Is the US love affair with housework over?

[bajaespuma]

As Joan Rivers said:

..."you wash the dishes, you clean the toilet bowl and then six months later you have to do it all over again"

 

My Parents' home was cleaned by women that worked for them for over 30 years. I can't match that. The best I ever did was by employing a free-lance house cleaner who came in twice a month and did a really fine job. I used to look forward to coming home on those Wednesdays; the house felt just like what TV commercials want you to believe a well-kept home should be.Then my health insurance premiums tripled. No more cleaning lady.

 

Now that I have to do it myself, I have to admit, for someone who collects appliances like vacuum cleaners and washing machines, I seem to actually use them less and less.

 

I think as far as shrinking sales for cleaning products go, it is a reflection on an economy that has mostly screwed the servant-less classes. Also, I know I have changed my shopping habits; I buy fewer "dedicated" products and use more of my old standbys for more jobs. Also I know a lot of people who are trying to be "green" and have stopped buying products like paper towels altogether.  I have another set of friends who use "Simple Green" for everything in their house. Windex does 80% of the jobs in my house. I use dishwasher detergent for many jobs. For laundry, I use a detergent, a fabric softener, bleach (peroxide 75% --, Clorox 25% of the time I use any bleach at all). I don't use much chlorine or "sanitizing" products because I think they're overused and I have a septic system. I was told by a septic system engineer that using too many hard-core bleach-based cleaning products damages the system.When I lived in Europe, where toilets use a tablespoon of water for each flush, I got into the habit of brushing out the commode after each use (here, I do it every couple of days) without any chemicals. You had to. I believe more and more in elbow grease and less and less in P&G and Drackett.

 

I think a lot of people are taking a more common sense approach to housecleaning: clean is good enough. It's absurd to think that normal household surfaces can be sanitized for more than a very short period of time. It's overkill. One should view  "The Andromeda Strain" again to see what sanitizing really requires. Or "Mommie Dearest".

 

[vintagekitchen]

mommy dearest...

Had an ex who used to start quoting that movie when I was doing hardcore cleaning....

 

[appnut]

Well, my situation is a combination of Mark & Ken's scenarios and history!!

 

[chuffle]

Oh boy...

...I was raised in a house where my mother had her daily set of chores, and to this day, at 54 years of age, I find that pattern (can we say "baggage?") something that I adhere to "most of the time."

I live with a dog, so I vacuum the area rugs daily. The hard flooring gets vacuumed with a canister vac every other day or so, though if I am going through a low energy period, the hard floors get vacuumed when the dog fur tumbleweeds scatter as I pass through.

Dusting is my achilles' heel, as while I don't let things get to the point that one could write messages on my furniture, the job does not get done weekly, either. I don't like clutter, but do have assorted chotchkies on the furniture, for I don't like an "empty" look, either. Chotchkies keeps me from dusting!

Laundry is done Sunday morning, and what needs ironed, sees the iron as it comes off of the line or out of the dryer. I scrub the kitchen and bathroom floors plus clean the other bathroom bits either early Saturday morning, or early Sunday morning, so that the cleaning rags can be laundered and then put away. This weekend regimen falls by the wayside if I go away for the weekend, to see my S.O.

The first of the month, I flip the mattress, vacuum the coils of the fridge, and move furniture while vacuuming. The first week that school is out for the summer, I do the spring housecleaning.

This all works for me, and doesn't seem to get in the way of my life. Not being much of a social person, things get done easily. That being said, I would never turn down a weekend away or an evening out, just because I have house work to do!

 

[rapunzel]

Whilst dusting I was contemplating this thread and began to

Could it be that angel dust is beating house dust in popularity? Maybe with all the legal and illegal drug abuse that is going on, people find very little time to look after the housework. I bet a gram of crack is cheaper than a bottle of furniture polish and if one hits the Valium a dirty toilet wouldn't measure on the scale of things to bother about.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

At this point, maybe everybody should include "Someone to Clean The House" in their budget!

& w/ the way the economy is going, there are probably still a lot of people out there who would do it...!

If only...

-- Dave

 

[jerrod6]

I don't have any specific day to do laundry and tend to spread it out over 7 days.   But I do have a specific house cleaning schedule that gets followed every week.

 

Unless I schedule it as if I am scheduling an "office work task or meeting" it doesn't get done....so yes I have a schedule and try to stick to it.  I know what is going to be done tomorrow(WED) and I know the time period it  must be completed by(Ok......will be completely by since I am the only one that is setting any deadline).

 

However I don't use many cleaning products.....I use a swifter duster.....I use Windex with vinegar, I use water, I use a cleaner for my wood floors and one for tile floors in the kitchen and that's it.

 

Once in a while I will use Murphy's oil soap to wipe down the kitchen cabinets, and I will use  Neoblank to polish stainless steel in the kitchen but these are an exception to the regular routine.