Other people's lives, part N

[mme_hardy]

I was reading r/amitheasshole, as one does, and I came across somebody explaining how often you should vacuum your house. They explained that you should vacuum one day a week for each person and pet living in the house.

I am a terrible housekeeper. My parents, who were anything but, had a cleaning lady in once a week, and the only time the vacuum came out inbetween times was when something large got spilled on the floor.

Comments

[sovay]

They explained that you should vacuum one day a week for each person and pet living in the house.

I think that person is the asshole.

[telophase]

HAHSHAHAHA*inhale*HAHAHAHSHAHA

The vacuum cleaner got broken out today because our younger cat is, er, enthusiastic in her scratching in the litterbox and so there was a pile of litter on the floor, but I think otherwise it doesn’t happen more often than once a month unless one of us break’s something glass or ceramic.

We don’t wear shoes in the house. Before we instituted that rule, it required more frequent vacuuming for us not to have filthy feet and socks.

[thistleingrey]

Agreed, not wearing shoes indoors helps immensely.

[sara]

I bought a Roomba in May and now vacuum my own spaces three times a week and everyone else's upstairs as often as they leave their doors open. It's been wonderful for my allergies.

Mind you this is according to that metric half as often as I should be vacuuming, so.

[rachelmanija]

I don't even own a vacuum cleaner.

(There's only one room with carpet, and I try not to wear shoes on it.)

[movingfinger]

I have Eufys run every day (one per level) to keep up with the kitty litter and fluff. Vastly simplifies life and just about stops my allergies.

[pameladean]

That's four days a week upstairs, five downstairs, and I guess for shared spaces it's more days of vacuuming than the week even contains. I guess one does twice a day here and there to make that work out?

Oooof.

P.

[conuly]

So if you have, as a random and non-specific example, six humans, four cats, and two dogs, you should be vaccuuming twice a dayish?

[oursin]

Are these people living the retro-Victorian lifestyle, with a secret exception for hoovers? I can quite see that in the days of horse transport and probably not terribly effective crossing sweepers, and well before the Clean Air Acts (Coal Smoke Abatement Society f 1898, Clean Air Act 1958 after the Great Smog of 52) - not to mention your pretty green arsenic wallpaper was probably shedding - vacuum cleaning on a regular basis would have been an entire boon and changed people's lives.

Alternatively, there is some deep Mary Douglas Purity and Danger stuff going on there.

[mme_hardy]

Tell me more about Mary Douglas, if you feel like it!

[oursin]

She made a very influential analysis of concepts of dirt, purity/impurity, the sacred, clean/unclean across different societies and times in Purity and Danger (1966). That it's not about literal filth but all sorts of factors are involved.

E.g. how dare Ignaz Semmelweiss imply that surgeons could be carrying impurity? (because men, status, etc).

(I recently saw a very good tweet thread applying this to people's attitudes to pandemic risks, sigh - 'My friends could not possibly be carrying contagion....')

[clanwilliam]

I loathe vaccuming but also quite like not having filthy floors, so I now have a Eufy called Eduardo, who is quite entertaining. But I also basically have one huge room with a tiny bedroom off it, so my setup is ideal for a little robot, with no stairs to negotiate.

[nineveh_uk]

My place is alas not suitable for a robot vacuum, but my cordless has changed my life this year. No more staggering up the stairs with a Henry, and it does make it really easy just to whip round a bit of floor when noticing it needing it.

[ironed_orchid]

My carpeted area is the stairs and all of the upstairs, and I am thinking maybe a toddler gate at the top of the stairs would enable a robot vacuum cleaner to keep the bedrooms clean.

If they ever come up with a robot which can clean stairs, I will be so happy. I imagine something like a slinky.

[sabotabby]

Oh no, I'm screwed.

I have a screwy back and a 10 lb carry limit, so I get a cleaning lady every two weeks, again unless something got spilled.

[ironed_orchid]

Vacuuming is my most dreaded chore, and as such I put it off for far too long and then it becomes worse.

Plan for this year is trying to do it once a month to coincide with flea treatments for Mason.

ETA: long term goal is to get a cleaner in to do floors every two weeks and windows every month or so.