Spring clean

My father was a civil servant but worked in a military establishment. We lived in married quarters and also had to be “marched out” even though all the items were our own! I suppose it was to see we hadn’t done any damage.

Jimjam1

Monica you bought back happy memories when my father was in the Army. We as a family were in married quarters and the marching out was a meticulous affair. We had to account for every item that was in our quarter even down to a teaspoon. All laid out in every room ready for the inspection. Happy memories.

We had to pay 2d for a missing mustard spoon. I found it years later and again the other day when I was clearing out things from the dining room!

I read a quote May your house be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy I think this is so true I think a cozy home is more important than a show house

Monica you bought back happy memories when my father was in the Army. We as a family were in married quarters and the marching out was a meticulous affair. We had to account for every item that was in our quarter even down to a teaspoon. All laid out in every room ready for the inspection. Happy memories.

petra

I once heard it said that only dirty people spring clean. 😂

Gosh, women really can't win, can we?

Bottoming happens here in the East Midlands - or so I've heard.

I once heard it said that only dirty people spring clean. 😂

My parents lived with my widowed paternal grandmother from late 40s to early 50s. Mum had to do all the housework, including scrubbing the steps to the front door when nine months pregnant. My grandmother had been used to servants and treated my mother as one. Appearances were kept up - but perish the thought that she had to lift a finger.

Bottoming is also used here in the NE.
I assume if it’s done for you - one is being bottomed! Think I’ll stop there. 😂

People had many less possessions than they do now, and damp was rife indoors. Spring cleaning was a way of ridding the house of various bug and mould infestations, and the cleaner you kept your house the less likely they were to become a problem. I wouldn’t want to go back to that - but if I had to, I expect my house would be immaculate.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to have a clean house, but I'm very glad that women are no longer judged by those standards. I don't remember it, but I'm on a lot of FB history groups and I've read about women who were 'talked about' if their nets weren't white enough, or if their doorsteps weren't clean. What's the point of scrubbing doorsteps for people to tread on? A lot of posters (men) say that it was about 'pride', but I don't understand that, really. For one thing, pride is a sin, and for another, what is there to be proud of in a doorstep? There are photos of elderly women on their (probably arthritic) knees, scrubbing and donkey stoning doorsteps. I just don't understand it.

I can believe that the social pressure to keep women busy doing pointless tasks was there, and that it must have been hard to be the first one in the street to say 'B*gger this this for a game of soldiers - I'll have a lie in instead', knowing that you'd be the talk of the wash-house, but don't know why so many bowed to the pressure for so long.

i think the big difference is: no open fires so no grime from months of particulates from the fire everywhere and, as many have said, women working now.

To be honest I have no memory of spring cleaning happening in my childhood - but as an army family, we were constantly moving house and the big clean was always just before being 'marched out' from a quarter. The inspection was detailed and meticculous and the house had to be immaculate and all its contents accounted for.

My parents didn't spring clean ever that I remember, though we all pitched in to clean the house each weekend.

I enjoy cleaning (oh dear, I know) so do a big clean at least twice a year- once just before Christmas and then again early May. I make sure OH is out for the day and just keep going until it's all done.
If I get the chance I'll do an Autumn clean too!

I hoover every year whether it's needed or not.

Grandadpete

HelterSkelter1

Grandadpete you would hate my 140 year old house where 140 years of dust under the floorboards is blown up and around in strong winds. Remember young women are bringing up families and holding onto full time jobs..likewise their partners.
Some of us oldies are coping with illnesses and mobility problems.
My parents were certainly not wealthy but it wasnt expensive to have a cleaning lady it's certainly not cheap now.
I wonder how clean your "Mother's" house would be these days?

Mother brought up 4 children, worked part time and still kept the house and us kids spick and span
She still had time for lots of play and love
Father did have to help with the spring clean, moving the heavy furniture and getting on the steps to do the height bits .
I do think it's a generation thing , mother took a lot of pride in the house and what she saw as here domain .
Father ( a WW2 veteran ) also had a lot of time and love for us kids and do all the house d.i .y
The greatest generation imo
If mother was alive today...her house would be still be spotless a

I’m very glad I’m not your wife, having to live up to your mother’s standards. Times have changed, thank goodness.

Haven't been sleeping too well recently, and last night I remembered that I hadn't clambered up and changed the papers on top of the kitchen cupboards 😱, and thought that I'd have to get DH to hold the step ladder!
Lazyitis, that's me, and it still isn't done, but I am enjoying my cuppa and trawling through Gransnet, learning how to do, or not do it.
(Bathroom refurb begins tomorrow, so no need to dust everywhere until afterwards)

HelterSkelter1

Grandadpete you would hate my 140 year old house where 140 years of dust under the floorboards is blown up and around in strong winds. Remember young women are bringing up families and holding onto full time jobs..likewise their partners.
Some of us oldies are coping with illnesses and mobility problems.
My parents were certainly not wealthy but it wasnt expensive to have a cleaning lady it's certainly not cheap now.
I wonder how clean your "Mother's" house would be these days?

Mother brought up 4 children, worked part time and still kept the house and us kids spick and span
She still had time for lots of play and love
Father did have to help with the spring clean, moving the heavy furniture and getting on the steps to do the height bits .
I do think it's a generation thing , mother took a lot of pride in the house and what she saw as here domain .
Father ( a WW2 veteran ) also had a lot of time and love for us kids and do all the house d.i .y
The greatest generation imo
If mother was alive today...her house would be still be spotless a

😁

He does occasionally climb on a ladder and de-cobweb the ceiling.

I'm tempted to make a suggestion as to how you could make the message more effective

DH very kindly bought me a new microfibre duster with a long handle so I can reach the cobwebs in the conservatory. 🤔
At the moment it's standing in the bin in the office. Perhaps I should get him to demonstrate how it works.

I'm not sure I've ever washed a ceiling. Hoovered cobwebs out of the corners, but washed?

MissAdventure

It's a Scottish term, I think.
Nothing wrong with a bit of bottoming, in the privacy of your own home.

😁

I was never so surprised at other people’s extremes of cleaning as I was working as an office junior in London several decades ago.
After arranging a Saturday outing with one of the other girls, it was decided we’d have to meet at her home because of her weekly cleaning routine. She more than bottomed her room…..it was bedding changed and then room cleaned and hoovered and when I say cleaned, everything walls and ceiling everything washed down. Every single Saturday!

MissAdventure

It's a Scottish term, I think.
Nothing wrong with a bit of bottoming, in the privacy of your own home.

Can't meet up today Dahlings ,I'm bottoming!

I spring clean, always have done only now I start earlier because I’m retired. I feel as if I can’t relax and enjoy the summer until its all done, daft I know. So far I’ve only done the kitchen cupboards and wardrobes, had to stop to clear out mums flat she’s gone into a care home.
I seem to have lost my mojo at the moment because I can’t get motivated to start again.
When my decorator came last year he asked what I’d been cleaning the skirting boards with as the paint wouldn’t stick, I’d used flash spray.He had to wipe them down again because the paint wouldn’t stick.