Anyone else's house tidy(ish) on the surface but a DISASTER ZONE underneath?

[Bearlet]

I booked the week off work and have just spent a solid 4 days decluttering. I’ve managed maybe 20% of what needs to be done.

We’re naturally messy people but keep relatively on top of things day-to-day. Weekly cleaner for floors, kitchen, bathrooms. The problem is that things get shoved into out-of-sight-out-of-mind areas/cupboards/drawers that are then never dealt with. We both work full-time and never have the energy to tackle it in the evenings or at the weekend. Paperwork, toys, books, outgrown clothes, crafting supplies, broken appliances, cosmetics, you name it. There’s just so much STUFF! And we’re not even very consumerist and only have one DC.

Please tell me I’m not the only one. Am I going to have to take a month-long sabbatical to get the rest done?

Isn't that normal for any family house? 😀

Anyone who has dcs and a busy life and still manages to keep cupboards well ordered and tidy is either superhuman or obsessive.

Is it? That's reassuring. I always imagine other people have things more under control. I mean, they might have a Drawer of Doom somewhere, but we have lots. Plus several Cupboards of Calamity, Piles of Perdition and even a whole Room of Ruination. 😅

Yup. I’d die of shame if my cupboards were examined

Oh god this is me.

My cleaner has just been whilst I've had a nap with DD1 and I'm so embarrassed but she's been poorly and we've not slept properly all week.

The house is clear and tidy.

But scratch the surface and... well just don't

Yes, my house is like this. Pretty tidy and usually clean, but so much hidden crap. It’s a fairy big house with lots of storage so it’s unfortunately easy to accumulate clutter without meaning to. My kids are older teens who seem to accumulate stuff and never throw anything out. Like you, we’re not wildly consumerist so I don’t really know where it all comes from. I try to ignore it mostly but when I have to come face to face with it, I get really anxious about it. I popped my head into the loft yesterday to look for something and came down really vexed ranting to OH that we need to hire a skip and have a Swedish Death Clean.

I've been tackling one space a week for a couple of years and I'm nearly on top of it now . . . We also have lots of space so its so easy just to tuck things away.

I like Dana K White (a slob comes clean) decluttering without mess method.

My house is just like this too.

My brother has a perfectly clean tidy house, I was delighted a few years ago when he admitted his wife just hides everything in cupboards and drawers.

I tend to organise my Drawers of Doom when I physically can't cram anything else into them 😂 One drawer at a time - tip it on the floor, charity bag on one side of me, rubbish bin on the other side of me. And just go through it.

I'm eyeing up my Odds and Sods drawer in the kitchen after not being able to open it to get the scissors out because it's so crammed full and something's jamming it. Once I've figured out how to open it, it's getting The Treatment.