Page 6 | How clean and tidy is your house generally?

MsWalterMitty · 2022-01-15T13:14:32+00:00

Such as day to day. On the scale of spotless all the time to absolutely filthy? I’m guessing mist would be in the middle somewhere? But I know it depends on standards. I think I’m in the middle but closer to the filthy end [blush] My house is rarely tidy as I feel like I’m constantly running both the dishh washer and the washing machine. Clean clothes are always on the floor waiting to be put away. The hoover comes out once a week, s does the mop. The toilet is cleaned every other day. The bathroom once a week. I can’t remember the last time I cleaned the windows/window sills/skirting boards. Kitchen is the tidiest and cleanest room in the house… every day. But it’s used the most. My downstairs is clutter free, but the decor such as the doors/handles/furniture/sodas dated as we can’t afford to replace at the moment… so it brings down the house imo.

Original poster

MsWalterMitty · 15/01/2022 18:24

@Aswad

Hopefully no one has suggested this but I have JUST enough cutlery, plates etc! Literally one for each person and maybe a tiny bit extra. Sick and tired of picking up after ppl who would take out a new plate/cup instead of washing what was there

My friends came over yesterday and was horrified that I don’t have a drawer tray to separate the cutlery. It’s all just chucked in!

OP posts:

NorthernLighting · 15/01/2022 18:24

@Stellaris22 we are. And we couldn’t afford to get new stuff just because we didn’t take care of what we already have. Also we have a big open ’clean’ space house (most houses here look like this, noone has carpets for example so easier to clean wooden floors etc). If we had a small house or flat it might be more difficult to keep as tidy, I don’t know.

TheChosenTwo · 15/01/2022 18:25

It’s clean and tidy enough that I will always let someone in if they knocked on my door.
There’s a few messy areas, but it’s cleaned thoroughly once a week by a cleaner and I do something every day too. I give the bathrooms an interim going over at the weekend (literally spray and wipe, no hardcore scrubbing), hoover downstairs daily - the kitchen probably 3-4 times but we have a cordless one in the utility and I maintain that it’s less work than sweeping and using the dustpan and brush then emptying that out, washing is kept on top of.
Family of 5, we cook a proper dinner every day and the kitchen is big, the heart of the house. We have people around quite a lot so the house is pretty much always in a condition where I’m not embarrassed to have people in.
I would really struggle to live in a messy and dirty house. Mine isn’t perfect!!!! It’s comfortable and lived in, but there aren’t things on the floor that aren’t supposed to be there, there are homes for things and I’m ruthless about getting rid of things no one wants/needs anymore so we aren’t drowning in ‘stuff’ which clutters up space.

NorthernLighting · 15/01/2022 18:25

And noone would dream of not taking their shoes off!!! 😂

Hollyhead · 15/01/2022 18:26

Mine somewhere between abs 2-4, wish it was more like 6-8.

Original poster

MsWalterMitty · 15/01/2022 18:28

@JackieDaytonaHumanBarTender

My house is an absolute mess.

I am really struggling at the moment. It's still upside down from Christmas. Well it was a mess before Christmas to be honest. We had 2 family bereavements one December plus my dad was really ill so we just didn't keep on top of things.

DH and I both came down with covid on Boxing Day and were so I'll with it. DH went back to work as soon as he was able to but it wiped him out. I took an extra couple of days off to try and tidy but I just was too exhausted. DH is now working away until March he was called away quite last minute so he didn't have time to sort much out and I am juggling working full time, looking after 6 year old DS and helping out with my dad.

The washing basket is overflowing, clean clothes are in piles (or rather untidy mounds) waiting to be put away. There are dishes everywhere that need to be washed. There are Christmas toys that need to be sorted and put away and old toys that need to be given away. DS's wardrobe is full of clothes that don't fit but I haven't had time to sort them out. My bedroom has a floordrobe. The bathroom needs to be scrubbed. The kitchen has only had a quick brush since Christmas and and no mop. I don't know when the oven was last cleaned. The hall is full of all kinds of crap, shoes and coats. The front room has a Christmas tree up in it still. The other Christmas decorations are in boxes to go in the loft but I can't get in to the loft without DH.

I am so overwhelmed. On a normal day I leave the house at 7:30 and get in just after 6 and then have to sort out dinner and bedtime. DS is usually in bed for 8 and we would clean then but I've been getting so tired after having covid that I just sit for half an hour and then I'm ready for bed.

DH has said he can organise getting a cleaner in maybe to do a deep clean then visit every week for about 4 weeks and then having them come every other week which would be great but I need to get it "cleaner ready" before this.

Does anyone have any tips? I think I'm at breaking point and writing this all down has made me realise that this is the worst the house has ever been!

This is really tricky! I feel like I’ve fallen in to the same rut since Christmas too. But without the emotional impact you guys have had

I just have lazyitis!!

I find what works best for me is to do dish washer and a small part of the laundry - either load/unload or sort - in the morning before I leave the house.

It means I come back to a clean kitchen.

The rest of the house is still a tip!!

OP posts:

hiredandsqueak · 15/01/2022 18:30

Pretty much always clean and tidy. At this minute there is nothing out of place, wash basket is empty, have a small basket of ironing, upstairs needs dusting and hoovering but that's tomorrow's task along with the ironing that I will do alongside the daily jobs I do.

Girliefriendlikespuppies · 15/01/2022 18:31

I'd say mine is a 7 out of 10.

Currently the living room has a few dog toys over the floor, the sofa is messy and my work stuff is out. It wouldn't take long to tidy it all away though and it's otherwise clean (to my standards anyway!)

Oldnews · 15/01/2022 18:41

I rent, but always keep my house clean, have a cleaner round, carpets cleaned, touch up marks on walls etc. I hate the thinking that renters can't be bothered to keep houses clean or look after them. This is my home, and I pay a lot of money to live here (much more than many peoples mortgages) and I also have a lot of money tied up in the deposit for it.

We repaint if necessary, because I want to live in a lovely home, and we always leave a rented house in better shape than we found it.

Stellaris22 · 15/01/2022 18:45

I've kept rented houses immaculate before with strict cleaning schedules, and every time we never saw our deposit again. So keeping a rented house spotless is of no interest to me as there's no benefit.

If we eventually own a house I'll have a very different view and be more house proud, but deep cleaning and paying my own money to shampoo carpets I don't own isn't something I'll do. The landlord can pay for those things if it's of importance to them.

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 15/01/2022 18:51

@Stellaris22

I've kept rented houses immaculate before with strict cleaning schedules, and every time we never saw our deposit again. So keeping a rented house spotless is of no interest to me as there's no benefit.

If we eventually own a house I'll have a very different view and be more house proud, but deep cleaning and paying my own money to shampoo carpets I don't own isn't something I'll do. The landlord can pay for those things if it's of importance to them.

I never did it for my landlords benefit or to make sure I kept my deposit afterwards - it was for my benefit.

I wanted to live in a clean and tidy home with clean carpets etc. If I got my deposit back afterwards that was nice, but it wasn't the reason I kept on top of the cleaning and tidying.

BertieBotts · 15/01/2022 18:54

@StEval

Very clean and tidy. Looking at those clutter images we are a 1. Why on earth do people throw stuff onto the floor ?

Well mostly the person throwing stuff onto the floor in our house is 3 years old. He plays on the floor so it's not chucked as such but being used there and then he moves onto another activity without first clearing away the old one. We do tend to have a big clean up but not until bedtime.

Then there is the stuff the baby actually does drop on the floor. I'll forgive him for that since he doesn't really understand gravity yet.

If we're holding baby and a toy, dummy, burp cloth etc falls down it doesn't get picked up straight away.

Children drop food, cutlery etc while eating.

Move things out of the way onto the arm of the sofa or a pile somewhere and they fall down

Put a jumper on the back of a chair and it falls off

Kids toys, blankets etc get kicked out of bed or kicked off the buggy, car seat etc.

Coat and shoe racks are overloaded so those things fall on the floor

Something falls out of the bin because it needs emptying but your hands are full so you think I'll have to do that later

Teenager opens packets in kitchen and they get left lying around, despite complaints about this. Then they get knocked off the side because empty plastic is light.

Tend to go to bed when the baby is asleep in bedroom so can't see to put clothes away neatly, they do tend to get left on the floor as there is nowhere to put them.

Then I can see a laundry pile I didn't sort out one night before going to bed that was on the bed and got moved to the floor

Leaves that have come off shoes or the buggy wheels

Scarf that has been discarded in living room because it was still cold when I came inside.

Lots of reasons things end up on the floor.

StEval · 15/01/2022 18:58

Lots of reasons things end up on the floor.

I get that DC do but why would you just leave things that fall down or they throw down, even if its a tidy up at the end of the day ?
It takes 2 seconds to pick sonething up

PhilCornwall1 · 15/01/2022 18:58

Clean and tidy/clutter free. I clean kitchen and bathroom top to bottom every day and hoover all over every day.

Boys rooms, pretty good, but would do my head in.

BertieBotts · 15/01/2022 19:04

We do tidy up at the end of the day, well DH normally does, if it was down to me I probably wouldn't. I don't really register it, I feel tired, it takes more than two seconds when it's a room full of stuff.

Otherwise, it might not get immediately tidied up because we have hands full or can't lean down (eg carrying baby) or it falls down when nobody/only DC is in the room, and then you don't immediately register it later until you look around and the whole place is a tip.

In a way I envy those who "see" the mess immediately because it probably is easy to deal with if you do it straight away. On the other hand it doesn't really bother me so maybe it would be worse to be stressed out by it.

The main problem is we have too much stuff so it's just everywhere and spilling out of the storage or doesn't have storage. If we had a clear out then we'd have far fewer things to fall on the floor all the time or be in piles in the first place.

NorthernLighting · 15/01/2022 19:05

Well mostly the person throwing stuff onto the floor in our house is 3 years old. He plays on the floor so it's not chucked as such but being used there and then he moves onto another activity without first clearing away the old one. We do tend to have a big clean up but not until bedtime.

Do yourself and your child a favour and teach the 3-year old to tidy away toys from the floor. I work in a nursery, and our 1 & 2-year olds do this with a bit of guiding and an easy system where the toys belong.

NorthernLighting · 15/01/2022 19:07

Teenager opens packets in kitchen and they get left lying around, despite complaints about this. See, you should have taught your teenager this when he/she was 3! 🙃

Ididanamechange · 15/01/2022 19:09

Generally I'd say ours is a 6 or a 7. Our set up is 2 children aged 4 and 18months. I work 4 days a week and dh works away for parts of the week. He's a lot tidier than I am. When its just me and the kids it probably drops to a 5 sometimes then when he's back from his shifts he puts it back to an 8! I like it when it's clean but ill never be a 10 person, I can't muster the will to care that much

Sheabutterisdelish · 15/01/2022 19:10

It’s a mess. The kitchen is cleaned every day, the rest less often. It’s pretty much never been guest ready. There are piles of stuff that don’t live anywhere.

Mine too, it's depressing. Live in a really old house with zero storage though. I get really overwhelmed and only work about 3 hours a week, it's embarrassing. I hate it but seem incapable of remedying it though...

StEval · 15/01/2022 19:15

The main problem is we have too much stuff so it's just everywhere and spilling out of the storage or doesn't have storage. If we had a clear out then we'd have far fewer things to fall on the floor all the time or be in piles in the first place.

Cull it!
We did and its so much better.
DH left it all in bags in the hall so I put it in his car and it all went to the charity shops the next day.
We have a one in/ one out rule now

NorthernLighting · 15/01/2022 19:17

@PhilCornwall1

Clean and tidy/clutter free. I clean kitchen and bathroom top to bottom every day and hoover all over every day.

Boys rooms, pretty good, but would do my head in.

Out of curiousity, do you work full time?

PhilCornwall1 · 15/01/2022 19:20

Out of curiousity, do you work full time?

I do yes, normally about 8am to about 5:30ish.

Reallycantbesarsed · 15/01/2022 19:21

Out of interest what do people mean by a clean? I keep my kitchen and bathroom clean daily but that only involves wiping surfaces ,top of cooker and sweeping the floor etc

Reallycantbesarsed · 15/01/2022 19:22

@PhilCornwall1

Out of curiousity, do you work full time?

I do yes, normally about 8am to about 5:30ish.

So when do you actually relax ?

PhilCornwall1 · 15/01/2022 19:25

@Reallycantbesarsed

Out of interest what do people mean by a clean? I keep my kitchen and bathroom clean daily but that only involves wiping surfaces ,top of cooker and sweeping the floor etc

Bathroom for me is tiles (it's fully tiled), basin, bath, shower screen, window and floor.

Kitchen is floor, worktops, cooker hob, unit fronts, sink. Door and windows.