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Original poster

Does anyone else feel like their house has gradually turned into a shit tip over the last year?

40 replies

ItsAllComingBackToMeNow · 19/03/2021 10:22

I really hope I’m not alone in feeling like this.

Before the first lockdown, I had a vague cleaning routine which generally saw every room getting a clean and dust each week and I tidied up, swept and hoovered each evening, or DH did. Over lockdown I lowered my standards, no chance of visitors and my priorities, like most people I would imagine, we’re keeping the kids happy, getting their schoolwork done and getting my job done.

Things have gone on for so long that now everything needs a real deep clean, reorganised, stuff chucked out but charity shops aren’t open. We are waiting for new carpets to be fitted when that can finally happen and we need to choose a new sofa but I can’t imagine actually getting into the shops to see them. The paintwork needs touched up in every room.

I’m really struggling to get back on track! I thought I’d crack on this week after my work on Monday and Tuesday as this is the first week of no home school for me (Scotland) but the toddler and middle child have both come down with a virus (not covid) and I’m feeling under the weather too. Even if this wasn’t the case, I can’t put the toddler anywhere to get a good run at things and feel bad for her anyway as she’s pretty bored a lot of the time so abandoning her for hours to clean and sort feels bad. She’s lovely but very nosey and quite destructive (she’s why we need new sofas and carpets) so having her clean with me makes everything take forever.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels they have accidentally destroyed their house?

OP posts:
ssd · 19/03/2021 10:27

I know what you mean. I've never spent as much time at home, but maybe I'm just sick of looking at it never mind cleaning it too. Luckily dh is good with a hoover.

SimplyMarvellousDarrrrrrling · 19/03/2021 10:27

when I had toddlers and my house needed work my house was a shit hole. As long as the washing was done and everyone was fed I was happy
Just enjoy the time you have with your child
The world will keep on spinning

ssd · 19/03/2021 10:29

Your kids are young though, that makes it all much harder.

BogRollBOGOF · 19/03/2021 12:03

It's been a long year without a visitor level of clean up, plus far too much time concentrating on feeding up ravenous children and going through the charade of attempting home learning. Add in dyspraxia affecting an unknown quantity of the household...

I'm trying to get to grips with The Organised Mum Method to get to grips with it.

LBOCS2 · 19/03/2021 12:06

Oh yes. We are in a 'project' house that we're probably 90% of the way through but there are still areas which need attention and aren't quite finished. This combined with all the people in the house for the last year (including two primary aged children) plus the lack of visitor blitz cleans means it all just feels a bit lived in.

I was intending to do it today as Friday is my day off but actually I'm just sitting in the quiet with a cup of coffee which I think will do just as much for my mental health 😁

Woodlandbelle · 19/03/2021 12:07

Mine are older than yours. We've all been there. I wouldn't get the new sofa just yet. I would buy a sofa cover throw. If you can paint the common areas. Maybe just the living room for now so you can enjoy one room in the evening when dc are in bed.

Buy some nice houseplants and candles. Then stop beating yourself up. You can't do everything and have a perfect home with young dc. Daffodil

LoisWilkersonslastnerve · 19/03/2021 12:09

Yes, four people indoors more has taken its toll and there's a big dip in my lovely sofa where my big arse has been loitering for the last year.

ekidmxcl · 19/03/2021 12:09

My house has suffered due to us being her all the time. Stuff has broken due to being used all the time. Including the boiler 😭

The whole place is looking extremely worn.

megletsecond · 19/03/2021 12:09

Yes. It's truly awful. Not helped by all the meltdown damage from 12yr old DD.

The bikes have been in the kitchen for a year as the needed to be taken down and it's been a nightmare getting the correct size replacement.

BrieAndChilli · 19/03/2021 12:19

i felt like this, then we moved house!
New house is lovely and organised and clean as we spent a few weeks redecorating etc.
BUT the old house had car loads of trips to the tip, 2 skips, a van load of scrap metal for the scrap man, bags and bags and bags of recycling, and the state of everything once furniture was moved was disgusting!!!

Quail15 · 19/03/2021 12:19

Yeap, chaos in my house. Husband has been working from home for the last year so more mess (although he does his fair share of hoovering/laundry/dish washing). I have been going into work (NHS frontline). We have a toddler and another due to arrive in the next few weeks so I don't really have the energy and without the threat of visitors I just haven't been bothered. Plus we are now having building work down to sort out the bathroom and nursery 🙈 so stuff has just been moved to other rooms to make way for the builders - I'm even less motivated.

I'm hoping my nesting instinct kicks in soon as I need to get things ready for the new arrival.

AuntieStella · 19/03/2021 12:35

Yes, me too!

So glad that visitors aren't permitted, and I could really do with a charity shop declutter, but I can't muster the motivation whilst the shops are closed

Camomila · 19/03/2021 12:46

I hate my flat atm...2 adults wfh, a 4 year old (at school now luckily) and a 1 year old (starting nursery at Easter).

The DC have broken so many little things! eg, handles of cupboards.
I reaaaally miss softplay.

I just want the charity shops to reopen and the tip, and for DH to take the boys out for the day a couple of times I can sort out all the rubbish...that's the plan for the Easter holidays.

CuthbertDibbleandGrubb · 19/03/2021 12:48

No the opposite. Washing can go in during the day, hoovering in summer in early evening.

magicstar1 · 19/03/2021 12:55

Yes, I’m working from home and after sitting at the kitchen table all say, I don’t want to start cleaning it too.
We’d normally do a big deep clean when we know people are coming..obviously these haven’t happened all year. Add to that the big hairy dog we now have, and the place is in bits.

Original poster
ItsAllComingBackToMeNow · 19/03/2021 13:35

Thank you, this has made me feel a bit better! I have also managed to do a bit of playroom decluttering and rearranging so that has helped too. It’s slow progress with the inquisitive 2yo and poorly DS, but I suppose it’s going in the right direction.

OP posts:
dreamingofsun · 19/03/2021 13:40

its the same here. Because so many have been inside our house for so long its made more mess, but i think its also that I'm spending longer inside actually looking at stuff that i maybe wouldnt have noticed ordinarily

FuckingFabulous · 19/03/2021 17:24

Oh my god, yes. We had major renovations done through the pandemic too. Everything is everywhere and I haven't a clue where the hell to start.

Passthecake30 · 19/03/2021 17:35

We’ve done some bits around the house but are stuck now until the shops open as I actually want to see the carpet/furniture etc in the shops. When the kids bust out of their clothes I put it in a bag, in a wardrobe, and wait for the charity bag to come through the door, so that keeps it down a bit. I’m wfh so the kitchen is my office in the week but I dismantle it at the weekend.

redpandaalert · 19/03/2021 17:43

I really wouldn’t wait until the charity shops are open - they will be overwhelmed and who will buy all this stuff anyway. I would give away, sell or chuck.

PomegranateQueen · 19/03/2021 17:44

My whole house needs a proper declutter. Problem is I don't want things to go to landfill but I'm fed up with pisstakers on selling pages. I feel like I need to paint too, even the walls are grubby.

OTornot2be · 19/03/2021 17:46

I wondered this about charity shops. When they reopen how will they cope with everyone taking stuff all at once?

We've benefitted from a few doorstep bags but there are household items that need to go.

We haven't got little children but this year had been really good at getting everyone to pitch in fairly. DH and I are NHS frontline so have been working. It's been nice it hasn't fallen on me.

Echobelly · 19/03/2021 17:59

I expected it would, but somewhat surprisingly, it hasn't especially.

I think we actually have more time to tidy, DH is helping more, and I've got into a new routine of actually wiping down kitchen worktop and sweeping kitchen floor almost every day, which I never used to do.

We have a cleaner, but we paid her off to stay home in first lockdown, and from January to the start of this month while cases in our area came down to a sufficiently low level and I thought it would go to hell without her.

DD's room, however, has got worse and worse, especially with two months of her working in it day in, day out. She's nearly 13 and starting to get sweaty so that sometimes you're hit by the stale smell of her room at the top of the stairs Shock

As it happens, I have put aside tomorrow for going through all the piles of crap in her room with her and throwing out, recycling or moving to the right place everything that doesn't need to be in there I fear we might uncover some quite grim stuff....

sadlittleisland · 19/03/2021 18:02

Yes, mostly because the shortages of the pandemic and Brexit combined have brought out the hoarder in me.

In normal times, I like the idea of 'store it at the store' and tend to underbuy etc.

Now I am scared to chuck anything out in case I need it (anything I can use it for) again and cannot buy it again. A year of this means my house is very cluttered and my garage is a hazard.

toffeebutterpopcorn · 19/03/2021 18:04

Yes! Plus the fact that we’ve all been at home and we are due to get some building work so ‘there’s no point in fixing/painting/cleaning... that’.