I have not only been away from NT, my computer & school but I also was away from the house for some of that time. Now remember I have 3 large dogs!! DBF is Not a house cleaner. I might of been happy to be home but the looks of the house I wanted to run away again.He vacuum'd once - yes once in 6 weeks. Yesterday I took one room at a time & decided to just pull it apart to really Spring clean. This morning I have decided one day of deep cleaning one day of rest, Wow! Lil body is screaming at me!

Cleaning is hard work! I hired a cleaning service to come in every other week and the first cleaning was a doozy for them! But it was worth it to me. Once clean, I can maintain it pretty easily.

I've canceled them indefinitely since I owe income tax and will have to put that money towards my debt. But I've found that once it's really clean, I can maintain in fairly easily.

The boys are responsible for their rooms and bathroom so that leaves only my bedroom and the common areas of the house for me. They're rarely ever home so I've found it's pretty easy to keep up with. I just take a little bit each day and that makes it easier.

Could you split the cost of a housekeeper to come in just once and deep clean.....then you can maintain it? It sure made it easier for me.

I'm so glad you're back and posting!!

Ugh, I hear you on that one, Charlotte. This place is a disaster area because I can't afford the cleaner for the whole place. I try to do a little here and there but I can't run a vacuum cleaner myself or get to small, lower places without falling. It's sooooo frustrating! I'm supposed to be a dynamo, dangit! What happened!?!?

I'm glad you're being sensible about resting and cleaning at intervals, no point in killing yourself and ruining your whole spring over it.

hey char...so good to see you here. Im sorry you came home to a
mess, that stinks. I am trying to spring clean my whole house before
my surgery in less than two weeks....

Im trying to do an area at a time(not a room!) and then move on to another
if I feel like it. I can just imagine it driving me nuts when I am recupperating,
so I have to do it!!!!

A little at a time is the way to go!!! Good luck ands
to you

I'm with you! Do one area at a time, rest a day, do another area, rest.

Like AMN's siggy used to say: "for every day I want to play, I have to take a day to pay"...or something like that!

I'm on the cleaning binge, and trying to make it exercise too...BEND and STRETCH, REACH for the SKY...

(i keep bumping into the ceiling!)

Too funny RW! I don't bump my head on the ceilings, just the counter tops.

That's exactly the way I go about cleaning too, Char. I usually do the bathrooms one day, the kitchen/dining room another day and so on. It's just too hard to try and do too much in one day. I have also come to the conclusion that I just can't do certain things anymore, so we are having new wood floors put in, so I don't have to try and take care of the original wood floors anymore. Boy, are they alot of work and the new ones will only have to be swiffered. YAH!!! It's not worth the back pain anymore.

It was really hard for me to accept that I couldn't be a cleaning dynamo anymore, but those paydays are not fun either. Take your time, do a little chore, sit down and have a cup of tea or whatever and then continue as you can. So glad to have you back.

Oh, and I was recently away for a couple of wks and even though DH didn't mess the house up, I couldn't wait to get the layer of dust taken care of.

I am my Mother.....

I am like RW. I make cleaning in to a workout and crank up the music while I clean. But this past flare that started 3 months ago and that I am just getting over really threw me and I have no choice but to do small amounts at a time. My muscles are fatiguing so quickly.

Make a list of what needs to be done, group things together (like one day I dusted everything, another I did just the floors, etc.), and decide which ones to do. Set a time limit too. I can clean all the counters in 10 minutes or less and then I rest for 10 minutes. For me, it is more frustrating to set out to do an entire room at one shot, start cleaning it, and not be able to complete the task. Then I feel like I have accomplished nothing and then am too fatigued to finish. At least this way I feel like I have accomplished something.

I am sorry you came home to a mess.

I hired a local woman, and she is here now. Vacuuming away, dusting, and mopping floors. I originally hired out to get someone to do the heavy stuff, and hard work like floor scrubbing, but fell in love, and have her coming back once a week now. I love Friday! my house is clean for the weekend. woo!

Cleaning is HARD work! its so satisfying but hard. I simply cant do it anymore. I used to be a clean freak, and every corner was clean, but now...just cant keep up.

I take one room a day for spring cleaning too. I am also finding that it's far worse than I thought! Today I am sweeping and mopping the master bedroom and living room. I'll do the rest another day.

My biggest problem isn't so much dirt, it's junk piled up here and there and finding a place to put it. Sometimes I just close my eyes and chunk it in the garbage. lol

at least once a week we play the "where does this belong?" game. you pick up socks in the kitchen, letters on the dining room table, soaps on the kitchen counter that should have been delivered to the bath. Cat food still in the bag near the animal cabinet. You know, all those things that are out of place. My husband has more shoes than any man I know. He has hiking boots, walking shoes, garden boots, rain boots, house slippers...its maddening! Why do they all have to be in the kitchen?

I find that taking a laundry basket from room to room helps. I add all the things that dont belong in the room I am in, and drop off all the items that do. Of course the cat thinks its time to jump in the basket to play.

I do love a clean house