Housework and the single life

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All that couple talk is driving me irrationally demented. But I have housework issues too!

For some reason I have a real problem getting around to cleaning the wooden floor in my flat. My flatmate/landlady always does the communal areas, and I feel bad about this, but part of me thinks it's different because I'm a kind of lodger more than a flatmate. She has never complained. I mean I do the surfaces and washing up and stuff, but the floor scares me. I think it's partly because I don't want to spoil the wood and I'm not sure what cleaning product she uses. I can't ask now, as I've been there almost two years. Also, I hate mopping floors. I guess this is the real issue. Anyway, it means that the floor in my room hasn't been washed in all that time. I hoover up the dust bunnies, and wipe up obvious spots, but that's all. I constantly feel grubby and bad, but somehow this never translates into action. The whole room could do with a dust, too. I hate myself.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

can't you get one of those chintzy mops that has a static sheet attached for regular maintenence, especially the ones with 'spray' option?

housework stinks, doesn't matter if you're single or a couple. i guess the main difference is feeling some sense of responsability for someone else's mess. which i don't. i'm a slob.

― colette (a2lette), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

The thing is, when I get into doing housework, I really get into it. After a party in our house at university once, I started clearing up at 4am or whatever and didn't stop until the whole kitchen and living room had been spring cleaned. I was in a kind of funny emotional state, though.

I even enjoy cleaning toilets. I get such satisfaction. But like everything else in my life, this somehow doesn't translate into my actually getting off my arse and doing it.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not one for mopping my linoleum -- I prefer scrubbing and vacuuming (the latter of which is important when you consider how my hair sheds and all).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha N., I'm exactly the same. I spent twelve continuous hours cleaning my tiny flat from top to bottom when I left, and it felt so good when I could see my face in the hob. Shame I rarely actually get off my arse and do it when it's not absolutely essential.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I let things get really messy, to the point of becoming stressed about it, then explode, then spend the next 12 hours in a mass cleaning frenzy, and then feel great!

repeat.

i am also the person at parties who cleans up other peoples puke.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, I am more than happy to help other people with their cleaning, to the point of actually doing it for them.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Cleaning is excellent when procrastinating, and while I'm not a PERFECT cleaner I do try my best -- as I can. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Mopping is a drag because if you wear shoes you end up tracking dirt around the mopped floor and if you don't wear shoes you get wet feet. It's a mugs game.

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, it's weird. I oftenlove cleaning other people's flats, doing their washing up or whatever. Girlfriend or prospective girlfriends' flats, anyhow. It's not a conscious ingratiation strategy - it actually feels good to do it.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

people actually walk into my room and laugh because of all the piles of clothes and books on the floor.

my new flatmate is nearly as slobby as me, which is dangerous. it's been ok so far, but i'm worried that stuff will start growing in our shower!

(xpost-- just me and the boys comparing how messy we are, typical!)

― colette (a2lette), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, my enormous room has no bookshelves either, which means piles of books that get dusty and horrid - I hate that. How do you dust a spine? It just sticks there. And cardboard boxes under beds, too. I need to actually buy some storage solutions, I guess.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

N, you need a swiffer with a wet wipe on the end. Can't go wrong. Have you, er, cleaned your bath?

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 11 June 2004 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

The bath is black - it doesn't need cleaning.

No, I have - just not very much. The shower is the worst thing - under the duck boards nasty sludge accumulates. I did the first clean under there in months the other day. It took about two hours. I had to do it in my pants.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

N, you need a swiffer with a wet wipe on the end. Can't go wrong.

Madchen is wise. That sounds like the way to go in this situation.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

OK. Are those 'wet wipes' terrible disposable things? Ah, fuck it.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

After a party in our house at university once, I started clearing up at 4am or whatever and didn't stop until the whole kitchen and living room had been spring cleaned. I was in a kind of funny emotional state, though.

haha it's better when you're fucked on drugs...taking drugs to clean surfaces to take drugs on!

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the swiffer wet is kind of a dud, it just pushes stuff around without actually picking any of it up. So then you get these wet clumps of dust and cat hair that you have to pick up with your fingers.

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I even cleaned on top of the kitchen cupboards! And power points!

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Power points?

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Wash your computer monitor every day.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

The sockets you put electric plugs into, Nicole.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm currently in the process of packing up all my worldly possessions to move house, and...

FUCKING HELL I WISH I'D BOTHERED TO HOOVER UNDER MY BED AT LEAST ONCE IN THE LAST FOURTEEN MONTHS!

It really is horrible down there.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

The bath is black - it doesn't need cleaning.

Is this from the same school of thought as "I only use my towel to dry my clean body, so it never needs cleaning"?

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I love cleaning my apartment. Instant gratification and the results last. Unlike that thing that non-single people do to occupy their time.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 11 June 2004 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i am the worst. the only things i'm capable of are cleaning out the tub and doing the dishes. like i said on the housecleaning thread that i started a while back, i have suitcases under my bed (still partially packed) going back to 2002. there are boxes that i haven't looked into since i moved to my current place in 2001. part of my bedroom is unusable due to stacked books/papers/file boxes/home office fallout. i can barely sit on the computer chair because i've decided to hang all of my jackets on it, and at this point there's nothing on any of the hangers in the wardrobe because everything is on the floor. at that, the house is tidier than it's been in months. i need a wife.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the swiffer wet is kind of a dud, it just pushes stuff around without actually picking any of it up.

sad but true. i thought swiffer wet would be my salvation, but it's just another false cleaning messiah.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Swiffer Dry, on the other hand, is great.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I use the Swiffer Dry all the time. I don't own the Swiffer Wet, but have used it to clean up my in-laws kitchen and it did an excellent job.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

i think the swiffer wet would have worked a lot better for me if there wasn't a serious accumulation of grossness. i might have been putting it to an unfair test.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I am a complete slob. I hate cleaning, it's just not part of my nature. I just gave the place a good once over (mopping, scrubbing stove, etc) b/c someone's coming to stay with me for awhile. However I'm not touching my bedroom just yet and I still need to do the bathroom. Due to being at least 50 yrs old and complete crap the tub/shower's kind of a lost cause.

Wish I could afford a maid.

(oh yeah the swiffer wet is kind of like mopping with windex and a paper towel.)

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

http://home.earthlink.net/~sidestreet/goldrush2.jpg

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 11 June 2004 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I have cleaning issues. I'm not dirty, really, I just leave crap all over the place. Clothes are everywhere. I have boxes I haven't unpacked yet. Disorganized, I guess.

I need a wife, like Lauren does.

― mandee, Friday, 11 June 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

ahhh I bask in these revelations. I love dust bunnies they are my widdle friends. We have massive gaps between the floorboards and the walls, a good 2 inches,it really brings the dust bunnies to life as well as creating bulk. Dry swiffer can handle it most days. The person I share the house with is an upholsterer so the sweeping is.. well should be a daily ritual. I havent bothered to mop yet, because the gaps between the boards are so wide it just pushes the dirt into the spaces. Hmm I see now that vacuuming IS the answer.

― jeska, Monday, 14 June 2004 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

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