Mum chucks daughter's toys out to clear mess and spends 30 hours a week cleaning
A mum has admitted that she spends 30 hours per week cleaning her house and even throws out her daughter's toys to avoid there being any mess.
Louise from Lancashire has set her cleanliness standards very high, so much so that she wipes down the kitchen worktops every time she enters the room, which is usually around 'eight or nine times a day'. Sharing her unique cleaning methods on an episode of Channel 4's Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners, Louise said that if she leaves the house and something is 'out of place' , she 'wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it'..
Speaking about her daily routine, the 32-year-old told how she donates her daughter's teddy bears to charity when they've not been asked for within a certain timeframe. Louise's husband Luke said her friends have labelled her cleaning regime 'mad' and said it can be a "nightmare" dealing with her intense habits.
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The obsessed cleaner spoke about how she used socks to buff the floors and said they "come out really shiny" as she shuffles across them. She also said 'bedside tables are banned' as she sees them as clutter in her 'minimal house', reports the Mirror.
Louise was unprepared for the state of 65-year-old Tim's Portsmouth home when she walked through the door. He immediately confessed to being "ashamed" of his "horrible" living conditions, revealing he hasn’t put washing away for four months and was "disgusted" by the stained sink.
Viewers were gobsmacked to discover that Tim, despite the mess at home, works as a cleaner at a holiday camp for 30 hours a week. His house was swamped with clutter, which he felt overwhelmed by, admitting he had no idea where to start clearing up, and described his home as "not comfortable."
Explaining the chaos, Tim said: "I bring things in, I put them down and they just stay." Louise was taken aback by the sheer volume of items, questioning how one could maintain cleanliness with so much stuff, to which Tim conceded that his kitchen gets cleaned once or twice yearly at most.
The bathroom was labelled "horrendous" by Louise, who couldn't fathom how anyone could wash in such a place. With mould rampant, Louise felt compelled to reveal her cleaning habits, which included tidying for up to an hour and a half both in the morning and afternoon – something which Tim found "unbelievable."
"It's going to take a whole lot of bleach", sighed a frustrated Louise, as she continued to dish out some tough love while they cleaned. She later tried to persuade him to chuck everything into the skip.
When he hesitated, Louise questioned his attachment to all his possessions. He responded: "10/15 years ago I had family life and wasn't on my own", referring to his divorce and grown-up kids.
Later, during a deep clean of a sink that hadn't been touched in eight months, they shared a heart-to-heart. Louise confessed: "I wish I could chill out a bit sometimes, but I like things perfect all the time".
She expressed her desire to "throw caution to the wind and leave a coffee cup in the sink every now and again."
Louise even managed to get Tim to polish the floor using her sock technique, although he said he wouldn't be doing it again when she wasn't around. At the end of the episode, Tim's daughter Lisa came to inspect the results.
She exclaimed: "Blimey this is lovely", noting that each room looked as it used to. She also told her dad: "You can now open the door wide when people are at the door instead of just poking your head through."
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