that time.
- If you have a lunch break at work, use it. My bills are pretty much exclusively done at work.
- Have a meltdown in front of your husband that involves you storming out of the house at 9:30 pm because he used the rest of the dishsoap and there are dishes piled to the ceiling and he's playing some sort of zombie apocalypse game Sit down with your husband and hash out some of what's bothering you
- Use paper/plastic plates and utensils
- Modified clothes folding: if it wrinkles, hang it up right away. If it doesn't/doesn't matter, leave it in the basket. Laundry is done.
- Spend literally 10 minutes before bed picking up the disaster-zone mess in the living room/dining room/kitchen. It makes it seem so much less enormous.
- Keep a roll of paper towels in the bathroom. When you go in to wash your hands and get grossed out, just grab one and wipe down the sink/tank/tub.
- Keep a broom on every level so when the dog hair in the corners gets to be too much it's easy to access.