Inspired by this thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=368626&page=1&pp=50
I sit here and wonder if us single ladies are as clean/dirty as the guys. They can’t have all the fun (or mess)!
So fess up, ladies, how clean is your apt/house?
I’ll add my own answer later.
I was just talking to a girlfriend about this yesterday and she surprised me with the rather astute observation that I need to host a large party every few months, since that’s the only time I bust out and really clean. I’ve never been motivated to do spring cleaning or whatever, but she’s right, I do get all the clutter organized and deep cleaning done before a gathering.
I am moving from NY to FL in about 48 hours. The house is a disaster. In about 24 to 30 more hours everything will be neatly boxed.
After that blessed occurrence I will run the vacuum; do the windows and window sills; scrub the sinks, tub and john; wipe down the cabinets, stove, refrig and counter tops. In short I’ll get it back to looking good. Then, when all the furniture is moved, I will be horrified that so much dust and grim got behind furniture.
My house is rarely actually dirty – but it’s never terribly neat. I’m a clutter person, and though I’ll go through periodically and sort out and put away the various piles, they reaccumulate again within a few days.
On the surface my home always looks neat and clean… This, however, is only because I have finally learned the benefits of plentiful storage, and everything now has a ‘lazy cleaner’ easily findable home. I like hoovering so thats not really a chore to me. However, I tremble at the thought of looking behind the fridge :o and I completely bloody loathe washing dishes. I even tried to get my landlord to swap my washing machine for a dishwasher, as I’d rather go to the laundrette than wash 'em!
I am very particular about my bed - I change the bed linen at least once a week, and more than that in summer. There’s just nothing as nice as slipping into a freshly-laundered bed, and I’m sure I sleep better because of it.
I have in the past walked out on potential romantic liasons purely because they were trying to get me to come to bed on a nasty sheet-free mattress and tea-stained colour duvet… shudder
My mom’s housekeeping was abysmal to say the least. Every surface in her house was cluttered and sticky, I didn’t realize until I was twelve that tubs and sinks are meant to be smooth, and checking for mold before eating anything in the fridge was SOP. I’m frankly surprised that she never attracted the attention of the Board of Health.
I was more than a little neurotic on the subject of housecleaning for years. I’m now past the point where I mop every night, and do a hands and knees scrub every weekend, but I still can’t sleep if there’s a dish in the sink. My daughter insists that the cabinets don’t need to be scrubbed *every * week, but I’m just not there yet. Maybe this weekend I’ll skip it and see what happens. 
I’m definitely a clean as you go person. I can’t abide clutter, and it’s so much less stressful to invest twenty minutes per evening than to let it pile up and spend my entire Saturday dealing with it.
Saturday is still “big clean” day, but it’s much easier if I can just do the dust/mop/scrub thing without having to spend time “picking up” first. I’ve got it down to a system, and it only takes two hours, provided I don’t get it into my head to wash the windows or something.
I’m good about laundry–usually done on weekends, towels weekly, sheets bi-weekly–but not as good about folding stuff and putting it away; unless it’s something that needs to be taken out of the dryer and hung up right away, the clean clothes may sit in the basket until I a) need them or b) need the basket for laundry the following week.
Dish washing… I have a dish-washer, so that gets done regularly.
The kitchen floor gets swept once in awhile, but mopped only if I spill something. I have pulled out the fridge to sweep out behind it once or twice. Stove-top, clean. Inside the oven… eh, not so much.
I’m bad about vaccuuming, except for the top floor, where the kitty litter boxes are, and may only do the downstairs rooms when company is coming.
I’m very bad about dusting, except when company is expected. I finally got around to doing the top of the dresser in my bedroom this past weekend, and the depth of the dust was frightening for a house somebody lives in!
Except for the study and the cats’ room, the house is generally free of clutter.
Oddly enough, I will scrub the toilets more often (let’s say a semi-weekly basis) than the sinks and bathtubs.
I am a slob, I admit it. Total, complete slob. I dust rarely, sweep the floors MAYBE every other week. I do keep up with laundry, at least weekly, usually twice a week. Bedclothes are changed weekly. I let the dishes fill the sink, then stick them in the dishwasher.
I am also the queen of clutter. I have waaaaaaaay more stuff than I actually need, and hope to get it under control, soon.
Having 4 dogs and 2 cats doesn’t help.
It’s a pit. A total sty. I just bought my very first own house in August and I was going to Keep It So Clean. Bull. About all I can manage is one room at a time. Now it’s the living room. Soon it had better be the kitchen. The thing is, my 90 year old grandmother might be coming down to see us next month and it had better all get clean. Eek!
I usually do better with the cleaning part than the clutter part, but these days it’s virtually pointless to do any dusting, vacuuming, etc. because we’re in the midst of a serious pollen drop. I can’t open a window without a virtual cloud of the irritants blowing in and settling on everything, including my nasal passages, ear canals, and eyes. I know this because I wipe down a small area by the kitchen windowsill most days (this is my way of tracking indoor pollen loads) and it just gets re-dusted with pollen every day.
I’ll do a comprehensive cleaning in about two weeks, when the pollen tapers off.
I go through phases. Right now I’m in a clutter phase. Went through a huge decluttering of the study, didn’t have anywhere to put things, and so have boxes piled in my living room that I’ve been walking around for months.
I do laundry at least every two weeks, should probably do it more often but I have pay facilities so put it off. My kitchen is pretty bad as I tend to wash things just before I use them. I don’t do the bathroom all that often but it doesn’t really get all that dirty. But the litter box is always clean and my clothes and shoes are all organized as well as my bookshelves.
My place is always clean.
Occasionally I’ll wind up with a pile of stuff somewhere that it doesn’t belong, but that doesn’t usually last very long.
I change and wash my sheets once a week - even if it’s just me sleeping in there, it’s still nasty.
I keep the kitchen and the bathroom clean everyday. But I live in a studio so my bedroom is my livingroom and it gets cluttered. I have a hard time coming home and setting to hanging things up. As a result, I go through cleaning orgies on the weekends and my place devolves into clutter over the course of the week.
I’m always on the verge of getting maid service until the image of my parents (who both had time-consuming professional jobs) raising a herd of children and animals, giving us home-cooked meals everyday and keeping our house very clean swims through my mind and then I feel terribly ashamed and do the vacuuming myself. Although, they have told me it gets easier once you can acquire some child labour :).
I live in a small apartment, so it’s very easy to keep clean. I have very little in the way of knick-knacks and “stuff”. I despise having something just for looks - getting no use out of it whatsoever. My candles are meant to be lit, my towels meant to be gotten wet, and there are no bowls of fake fruit on my kitchen table.
To avoid roaches and ants, I make sure there’s no food left out at night so my kitchen is always clean. Dishes always in dishwasher. I have birds in the dining area so I do have to sweep every couple of days, but I vacuum maybe once a month. Bathroom is kept up daily cause I don’t use a lot of stuff. My bedroom is probably the messiest place because I have a bad habit of not hanging clothes up so they end up on my bed, then on the floor. There’s always clothes on my floor - it’s just something I deal with. Laundry is a bi-weekly thing.
My desk usually holds a pile of papers, bills, photos, and various stuff, but I’m working on keeping it in order and put away.
I’d say I’m pretty neat. Credit goes to my grandmother, who taught me it’s easier to clean up as you go rather than struggle at the end.
If I had a place of my own to keep clean, I’d keep it clean. If I’m stressed out, it manifests itself in clutter–piles of junk here and there. But not actual filth.
I don’t want to talk about it.
Laundry is done regularly - at least weekly (this week I get the added benefit of doing a load tonight, because of a tripping in the mud accident I had yesterday and the need for clean jeans). Laundry is always folded before I leave the laundromat or bring it up from the ones in the basement of my building. It is then put away immediately upon returning home - if I don’t put it away, I dress myself out of the laundry basket all week and pile dirty clothes on the floor.
Actually, the apartment is relatively clean right now. I cleaned, vacuumed and such last weekend - my biggest problem is junk mail, which tends to pile up until I get around to sorting what needs to be shredded from what doesn’t. And books - I’ll start reading or finish one and set it down, and then…well, they get put away when I do deep cleaning.
Kitchen gets deep cleaned (including mopping) at least every other week, but spills and such are wiped up immediately.
It’s quite sparkling, actually. I do the dishes and wipe down the counters every day; try to sweep the kitchen floor a few times a week; and every weekend I vacuum, dust, mop, do laundry and scrub the tub and toilet.
But the thing is, it’s new. I just bought my first very own house in March, and I’m still full of joyous “It’s mine, all mine!” feelings. Keeping it clean is still fun. I hope to continue as I’ve begun, but I expect I will begin to slack off a little bit on the cleaning as the novelty wears off. I was never really renowned for my housekeeping before.
My place has been such a mess for the past year, when I moved in too hurriedly, that I still can’t invite anyone over. There are literally boxes covering every foot of the floors. Only the kitchen and bathroom are completely bare. I intentionally keep everything out of sight, nothing on the counters, to give me the oasis I need from the mess everywhere else. My sister and brother come to town and ask to see my place and I tell them to meet me at Mom’s and then start making excuses. They say “Oh, it can’t be that bad” Me:“But it is.” “Well, we’ve seen your other places/ messy friend’s places and we don’t care” Me:“That works for you, but not for me. The answer is still no. We just have to meet at Mom’s.”
I have a pile of laundry in my car since I just haven’t gotten the energy to go to the laundrymat all week (I can go for at least three weeks without doing laundry but when I finally do it it’s quite a load). Other than that, the house is neat but not clean (I don’t think you can have both). Things are in their place but those places are dusty or filmy. I don’t let things get disgusting but am certainly used to the level of dirtiness that exists.
I wash the dishes when they start to be stinky. I Swiffer obvious open areas of lint and occasionally vacuum up all the fabric scraps and thread that end up on the living room rug. Bedding gets changed weekly, pillowcases more often since I drool!!
I live by myself so deep cleans only happen before dinner parties or overnight guests, both quite rare.
Very very clean.
Of course it’s the biweekly Merry Maids doing it all, but you won’t tell that to anyone, will ya?
Seriously. I do a good job of the daily stuff of picking things up and keeping up with my laundry and keeping dishes washed and keeping bed made, but I do a lousy job of the things that need cleaning on a weekly or biweekly basis. It takes me a whole weekend to do a proper cleaning, so, the “extravagant” thing I did upon getting my current job which paid several times more than my old job was to hire Merry Maids. Ironically, having Merry Maids has made me a lot cleaner… I want to maintain their sparkly appearance, and there’s little that’s more depressing than coming home after a 12-hour day to a pigsty. Plus, Merry Maids doesn’t cost that much more than cable TV (which I don’t have).