How do you Clean.....Another fight with the kid
By Erilyn
@Erilyn (3020)
United States
June 20, 2008 3:07pm CST
Ok so The kid (Kat) and I got into another row today over something stupid. She got upset cause of the way I clean the house. She said it is fusterating because I will take something put it away and if I see something else in that room I will put it away too. I don't clean one room completely before going into the next room. So she gets all bent out of shape about it and decides to start yelling at me. How I am so horrible and can't expect her to get anything done.
I very calmly explained to her that its not how it gets done that counts, only that it gets done. I explained to her that different people have different methods. Then I asked her what was better to have everything done completely or to do the minumim of something and move on. That set her off again, because she can't do something completely. She only wants to do what she has to to make it look good.
So she said to me that noone would clean up like I do, and stormed off. I told her that I would ask people here on Mylot and see what they say. I told her that I would let her know if there is anyone else out there that cleans the house like I do lol. So the question is how do you clean your house? Do you finish one room and then move on or do you do what you see needs to be done at the time?
4 people like this
13 responses
@ShellyB (5241)
• United States
20 Jun 08
Hi, I am new here, and wanted to answer to you.
The way I clean my home is I clean what I think needs to be clean right away and of course, my main room to clean is the kitchen, as it is where we prepare meals.
I have done the best I can to keep kitchen clean. I will also clean the living room all at once but from there I clean as I go.
Because I also work cleaning homes, that is where I clean one room at a time, it is more efficient and I do not live there to clean as meesses happen.
I hope that helps.
3 people like this
@fwidman (11514)
• United States
20 Jun 08
It's inevitable to clean the way you do. You start with one thing and end up doing something in another room because you notice it. I've never seen anyone clean a house the way she describes it, it would just be too abnormal!
Maybe what she is really saying is that she wants to clean the house instead! Wouldn't that be a joy to behold LOL
Kids are strange when it comes to cleaning. Mine is "cleaning: her bedroom at the moment, which usually means hiding everything somewhere, especially behind the bedroom door LOL
2 people like this
@Angelwhispers (8978)
• United States
20 Jun 08
Oh my goodness.... LMAO Okay Mom, I have to say I clean this way... I will start in the kitchen and if I have to put something away lets say in the bedroom, once in there I will become distracted and start picking up in there maybe making the bed LMAO and I end up working my way back to the kitchen. Now I am not saying this is the best way to clean, but it is my way.... Sometimes I have to stop myself and concentrate on one particular job because it demands that I do so...
I think my housecleaning habits were established during my couple of years as a somewhat stoner phase... Mj tends to make a person very distractable! LMAO Don't share that with your daughter however!
I have learned with my boys you can only give them one task at a time. If you give them 2 they totally space out one of them... So I tell my Son, load the dishwasher. When that is done I tell him clean the cat pan now.... never tell him to do both at one time and in one breath...
2 people like this
@kezabelle (2974)
•
20 Jun 08
I clean up as I go along, often there will be toys and things out that can stay there for now and with my children being so little I often have to leave one room to be with them in another so I do little bits here and there all day and normally its clean enough come bedtime. I just dont have time to do one room at a time and not leave it until its done it wouldnt really be fair on my kids but then they are only 4 and 2
2 people like this
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
20 Jun 08
If I clean up, I usually immediately bring things to where they belong. If I see something there, I start cleaning there because I usually find something that brings me back to where I started out anyway.
Only when I do my weekly dusting and stuff do I make a pile in the middle of the room and then start distributing before I move on to the next room.
You are right when stating there is no single one right way to do it. What counts is that it gets done somehow!
2 people like this
@Erilyn (3020)
• United States
20 Jun 08
Exactly!!! I tried to tell her that, but teenagers think they are right and everyone else is worng! She might have gotten it from my mother though cause that is how my mother cleans also, she thinks it gets done faster that way. I have always cleaned this way though, my mom thought it was becasue I had add or something lol.
1 person likes this
@uchiha_sasuke (51)
• Philippines
20 Jun 08
When I was still living with my parents, my mom taught me to clean the house starting with one room and when it's done, moving on to the next. I used to start cleaning my own room first, and when I think everything's fixed and organized, i move on to my lil brother's room which is a lot harder to clean i must say. I moved out last year and now I'm renting my own pad away from my parents. I realized that it's easier for me to not have a schedule or an organized manner of cleaning the place like I used to do with our own house. I clean whatever I see needs to be clean, and I do whatever I see needs doing. And that's how I have lived and kept my place tidy til now. I think it's pretty effective and I believe, to answer your question, that there's no right or wrong way of cleaning the house. It depends on how the people in it prefers to do it. As long as it gets done!
@Erilyn (3020)
• United States
20 Jun 08
Thats what I say too! lol I just don't see why it's such a big deal as long as everything gets done. Maybe it is because when the kids were smaller I would have them clean their room and they couldn't do anything else till it was done. But then again they didn't have the other chores to do like they do now.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
21 Jun 08
It sounds to me as if your daughter is just trying to get to you. I have 4 of them and when they are in their teens it is extremly trying. If my daughter got after me for how I clean the house then she would be doing the cleaning...simple. I have no real method that I use all the time. It all depends on how much time I have and my mood, etc. I will say that I did not clean my girls rooms. If they wanted to live like slobs...so be it. I only had one out of 4 that even tho she is 21 may be the biggest clutter bug i've ever met. One thing I do always is to have a basket handy. In that basket, I throw everything that is in the wrong room. I, like you, have a tendency to go from room to room and back and forth. I drop things off in the appropriate rooms as I go and then put them away. If they belong in one of the girls rooms, I'd put them on their bed and let them deal with it. Sometimes I will devote a day to just going thru my kitchen or living room. Regardless, if my teen didn't like how I did it, she can do it.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
22 Jun 08
I saw that other post and the people that got on your case. It was obvious that you were just being sarcastic and venting. Most anyone that has had to deal the teen years will certainly understand and relate. And your right, it is probably better to let some of it out on here.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
20 Jun 08
I do not like jumping all over doing house cleaning, so'yes
I do one room at a time and am done. then the next one, depending'on how much really needs doing. It saves me
'time and effort,besides being done with one task.It
is wasting time to jump around doing just what needs to
'be done. take a task finish the task then move on to the
'next one.
1 person likes this
@Erilyn (3020)
• United States
22 Jun 08
That's interesting. You and her prolly think alike in that area then lol. Maybe its because I think more abstractly that I clean the way I do. But if I have a project to get done (like my site its done YAY!!) I get all the stuff done on one page before I move on to another. If I know there is something that I need to change on another page, I just jot it down till I get to that page. My notes are a mess and noone can decipher them but me lol.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
21 Jun 08
I don't know if anyone else has said this, and I surely hope that it in no way offends you... (here comes the but) but I think if she was my daughter I would have said "If you don't like the way it gets done, then you do it!" Especially if I am the only one cleaning the house. Like I said, I hope that you do not get offended. As for me, I will do much like you have and clean what I see needs it, starting with small stuff and working my way up.
1 person likes this
@Erilyn (3020)
• United States
22 Jun 08
I am not offended in the slightest and what started it was her not sweeping the floor right. She swept everything into a pile and left it there and started compolaining about how I do things was too distracting for her. Instead of fighting with her I decided to see what other people thought about cleaning and vent some of my fusterations lol.
@SusanLee (1920)
• United States
21 Jun 08
Well my goodnesss, if we didn't pick-up and put-away along and along, imagine the mess we would have at the end of the day.
If your the one picking up and cleaning up, then you do it the way you want. Now if she promises to pick-up her mess when she's done that's a little different. If she follows through that is.
Most of them want to string and strow and leave it for someone else to pick-up.
And further more she had no business mouthing off to you and stomping off.
1 person likes this
@Erilyn (3020)
• United States
22 Jun 08
She started up because I was taking something into the kitchen and I had told her to sweep the floor. Sounds easy I know, well she decided to sweep it into a pile by the cabinet and leave it there. when I called her on it is when the whole thing started. I was too distracting so seh forgot to do it and why can't I be like a normal person etc.. So I came here to vent and see just how normal i really am lol.
@lynn2457 (500)
• United States
21 Jun 08
I am guilty, I have a grandson, that when he walks in the door, he drops, I am going room to room to follow and at the same time barking his name, I have gotten a lot of improvement over the past months with him, however, we still have our days, I guess, being in the restaurant, most my life, if it is on the floor, pick it up, has stuck with me,
After it is up, then I can go and clean up the rest of the area or area's needed,
For me it is habit, and old training.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (166976)
• Boise, Idaho
21 Jun 08
Do you think she is upset about something else?
1 person likes this
