so if you don't someone for not baking birthday cakes, do you judge someone whos house is a bit dirty?

[carriedababi]

by a bit dirty i mean, doors not looking that clean, haven't been hoovered for a couple of days and crumbs on the floor

smears over the patio doors

bit untidy

that type of things

this is my house btw

"Cleaning is second nature" - well, patently not! I don't need to live in a very tidy house - do clean up for other people, but can cope with some accumulation quite happily.

ambarth my kids help me clean. The toddler likes nothing more than helping me sweep or wipe a cloth around the bathroom. He helps pick up his toys - it's a game to him. The house needs cleaning so I have to do it, whether the toddler is there or not.

I judge myself!

I am pretty good at the regular cleaning, but no good at the deep-cleaning/detail.

I clean the bathroom 2 or 3 times a week, but never seem to get a chance to sort out the bit of mould round the bath, or the tiles that are too high for me to reach, or the dusty blinds.

Same with kitchen - clean floors, worktops, hob, sink several times a day, but keep forgetting to wipe the kitchen doors that have mucky drips on them, or clean the oven, or clean out the fridge.

I don't spend hours cleaning I have a cleaner. I tidy because it makes my life easier.

Before we could afford a cleaner we had time to do thinks for ourselves, and care for the children and work.

I don't worry about people judging me by house, I do know that people enjoy being in my house - in part because it is tidy. Hopefully more so because I am such great company.

"He helps pick up his toys - it's a game to him." Mine does too. And then relocates them in various places, plus everything else I've just put away.

yeee, loving this thread, i try to keep house reasonable just not overly interested, unfortunately am surrounded by neighbours with ocd!!

I suspect many of us act in reaction to how we were bought up.

Growing up my house was always a tip because my mother thought that cleaning was for dull people. I could never find anything, I was always in trouble because my homework was under a pile of washing. I was always ashamed when friends came to stay and it got to the point when I was not allowed friends over because the house was such a state.

I think desperately has a point. When I was a child the house was perfect and immaculate - my mother's HOUSE still is. Our HOME is acceptable, acceptably clean and acceptably tidy and doesn't bear my mother's scrutiny. My BF on the other hand is just like my mother and her mother was just like me now. Can't see the dd becoming obsessive about tidying at this stage though.

Our house was like yours desperately. Except my sister and I just ended up doing it all and are now both pretyt strict about minimum clean standards - just because we remember the bowls of mouldy fruit and blood from dripping meat coating the inside of the fridge for weeks.

I don't like really clean and tidy houses, they make me feel uncomfortable.

I never know where to sit or put my cup down, much prefer a bit of lived in mess.

Whouldn't cross my mind to be bothered.

Au Pair= stepford teenager
They look after the kids, help with dinner, and throw a load of laundry on.... at least the one I know does. Having never had one, I may be wrong

I try to have people over once a month or so, that way I have to have a proper clean/tidy. This means it is scrubbed down once a month so never gets above a dull roar.

Clean but messy, kindercrap everywhere, clean washing waiting to be put away etc.

But the kitchen and bathrooms are given a once over daily and a proper clean once a week, and that is about all I am going to do.

It is totally down to laziness on my part, I just can't be arsed and find it totally mind numbing. I have to clean the pool today, I mean really what a pain in the ARSE.

I do find that the messier my house is, the less energy I have...which means when it's a tip, I have no will to clean it, and when it's neat I'm raring to go with nothing to do. :)

"Nah - so long as you can find your kettle and I can move the crap bits off the settee "

Chipping - I love you

I feel the opposite.

When the house is totally clean and tidy I get really annoyed with anyone who makes a mess.

When it is at its usual, I am far more relaxed.

Oh god I should be cleaning...my DS is at his nan's and I have a lounge full of army kit I should be sorting to put back in the loft. However, the bottle (!!!) of wine I drank last night for spending 2 hours shoving the rest of our much needed (shit) stuff in the loft is preventing me. LeQueen I need you round here kicking my big butt

I would like to be more organised and live in a cleaner house. I have only ever been in two family houses that are dirtier than mine.

Yet my house is usually full of other people's children, and I think the lack of someone cleaning is (a small) part of the appeal.

Baroque - love you too

^desperatelyseekingsnoozes Wed 16-Mar-11 20:27:37
I am not interested in judging people who have different standards of housekeeping than me, I don't care^

I do resent the idea that because my house is clean my children are neglected, my life is dull or I am heading for a breakdown

Couldn't agree more!!

^risingstar Wed 16-Mar-11 14:27:06
i have always wanted to really know what anally retentive/ocd clean people really think of the rest of us^

i kind of divide people i know,entirely based on their houses into people i feel comfortable inviting to our slum and people that i would cringe to have here

several friends have scarily tidy and clean homes. my house has clean kitchen work surfaces/fridge and clean toilets. as for the rest of it- i have teenagers and toddlers and it is like shovelling snow in a blizzard

RisingStar - just because I like my house clean and tidy it doesn't mean that I care what anyone else's house is like... as I said before as long as you put the kettle on & I can shift the stuff along the settee to sit down - I'm happy in someone elses home.

I can't abide my own house being in a state, because like LeQueen, it makes me feel in a state and unsettled - but as long as it's not mine it's fine.

Sounds like my house. But I bake all my own cakes. I mean really.

Well isn't it good that we all have our houses in a way that suits us.

Well I blame you lot but I have today betrayed the smeary window slut sisterhood. People, I blitzed my house, wore a pinny and skipped around the garden cutting flowers.

But (whispers) I still have smeary windows.

I did make a banana cake.