My house doesn’t look like a showroom and I feel like the “odd one out”. What does your house look like?

[NewForestMum123]

I’m a mum to three children (aged five and under) and work part time 3 days a week. I’m noticing a lot of my peers like to keep their houses looking almost showroom level clean. (Although I will say there are a handful that I suspect have just cleaned up because they know I’m coming over.)

My house is not a showroom.

It’s clean… ish. Kitchen is always kept clean, toilets are regularly cleaned, and I hoover and mop a lot. But I don’t dust very often, my windows and glass doors are pretty gross with fingerprints.

And it is messy. There’s always laundry drying, there’s a junk model masterpiece on the dining room table, there’s a few toys with broken parts on the kitchen side, the hallway table has a pile of paper in desperate need of filing, there’s scuffs on the walls. Theres a table in the corner of the lounge with a pile of stuff which I honestly don’t even know what it is… from here I can identify a bauble that got waylaid and a hairbrush.

There are five people living in my house, including three children, and I think that’s exactly what it looks like. For the most part, I don’t really care. I seem to be forever doing jobs as it is! I’m shattered, generally.

But I’m curious what others opinions are of messy houses. Do you also keep a messy house and can reassure me I’m not the odd one out? And for those who keep “showroom” houses, how badly are you judging me?

Your house sounds like a home. Perfect

I'm a very messy & hoarding inclined person. A kitchen gadget junkie. I live alone and it does get me down sometimes but then I'll have a charge of energy and go crazy cleaning & tidying. I don't like surprise visitors! 😱

I loathe housework. When my kids were little I had a couple of low cupboards downstairs, one of which was in the kitchen, where toys could be shovelled off the floor quickly. Dirty clothes were put in a huge Alibaba basket in the bathroom, known as the "monster basket" which had to be fed on dirty clothes and made chewing and burping noises (supplied by me, later the kids themselves) when it was fed.
And I had a cleaner once a week - I'd go round and tidy and she would follow me doing the hoovering etc.
But it's never been a show home, thank goodness. I love houses full of knick-knacks and pictures- stuff that reflects the interests of its owners. Trouble is, they are hell to dust 🕷.

@NewForestMum123 my house looks like yours. Complete with pile of junk on a table in the living room. Family if 4, kids aged 3.5yo and 20mo.

Mine sounds the same as yours. We clean it but toys are littered about and there’s always laundry hanging around drying. I sort of think with two primary aged kids we are in the thick of the toy season and when that passes the house will be tidy again.

It honestly depends on when you happen to see my home. The closer the friend, the more mess they see, but generally its pretty clean and tidy really. My best friend struggles with her mental health and her home reflects this. Do I judge? No, not one bit. If I'm at hers and stuff needs doing, I'll do the washing up if it needs doing, help change her bed, get rid of rubbish, without judgement.

I don't think anyone actually cares too much about how other people's houses look tbh.

I keep mine really nice, in between chaotic fun it get tidied up nicely and the kids do seem calm and relaxed when it's nice too. It hasn't bothered me what anyone else's house is like unless someone is living in dangerous circumstances and might need some support

Like a showroom. Because we’re for sale. Doing our heads in 🤣

Noone except yourself is judging you. You have got it right live in today for day. This will pass but no worries if you grasped it when it was there. You said it ...five of you live there..enjoy your situation

It's not a show home but could be in short order. But, my three dc are much older than yours - the only time the house was tidy when they were little was once they were in bed.

My house looks a lot more battered than my friends houses and could do with redecorating. A lot of my furniture is second hand and virtually all of it could do with refinishing in some way. I prefer to spend my money on other things so I put up with it and try to keep the house fairly clean, tidy and warm.

I wouldn’t say showroom, but I do keep my house tidy and relatively clean. I only have one child though! I do work full time. The inside of the windows are not washed nearly often enough, I definitely don’t wipe the skirtings as regularly as I could and have trouble keeping on top of the mildew in the shower but over all I’m happy enough. I do tidy a lot because I hate mess. I wouldn’t judge anyone’s house who has three under fives!

We’re clean but not showroom tidy.
Usually laundry somewhere.
DCs’ bedrooms are clean but tidiness levels can vary. Occasionally they’ll have a blitz.
DPs and in-laws absolutely revel in being surrounded by loads of stuff. All of them, not a kitchen surface unbothered. Always.

Right now my home is a shithole, I'm decorating the big bedroom so have had to empty everything out but there isn't really anywhere to put it. Then I had 2 weeks off while I was sick and didn't make any progress so its dragged on far too long. We're giving away loads of stuff and DS hired a skip, but we can't really see the benefit yet and we won't until we can put everything back. I'm feeling a bit down about it, I hate clutter.

My house is always pretty close to, or at, show home standard. It was even when I had little children if I remember rightly.

However, it’s a result of always keeping on top of it - small and often, so daily but only really 30 mins previously. Probably 45 mins ish to an hour now but I have now got a 5 bed/4 bath house so in the grand scheme of things that isn’t that often. There is no big deep clean, it doesn’t ever get dirty so there’s no need.

Mess can be tidied - I had no issue with the children having a ball, making it look like a bomb site and list whizzing round at or just after or before bedtime. It wouldn’t look like a show home in the middle of a play date, nor would I care. I’d sort it afterwards.

But I like it clean and tidy, I can’t live in mess and chaos, I would lose my mind.

I wouldn't say showroom (although SIL said as much!), but our house is pretty much always tidy and clean, if someone was to say I will be over in 10 we'd be able to run around quickly and get it to a good standard, and I wouldn't be mortified if I had no notice.

But my kids are pre-teen/teens, we all work full time or at school (easier when they're not around), we have lots of storage (place for everything!), and we have a cleaner. My DH is also very keen on it being tidy so it's not all left to one person.

The main exception is my youngest's bedroom, he has ADHD and his room is a bomb site, I don't know how to help him keep on top of it 😩

Saw a sign a long time ago that said 'My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy'. That resonated with me and is more or less what I live by. You will wear yourself to a frazzle trying to constantly clean up after 3 little kids, they don't care, so keep on top of things certainly, but remember, nobody's perfect.

I go for junk yard chic. The bathroom and kitchen are clean, the rest is chaotic.

normal levels of clean (i.e. hoover once or twice a week, dust once or twice a week, deep clean of bathrooms once or twice a week - obviously kitchen surfaces wiped/toilet cleaned multiple times per day and any obvious spills dirt cleaned up as we go).

That isn't normal level of clean, that's incredibly clean. We hoover once a week and clean toilets and bathroom not "deeply" but just normally about once a week. Surfaces wiped we go. Dusting, meh.

I am the same OP, but we do have a smallish home, so whilst I'm naturally tidy it makes it really hard to find space for everything and the minute something is out of place it looks messy!
I sooo envy people with playrooms 😅

My house is probably what some people would think of as cluttered I guess. Not 'in place'.
But I will never be one of those people with a really clean and tidy house to be honest. I'm not going to pretend I will be either. It's clean enough.

My house is show room standard but it’s because I get a lot of pleasure from living in a calm, clean and ordered home, I am very much into interior design and consider my house also a hobby, I’m always on the hunt for something and spend a lot of time looking for nice things for the house, so yes although it’s a lot of work to keep it that way, to me it’s worth it, if I’m not working on my house I will be scouring YouTube looking at house interiors, it’s a passion of mine so it doesn’t feel like a waste of my time at all.

A mess and no kids still at home!

Sounds like my house, also have 3 kids age 5 and under. I'd rather play with them as they are only going to be this small once and I don't want to miss it cleaning. Our house isn't huge so we really should be better at decluttering and tidying away clothes etc but as another poster said, with small kids it's a bit like shovelling snow in a blizzard!

We've been told we keep a 'showhouse' - I personally just think it's basic level tidy.

I can't abide mess. When we've used something, we tidy it away after, plates go straight in the dishwasher etc. Sure, we generate paperwork, ironing etc, but we have a spare room/office for this. Not in the living area or kitchen.

This is just how I like it. What others do in their own homes is none of my business.