Does anyone's house look like a show-home?

[ThatFraggle]

If so, how do you do it?

It's clean and tidy, I hoover every day (have to with cats) and dust once a week when i do a proper clean of the place. It's not show home standard and it never will be, it needs new carpets and decorating but right now that's money I can't spare and the cats have scratched the sofas.

At some point (when I start getting my bonus' at work) I'm going to start replacing things, carpets first, then desk, then sofas.

It's used to and then I read a few mn threads and they said "lower your standards", now I don't feel like I need to spend my life cleaning (I can't now anyway as I am much busier than before). The house is clean and tidy but not perfect. I think it's more realistic, I used to spend at least 25-35 hours a week cleaning and cooking. Those days are gone, thank God!

My top tip to having a clean house is don't have kids, a husband or possessions. On a more serious note having less stuff makes it easier to keep tidy. If everything has a place it's much easier. Nothing worse than trying to shove stuff in a full draw.

Ours isn’t showroom bland, but is clean and uncluttered 99% of the time.

I just can’t relax in mess. I grew up in a hoarder house, so complete opposite as a child.

If we have a meal, then yes the kitchen
and table are cleaned straight away after, and kitchen left with completely empty worktops before I would leave. Coming down in the morning to find stuff from the night before would drive me made as then I would have to tidy it before making breakfast.

We have a toddler, so there’s toys often out everywhere. But they get tidied away before we go out or before bed so it’s re- set every day. Re set includes dh and I stuff also, so any paperwork, cups, stuff used that day would be away before bed

I wouldn’t be embarrasse if someone popped in….and with 15 minutes notice it would be tidier. But the skirting boards or inside of fridge wouldn’t pass inspection.

No. We have what I'd call an 'interesting' home full of interesting things and I'd rather have that than something too pristine. There are way more important things than bloody housework!

However, I do have an Instagram account where I'm charting the progress of our (DIY) renovation and whilst some of the pics I put on my grid show a beautifully (imho!) curated space, others are full on building site/tip mode, which is how we've learned to live over many years of doing up houses. I guess it's a bit smoke and mirrors.

That curated space is still miles away from a typical show home though, as it's bursting with our personality - something I don't think show homes or those tidied to the nth degree reflect.

I also hate housework and although it's just us two at home these days, we do have a dog who leaves a trail of mess in her wake - not helped by living rurally, where mud and leaves are an integral part of everyday life.

In addition, we downsized from a considerably larger house and - despite cherry picking the best bits to keep/selling the items we could live without (which was hard) ahead of our most recent move - this place initially had no crap storage, so for us it was more about improving storage than just getting rid of everything. If we'd taken the easy option and done that our home would no longer be a reflection of us but instead a generic space same as any other.

Yes I think people would probably say mine is. It's a big 6 bed house for myself, DH and four kids. Only our 11year old lives at home now so we have hobby rooms where all our hobby related stuff goes and it's set up for our respective hobbies (mines a sewing room which I love!!! We also have an office so all our paperwork is sorted and filed because there's no space to do so. My husband likes everything neat and tidy and likes strategically positions throws and cushions. He does his own art work which is on the walls too and everyone comments on it positively.

Would I trade this to have my four children little again and home? Yes, yes, yes. A million times yes!!
Nothing beats happy voices and kiddy mess and I miss it all so much.

Most of the time... But I don't have kids, and I have trained my husband well 😂

(and my house is tiny so easy to keep neat).

No. Even worse I just had people working in the garden trampling through my house, plus I have two dogs and two long haired cats, and the vacuum cleaner has broken 😭😭. And I'm pretty untidy too...
But I have a friend, three kids and works full time, and her house is always immaculate. They are all tidy, and the dad is a neat freak so never tolerated mess. She has a strict 'one in one out' policy so there's never any clutter. I have a strict 'oh I'll find a place for it eventually' policy!
I find 'don't put it down, put it away' a good rule. I never stick to it though 🤦🏻.

One of my friends definitely has a home like a show home, it’s just the way she is, it was like that when she had her kids at home too. She doesn’t even leave her kettle or toaster on the worktop, each time they are used they are put away in the cupboard. She is constantly decorating, cleaning her carpets you could genuinely eat your dinner off her floors!

Yep. Those that don't mind spending 5 hours a day and most of the weekend cleaning. Says something about a person, doesn't it.

How harmful constantly spraying poisons and pesticides round young kids.

It is definitely not a compliment, and I certainly would judge someone whose life revolves around cleaning and sees a tidy clean house as a priority.

No, my home is very much lived in and has the usual stuff (hobbies, reading matter) lying about - not enough storage anyway. I'm trying to improve bit by bit but it's slow progress so far.

The downstairs is pretty and cottage-like with a clean kitchen and guest loo. Upstairs, which very few people see is more cluttered. I like to be comfortable and would hate for my few guests to feel that they must be on tenterhooks, expecting me to fluff up cushions as soon as they rise from a chair.

Mine is very clean and tidy, up to being photographed for sale I suppose.

Reasons for this ....

I have a cleaner for two hours a week. All I do in between cleaner visits is clean the kitchen after cooking load/unload diswasher/laundry and swish a bit of water round the bathroom sinks/shower after use. Put a bit of bleach down the loos once a week.

I've got tons of storage/don't keep stuff I don't need and am not a huge shopper.

I'm out of the house at work for 50 hours a week. Out three nights a week at the gym, out one day at the weekend.

DC have left home.

Put stuff away as I go.

I’ve known people whose houses are show homes. “Show” towels in the bathroom. Wtf? My lot would just use them anyway. Ive found these people to be all style and no substance

Oh god women are now finding ways to automate their cleaning. Really don't have to, just live and let the kids live too.

God no. Two small children means we're constantly fighting tides of toys and general detritus. While it would be nice to have things tidy for longer than 5 seconds I don't worry too much. Life is too short to spend a lot of time on tidying.

When we moved I filled 2 skips up. In our new house we only what we need/use as storage is v tight, with the exception of DC bedroom. They can have what they want in there. The kitchen is super organised, there is no junk drawer. We only have things we use. The freezer drawers are labelled & organised by categories of meats/veg/desserts/other. Any plastic containers with no lids or lids without a matching container were binned. Most Novelty mugs were binned as we will never use these, only sentimental were kept eg DH had one from when he was younger.

To have so little stuff is so liberating

Yes

Because being on maternity leave, having a husband that helps out, I don't hoard anything at all, a baby that sleeps through the night and has about two hour nap in the day so plenty of time to keep on top of it. I also tidy up the toys before I go to bed each night

No, they are definitely unwell. Refreshing post from someone saying they stopped spending 25-35 hours a week cleaning after MN.
Mumsnet - saving one household at a time.

It did when I lived alone, was out if the house 12 hours a day, 5 days a week and had a cleaner.

Living alone also meant, if I fancied cleaning at midnight I could - no one to disturb.

It was actually really nice to live in such a home and I miss it greatly.

Now there is three of us and a dog and I am always moaning we have too much stuff and place is filthy!

I did for a month last year when we were selling our old place and wanted to be viewing ready with 30 mins notice. DH and I even commented on how nice it was living in such a clean and tidy house.

It was exhausting though and took up so much time! So we've gone back to good enough.