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?
11 comments:
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
I 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.
Hm. 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!
-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.
I 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?
I 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.
I have never actually done the kind of scrubbing that you speak of.
I 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!
Sandy 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!
Have you tried using a dehumidifier to stop the mildew?
I did that before we moved in here, in 1994. Since? Never.
Post a Comment