Living with a Chronic Illness - To Clean or Not to Clean?

It's hard enough to keep your living space clean when you're not ill. So how can you keep up when you are? How do you clean the bathroom when you can barely stand? Keep the floor clean when you don't have the strength to push a carpet cleaner around?

Obviously, the easiest thing to do is to hire someone to do it for you. But really, how many of us can afford that? So if you, like me, have to do it yourself, here are the products that help me try to keep the dust and cat hair under control. Hopefully some of them will help you.

1. A good vacuum cleaner is a must. If you're like me, you don't want a heavy carpet sweeper, and you need something that will clean both carpet and hard floors. I use the Miele Neptune. It's a bit pricey, but it's a great canister vacuum with all the necessary attachments. The wand and heads will fit under most furniture, and it has two filters. Lightweight, easy to carry around, and very good suction.

2. For mopping, the Swiffer Wet Jet is everything the commercials promise. The liquid is safe for children and pets, and when you've finished mopping, just take the pad off and throw it away. Nothing could be easier, and it smells fresh and clean.

3. Dusting is a chore no matter what. I love the Swiffer Duster because it gets into all the nooks and crannies and traps the dust in itself. And again, when it's full, throw it away. I love disposable stuff, can you tell? :-)

4. The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser line of products are fabulous. It wipes off counters, cleans grease from the stovetop, gets dark spots off from the stainless steel sink, and I even cleaned the metal part of my crock pot with it today. Also works great in the bathroom to get hard water spots off the counter and spigot. They have the regular, the extra strength, and big ones for the bathroom.

5. Speaking of bathroom, the easiest way to clean the toilet ever is with Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush. The brushes have the cleaner inside them - insert them into the wand, swish around the bowl, and release the brushes when you're done. They flush! I am such a big fan of these. There are also scrubbers for really tough stains. And then to finish the bathroom, wiping down all the surfaces, Scrubbing Bubbles also makes flushable antibacterial wipes!

So what have you found that makes chores easier? Particularly vacuum cleaners, because I know that Mieles don't fit everyone's budget.