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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To wonder if everyone's house is like mine?

99 replies

Mishy1234 · 18/03/2012 16:20

AIBU to wonder of everyone's house ends up getting wrecked when they have kids or if it's just mine?

I used to keep a lovely house. I was really house proud and loved having people round.

Since having children my house has been wrecked. Stains on carpets, marks from sticky hands on wallpaper, their stuff EVERYWHERE! It's just a nightmare. Am I being too precious or just doing it all wrong?

It's a relatively small house, so in one way good as not too much room to clean, but bad as no separate room for the kids (apart from bedrooms).

Am I just crap? I do have a cleaner once a fortnight, She's amazing and never complains about the mess (just hoovers around it!). I often imagine she tells all her friends about her crazy client with the nightmare house!

OP posts:

RatDesPaquerettes · 18/03/2012 16:48

Mishy, for marks on wallpaper, you need this or the branded equivalent.

LaDiDaDi · 18/03/2012 16:48

Me too op.

I hate that it never looks good apart from on Friday afternoon immediately after the cleaner has been but even then it's never as good as it was pre-dc.

curiositykitten · 18/03/2012 16:49

Sorry mishy wasn't meaning you in particular, just I have a few friends who always comment on how tidy/clean my house is (compare to theirs, it's certainly no show home!) and almost take pride in the fact that theirs are, well.... dives, really!

LaDiDaDi · 18/03/2012 16:49

Yes those pad things are good

SaffronDormouse · 18/03/2012 16:51

I do try (really I do).

I have creative kids....

I can see their creativity on about every surface...

BoffinMum · 18/03/2012 16:52

I am thinking that there is probably a case for getting a cleaning firm in to do an entire reboot of your house, top to toe, deluttering in advance of their arrival, and then starting over, if it's stopping you having people around.

BoffinMum · 18/03/2012 16:53

Bronze, they do that when the water pipe is faulty. You can buy replacements.

bronze · 18/03/2012 16:55

It always did it. We asked for it to be sorted and they said there was nothing wrong with it. We just pay an extorionate rate for a man with a big machine to do it now

BananasInBloomers · 18/03/2012 16:56

My house is always clean but not always tidy. I have two babies and two older ones. The older ones stuff is in their rooms but the babies toys are all downstairs because thats where they play. As they get older the stuff migrates to the bedroom.
Everything in my house is wipe clean,from furnishings to paint. The only bit of little darling vandalism is some scribble on the kitchen wall that my 2 yr old did,but its being painted next weekend anyway. We have a basket of toys that comes out from under the stairs every morning.
If you get tiles or laminate it is so much easier to keep.

blubberyboo · 18/03/2012 17:02

oh and a small tip is to use silk paint where possible - less chance of marks or scuff especially on stairs where fingerprints gather..matte paint is no good

fedupofnamechanging · 18/03/2012 17:04

Mine is clean (especially after all those recent guilt inducing threads on here ), but things like skirting boards are scuffed from toy cars repeatedly hitting them. I always seem to be wiping juice marks off work tops or sticky fingerprint marks from walls.

To those of you who long for laminate, you have to sweep up a lot because the dust is really obvious - I sweep every day, downstairs.

Their toys seem to multiply every time they touch something (rather like the stuff in Bellatrix Lestrange's bank vault) and my bookshelves often have stray tissues and dd's toys randomly scattered on them - it does rather ruin a streamlined look.

Don't get me started on the scraps of paper, which no one is allowed to bin and the cups they 'forget' to put in the sink...

valiumredhead · 18/03/2012 17:04

We have silk everywhere - never had wall paper, always seems like a recipe for disaster

BarryNormansSofa · 18/03/2012 17:17

We have got rid of all carpets downstairs since having children and have lining paper everywhere which I give a quick wipe down when the finger marks get too much and if it really gets too much then a quick lick of the original paint.

Since getting a dog I am so glad we got rid of carpet.

QueenMaeve · 18/03/2012 18:37

If my house were to be clean all the time I would honestly be dead from the exhaustion of it all. Seriously a week of keeping the house tidy would kill me. I do what I can to keep it all going re housework and try to encourage (nag) dc to keep putting stuff away but it's never ending! Some days I get fed up but generally I just roll with it.

SofaKing · 18/03/2012 18:46

I am constantly cleaning but the house is always a tip. I have three under five and it is very messy sometimes, but cleaning gives them the opportunity to create more mess and they work faster than me!

I was so ashamed recently when I mentioned the fingermarks on my front window and my niece who lives across the road said they were really visible I live on the same road as the school so goodness knows what the school run mums say about the mucky window house!

quirrelquarrel · 18/03/2012 18:53

On one hand, it's a bit boring to be houseproud. On another hand, why can't your kids pick up their things, and why do they have so much that it's filling up a house (esp. if they're too small to pick stuff up themselves)?

Iamweasel · 18/03/2012 18:54

Mines is totally trashed. Each evening I tidy up. By 9 am it's wrecked again. Dc are too young to keep their stuff upstairs. Or even to understand about not covering every floor entirely in stuff

I have nice things. You can't see them. The mess pervades

mamasmissionimpossible · 18/03/2012 19:05

I try to keep it clean. However, the plastic toy monster has completely taken over here. I wish I could be ruthless and get rid, but the dc's seem to return to toys not played with for a while. When they are too old for toys I will get rid. For now I will live with the junk and enjoy my babies. :)

HexagonalQueenOfTheSummer · 18/03/2012 19:05

Ours is the same; I've sort of given up on it a bit at the moment as I am the only one - out of 5 of us - that ever puts anything away or tidies anything.

Firawla · 18/03/2012 19:10

Mine is not too bad, but thats because of having a separate area for dc, we have a downstairs playroom to keep all their toys in but in other flats we used to live in their toys would just take over the whole place then it always looks a mess even if it is clean. so would say storage is very important, but definitely not impossible to be houseproud and have children.
i agree with the idea of get a full spring clean done if its too much at the moment then u can start a fresh.

glamourousgranny42 · 18/03/2012 19:13

My house is clean enough. You can't write your name in the dust and kitchen and bathroom are clean. But tidy? No. My living room floor is covered in lego and has been for over a week. Its my sons ongoing project. I am not gonna look back on my death bed and wish I had a smarter house. Lifes too short

soverylucky · 18/03/2012 19:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheArmadillo · 18/03/2012 19:43

Much easier since we moved to a house where the only carpet downstairs is in the front room - the rest is either lino (kitchen) or floorboards with heavy duty varnish. The kids don't eat in the front room accept for the occasional bit of toast.

We have plenty of storage here as well, plus we cleared out all our stuff when we moved.

Also we always take our shoes off when we come in, we don't make guests do it, but it has still made a difference to the carpet in the front room.

So much easier than our last house to keep clean. Our last place even had carpet in the kitchen! (very old filthy and worn carpet at that). We have been here 2 months and I reckon it takes half the time to clean and tidy. TBH I didn't realise how bad the other place was to clean until we moved (2 bathrooms and additional toilet didn't help).

So wipe clean surfaces + big clear out of stuff + plenty of storage is the secret I think. Plus we do do some cleaning and tidying every day to keep on top of it so it never gets too bad. My house isn't minimalist and surgically clean but it is (mostly) neat and tidy and reasonably clean. I do struggle if my house gets messy/too much and it does really affect my mental health (though that is usually the reason the house has started to get messy).

MissBetsyTrotwood · 18/03/2012 19:49

Mine was cluttered before and it's cluttered now. In fact, DH has taken the day off work tomorrow so we can attack it together. Take the dog for a long walk together and go for coffee.

Mrbojangles1 · 18/03/2012 19:50

Sorry just you my home is spotless everybody has to tidy their things and I spend lots of time with my kids but they have to clean up afterwards

If you want it out then you put it away

When children are at school and are adults they need to learn to clean what better place to start than in the home

I also find children that are messy I prone to braking things it gose hand in hand with not caring about your enivormnt

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