The Great Mildew Eradication continues apace. I am currently working my way around the downstairs bedroom, which is always horribly damp and even in a relatively dry summer requires some serious attention. Since this was not a dry summer--at all--serious is an understatement.
Gross.
This room was last very throroughly cleaned last summer. Not that you could tell based on its current condition. Which made me consider as I was scrubbing: How often would it need to be really thoroughly cleaned to be acceptable?
When I say "thoroughly," I mean in the sense of a good old-fashioned spring cleaning: All furniture moved and cleaned, all surfaces--walls, baseboards, window frames, floors--scrubbed with a scrubby sponge and a tub of water and wood cleaner. By hand. Then dried with a cloth. All curtains and other fabrics washed if possible. Everything.
It takes me about eight hours of this kind of cleaning to completely clean one room in my house. That's a full work day (which of course I do not actually have, so I have to do it over several naptimes). I have eight rooms just downstairs. Another eleven rooms upstairs. The scale of it is literally impossible for me.
That's why even the most-used rooms only get this thorough cleaning once a year. If I'm lucky.
But enough about me. I'm extremely curious about your experiences with this.
So, my lovelies, how often do you do a balls-out, no-holds-barred scrubbing of your house? And how long does it take you to get just one room really, really clean?
I'll have to get back to you on that one. If I ever do such a thing at my house. I live downwind from a rock quarry in a 100 year old house, and I'm just not sure that it would be worth it to try. Pretty sure I couldn't finish before it needed it again, and I just can't get into that so much. It's clean enough to be healthy. And I have better things to do with my life. timberdawn
ReplyDeleteI too would have to let you know in the future. We have our whole house cleaned once a month (by others), but in terms of doing a very thorough cleaning, we don't seem to get around to that.
ReplyDeleteHm. Wiping down walls? When they are visibly dirty, sure. I wipe windowsills when I notice them, and vacuum furniture when it's bad, but can't think that I have deep cleaned an entire room in a while. I did when I moved!
ReplyDelete-moi
When I am moving and preparing to sell a house, the cleaning goes to the level you describe--and farther, because it includes painting and carpet shampooing. Fifty plus years ago, my mother cleaned the house that deeply every spring, and I helped when I became old enough.
ReplyDeleteI must have decided I'd done enough of that...
Now? In my own house? I think about doing that sort of cleaning. Just think about it...
I wonder if a dehumidifier would help?
ReplyDeleteI am with all the others that have left a comment. Not often if at all.I used to try to do that and I to have better things to do. Beth
Never on your scale. Kudos for even once a year. However, we do live in super dry Arizona, so I guess I don't feel that bad about my inability to move furniture and not worry about any mold whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI have never actually done the kind of scrubbing that you speak of.
ReplyDeleteI have, once, taken down the curtains and washed them. But it was such a friggin hassle that I haven't done it since.
I consider it a major accomplishment just to get the toilets and bathroom floors scrubbed. I reward myself handsomely.
Last month, when I moved in. That will probably be the last time, until I have to move again!
ReplyDeleteSandy Shoes in NC
Never. I wiped down the bedroom walls once. My house tends to be dusty and a bit messy but the dishes get done and the kitchen cleaned up every single night. I always do a deeper clean when moving out of a place. Since I hope to never move out of this house I guess I'll have to schedule a once-a-decade deep clean!
ReplyDeleteHave you tried using a dehumidifier to stop the mildew?
ReplyDeleteI did that before we moved in here, in 1994. Since? Never.
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