Spinoff: how clean is your house? (normally)

wandajune6 · April 2015

Shout Color Catcher is great for colors that run. I used to buy them when I would do laundry at the laundromat. They helped with the random red shirt turning huge loads pink.

Now, I sort laundry by how it dries. Towels together, jeans together, etc. I do wash our bath mats but only because of The Kid. We have a tiny bathroom and somehow our bath mat always smells like he missed the toilet. I wash the mats every other week and buy replacements 2x/year (cheapies from Ikea). When I was single, I only washed them when I moved.

I would use a new towel for each shower as well but can't. The Kid used to do that then would leave towels to mold in his room. DH is lousy about hanging his as well, though not as bad as The Kid. We don't have space for enough towels for all of it.

Cookie Pusher · April 2015

Yea, so all of you baseboard/wall/window washing folks are invited to come help us clean out our apartment when we finally find a house to live in because I have never washed any of those things.

theartistformerlyknownas · April 2015

chibiyui said:

lolo883 said:

chibiyui said:
I just scrubbed the kitchen floor. Like. Hands and knees. It still doesn't look clean because it's shitty linoleum.

Also, anyone know of any anti mildew bath mat or something? We have a wood one right now, but H doesn't move it when he showers and......it's getting a bit gross.
What the hell is a wood bath mat?? And where would he move it to? Are you talking about something that lives inside the shower, not the carpet you get out onto?
We have a tile floor, and the wood bath mat, for lack of better terminology, keeps us from breaking our asses on wet floor. Unfortunately, water from showering itself tends to puddle on it, hence the icky.

I... still don't get it. Why don't you use a carpet-type one?

The only wooden ones I've seen are slats, no place for water to puddle. And made out of teak so they don't mildew. Are you sure you're not misusing your cutting board?

sarahufl · April 2015

This bathmat discussion is making me laugh so hard.

I had a roommate once who got the bathmat BEYOND soaking. Like, so wet it was unbelievable. She would always complain about how wet it was when she would go back in the bathroom later. I once said it was only that wet when she used it.

So she asked me how I avoided getting it that wet- I told her I dried off in the tub, then stepped out. This blew her mind. She hadn't thought of this as an option.

Girl was an idiot for many, many other reasons- this is just one of them.

chibiyui · April 2015

lolo883 said:

chibiyui said:

lolo883 said:

chibiyui said:
I just scrubbed the kitchen floor. Like. Hands and knees. It still doesn't look clean because it's shitty linoleum.

Also, anyone know of any anti mildew bath mat or something? We have a wood one right now, but H doesn't move it when he showers and......it's getting a bit gross.
What the hell is a wood bath mat?? And where would he move it to? Are you talking about something that lives inside the shower, not the carpet you get out onto?
We have a tile floor, and the wood bath mat, for lack of better terminology, keeps us from breaking our asses on wet floor. Unfortunately, water from showering itself tends to puddle on it, hence the icky.
I... still don't get it. Why don't you use a carpet-type one?

The only wooden ones I've seen are slats, no place for water to puddle. And made out of teak so they don't mildew. Are you sure you're not misusing your cutting board?

ha. It's a slat one, but the water puddles underneath and between slats and....mildew.

I think it's Bamboo though, so thats' probably my problem. To Amazon!

theartistformerlyknownas · April 2015

@chibiyui can you put something under it, like a dish drainer mat? Then wash that as needed.

I should probably wash the dish drainer mat. Shit.

chibiyui · April 2015

lolo883 said:
@chibiyui can you put something under it, like a dish drainer mat? Then wash that as needed.

I should probably wash the dish drainer mat. Shit.

I could. Though the easier option is probably to just tell H to wipe the floor after he showers. He uses a new towel each time he showers.

amelisha · April 2015

I'm now reading this to FI in bemusement, and he keeps saying "I TOLD YOU! YOU'RE A FREAK WITH THE BATHMAT!"

I don't know why that's the breaking point when it comes to all my clean-freaky tendencies but apparently it's a bridge too far for him as well as you guys.

I guess none of you have seen me using the allergen reducer spray all over the stripped bed every week, or emptying out and spraying down the fridge on the last Saturday of the month, or disinfecting the recycling bins, or you'd really think I was straight up insane.
Guess I'm out of the closet now, which is really a shame because that's where I keep all the Scrubbing Bubbles.

levioosa · April 2015

amelisha said:
I'm now reading this to FI in bemusement, and he keeps saying "I TOLD YOU! YOU'RE A FREAK WITH THE BATHMAT!"

I don't know why that's the breaking point when it comes to all my clean-freaky tendencies but apparently it's a bridge too far for him as well as you guys.

I guess none of you seen me using the allergen reducer spray all over the stripped bed every week, or emptying out and spraying down the fridge on the last Saturday of the month, or disinfecting the recycling bins, or you'd really think I was straight up insane.
Guess I'm out of the closet now, which is really a shame because that's where I keep all the Scrubbing Bubbles.

I don't get the hate for washing the bathmat. Feet go on it. Wet feet. It needs to be washed often. We can run into the sunset together while spraying lysol.

Although I give you major kudos for emptying and cleaning the fridge every month. That's dedication, yo.

lyndausvi · April 2015

I wash my bath mats once a week.

I wash our towels once a week. I normally have 5 towels. There are 2 of use. So I guess we use 2.5 towels a week.

I do sheets every other week.

I use to separate laundry but gave up due to DH. I would say we do 4-6 loads of laundry a week. towels never go with regular clothes.

WinstonsGirl · April 2015

We're half clean, half slobs, after reading this. Our house is guest ready about 90% of the time - clean but with some messy piles in a few places. We also never make the bed, unless the cleaning lady is coming. Can't have her thinking we're slobs or something.

Laundry is 3-4 loads every 3-4 weeks maybe?? I do lights, darks and Lulu loads. Towels and sheets are separate, though we don't wash them weekly. We're gross like that. I have been trying to do the pillowcases more often though.

I've never washed our bathmats. Our cleaning lady vacuums them, I know that, but I've never washed them. Why would they need it?? They get a little wet from clean water after a shower and dry out. They don't smell. Maybe I should do it, but I don't see the point and DH has never questioned me on it, and he's kind of a germaphobe about lots of things.

At the moment, we really need to tidy and call in our cleaning lady. We're due for a cleaning.

novella1186 · April 2015

amelisha said:
I'm now reading this to FI in bemusement, and he keeps saying "I TOLD YOU! YOU'RE A FREAK WITH THE BATHMAT!"

I don't know why that's the breaking point when it comes to all my clean-freaky tendencies but apparently it's a bridge too far for him as well as you guys.

I guess none of you seen me using the allergen reducer spray all over the stripped bed every week, or emptying out and spraying down the fridge on the last Saturday of the month, or disinfecting the recycling bins, or you'd really think I was straight up insane.
Guess I'm out of the closet now, which is really a shame because that's where I keep all the Scrubbing Bubbles.

I take our kitchen trash can and recycling can outside and wash them out with bleach. Otherwise they hold a weird smell over time. I like when they're all clean and un-smelly. Is that weird? I feel like that's not weird.

amelisha · April 2015

novella1186 said:

amelisha said:
I'm now reading this to FI in bemusement, and he keeps saying "I TOLD YOU! YOU'RE A FREAK WITH THE BATHMAT!"

I don't know why that's the breaking point when it comes to all my clean-freaky tendencies but apparently it's a bridge too far for him as well as you guys.

I guess none of you seen me using the allergen reducer spray all over the stripped bed every week, or emptying out and spraying down the fridge on the last Saturday of the month, or disinfecting the recycling bins, or you'd really think I was straight up insane.
Guess I'm out of the closet now, which is really a shame because that's where I keep all the Scrubbing Bubbles.
I take our kitchen trash can and recycling can outside and wash them out with bleach. Otherwise they hold a weird smell over time. I like when they're all clean and un-smelly. Is that weird? I feel like that's not weird.

It's definitely not weird. Plastic is gross with the way it holds onto smells so no shame on the bleaching garbages. I throw our indoor ones out about once a year as well.

I also have a stockpile of 99 cent toilet brushes from IKEA in my cleaning closet so I can replace those every few months. I have a stock of cheap shower curtain liners too so I can toss those out and replace them whenever they start seeming grungy. We bought an expensive shower curtain a couple years ago so I'm really careful about protecting it (but it's awesome...)

novella1186 · April 2015

amelisha said:

novella1186 said:

amelisha said:
I'm now reading this to FI in bemusement, and he keeps saying "I TOLD YOU! YOU'RE A FREAK WITH THE BATHMAT!"

I don't know why that's the breaking point when it comes to all my clean-freaky tendencies but apparently it's a bridge too far for him as well as you guys.

I guess none of you seen me using the allergen reducer spray all over the stripped bed every week, or emptying out and spraying down the fridge on the last Saturday of the month, or disinfecting the recycling bins, or you'd really think I was straight up insane.
Guess I'm out of the closet now, which is really a shame because that's where I keep all the Scrubbing Bubbles.
I take our kitchen trash can and recycling can outside and wash them out with bleach. Otherwise they hold a weird smell over time. I like when they're all clean and un-smelly. Is that weird? I feel like that's not weird.
It's definitely not weird. Plastic is gross with the way it holds onto smells so no shame on the bleaching garbages. I throw our indoor ones out about once a year as well.

I also have a stockpile of 99 cent toilet brushes from IKEA in my cleaning closet so I can replace those every few months. I have a stock of cheap shower curtain liners too so I can toss those out and replace them whenever they start seeming grungy. We bought an expensive shower curtain a couple years ago so I'm really careful about protecting it (but it's awesome...)

OMG I want that shower curtain!!!!

sarahufl · April 2015

Oh, I absolutely bleach the kitchen garbage can. No judgement, there!

southernbelle0915 · April 2015

About the laundry - we probably do 5-6 loads a week.

We both work out on a regular basis, so that's 4-5 sweaty outfits/each/week. We wash towels, bathmats, kitchen towels/dishcloths, and sheets every week. If we forget to close our bedroom door and the cat sleeps on the bed, we wash the duvet. If we spill on the tablecloth, that gets washed. I wash the slip covers on pillows and furniture every month or so. If we didn't have a cat, I wouldn't want to do it that often.

I don't know..we just end up with a lot of laundry, I guess.

Maggie0829 · April 2015

In our house a bathmat is basically a towel the size of a 2X3 rug. These get washed when our other towels get washed, so once a week.

As far as laundry goes, I don't really separate by colors (except for whites) but rather by the type of clothes. So non-white socks, underwear, sweats/workout pants, jeans and hoodies all get washed together. Then I have a "do not dry" pile. And finally a t-shirt pile. The t-shirt pile is usually the largest because that is all H wears to work. H wears his work t-shirt over another t-shirt and then when he gets home he puts on a clean t-shirt and then sometimes he will change out of that into another t-shirt to sleep in. So like 4-5 t-shirts a day, so a lot of t-shirts.

For my shower I bought a washable shower curtain liner. So when I notice that it is starting to get a bit icky I just take it down and throw it in with my towels.

I try to make the bed every morning. If the bed is made I feel like our bedroom looks 100% better and cleaner. I also can't stand getting into a messy bed. A bed that has been straightened just feels better.

lovemesomemonster · April 2015

levioosa said:

MagicInk said:
I think my place is average clean. Or....I did. Apparently we're slobs.

I clean at work all fucking day long. You could perform surgery in my shop. I'm not gonna clean MORE when I get home. Though I organize the ever loving fuck out of everything.

I pretty much wash all my clothes in one load. Wifey usually does two for her stuff. And...ok I do a weird thing. I use a new towel after each shower.

I know it's weird. It's not a germ thing or cause I think they're dirty. I just really like having a brand new towel each day. And yes the woman I married rolls her eyes at my weird ass.

So we usually have a load of towels and other random shit to throw in. Though those sometimes wait for an extra week.

I do wash the bath mats maybe once a month. Cause it makes them fluffy.
I don't think it's that weird. I totally would use a new towel each time if I owned that many towels. Clean fluffy towels are the best, like getting into clean sheets at night. It could only be improved by having a towel warmer in the bathroom.

I had one of these in my apartment in the UK when I was working there for a month and it was AMAZING! Seriously thinking about putting one in my house now!

classicalandedgy · April 2015

We do laundry every Sundays 5-6 loads of whites, darks, lights, towels (including the bathmat), sheets and our son's clothes are separate the boy's clothes are nasty...

We change towels 1-2 times weekly, wash cloths every two days or so. Bed sheets changed weekly, duvet cover washed about every 1-2 months along with the light weight blanket.

Oh and no shoes are allowed in the house. We have lovely non-slip socks by the door for our guests.

I guess my one gross thing is that I don't do a full clean of my refrigerator and it's pretty disorganized so some left overs may hang out for a couple of weeks in the back...

plainjane0415 · April 2015

classicalandedgy said:
We do laundry every Sundays 5-6 loads of whites, darks, lights, towels (including the bathmat), sheets and our son's clothes are separate the boy's clothes are nasty...
We change towels 1-2 times weekly, wash cloths every two days or so. Bed sheets changed weekly, duvet cover washed about every 1-2 months along with the light weight blanket.
Oh and no shoes are allowed in the house. We have lovely non-slip socks by the door for our guests.
I guess my one gross thing is that I don't do a full clean of my refrigerator and it's pretty disorganized so some left overs may hang out for a couple of weeks in the back...

Are you serious?

jenna8984 · April 2015

southernbelle0915 said:
About the laundry - we probably do 5-6 loads a week.

We both work out on a regular basis, so that's 4-5 sweaty outfits/each/week. We wash towels, bathmats, kitchen towels/dishcloths, and sheets every week. If we forget to close our bedroom door and the cat sleeps on the bed, we wash the duvet. If we spill on the tablecloth, that gets washed. I wash the slip covers on pillows and furniture every month or so. If we didn't have a cat, I wouldn't want to do it that often.

I don't know..we just end up with a lot of laundry, I guess.

God you even have tablecloths? I'm such a failure.

lovemesomemonster · April 2015

plainjane0415 said:

classicalandedgy said:
We do laundry every Sundays 5-6 loads of whites, darks, lights, towels (including the bathmat), sheets and our son's clothes are separate the boy's clothes are nasty...
We change towels 1-2 times weekly, wash cloths every two days or so. Bed sheets changed weekly, duvet cover washed about every 1-2 months along with the light weight blanket.
Oh and no shoes are allowed in the house. We have lovely non-slip socks by the door for our guests.
I guess my one gross thing is that I don't do a full clean of my refrigerator and it's pretty disorganized so some left overs may hang out for a couple of weeks in the back...

Are you serious?

I love this! My mom used to keep those little hospital booties by her door, if you don't want to take them off you put these over them. It makes me literally cringe when shoes are worn in the house, they were just all over the nasty outside and now tracking I don't want to know what through the house. FIs parents and grandma were here the other weekend and he didn't say anything because it was grandma, I about called a carpet cleaner as soon as they left!

Yes, I am that person who is thinking of getting a sign to put by the front door "See the huge mat to the right of the door? Leave your shoes there!"

southernbelle0915 · April 2015

jenna8984 said:

southernbelle0915 said:
About the laundry - we probably do 5-6 loads a week.

We both work out on a regular basis, so that's 4-5 sweaty outfits/each/week. We wash towels, bathmats, kitchen towels/dishcloths, and sheets every week. If we forget to close our bedroom door and the cat sleeps on the bed, we wash the duvet. If we spill on the tablecloth, that gets washed. I wash the slip covers on pillows and furniture every month or so. If we didn't have a cat, I wouldn't want to do it that often.

I don't know..we just end up with a lot of laundry, I guess.
God you even have tablecloths? I'm such a failure.

Lol! I never grew up with them, but they're a "thing" in DH's family. At first I thought it was weird and inconvenient because you can't easily wipe of crumbs and spills = laundry, but I actually kind of like it now.

ShellD13 · April 2015

I hate clutter - so I do a sweep through at the end of everyday to deal with things that are out of place (shoes, mail, dishes, etc) but with two active teenage stepkids I never know what I'm going to walk into when I come home. DH goes into work really early so about 1x week, I'll use that 2 - 3 hour window to clean the house. I also tend do through a really thorough clean at each change in the seasons.

classicalandedgy · April 2015

plainjane0415 said:

classicalandedgy said:
We do laundry every Sundays 5-6 loads of whites, darks, lights, towels (including the bathmat), sheets and our son's clothes are separate the boy's clothes are nasty...
We change towels 1-2 times weekly, wash cloths every two days or so. Bed sheets changed weekly, duvet cover washed about every 1-2 months along with the light weight blanket.
Oh and no shoes are allowed in the house. We have lovely non-slip socks by the door for our guests.
I guess my one gross thing is that I don't do a full clean of my refrigerator and it's pretty disorganized so some left overs may hang out for a couple of weeks in the back...

Are you serious?

I know, I know it's weird but yes we do and not everyone wants to be barefoot so we have it as an option if you like.

ShesSoCold · April 2015

classicalandedgy said:

plainjane0415 said:

classicalandedgy said:
We do laundry every Sundays 5-6 loads of whites, darks, lights, towels (including the bathmat), sheets and our son's clothes are separate the boy's clothes are nasty...
We change towels 1-2 times weekly, wash cloths every two days or so. Bed sheets changed weekly, duvet cover washed about every 1-2 months along with the light weight blanket.
Oh and no shoes are allowed in the house. We have lovely non-slip socks by the door for our guests.
I guess my one gross thing is that I don't do a full clean of my refrigerator and it's pretty disorganized so some left overs may hang out for a couple of weeks in the back...

Are you serious?

I know, I know it's weird but yes we do and not everyone wants to be barefoot so we have it as an option if you like.

It's definitely weird. I'd avoid coming to your house if I were your friend.

cupcait927 · April 2015

Touching on the laundry part - I do about 5-7 loads of laundry just about every weekend. Between my work clothes and H's (both have to dress up for work), our street clothes (which include hoodies, jeans, t-shirts, yoga pants, etc), our workout clothes, towels, sheets and whites, we accumulate a lot of laundry in a week. The whites are the only thing that I let build up for a couple of weeks, because it's mainly H's white tshirts that he wears under his dress shirts for work.

classicalandedgy · April 2015

lovemesomemonster said:

plainjane0415 said:

classicalandedgy said:
We do laundry every Sundays 5-6 loads of whites, darks, lights, towels (including the bathmat), sheets and our son's clothes are separate the boy's clothes are nasty...
We change towels 1-2 times weekly, wash cloths every two days or so. Bed sheets changed weekly, duvet cover washed about every 1-2 months along with the light weight blanket.
Oh and no shoes are allowed in the house. We have lovely non-slip socks by the door for our guests.
I guess my one gross thing is that I don't do a full clean of my refrigerator and it's pretty disorganized so some left overs may hang out for a couple of weeks in the back...

Are you serious?
I love this! My mom used to keep those little hospital booties by her door, if you don't want to take them off you put these over them. It makes me literally cringe when shoes are worn in the house, they were just all over the nasty outside and now tracking I don't want to know what through the house. FIs parents and grandma were here the other weekend and he didn't say anything because it was grandma, I about called a carpet cleaner as soon as they left!

Yes, I am that person who is thinking of getting a sign to put by the front door "See the huge mat to the right of the door? Leave your shoes there!"

I am thinking of doing those too, we had someone who was working on our furnace come in and of course he could not take of his boots, but I died a little inside, lol. The cable guys always come with their own boot socks though and that is great!

levioosa · April 2015

I feel like making your guests wear non slip shoes or even to take off their shoes is a little micromanaging/bordering on rude. By all means, make the troop of children who just rolled around in the mud outside take off their shoes, but adults? I think it's a little much. Even if I had a no shoe policy in my house for my family, I would never mandate that a guest follow it. I want them to be as comfortable as possible.

novella1186 · April 2015

southernbelle0915 said:

southernbelle0915 said:
About the laundry - we probably do 5-6 loads a week.

We both work out on a regular basis, so that's 4-5 sweaty outfits/each/week. We wash towels, bathmats, kitchen towels/dishcloths, and sheets every week. If we forget to close our bedroom door and the cat sleeps on the bed, we wash the duvet. If we spill on the tablecloth, that gets washed. I wash the slip covers on pillows and furniture every month or so. If we didn't have a cat, I wouldn't want to do it that often.

I don't know..we just end up with a lot of laundry, I guess.
God you even have tablecloths? I'm such a failure.

Lol! I never grew up with them, but they're a "thing" in DH's family. At first I thought it was weird and inconvenient because you can't easily wipe of crumbs and spills = laundry, but I actually kind of like it now.

This is exactly why the 1 tablecloth I bought is now int he linen closet and will stay there. We inherited FI's grandma's table. Someone in her family hand-made leaves for it, and the leaves are mismatched from different types of wood, some are finished and some are not, some have paint spills on them, it's very "vintage rustic."

At first it kind of bothered me so I covered it with a table cloth. But washing the table cloth all the time bothered me more. So now I've convinced myself that the table is cool and I just leave it bare.

Spinoff: how clean is your house? (normally)

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