Very Specific Cleaning Questions, Asked and Answered

Your Cleaning Concierge

Welcome to Culture Study’s Cleaning Week! In this thread, we’re getting down into the practical shit — because even when you spend a lot of time interrogating cleaning norms (as we have done, at length, over the course of the week) sometimes you still just need a little bit of help. For larger cleaning issues (a recurring theme in our discussions: how do I get my tweens/teens in on this process without being the worst?) but also specific HOW DO I CLEAN OR TIDY THIS questions (laundry! shower curtains! car gear shifts!)

You can find the first entry (on the moral valence of cleaning) here — and the second entry (unpacking our individual “cleaning stories”) here, and the third entry (on how we’ve figured out things in our house + other ways my thinking on cleanliness has changed since 2019) here. Oh, and we have a bonus Garden Study on WEEDS ARE NOT A MORAL FAILING and garden “cleanliness,” if that’s your thing.

Sunday we’ll have an interview with Rebecca - Your House Machine about the pitfalls of organization fetishization and battling over-consumption.

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So take this in whatever direction you’d like: What part of cleaning bedevils you? What thing are you trying to clean that you haven’t figured out yet? Maybe you’re looking for specific language to 1) find a cleaner in your area and pay them a living wage or 2) communicate your priorities to that cleaner in way that isn’t assholish. Maybe you’ve done a lot of cleaning in your life and have a lot of advice to offer. These threads only work when we have people willing to ask and also people willing to answer.

Here’s a few things I need help with (and a few solutions I’ve found):