I have been prepping my home for the last five hours and I’m exhausted. Couldn’t really do it sooner because I was working. My family always make me feel bad when there is cat hair or dust somewhere. Is it okay to put the bar a little lower? Would it be okay to just do less? What are your own standards about cleaning?
Lol visitors in my home are gonna get what they get, if they don’t like it they are welcome to not come over. Especially with animals, it can be extra tough to stay on top of it.
My standards aren’t low and I’ll pickup, sweep and do a vacuum before company comes by. If the toilet is gross I’ll give it a quick scrub but I’m not going around dusting every trinket and shelf to satisfy someone that’s just visiting.
Edit- I’ll concede there are levels to this. I aim to dust at least twice a month year round, so it’s never extraordinarily out of control for me. If previous holiday was the last time the shelves were wiped, that probably need addressed.
My standards aren’t especially high when it comes to cleaning before guests are over but definitely higher than many. Any area they will be in or anything they will interact with is my top priority, beyond that I am a lot more relaxed. If someone tried to make me feel bad about something minor like cat hair or a little dust they probably won’t ever be a guest again because that’s dickish and rude. As a guest you should never make your host feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, even if there’s a legitimate issue it should still be approached respectfully and with kindness.
I agree with others here when they say that if they have a problem with it, they can help clean. One of my biggest pet peeves is someone coming in just to complain-- usually family members.
“Are those ALL dirty dishes?” “There’s so much cat hair, have you cleaned recently?”
I have five cats. There will ALWAYS be cat hair SOMEWHERE.
That’s also a pet peeve of mine. It’s a little different if it’s an officially assigned task, for example if I am the one that takes the trash out, and you mention that the trash is full, thanks for letting me know, I’ll get on that. But if it’s a shared or unassigned task like: “The dog shit on the floor.” Ok, and why didn’t you do something about it when you saw it?
If I’m not willing to fix it myself, I’m not going to point it out to others.
Hell, when my friends come over they never complain. One of them is allergic to cats, but not to the point where it’s a HUGE issue. I dust, vacuum, wash the carpet, change the sheets, etc. before they come over because I want the place to be as comfortable as possible.
Again, I never get any remarks from them or any other friends that come over. It’s always family.
Hair and dust are like the most difficult things to keep your home or apartment clean from. Because dust accumulates just by what is in the air, it’s inescapable. The best you can do is just grab cleaners that’ll at least postpone it a little but you’re always going to get dust. Hair, same deal, you’re always going to get hair somewhere, find hair somewhere or whatnot.
Just got to accept some things are impossible to keep clean for long periods. Just focus on what you can clean, give things a wipe down at least and call it good.
Pareto Principle. Focus on the 20% of chores that get you 80% of your cleanliness. Just found this, which seems to give a decent explanation:
https://www.cleaningchecklist.org/what-is-the-80-20-rule-house-cleaning/
That sounds like a good idea but, man! That’s a very chatgpt site.
Hardly even looked at it, honestly, just grabbed the first article that seemed to align with what I was describing, haha
Pareto principle definitely applies here. I have a similar cleaning pattern, with tidying and cleaning being grouped together.
I complete maintenance items daily. I live in a small place so I can even mop/vacuum daily if need be. I dust and do deep cleaning once a week as well as laundry. It’s really not time consuming if you stay on top of things (like 15-30 minutes a day). I do not have pets so that helps a lot. I also don’t have a second adult in the home, which helps a lot. Historically I’ve found it’s a lot easier to keep my home clean without multiple adults. I need a nice tidy place to feel comfortable, but I don’t judge anyone else for their choices.
I have my standards higher than my fiancee, which is annoying for both of us since she’s mostly reponsible for housework in our apartment. But we’ve just compromised on the level
Why is she mostly responsible? My husband has higher standards for housework than I do, so I do more of the cooking and gardening, finances, we arrange the division of labor to accommodate our strengths.
I work, she is at home most days
That makes sense. We both work, I go to office and he works from home, but both full time.
If they don’t like it they can start cleaning themselves.
If they don’t like it they can host.
I wash my bedsheets yearly whether they need it or not and besides that it’s mostly a self-contained ecosystem for example I don’t change my bath mat because that’s where my mushrooms grow.
I personally live by the idea that at home if someone/some people keep(s) constantly complaining about your work, then they should try to do a better job than you to prove you aren’t putting in the work. I feel as long as you are doing a good job, they will probably do worse and hopefully back off afterwards. That’s assuming they don’t claim that they either did better than you or blame you on a job not well done despite them doing it.
As for me, my standard is getting it done right the first time so I don’t have to redo it. Dishes get cleaned right and put away in specific cabinets and drawers so everyone knows roughly where everything is and I don’t have to fix things when putting dishes away or struggle to find things when helping cook dinner. Same type of logic applies to helping my parents and when walking my brothers dogs. Though, I’m lucky enough to have family that doesn’t get too snippity over my work. Usually just a dish that I may have missed a little bit on being pointed out every once in a while.
If I throw it against the wall and it doesn’t stick, it’s clean.
The correct place to set something down is wherever I am so long as it’s not food. I can afford to pay for a cleaning service to cover mopping and such, so I only vacuum clumps of cat hair and leave the floors for someone else to manage. I tidy up before they come so they can access everything.
save about $200 through the year and hire someone from a reputable cleaner to clean your home about a week before.
then, the day before, just do touchups.
it’s the best gift you can give yourself if this is such a problem.
btw, it’s about $4 per paycheck if you get paid weekly.
To answer your question - your judgemental family is the problem, not your cleaning. I have my own (pretty loose) cleaning standards, they don’t apply to others. If someone invites me to their house, it would have to be pretty dirty before I might say something, and even then more because I might be worried about them.
We do kind of a lot of ongoing maintenance, run the Roomba twice a day and have help - we pay for every other week deep cleaning. But generally speaking yes there is cat hair and dust. We live in the world, the world is made of dirt.
You don’t have to live up to any kind of ridiculous standard, but you have to embrace all of the unpleasant tasks that come with inviting people to your space.
The biggest one is that you can’t have people leaving filthy and covered in cat hair.
I know you have a cat, but you have to figure out how to balance your cat ownership and your desire or intention to host people in your home.
Clean the cat hair. Vacuum the furniture. Think about how you would feel if you had a cat allergy and had to go to somebody’s home and drag all that filth home with you.
Don’t get me wrong, I like cats, but let’s be real.
