Housework.......???

[Skye81]

Just wondered how anyone with aspergers gets on with keeping the house all lovely...!!! Especially those with children....
I love things to be tidy, CRAVE for everything to be perfect... yet there just seems so much it's impossible. Not only does no one in my house clear up after themselves but I find it hard to do all the things that need doing. Even being at home a lot I don't have enough hours and I get so exhausted by it. I forget what needs doing, what to do first, what's most important etc... my head is just telling me EVERYTHING needs doing so I write a list but it includes everything ever possible to clean and then writing the list takes up all my time! Oh my goodness. I desperately want to be able to look after the house properly but it never works. I could never have an unexpected visitor..
When I know people are coming I can do enough to make it look ok. But when I clean I need to do it perfectly and each thing takes so long that the rest gets worse and so on.......

 

[Progster]

I don't I can't really manage when I'm working. Sometimes I pay for someone to come and help, and sometimes my partner and I do it together. I resent it when all the chores are left to me, but it this country there is an expectation that if you are female, then it must be your job. Why should they be my job? I really dislike these gender roles that society wants to impose on us, they make no sense.

I just do the basics, then clean more thoroughly when I can get help to do it. I'm not particularly bothered with tidiness. In fact, if someone tidies things away I get upset because I can no longer find them lol! But I do like things to be clean. If someone comes to the house, then they are just going to have to accept things as they are. I don't go to other people's houses to criticise their housekeeping, so why should they do this to me? If they don't like the way my house is, then that's their problem. They needn't come if they don't like it.

 

[metalminx24]

Skye81 I know exactly how you feel. It seems like the other people in my house are happy to just leave their things everywhere and to live in squalor. I'm pretty obsessive about cleanliness but hate being a nag so I end up doing everything myself. It seems never-ending, but in the hope of saving my remaining sanity it has to be done. You have my sympathy, I do understand your situation!

 

[On the Inside]

I do crave tidiness, yet cannot create such an environment myself. I am unable to organize so that there is a place for everything, but I can maintain order if someone else creates it. I can clean obsessively, and I like to do dishes, vacuum, but I am unable to put things in a proper place, so clutter is a problem. Additionally, my partner is a sort of packrat, and our house is too small for all the things we have, not to mention things we don't need: all the things my partner has dragged home, bought, boxes for said items and things that "need to be returned, sold, donated".

 

[Suzanne]

We do not have children, but do have animals; to precise a blind cat, and two dogs ( medium and small) and honestly, they drive me crazy!

I cannot deal with living in a place that needs cleaning. I seem to have found a way around feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks and recognise my own limitations and besides, I have really bad circulation in my legs and so really have to pace myself in a big way!

I generally always have the kitchen clean first and usually continue upstairs with dusting and vacuuming. I vacuum first because I reason that if I dusted first, all the particles from vacuuming would create a dust cloud ( probably more in my imagination lol).

I then would clean the bathroom and then do all the floors and after, wash them and then, do the dusting.

I am suppose to be vacuuming today, but we have just had a couple looking after our home, whilst we were away and I must say, they did a splendid job, but annoyingly, they used the vacuum as it should be used ie with the long attachment and I tend to use a nozzle because that gets into all the nooks and crannies that an typical sweeper can't, but it is stuck on to the pipe and I have not the strength in my hands to pull apart.

With ironing: I make a rule of ironing before I put another wash on and that way, the ironing is always manageable. I cannot cope with an overflowing laundry basket!

 

[Beverly]

I'm not the best housekeeper, I really never had to do it until eight years ago. I tidy up - pick up clutter and do the dishes but, everything else I leave to my housekeeper who come in twice a week. If it gets too messy, I call her in an extra day that week.

I don't handle overflow of anything well so, it's worth the expense of a housekeeper to avoid having to worry about dust, laundry and the like.

 

[Skye81]

Oh a house cleaner would be lovely but with me a housewife I expect my husband sees me as the one to do everything..... :-( But I always feel like a failure as I cannot get it all done and I am constantly doing things yet the house gets nowhere. I am terrible at ironing. Terrible at getting washing done. Oh everything. I clean really well but I'd need a whole year to get it all done.

 

[Stevie1903]

I must have everything in its place and looking clean and tidy. Unfortunately it is really all left to my wife. I appear to know all the tasks that need doing every week unfortunately come the weekend housework doesn't seem to enter my head. I don't mean to forget about it.

I have particular problems with cleaning the bathrooms. I just can't remember the process of which cloth to use to clean the toilet or sink or what water etc. it's all very confusing. My wife had to write down instructions for me recently!

Ironing I cannot do. I have no patience and get confused and like the vacuuming I get tangled up in the cables. This can put me in an almost meltdown situation.

I am good at loading the dishwasher. That's easy.

One of my problems though is I look at the kitchen and to me it looks untidy and grubby. The house can appear cluttered and needing cleaned. It's not honestly but I just see this, I'm very negative. It's hard to explain.

 

[Beverly]

Were I in your position, I'd do all I could in the days leading up to a holiday like Mother's Day then, request a housekeeper for a day as a gift. Even once will get everything caught up and, that might make it easier to maintain for a time.