To wonder if everyone's house is like mine?

[Mishy1234]

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!

When I had DD for first couple of years I used to look like we had been burgled a lot of the time. Now however I got ruthless with clearing stuff out and mad on storage and now it only takes 15 minutes or so on a night to clean. Also we have the trofast storage units in the lounge and I count and DD rushes around trying to tidy up as fast as she can so she is doing most of the work! She is 4 now so got her trained

With the carpets I have dark carpets and the good thing is you cant see any stains but the bad points are you get bits show up easily but it is easier to run round with a hoover than it is to be scrubbing stains off.

No it is not a wreck and never has been. We rent so we would get charged for damage. It focuses the mind.

Our children know they are not allowed food outside the kitchen, not allowed in their bedrooms during the day. Only allowed toys in playroom. We trained them not to draw on walls.

That way toys/clutter/mess stays in one place and food in a wipeable area.

Betsy that's what we end up doing when DH has day off ,instead of tackling chores we walk the dog , find a nice place for coffee or if I'm lucky lunch , if he's lucky we get home well before DCs get home from school

Where's LeQ?

She always brings me hope when I read threads like this that when the Prulets come along, there's a slim chance I might be able to keep PruHeights clean, uncluttered and beautiful.....

i hire a carpet cleaner every year, but really it needs doing at least twice as often. i hate these pale carpets, but we can't afford to replace them.
and we have toys everywhere. we honestly have the fewest toys of any family we know, but the house is tiny, so toys are stored in the sitting room, and craft stuff in the dining room.

although if the alternative is only allowing them to play in one room, and not letting them into bedrooms by day, i'll take the mess, thanks.

@ BarryNorman

morebeta your kids are not allowed in their rooms during the day?!
How old are they? Where are they expected to go instead?!!

Many, many years ago when prospective buyers of house came to view, we apologised for the toy mess all over the place. Telling them we had really not had time to put the toys where they belonged. Their response: " Don't worry,
we have two disabled children. Not only do we put the toys back, we have to get them out as well.........."

Ours is getting there, now. There is a stage of development/weaning where the kitchen or wherever they eat just gets encrusted, and you spend what seems like all day cleaning the sticky or the weetabix or whatever. But that gets better.

Toys, I went troppo a week or two back and bagged up about 5 binbags and put them in the loft, because really if they don't have a place to put sets of things it all just gets mixed up and lost. Then even if there is enough storage, if its all mixed up they will just tip it out to find a particular bit - so you need some kind of system there. I've been known to go through when they are out and just bin loads of paintings and tatty shite and McHappy shit etc and don't even get me started on the tat that comes on the front of those magazines.

I do have to hoover each night now, too, whereas I never used to. Sometimes twice in summer.

Glass gets all fingerprinty but they are getting to an age now where I can say "dont touch the glass!" and give them a cloth to clean it if they do (though they rather enjoy that so I think it might have the opposite efffect...)

We do get the odd mishap though, some guilty horrible child stuck some stickers on my wall before so I binned the stickers that were left out and the one that cried the hardest probably did it!

I reckon there is a balance to be had though. Helps if you have a playroom - I have been known to lob stuff in there (sometimes from meters away) at the end of the day and shut the door

Mine is a mess too. And I was houseproud - I just lost control of it and never quite got it back. So - you are not alone

It gets better as they get older. My house is tidy now the girls are 11. They have very little plastic tat anymore. Birthday and Christmas presents tend to be money or big things like a bike or a camera rather than tons of little shitty tatty crap that ends up everywhere.

I think mine is just about right

Generally tidy and clean but with smatterings of kids' books, toys, clothes here and there - and bloody messy bedrooms which we shut the door on until Saturday when they have to tidy them to get their pocket money.

Mine is not trashed but a bit battered. It's been a struggle for me to accept as I am a bit controlling, but every day I remind myself I'd rather the children grow up feeling happy and relaxed than anxious about some spills and rips. And I think they are pretty respectful so I feel it's all work in progress... there's time for neat later (if I have any energy left)

Mine were not allowed to put their hands on the walls. It only took a few kindly reminders not to. The carpets didn't get stained either because they ate at the kitchen table or at the dining room table and were not allowed to take food anywhere carpeted - or drinks for that matter either.

We tidied up just before bathtime. There were two boxes in the family room and some shelving. After that they were allowed one non messy toy or books before bedtime and it was put away before bedtime. Only one toy or book at a time was allowed in the formal sitting room.

They are teenagers now - looks despairingly at the 8 pairs of shoes and half a dozen sports and school bags in the hall.

I really don't understand the "You can either have/spend time with the kids or have a clean and tidy house".

My house is clean and tidy thanks and yes I do spend time with the kids!

Yes, my house is similar to yours. They have a play room with toys, a little TV, table and VHS player but their toys spill out to the living room, bedrooms and even kitchen!? The staira carpet needs replacing, there's a homemade MDF stair gate at the bottom of our stairs tied with ribbon so they can't get upstairs (the bottom of the stairs are too wide for a normal stairgate). Things always look untidy, unorganised and grubby no matter how clean you try to make it by polishing, hoovering, sweeping, mopping and Febreezing.

Caz10 - our children have a computer room and a play room and a garden to play in and a downstairs toilet. We all eat in the kitchen.

My house is usually clean and mostly tidy with a few hotspot exceptions. The kitchen table always has a pile of things on it that are in transit to somewhere else so looks messy. But they are usually there for a reason, waiting to go to preschool the nest day, or waiting to be taken to the Post Office or something like that.

The biggest problem is that even if the toys are all tidied away the living room still looks messy because of the pile of multicoloured plastic stuff in the corner, even though its a tidy pile with all the toys in the appropriate storage boxes. It just stands out and means its the first thing you see when you come into the living room.

I think when they are older their toys will be in their room more so it'll be better then, but the youngest is only 1yr so I probably have a while to wait before the living room looks grown up again!

Mine is screwed. And I only have a 9 month DD.

I think when I worked full time, very long hours I was dirt blind.

Now I am at home all day I notice the horrific general mess a lot more

Solution to mess.

Get a black bin bag per child.

Put at the bottom a toy or possession that they love that is not where it should be eg on the bedroom floor, on the sofa etc

Put on top all their belongings that are not put away.

Give them 24 hours to empty the bag telling them you will put bag in bin the next day with anything that's still in it.

Also add to bag all rubbish that they have left on their floor, clothes etc

Follow through

Good Luck

Oh me too op!

We now do not have wall paper, we have washable painted walls, fantastic stuff, does what it says on the tim.

Wooden floors or laminate, cheepo stuff so it really doesnt matter. Will get posh stuff when kids are older.

skirting boards are all chipped due to car pile ups!

i clean & tidy as i go, and most importantly, everything has a home. We have storage bins and drawers everywhere.

All food and drink consumed at the table BUT special treat is picnic blanket (rubber backed) in the living room for a party tea or pizza once a month or so.

Also, kids have their own cleaning jobs to do, so it all helps