Question about your housekeeping standards vs how you were brought up

[Loverofallthingsleopardprint]

If you were brought up in a clean and tidy home, do you keep a clean and tidy home yourself or have you gone the opposite way and become a little bit of a slob?

Or if you grew up in a messy/dirty/disorganised home, what are you like now? Are you messy now yourself or do you prefer a tidy house?

I'm not quite up to my mother's standard (I have only ever cleaned skirting boards in preparation for painting and I'm not averse to leaving the dinner dishes overnight), but I am pretty clean and very neat and organised.

My OH is probably cleaner than I am - his parents are lovely people, but they are hoarders and their house probably isn't as clean as it should be due to the clutter.

Like PPs, my OH has spoken about not wanting to bring friends back to his house as a kid, and he vowed never to live like that as an adult.

We're a pretty good match, as I am a pathological declutterer - I can't stand chaos.

My mum was fairly relaxed about mess and so am I.

Brought up by a neurotic neat freak who actually made a HUGE fuss over neatness.

I am a neurotic neat freak who actually makes a HUGE fuss over neatness.

It actually caused serious problems in my marriage the last two years, working from home, I ended up getting at my husband over the smallest things. Any spec was a huge deal and I just couldn't relax in any type of mess. I have managed to work on myself and calm down a lot after he was about to leave me over it. It was obviously a symptom of my mental health issues and I made piece, but I still prefer things neat.

I'm in charge of cleaning and keeping the home so I now just have a decent routine and let myself off with mess.

My other parent is a total slob but they never brought me up. I'm glad! Clutter gets to me, feels claustrophobic.

When I was younger my house was disorganised and a bit messy. Dad always said it's lived in. My husband has a cleaning freak has a mother and he would have to eat crisp over a plate. Nothing was allowed out of place. Hes like that now but I am not so house is clean but messy. He wouldn't allow kids to have toys down stairs but I think it normal. It causes alot of arguments

Sal

*peace

My home growing up was a mixture, kind of tidy in the middle of rooms but piles of clutter on surfaces.

I remember I had a cabin bed and underneath was just loads of stuff that I didn’t want but wasn’t allowed to get rid of because someone had given it to me.

Also things like we had a big sheet of plywood that we used to build Lego on but it was kept behind a sideboard and I never wanted to pull it out because it was always covered in cobwebs and spiders, or dropping a book behind the sofa and reaching to pick it up only to encounter cobwebs and unidentified fluff. As a result I clean behind furniture a lot more than my parents did!

I didn’t notice it as a child but as an adult I noticed that everything I touched in their house left my hands feeling dusty and I hate the feeling so I dust a lot in my own home.

Also my loo is a lot cleaner!

And you OP - what about you?

Or have you got enough information to write your article now?

My parents have always had quite a cluttered home, and very demanding jobs, so while things like dishes and laundry got done, they never made time for deep cleaning. There was still a thick layer of dog hair lurking in corners years after our dog died!

As an adult I’ve come to realise I value living in an uncluttered, clean house and had to learn what goes into maintaining that. I’m also trying to model a healthy approach to cleaning to the DC by talking about the benefits of cleaning - that toys don’t get damaged, you can find what you want, and there’s space to play. Cleaning up isn’t a punishment in my house and nor is shame or embarrassment.

It's a little bit messier than the house I grew up in but much tidier than most family homes. My mum had a live in housemaid, a gardener and a chauffeur when we were young and I do everything myself so that's a bit of a difference.

Our home was clean and tidy but my DM did not work. I was a messy but clean teenager. As an adult I'm a minimalist and I like our home to be spotless. I get very anxious if its not clean with everything put away.

As kids, we all shared the housework. One by one we left, and the standards began to slip.

Now my parents own two houses outright, and don't clean at all. My house is easy to clean and we're not very messy, so it's permanently in a state of "about ten minutes from tidy".

And we have a cleaner. Which my mum doesn't know about, but would scoff at, in spite of owning two houses and leaving them filthy.