DP and I had to move in extremely hurried circumstances late last year (long story but not of our own choice/doing) from huge flat to miniscule one, consisting of four small rooms (lounge/kitchen/bedroom/bathroom) and it's really more of a single person's flat.
We are on our own but have his son stay every other weekend plus have him most of the hols. Which is fine...a real squash but we love having him. (as my old Nan used to say, 'if there's room in your heart, there's room in your home') even though with just two of us, we are constantly having to squeeze past each other! So three is a challenge, but it's worked out so far.
We don't have any storage, by that i mean none of the 'norm' ie shed/garage/ cupboard under stairs etc..not even a hall or landing to put say shoes or hoover on, so everything is out and we are tripping over it. (not a cupboard in the place apart from small kitchen ones) so hoover, mop, general clutter and essentials are always out and literally i get bruises bumping into stuff! It's stressful but we are so lucky really. We have a home. My DP was homeless years ago for a while, and we count our blessings.
Admittedly we are both clutterbugs and still in a state of chaos (piles of stuff everywhere/not much floor space..but then there isnt much without having the stuff!) and trying to sort the place out..we are both bookworms, not minimalistic at all (eg DP has a huge vinyl record collection- but as he works in the music business, it goes with the territory) we are currently short on both time and money, I work in two jobs plus have a small ebay business,(so not like i'm stuck indoors all day getting slowly buried) ;-) and we BOTH use our small lounge as an office, so we dont have room for even a table to eat off. Our old place looked fine as we had a lot of space and storage..
We've just learnt to live with it (for now) and are planning what to do about storage solutions and have already chucked out a lot of stuff (ok, it's hardly made a dent! but hey it's a start) and thought we were making the best of things..We know it's a problem but at the same time, it's not with dirt, only 'stuff'. Eg the sinks, bath, loo etc are more spotless than anyone's i know, i clean them daily. The only dirt is all the clutter being a dust trap.
However, we are friends with a couple who can't stop making comments and maybe i am BU but it's starting to get to me and the female in the couple (my best friend) has NEVER even visited, so it's doubly unfair!
We have been in chaos recently with flooded bathroom so workmen in and out, so much worse than usual. Her partner visited during this time and was obviously clearly horrified as she told me things he'd later said and she's now put off visiting us... The thing is, they have the same amount of space as us, but have their storage sorted, and are both childless and extremely tidy/minimalist . They have a loft which is boarded on the floor so easy to use, and everything gets thrown in there..or in the bin! Literally..a new book is read then chucked in the loft or out. Birthday cards up for one day, then binned. That kind of thing. They have nothing in their flat but the barest essentials, but the loft is a mine of hoarding, on her partner's part anyway!
She keeps continually making comments and made it clear whereas she wanted to visit before, she doesn't want to now even though in the past she's always been happy to sleep on a sofa (and i always sleep on theirs). When a mutual friend asked if they could stay one night, she butted in saying 'are you sure you want to subject yourself to all that?' - when she has never been to ours, or seen a photo!
Maybe i'm being oversensitive as we do have a problem, but our place is definitely cleaner than theirs and at least there's things to look at and you don't have to be scared of leaving a cup out!
Am sick of the constant digs when we are trying to get back on our feet.