The breaking points of cleaning

 

Been wondering about vacuuming lately.

I’m guessing almost all of us have had our personal schedules flipped around over the past year or two, whatever the reason. And, like you, I have my routines for washing clothes, doing the dishes, and other assorted chores around the house.

Let’s consider laundry for a moment. I prefer hanging clothes outside to dry when I can. Just something about it that feels different. It feels better, especially when there is a slightly cool breeze carrying the scent of Downey around the house. So, during the summer (or any season where I get a day or two of warmer weather), I will at times check the forecast just to make sure it’s not going to rain and adjust my plans to wash clothes accordingly.

Do I do laundry once a week? Sure, that sounds about right. Do I shift my schedule depending on some other factors? Yup. I do.

And that leads us back to the vacuum.

I do not vacuum every day. Not even every week. Yes, I have been known to leave the vacuum undisturbed in the hall closet for more than a month. It happens, and I admit it.

But when do I feel the need to break that vacuum cleaner out? And that one, well, I don’t know if I have an answer.

I think all of us clean when necessary. Drop some tomato sauce on the kitchen floor, or the dogs track in some mud, and the reaction is pretty obvious. Clean up in the mud room, now. And that’s fair.

When I was in college, my roommates and I had a handful of apartment cleaning marathons each year. Light cleaning regularly. Days were set aside for the deep cleaning. The cleaning where furniture gets moved.

Do you dust? When? Heck, if the dust falls uniformly on a surface, and stays that way, perhaps no dusting is required. Right? As long as no one messes it up by touching it and leaving marks where the streaks of fingers expose the level of dust in existence, all is well.

And again, that brings us back to the vacuum.

If you really can’t see anything wrong with the way the floors look, is there a need to break out the dustpan and broom? If the carpets look fine, do they need vacuuming?

Depending on the web site you visit after conducting your search, you’re likely going to find that experts say vacuuming should be done at least once per week. Some experts suggest twice a week. And, several experts say a professional cleaning at least once per year is important (and will assist in extending the life of your carpet). All of which brings about a very important question…

Who the heck are these experts?

Turns out, no one knows. Oh, sure, likely floor cleaning professionals. I get the idea of who could be an expert. But I actually used three search engines, created terms for how often vacuuming should be done and who are the vacuuming experts, and I didn’t see one specific name. “Experts recommend” this… “experts say” that… experts all over. No names.

And in the end, the experts don’t know your house anyway. They don’t know if you have kids. They don’t know about pets. They don’t know if you work outside. They don’t know if you have a lot of mud around your house. They don’t know if most of your floors are hardwood. But vacuum those area rugs once a week. Or twice a week. Maybe three times a week. Heck, no one really knows, and you might actually need to vacuum twice every day if the world is set up against you.

Of course, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t be vacuuming once or twice a week. And you probably should dust more often. A clean house is almost certainly a healthier house. But if the dogs aren’t outside rolling in the freshly mowed lawn, chances are good you can wait until tomorrow to do it.

 

If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail me at Bob@inmybackpack.com