I raised my kids for most of their lives in a 1900 square foot house, a pseudo-colonial in a development with three bedrooms, 2 and 1/2 baths on a 1/2 acre lot. So when they were essentially gone (one was still in college) we bought a 2800 square foot 1840 federal (REAL) colonial house. I have four bedrooms and only two baths and 1/2 acre. This a one of a kind house like no other anywhere since it was built by two brothers from wood cut down on the land they owned and they designed it themselves before the Civil War. So I totally get why Anglo doesn't want to leave. I don't either but I am able to walk/ run six miles a day (all totaled on my Fitbit) but they'll have to drag me out of this place. However, I don't have a cleaning lady and I just wonder why there is so much to clean for Anglo since there is one person living there. Rooms that no one ever sets foot in would remain clean. I have a husband and three cats including a super longed hair Maine Coon and two dogs running in and out all the time , but then I guess I'm okay with more "dirt" than others.

Not a elitist not a racist someone who works 60 hour weeks and likes a clean house. Can I clean my own house, yes would I rather spend my time doing other things yes. Lily I bet if you go in one of the rooms you never use and think clean, you could write in the dust on furniture.

I think it is really unkind to judge someone here for loving and wanting to stay in their home, or for the size house they live in (although I do confess I have judgements about people living in something like 10,000+ houses and the resources needed to maintain them), nor the fact that they like it kept clean - maybe different than our personal standards. No one should have to justify those choices to a bunch of strangers.

There were some practical solutions suggested for the bed making problems, but it sounds like Anglo worked out her own solution. Seems like it's way past time to lay off of her.

nyboy...I KNOW I could write in the dust in many rooms in my house but it doesn't bother me. As long as the kitchen , bedrooms we use, and the baths are clean I don't care.

I understand Anglo having her home cleaned regularly. Dust builds up fast. Cobwebs can sprout everywhere in a quiet barely used room. Just because things are in their place doesn't make a clean home.

I'm confused as to who posted what in relation to whose posts. Can't keep track when mostly nobody refers to whom they're responding to. In any case, I think it's incredibly rude for anybody to tell anybody (Anglo, in this instance) what type or size house they should live in. Seriously? To each their own and nobody, but nobody, has the right to dictate or criticize or knowledge of anybody else's situation.

Some of you think it's ok to tell her to move to a smaller house? Or to change her situation otherwise? C'mon - - - a little invasive, perhaps? Your choices are yours - - - care to put them up for observation and strangers' critiques?

I have a post above containing the word "harsh" that is followed by a post by Dolly. Right above my post USED TO BE a post that contained some unkind personal remarks about Anglophilia. That post has been deleted, either by the moderators or by the person who made the comment originally. .

So true...now our comments make no sense.

I guess I was the one who brought up house size originally, but it was not to advise her to downsize. It was in response to her cleaning service quotes, which were high at $500 a month. Prices generally scale with square footage.

But yes, we are going in circles. Normally if an employee doesn't do the job properly, they get fired, but since no one else will do it at that price, the employee has all of the leverage, and likely knows it.

Reading the OP again, and reading the follow-up explanations, I wonder if the cleaning lady is passive aggressive in that she's not following the precise instructions of how to make the bed and other chores.

Elmer, I stand by my comments. I did not remove them. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Your comment that I and others questioned isn't visible to me, Without mentioning a name, I said it was removed by the original poster or someone else. That's still true.

I don't know if the truth hurts (it doesn't hurt me) but for some people, thinking something is true then learning it isn't hurts more. Same is true when recognizing or having to admit to having made a mistake.

Like I said, I didn't remove them. Obviously someone else did. Probably the same person who had Anglos' crime scene thread deleted. I see the connection even if you refuse to.

I'm not refusing to do anything. I don't know what you're referring to. Help me.

(PS, you seem to be very agitated. Sorry)

You should ask Anglo since it was her thread.

Who brought the so called Anglos thread up in this thread?

It's you talking to me, somewhat impolitely I should say. If you want to be evasive and talk cryptically, great. Nothing more to discuss.

Elmer are you talking to me?

MP, I don't think Elmer is talking to you.

Mama! The discussion, if that's what it is, has nothing to do with you. You are confusing the issue.

Thank You. ..this post ended up confusing.lol

I haven't read the thread. At any rate, I am now pleased as punch to have a housekeeper, and she comes every other week. I think if I plan a big party on one of her off weeks, she'd be able to come ahead of time to help out, but this is a new thing here, so I'll let ya know...

At any rate, I do my own laundry and make my own bed. Or beds, as it may be. But I am surprised your cleaner doesn't know about sheet directions. I admit, I have my ditzy days and start to put them on wrong, but it becomes evident (geometry?) fairly quickly and I change my method of attack appropriately!

(I also prefer to do anything related to kitchen dishes and counters, but she does take on the floor and any appliance smudges.)

Oops, scrolling back up in a perfunctory manner, I see there's a little heat here. I will bow out now (and cease reading as well), noting that my response is to the original OP comment.

yes to what rhizo and matti5 said.

Anglophila, would your yard man know of anyone who could be your housecleaner? If he does cleaning at the hospital, maybe he has a competent nonsmoking co-worker who would be interested in additional work.

Yes, he did find a cleaning woman for DD when the one she and I had had for 16 years quit. The new one wanted $150 to clean DD's house - she talked her down to $100, which is $30 more than she was paying before. Yard man was appalled - said she was making no where near that amount from the elderly woman they both work for. DD was desperate and paid up. She can afford to do so. I cannot, and I also don't like being taken for a patsy.

CindyMac, you have some serious attitude problems! For the record, my cleaning woman is WHITE, not black as was the robber who tried to hide at Whole Foods. I didn't feel I needed to mention her race, as it is totally irrelevant (except to you!).

She has told me that she doesn't use a top sheet on her bed- just a fitted bottom sheet "sometimes" - not sure what children use upstairs as she doesn't go up there. She sleeps in her clothes and just pulls a quilt up over her. Clearly, our standards of living are quite different and quite different from any cleaning woman I have previously had!

I can't imagine why this was started up all over again. It's really no one's business what I pay my cleaning woman if she sets the price (and I live in a low minimum wage/LCOL area). She's not a very good cleaner, but I must have someone and there are very few people anymore who do day work. I pay what I can afford and believe is reasonable.

Some people you just gotta ignore, Anglo. You don't owe anyone here an explanation.

Just to lighten things up a bit. I used to be like the OP about my bed. I wanted it made "just so", and I ironed my sheets too. I didn't have anyone that I hired; I did it myself to ensure the bed's perfection. Then I got 2 cats. For a cat, there is no greater joy on earth than to pounce on the sheets while you are trying to make the bed, attacking the invisible mouse that must be underneath the flat sheet, and even better if a dive underneath the flat sheet can be achieved, cause then there is the added joy of evading the human by leaping around the mattress while under the sheet. If there are two cats, they will wrestle madly atop a newly-made bed, despite the fact that they have the whole rest of the house to wrestle in. With cats, any need to have a bed made "just so" must be abandoned. I had to leave that behind. In return you get purrs, the touch of soft fur, and lots of smiles at their antics.

Well, if you do get to the point where you'd like to look again for another employee, I encourage you to look at Craigslist. I viewed listings for the city where I think you live and there are a few offers for house cleaning.

Anyway, I see this thread has spanned more than a year. Anglophilia was not the one who brought it back up, so I guess she is basically adjusted to the situation as is.

I can't believe a thread about making a bed got 144 (now 145) posts! LOL

I can't either!!!!! M Miller, I no longer have cats but sure did experience what you do! My dog is quite picky - she loves her luxury ironed sheets and her ironed boudoir pillow for her little head. But she IS a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and they were "to the manner born"! She's a VERY entitled little aristocrat and I adore her.

Perhaps it's one of the (somewhat required) issues that one must be prepared to alter, or give up entirely, that go with advanced aging, with the physical limitations that go along with it.

How about just shrugging your shoulders ... then crawling into the bed as she's made it ...

... and worry about other things.

We had an all-day seminar today at church dealing with grieving, especially related to loss of a loved one, a job or other catastrophe, and going on to learn how to thrive, afterwards.

ole joyful

ole joyful, I will fight giving up my standards with my last breath! To do otherwise, is to me about like telling them to just go ahead and open the grave.

No, Anglophilia, there's no way you are living for luxury ironed sheets, clean rooms, and a well made bed. Give yourself more credit!

Ah Matthias, but I'm a true Victorian at heart; if there is no substance, form will get one through the darkest hours! It works for me!

Anglo..I do think a gloriously well made bed is a lost art. Probably has a lot to do with families just not having the time. As a child my bed was changed weekly. Only flat sheets were used no fitted. So two sheets and two pillowcases on each bed. My mother was raising four kids yet still there was freshly washed and ironed bedding every Saturday. White Percale sheets. I wonder how many people that get to our age just don't care if the sheets are ironed because they are used to non ironed. Some people probably most think ironing sheets to get rid of wrinkles is silly but its more than just removing wrinkles its an all over **feel**ironing flattens the fibers making the sheet so smooth and luxurious. A **feel** that I'm used to and enjoy. I also care how my bed is made and how it looks. Its the *feel* and the presentation... Ahhh so decadently lovely. In real life I don't know anyone that irons their sheets or even really cares about how their bed is made...and that's ok.

I'm sure I got way off topic here lol

I don't think I've ever slept on ironed sheets. But then again I never make my bed except for when I change the bedding, so I'm not picky. I'm also a heathen who doesn't use a top sheet, and I use a duvet without a cover.

If people want to spend their time ironing sheets and making the beds, then I think that's fine! We all get the same amount of time each day to do with it as we choose.

I sure wouldn't mind if someone changed my bed every week. It's one of my more dreaded chores. I don't mind the laundry part but I hate making the bed.

Mama, you are exactly right - it's the way the sheets "feel". I grew up with exactly the same kind of sheets you did. And yes, my mother did all her own laundry, cleaning AND ironed EVERYTHING, including my father's boxer shorts and handkerchiefs (they were linen).

I've experienced starched and ironed sheets many times in Europe. It used to be the standard in Germany and neighboring countries. It still is but not to the same extent. My reactions have always been Meh, it's not worth the effort. Rotary irons are commonly found in hotels and commercial laundries.

Both my mother and my wife always had better things to do with their time. Laundry for both was something to do in the shortest possible time. I occasionally helped both and it's the same for me - no need to make it more complicated than necessary. Things that need to be pressed/starched have always been taken to the laundry (like dress shirts), anything not needing that gets worn as it comes out of the dryer. I think we have an iron somewhere in the house, I have no idea where it is and can't remember the last time I saw it.

Chi, you sound like my daughter. She knows how to make a bed with fitted and top sheets, but chooses not to. When she's visiting us, I make up her bed 'normal' and then she's free to adjust it as she wants.

I can guarantee no one's ever slept on sheets I've ironed, lol. My mom taught me how to iron shirts and pants, but I don't recollect her ironing sheets. I think I'd remember if she did...?

My mother also ironed everything, including my dad's hankies and boxers. She was horrified that I didn't iron my sheets, but life is too short for such nonsense, IMO. She even bought me a fancy rowenta iron which has been used about once or twice. Sheets don't feel any different whether they are ironed or not, at least to me and anyone who lives with me.

156 comments. Wow. These have to be the most famous sheets in America.

( For the record, I cannot stand a sloppy bed either )

Ironing? What is that? Explain.

Iron is a four letter word.

For the record I don't find well laundered, ironed, and a nicely made bed a waste of time for me.

For the life of me, I can't figure why a thread from January 2017...a year and three months ago, is still going strong over an inane subject as this one.

Everyone has their preferences and let's just leave it at that. Thread done :)

I didn't say either thought it was a waste of time. I said both were always busy in the house and away from the house with what I presume they thought to be more worthwhile ways to spend their time and (from outward appearances) preferred to abbreviate rather than prolong the laundry chore. I know that more affirmatively with my wife but I believe the same was true with my mother who had a lot of activities.

Elmer. I wasn't directing my comment at you. Actually it wasn't directed at anyone in particular. Sorry.

PLEASE, PLEASE FOLKS - let's end this thread!!!! Problem was resolved to a reasonable, livable-with satisfaction. We all have different priorities in life. We all have small things that we either like to do or prefer NOT to do, that make our life happier!!! Enough with my sheets!!!!