Thank God for cleaning people! I'm not a cleaner, so when I lived alone, I hired someone to do the cleaning for me once a week. I did run the vacuum myself and at one point, dusted but not on any regular basis. Once I got married, my husband did all the cleaning. He doesn't mind and likes things neat and clean. He is very adamant about keeping our house clean which is great!
Consequently though, when we visited my dad, Gerard would just cringe. You see, cleaning was not even on my dad's list of things to do, EVER! Once in a blue moon, he would get the urge to wipe off a counter or possibly rearrange his stuff on his table. He was hesitant to vacuum because the noise frightened his cats. A few times I brought our vacuum cleaner over because it was quieter than his and his place was so dirty, it even bothered me.
He resented me cleaning anything but there came a point where I just decided I HAD to step in and do something. One day I was in his kitchen and looked at the top of his stove and decided to clean it. When I lifted up the coils for setting pans on to cook stuff, there was globs of junk in the tray with lots of cat hair! EWWW! It was SO disgusting. He's telling me to just leave it and I'm yelling back at him that I can't leave it like this. It's too bad! (Not that he ever used the stove, but still.) Once I got it cleaned, I bought him a couple tin shields that lay over the burners so that the cat hair wouldn't get in there anymore. He liked them and used the top of the stove to hold his paper towels and some bags after that. I made several attempts to get him to let me hire a cleaning person to come in at least once a month or every other week, but he wouldn't hear of it.
When it came time to sell the house, oh what a job it was to clean up that place! I hired a cleaning lady to come to do the big jobs. The bathroom was the worst and most needy, so I had her start with that. I believe it took her about 5 hours! She said she never saw a bathroom as dirty as his was. She apologized for not being able to get the tile floor any cleaner but she did the best she could. The next time she came, she brought a friend to help.
Some people are not bothered by clutter or dirt and my dad was one of them. My mom used to do some cleaning before she got too weak to do it but after she died, the only cleaning that was done was the little I squeezed in now and then. Mostly when my dad was in the other room and couldn't see me dusting his furniture. If you are like my dad, please let your adult children help you out by either hiring someone to do it or letting them help you do it.
