to think that you can either have a clean, tidy and uncluttered house OR happy children but not both?

[GreenTeapot]

Or can you manage both? How do you do it?

Laquitar, no I'm not in London.
Anyone who would help out would want paying. On Income Support that's not possible.

As for DH.... nope.

Beta does not wear cords!!!!

He likes them karate style suits and walks about his house like Jackie Chan...on tippy toe and bare foot. Which is useful cos his carpets are made of rice paper.

All these people who say their house is clean but untidy - how do you hoover or clean the floor if it has got toys all over it, and how do you dust if there is clutter all over every surface?

Genuine question.

My house is quite tidy, and it's clean-ISH but not spotless. I often decide to wash the floors but by the time I have cleared everything away in order to get at the sodding floor, I have either run out of time or energy to clean it, or I think that now I've picked up all the lego and swept up the crumbs it doesn't look so dirty any more so I won't bother.

I mean, you probably wouldn't say my house was dirty, but you wouldn't want to eat your dinner off my kitchen floor either.

"MIL has always put away kids' pens etc when I prefer them to be easily accessible for spontaneous creativity."

Lieins I used to feel like that until one of them tried some spontaneous creativity on two brand new cream leather sofas.

Glitter - If your not working try and get rid of the kids and have one massive brutal clean out. I remember when i had DD no 3. The house got on top of me and i just left it. I had a newborn and and 2 other kids. One day i just got some motivation from somehere and declared war on the house as i knew it was depressing me. Ive never had it in that state since and that was nearly 3 years ago. I would never want to relive that couple of months.

Or take kids to the park while dh can do a big clean. He should do it glitter, you sound very low.

Who wants to pay for my plane ticket so I can cross the pond and go round Glitter's ?

Are you all right, Glitter ? Is there any way I could help?

Ooohhh, oooooh, this is a fun game! What do people think I wear?!

porcamiseria I remember you too! Hope you and dc are well, it's utter chaos fun having two this age, isn't it?!

Beta and LeQueen it's funny, if either of you had ever started a thread asking people to guess what star sign you are, I definitely would have guessed Virgo. My mum's a Virgo and I always know Virgos even though I don't really believe in star signs. I'm a Sagittarius so too busy having fun to clean . Pre-kids that is! Dp's an Aries so I'm doomed in the clean and tidy department. He's too busy being passionate and fiery to clean the bloody loo.

Strange angle on cleanliness/slovenliness and star signs, no?

"Oh you naughty boy...you'll have to stay and help me re-stack these books all night, won't you?!"

I'm a Taurus...what does that mean?

And what do people think I wear?! I want to knooooooooooooowwwwwwww....

I did at Beta's description of LeQueen

For some reason I always imagine you in outdoorsy clothes Cheerful Yank. Like cosy jumpers and trousers with pockets and sensible walking boots. No idea why! Cosy jumpers because you like in Scotland don't you?

No, I'm American. :) But it's very very cold here so I do often wear jumpers in winter. Anyone else?

Yank I am a Taurus also. I like tidy but I hate spartan, I like things to be cosy.

Balloon - I do a big tidy once a week before I clean. It takes about 30-45 minutes to really tidy the whole house and then 2 hours to do all the cleaning.

I am somewhere in the middle of the spectrum though I think. I would find Beta's house and Minky's equally disturbing I think.

Fifis alternative childcare is tricky when all three are disabled.

I thought Beta wore Jack Wills! I'm sure I remember reading that once.

Glitter - Not sure what to suggest, can you get any respite or carers to help

My house is not hugely messy or disordered nor is it uber organised, it is somewhere in between at a happy medium. I would have to spend a lot more time cleaning and tidying to achieve perfection and frankly that would be dull - so I don't! I like to have time to exercise (daily!), cook good food, watch tv, read, learn piano, walk the dogs and study with the ou (the kids feature in this priority list somewhere). I made myself ill with an obsessive compulsive need to maintain domestic perfection when the dc were very small, and have since learnt the error of my ways

Greenteapot

I find this very useful, used in tenements all over Scotland

follow Flylady, ( ignoring what is slushy /cringe making on her site )15 mins doing one task, 15 mins the next, 15 mins the third, last 15 , your call, chill, drink, nap....... start all over again. voila !

Fifis.... we don't fit the precise check boxes for respite, sadly.
Ah well, I'll just have to live in it and carry on hating it.

Oops, was getting you mixed up with another American mner CheerfulYank, re location. I only "know" of about three American mners, how hard can it be? I've just realised that in my overactive imagination, all Americans wear outdoorsy hillwalking type clothes.

Didn't you post photos of your house on here once Beta? Or is that a figment of my imagination... Whoever's house it was, it was v beautiful.