Advice On Cleaning

[nmorgen]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had some good tips on cleaning your house. Today, I cleaned up the dinning room, but after sweeping the floor I got very dizzy and potsy. I also tried cleaning the living room, but I am having to take a break as my symptoms are just getting too bad. It's funny b/c I can walk for fairly long distances, but as soon as I try to sweep and pick stuff up I get really bad. My mother gave me the idea to sweep everything in a pile and then pick everything up from the pile so I'm not bending over continuously. The problem is the sweeping seems to be making the POTs worse. I just need some ideas on an easy way to clean, b/c everything is starting to get a little out of control for me not being able to clean up a little everyday. Between doing laundry, cooking and cleaning the kitchen I just don't have the energy to clean anything else. I don't want to ask my husband to help b/c he is the only one working and he works all of the time. I do have a 10 yr old boy. Does anyone have suggestions for tasks he might be able to help me with? Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

[lieze]

This is a biggie for me.

I ran around Tuesday cleaning our floors cause our little boy kitty just got neutered and declawed and I wanted to make sure our floors were clean.

I mopped the kitchen and bathroom and picked everything up-and as you're saying it was a mess.

I get this wired feeling when I'm doing it kind of lightheaded and as if I'm just spinning.

But my heart rate was okay the entire time.

What I've done the last two days then is just the normal dishes, laundry that I do everyday and just a spot in the living room that I'm picking everything up and vacuuming.

That way I don't get as overwhelmed.

My suggestion is get a basket and either get down on your hands and knees and do the picking up or have your son do that part for you and then even ask for help with the sweeping.

I hope that helps.

Just the areas I did look so much better and gives me motivation to keep going.

I know it's a pain though and it can and does make us feel sick.

[potsgirl]

I highly recommend having someone come in to clean twice a month, if you can afford it. Right now we can't, but it's certainly fantastic if you can.

[lissy]

Hi,

I have also noticed if I move faster I can get more done like If I speed walk around the store/house/ect. then I can accomplish more LOL but as soon as I'm doing things at a slow pace I feel horrible. I have used a roll around PC chair on my real bad days to clean up, do the dishes . My husband does the sweeping and moping and scrubbing the shower so that helps enormously. I wish I could hire someone to come in and do it, but not too many people can afford that anymore

So my advice is use a chair and rest in between and don't stress over it

Happy Cleaning

Lissy

[Noreen]

Hi-

I use to enjoy gardening before the dys monster got worse over the last 2 years and now I just hide in the house from the heat and sun. However I have a rolling garden cart like this which enables one to move around in a scooting squat. Have to conserve energy however you can. Sweeping with a regular broom can be quite hard on the body. I have an ergonomic broom I got a couple years ago which helps because I can sit in a chair and use it if I need to. Also I have a terry cloth floor cleaner from Target (concept is similar to this. For floor cleaning, steamin is the way to go - a group of women wrote a great review on Amazon so you can check that out with a floor steamer search. From personal experience, I had the Eureka Floorsteamer for 6 years before it gave up - worked very well, the Shark is not worth it as it is not at all durable - lasted only about 6 months before my son knocked it over and it snapped in the middle. I now have the Bissell steamer which works okay but I wouldn't buy it again.

Since your son is 10, make sure you keep any small chairs you have for him. If sturdy enough for you to sit on tghey can be helpful for lgetting lowering to the floor level and then you can reach for something - this way you are not doing a full bend over to pick something up. Kids stools are also helpful for putting a laundry basket for taking laudry out of the dryer. Again, it reduces the 'bend over'. Microfiber clothes (good ones) are your friend as damp you can clean windows and dry they are great for dusting - will fit on the end of a Swiffer for doing walls.

Now is a great time to get your son to help - he can easily put his clothes in a hamper and bring laudry to and from the machines. He can dust and clean with microfiber clothes without chemicals. If you can get a rolling garden stool, he could vacuum while you roll and supervise.

A stool in your kitchen is a good idea for resting. One where you can put your feet on a bar is a good idea to help exercise your calves a bit and keep the blood moving. In my former life as a health educator for lead poisoning prevention, I encourage using a cut down gallon milk carton as a cleaning bucket - I encouraged it because the clientele my county health people were working with usually had financial issues but the concept works for those of us with disabilities and I encouraged the use of the buckets as facilitator of my local chronic pain group. It is significantly lighter to lift a quart of water with a couple drops of cleaner thereby conserving energy for other things.

Cooking - the crockpot is your friend. The easy clean liners for crockpots are available everywhere these days. Cook in double batches and freeze a dinner..

If you are buying anything suggested online, consider registering to benefit the forum

Hope some of this helps - I don't have any more energy at the moment,

noreen

[jimells]

Bending over really gets me too, especially when I have to clean the bathrooms at work. I use a broom as little as possible. I prefer old-fashioned style cannister vacuums to those ridiculous clunky uprights all the stores are pushing. Some of the Sears models have a foot-operated quick-release so I can remove the carpet head without bending over. It's a really nice feature.

I agree with the other folks here that a 10 year old is plenty old enough to help his poor sick ma keep the house clean. I remember washing dishes when I was so little I had to stand on a stool to reach the sink. He should be able to vacuum, too.

I never raised any kids beyond short periods of time, but it seems to me lots of kids want to help, if they are given a chance.

I don't remember resenting having to help, although I remember constant fights with my old man (a mean drunk, by the way) over just how full I could let the kitchen trash get before I was in trouble for not emptying it soon enough. Of course, the definition of "full" changed every day...

[Brye]

I have 4 kids and they all help out! My oldest 2 are 8 and 6. They both vacuum, and sweep the floor. They also empty the dishwasher and put away their own laundry. The 3 and 2 year old are still training. I also have a cleaning person come in twice a month to help but I understand that gets expensive. I actually mop the kitchen floor by throwing down a wet towel and pushing it around with my feet. Not the perfect cleaning tactic I'm sure but gets most of the crud. Your son may even get into skating around the kitchen on a towel.

Good luck!!

Brye

[Elfie]

At 10, you son is able to do anything and everything that you struggle with. He should be picking up the house (especially assuming that it is most his and your husbands stuff, usually the mommies that have to pick it up don't leave much around). Kids generally start doing a good job of sweeping about 8 and generally enjoy making dust piles. Another idea is to sweep and then suck up the piles with the Vac. Ten year olds are old enough to run the vacuum and do the dishes. Some can even clean the bathroom. At 10 most kids want to help out a sick mommy and like feeling capable, plus, they are more than ready to start learning how things are done and should move on from kiddy chores like taking the trash out. Picking up the stuff laying around daily and sweeping up (unless you have a giant house) is not to much to expect of a 10 year old daily and probably won't take more than 30 min.

[HopefulLady]

Before starting a beta blocker bending over would be a chore for me when cleaning the house .. It felt like my heart would race a million miles a minute and bending over def triggered symptoms mostly tachycardia . When I would clean the house I would take several small breaks in between stop and go that is how I got the house cleaned. sometimes I would just have to sit for 20 minutes at a time get back up and do some more. My kids also help clean up so like they would hold the dust pan why I would sweep and they help vaccum pick things up ect .... It helps to have them there my kids are 9 & 12 they can pretty much do anything I can when it comes to cleaning. If you have a helping partner it def helps get things done faster and less stress on your body.

[dianne.fraser]

I've lowered my standards - I accept that I can't do a lot of cleaning. If I do the vacuuming, I accept that I'm going to need a day in bed. These days, I do weekly basics (clean my bath, do my washing and clean my kitchen), and leave the rest for a time (like now) when I've got a month off work and I can take as much time as I need in bed when I'm done.

I agree with Potsgirl - a cleaner is the way to go, if the finances can stretch that far.

With best wishes

Dianne

[toddm1960]

I only do one small job each day and even that knocks me out for the rest of the day. I like Reen have a seated walker that I can either lean on if needed or sit on to finish what I'm doing or to rest. You can push yourself around so it works well doing almost anything. Dianne is correct lower standards are a good thing, we don't need to be adding stress into our lifes at this point.

[Guest tearose]

I too lowered my expectations so I could choose to live life more. I sometimes tease when someone asks if I have any pets...I say yes, bunnies, dustbunnies.

When I can afford it I have a great cleaning team that can come.

What I do is to try to clean a room while I am in it. I may tidy up one day, dust it the next and after a few weeks the sweeping or the vacuuming gets done.

[samannran]

I lowered my expectations, too. I have a stool in the kitchen, in the bathroom, and a seat walker on wheels. I've also been known to drive my scooter around the house on days I just can't manage. My weiner dog hates that!

[comfortzone]

A very timely thread/posts as I sit feeling very frustrated in a very untidy apartment. All my energy goes to trying to work for 4 to 5 hours 3 to 4 days a week. I recently went away for a weekend and never unpacked. The must haves are laundry for work - it sits 'done' all over the living room in piles. The kitchen should be easy - as I live alone - it's a disaster area. I am overwhelmed. I got home from my 7am to 11:30 am shift and slept till 5pm........woke up and thought it was morning -- I rarely sleep a chunk like that so I was ecstatic - But to look at the mess around me I'm distressed.

I simply cannot keep up. It's been that way for awhile - if 2 rooms get done - 3 rooms are not and on it goes. I am working furiously at losing weight - so I use extra energy for walking long distances. Then I must lay flat to recover. The start and stop, bending and stooping, sweep and vacuum type housework is for me absolutely exhausting. So my priority used to be clean house then exercise -- but the weight wasn't budging. Now it goes exercise first then housework - and true to form I can only seem to muster one or the other not both :-(

I've tried to lower my expectations and fail miserably at it. I can't wrap my head around the fact that a reasonably healthy adult can't keep up (me). But berating myself is not healthy either. I used to push through just for the fact if I should stroke out in the night and they find me paralyzed or worse I would not want 911 to see such utter chaos in the home.

So I guess for tonight I'll focus on just one room. That's it. Then I'll go to work again in the a.m. -- and recover -- knowing I took a stab at the impossible. Some say I'm hard on myself.....I simply like a clean home -- who doesn't!

I know something's "wrong" - one year ago I could not even work part time.....I got let go for not being able to keep up - long before I knew about dysautonomia - or the fact my avg. heart rate is 100. So at least I'm working -- that's good for mental alertness etc... I'm having a real hard time with this "invisible" fatigue issue............desperately want to figure out what's going on and how to fix it. That's why the dieting on Weight Watchers -- I don't want any of this to be due to my own fault.... Thanks for the vent time!

[nmorgen]

Thanks eveyone.

I'm glad to know that I am not the only one struggling with this. I definitely going to try the computer chair. I have decided that I am going to continue the sweeping, but I am leaving the mopping to someone else. I am also going to try and train my 10 yr old boy to help me with things. I'm sure his future wife will appreciate that . I have lowered my standards and I guess everyone else in my family has too, b/c knowbody seems to complain about our mess. Maybe they just don't want to have to do it themselves, lol. My son does help me with the garbage, but we live in an apartment and the garbage is on the other side of the building and it's a pretty long walk. I am still trying to find a safe cleaner over here so that the kids can help me. I really do appreciate all of the advice.

[carinara]

I always clean in slow motion whilest sitting in my office chair with rolls on. I do every chore in the house like this.

[flop]

I have good days where I can manage a lot - about 2 weeks ago I hoovered the whole house in one go. But it probably won't get done again for weeks.

Mostly I try to keep things clean - wiping up spills in the kitchen immediately, spraying shower cleaner right after my shower. Washing the dishes is really tough for me so I delegate that task to my sister (she lives with me) (I can't wait until I can have a dishwasher again). Laundry I do in batches. I will empty the wet laundry into a bucket and push it into the livingroom then sit on the floor whilst hanging socks etc on the drying rack. I only iron absolute essentials and try to buy clothes that don't need ironing.

Flop

[wibbleway]

I struggled to clean for 3 years and then finally decided it was worth the money to have someone come in twice a month to do all the hard cleaning. It has been wonderful for me. I hope this helps you out.

[Noreen]

I am still trying to find a safe cleaner over here so that the kids can help me. I really do appreciate all of the advice.

Vinegar, baking soda, borax are all safe.

It is amazing what can be done with vinegar.

Generally though good cleaning is from elbow grease - a scant resource for us. Here's a link to age appropriate chore lists for kids.

http://housekeeping.about.com/od/chorechar...eapprchores.htm