To be fascinated by tidy people

Because as they get older it's a nightmare to find stuff which is not helpful when trying to get to school/work

If your house is not tidy, first you need to ruthlessly declutter and then everything and I mean everything has to have a set place. And my kids have been tidying up ever since they were little (as much as they could). Again it helps if everything has a designated space.

For instance I don’t ’try on clothes’ in the bedroom. I have a fairly limited wardrobe, I take stuff out the night before, shower and put it on.

Day to day I have plenty of sit down time but there is a schedule. Get up and a list of jobs DH and I do. We run one load of laundry daily. It’s put away before bedtime. Post lunch with small ones, as soon as they napped I would tidy up. It can’t take more than 5 mins. In the evening before bath time, everyone tidies up together. Kids are old enough to clean their rooms. DH and I do the downstairs. So once kids are in bed we come down to a tidy downstairs.

Also lots of things are just done beforehand. Bags are packed, clothes out.

I have plenty of downtime but that is a result of training myself to make sure all the small stuff is done and we ruthlessly stick to a schedule and everyone chips in to help.

(BTW my kids are 9 and 13, almost 14 and help with all chores- laundry, dishwasher, hoovering, tidying, even some cooking. They can make their own breakfast although mostly I do, and the older one can make pizzas, pesto pasta and a basic curry and rice. I have two boys and want to make sure they don’t see chores as a ‘woman’s job’ and they do a job when they see it).

Im a minimalist to much clutter makes me ill.
I only have what i need and use.
I cant stand a place full of crap pitchers all over the walls units tables chairs etc.
And yes my home is spotless.

I am not ashamed at all, but why do you insist on "priorities" when you got that completely wrong?

Does it make you feel better, to pretend you are too important or have better priorities to justify a mess that no one is accusing you of anyway?

Stop twisting the situation and try to describe MY life , it's so weird 😂

And yes, I have more a show-home than anything else, so I spend as little time t home as humanly possible. Big deal.

But that is your priority. It’s nothing to be ashamed or feel criticised for.

Whoever said tidy people spend all day tidying, couldn’t be more wrong. I’m am soooo lazy. I hate tidying. That’s why I keep my home tidy!

Exactly

I spent most of time at home watching TV on the sofa with various animals for company - I can't stand housework so I never let it build up.

it's fine

but you are wrong in saying that tidying up is MY priority. I keep things tidy to be more efficient so I can concentrate on actual priorities, not waste time with random rubbish or house chores.

As the OMM says: "life is too short for housework".

The mess always seems to catch up with people. Not having to catch up with cleaning and tidying up means I have free time. It's blissful to know that after a week at work, I have a free weekend not cluttered by hours of catching up tidying up accumulating mess.

So? If you have cleaners you don't have to deep clean anymore and you have more time for tidying.

I don't ever try to sell things, it's a lot of work, you don't usually get much and it's a road block to sorting your house. I give it to charity shops and they can make the money and use it for good. Also, stop buying anything that isn't completely necessary otherwise you will always have too much.

Watch a few decluttering shows in your sitting time, I find they help motivate me to declutter. Minimal Mom on youtube is quite extreme but may give you motivation to declutter, go back to her earlier videos.

Having less stuff and space to easily put things away easily (not squeeze them into an already stuffed space) makes it so much easier to keep things tidy. Also follow the "no wasted journey" rule. Every time you leave a room take what doesn't belong in there with you, going to the kitchen, take all mugs with you, going upstairs, take the laundry up and pack it away.

I'm not a naturally tidy person at all but decluttering and tidying little and often makes a huge difference. Set a timer for ten minutes a couple times during the day and get what you can done in that time, the ten minutes add up to a much more manageable home.

I think the key is to regularly de-clutter. Less stuff = Less mess. Less clothes = Less laundry and so on.

It can be a real shock to witness real mess. I work with someone who is lovely and good at her job. She always seems clean and presented well for work. One day she gave me a lift and I was so shocked to see the inside of her car that I will never go to her house!!! 🤣

I’m tidy and I’m not a morning person. Thing is, if you’re a night owl, you can tidy before you go to bed. 😀

Whoever said tidy people spend all day tidying, couldn’t be more wrong. I’m am soooo lazy. I hate tidying. That’s why I keep my home tidy!

The more tidy you are the less tidying you do. If you own too much unnecessary stuff and you leave things to pile up and become disorderly, you will spend your life in mess that you are constantly trying to get on top of. Being tidy leaves more time and space to live your life.

Untidy, chaotic people see the effort it requires to sort out their mess and think that tidy people are putting in the same effort all day every day. I don’t need to tidy. My home is always tidy, that’s the point!

I am like you. Also not a morning person. So it has to be something to do with brain wiring. Having said that I was very organised from childhood till my mid- 20s. Maybe because I owned very little, now my wardrobe is always in need of sorting. Not sure what switched in my brain.

My husband is incredibly tidy, I’m chaos, but I’m very clean, where as he isn’t as bothered about dust etc, so it evens out quite nicely.

Hi OP, I grew up messy but am now very tidy. What works for me:

• I never really ‘tidy’ as such, I put things away as I finish using them. Cooking for example I wash up as I go along (or put in the dishwasher). There are usually only a couple of pieces left at the end of a meal.
• Everthing in my house has a ‘home’. I try to make that home as little effort as possible. Eg the home of anything will be in the room it is used in. Coats and shoes and keys have a home where you might otherwise naturally drop them. If something consistently gets left out - I try to figure out why it’s not getting put away and fix it.
• I regularly have a clean out of cupboards - everything would get looked at around once per year. If I haven’t used it in over a year - why would I still keep it? At the very least it would go in the loft (which I admit is my weakness but at least I don’t have to look at it up there)
• Cut yourself some slack with young kids as it is really hard to be tidy. When my kids were younger I sacrificed a room. I accepted that room would be messy with toys but it was a room I could shut the door on and have an otherwise tidy house. The principle would work for a defined section of a room if you are pushed for space I guess - and maybe a curtain to hide it.
• IME the smaller the home, the more difficult it is to keep things tidy and the more ruthless with belongings you must be. You have more storage options in a larger home (and can sacrifice a room to the kids!). In smaller homes you need super clever storage - built in storage designed for the space is optimal.
• Lastly if you can’t do everything, I would focus on the floor. If the floor is clear and vacuumed it really makes a difference to how tidy the room looks even if the shelves are a mess. It’s anmazing. Bonus points for neatish ‘piles’ of stuff like papers or clothing on the sides and shelves if that is all you can manage.

@Iris2020
Personally as an ED nurse I would not make hot drinks with a toddler around

Also it would be a cold day in hell before I looked for DH socks!

Tidy people I think are just constantly tidying and I can’t do that

I don't think it's separate from the original task though.
So it takes 3 seconds extra to put the tea caddy away.
Literally open door, pick up, put in, close door

Imagine 100 x not putting things away and the overwhelm when you stand looking at it
plus everything gets messy and jumbled and you cant clean properly or find things

😱

It helps that me and my DP have the same standards. I have just sat on the couch now. Dinner has been made and eaten and the kitchen is tidy.
We got home at 5. I put burgers in the oven, I set up the plates with the buns etc. I went upstairs and changed etc. DP opened a package and put the cardboard and bags in straight in the recycling and put the items he bought away. We sat and waited for the burgers to cook. Once cooked we built the burgers. I put all the condiments, cheese, lettuce etc back in the fridge. We sat and ate. Once finished, DP cleaned the oven, I did the dishes, I would usually put them in the dishwasher but there was only two plates , two glasses and a baking tray and a few knives. I wiped down the sink and DP wiped down the island and oiled the wooden board. Job done!

MIL’s DH comes from a similar work environment - you can’t put a glass of water down for 2 minutes without him tidying it away 🤣. He’s been retired for over 20 years as well 🤣🤣🤣.

I have a friend whose house is always immaculate. She has a 23 month old. I have a similar aged baby and my house was always untidy until I asked her how she does it. Turns out her child's 'play' is just helping her tidy and clean. Her daughter follows her round like a duckling, helping her load washing machines, clean surfaces, put things away. The minute her nappy is changed, the baby's up and off to the bin with the used one. Tidying away is basically her favourite thing to do.
I've since started doing this with my baby. She's all over it! Turns out I don't need to wait for her to go to sleep to start tidying and cleaning. It's all done by the time she goes to bed. Her favourite toys at the moment are her cloths and sweeping brush!

Yes I have different standards to DH. If I’m the one up, any cups go in the dishwasher, it gets switched on. I tidy the sofas and cushions. Any mess in the kitchen is sorted. If DH is last he won’t have sorted the living room. He will have sorted the kitchen. It’s funny but I think it’s what we grew up with.

Ah, okay.

I was surprised the one day when I posted photos of my home on a thread about my DH being up my arse about the “state of the house” and a bunch of MNs told me my home was tidy 😳 So I think people have all kinds of different standards.

I do a before-bed house reset, and that seems to help a lot. The sink gets cleared and kitchen countertops get a quick wipe down, and then I just go from room to room putting things away. It usually takes less than half an hour. I usually clean clean 2-3 rooms in my house (which I think most people would really consider “deep cleaning,”) such that the whole house gets cleaned about once a week. Usually I’ll do light organizing tasks in the rooms of the day, and heavier organizing tasks (closets full of Stuff and Things, unruly drawers, the car, etc.) get put off and hidden until I have a good, child free block of time to really focus on them.

Teach chn not to come home and drop stuff. Make them out it away. If not straight away, after they’ve relaxed and had a drink. It will pay off.