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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think the working class have the cleanest homes?

258 replies

dovebird · 09/05/2012 17:43

out of the people i know, the working class ones have spotless homes.

the middleclass ones seem alot more messier and nowhere near as spick and span.
they also tend to dress their children in odd socks etc.

anyone else noticed this?

OP posts:
cornflowers · 10/05/2012 13:14

I know plenty of MC people whose houses still manage to remain slightly untidy despite weekly or bi-weekly visits from a cleaner. I tend to agree with Op and am unsure why she's prompted such ire & outrage TBH.

pickles35 · 10/05/2012 13:24

You cant win with these working class types, they are so antsy!

LineRunner · 10/05/2012 16:01

Plug ins make me want to open a window.

BBQJuly · 10/05/2012 16:29

Anything except Febreze, it has a truly obnoxious smell beneath the perfume - can't stand the stuff!

OrmIrian · 10/05/2012 16:35

I love the smell of airfreshener and plug ins etc. For about 5 mins. And then the smell starts to piss me right off and make my eyes water.

I quite like smelly candles but tend to stick to the prices cat's piss ones as they have a really subtle lemony scent and (as it says on the tin) gets rid of 'pet smells'.

I had an apple candle for christmas. It was minging and gave me a headache.

Candles have a quite nice smell anyway IMO - regardless of added scent,

porcamiseria · 10/05/2012 16:38

so this is a mega wanky thread

BUT, I tend to agree

my arty bohemian trustafarian mates are NOT that clean

that said, just been on a carvan holiday (not glamping, no no no) and the bins were a facking disgrace and noone recyled

go figure

usualsuspect · 10/05/2012 16:44

What a typical MN thread this is

LieInsAreRarerThanTigers · 10/05/2012 16:58

If you care a lot about what others think, you will keep your home very clean and tidy. If you can afford to pay someone else to do this, great! If you really don't care about having a spotless 'showhome' environment, this might mean you are a bit more laid-back and a bit bo-ho, hippy maybe? Or you might be depressed. I think that traditionally working class women were very houseproud and this stereotype still lingers today, with some truth in it, but it's too much of a generalisation.

I am very confused (and quite fascinated) by 'class' definitions these days, it just is not the same as it used to be but in marketing terms there are classifications by income/occupation/education so ABC1s are the highest brackets. So it would be interesting to do an independent survey (someone probably has) about the cleanliness of homes, then we would have some facts to go on.

This thread has some really funny posts on it and I have been chuckling more about it than any other today!

dovebird · 10/05/2012 21:03

yes your right, its something to do with the more you have the less you need to try.

OP posts:
madmomma · 10/05/2012 21:31

agree, dovebird. Not sure why you're getting so much stick really.

dovebird · 10/05/2012 21:32

oh that doesn't bother me at all.

OP posts:
pickles35 · 10/05/2012 21:33

Do you really think this, honest like? I'm not having a go just interested. Grin

Hulababy · 10/05/2012 21:34

Not noticed much correlation tbh amongst friends.

dovebird · 10/05/2012 21:45

yeah, not saying its a rule, just a general thing ive noticed.
like i say my house isn't shiny clean, and i think we[all people]
spend much more time cleaning than needed really.

our homes do not need to be spotless, or even as clean as most scruffy pepoles houses are, and it interests me vy people do they things they do.

ie, why do we all spend so much time cleaning, [even the ones with scruffy houses]
when its not really vital

OP posts:
CremeEggThief · 10/05/2012 21:50

I'm just weird, cos I spend a lot of time tidying and not enough time cleaning!

pickles35 · 10/05/2012 21:56

I get what you mean dovebird but there have been some crazy answers! I have found this thread very amusing though.

pickles35 · 10/05/2012 21:56

I do that cremeegg a lot of moving things from pile a to pile b. pointless.

merrymouse · 10/05/2012 21:57

I don't know about class, but if you can afford very expensive furniture, a lovely floor, an amazing extension, beautiful upholstery, a fabulous fridge etc. etc. your house will look amazing even if you have dumped your laundry on the sofa. You might even like to purposefully dump a few pairs of muddy wellingtons in the hall to suggest all the lovely outdoorsy things you do.

On the other hand, in my experience, if your house is a bit rough around the edges, you have to rely a bit more on cleanliness and tidiness to create a 'cared for' ambience in your home. Also, I have found, the dumping wellies in the middle of the hall thing doesn't work so well if your hall is also your rather small living room.

dovebird · 12/05/2012 11:37

very true merrymouse

OP posts:
Emphaticmaybe · 13/05/2012 10:35

That's spot on Merrymouse.
I'm really interested in these small class differences.

Historically it was a way for the working class to differentiate themselves from the 'feckless poor' by taking extreme pride in a spotless home. If you don't have much in terms of material goods and neither do your neighbours, it was a way of elevating your position or being accepted into the group of the 'respectable' industrious poor.

If you are from an educated middle-class background the value you place on yourself has much less to do with the pristine cleanliness of your home as you are sure of your acceptance and position within your own class because of all your other middle-class 'markers' - uni-education, professional job, books on the shelves, sofas, American fridges, Agas etc, (generalisation I know).

The newly arrived, or first generation middle-class often still have their earlier working-class generation's hang-ups and take pleasure in the fact that the middle-class such and such next door, may have recently installed a state of the art glass extension, have children fluent in french and exclusively shop at Waitrose, but unless the cleaner's been you can't see their over-sized coffee table books for all the odd socks piled up.

lunamoon · 13/05/2012 13:19

Good points merry and emphatic.
I don't get people who spend hours cleaning-what is the point?
Have they nothing more enjoyable to do?

fluffiphlox · 13/05/2012 13:37

I was once told ( by a window cleaner) that teachers have the dirtiest houses. I neither know nor care whether this is true. (I'm not a teacher).

cherrypieplum · 13/05/2012 13:53

My husband's friend used to sell hoovers door to door and said the same thing. I'm a teacher and I bloody hope not! In fact I think I've (usually) got the most uncluttered house out of all my friends...

Jinsei · 13/05/2012 13:55

If the working class keep the cleanest houses, I must be part of the fecking aristocracy!

HillyWallaby · 13/05/2012 14:08

As a real people watcher with a huge interest in British social history I find threads like this genuinely fascinating, but I am reluctant to post too much on them as some people always get incredibly defensive and chippy, and they can end up quite difficult threads. I am in complete agreement with what Emphatic said though.

These days (and since the 2nd World War generally, the classes have become much more blended, and (apart from perhaps those at the very very top and the very very bottom, both of whom pretty much perpetually live in their own untouchable bubbles) the subtle traits and behaviours between classes have become muted and less obvious in the last 30-50 years. The majority of us share a mix of watered down class habits and expectations blended with our own personal traits for tidiness or otherwise. We probably don't even realise on any conscious level that we are doing things for deep-seated reasons of class though.

The WC trait of excessive cleaning and tidying probably is/was also borne out of absolute necessity, as in a very small house with a very large family things could very quickly get out of hand. In huge rambling houses you can be free to be a messy git for a few weeks before it really catches up with you.

And of course in times gone by there would have been staff to clean up for you, and you'd be orf doing something fabulous and enriching like perfecting your serve, or reading some impressive hefty tome in French, and networking with other apparently fabulous people.

I always think that plaque you see in gift shops that says 'Dull women have immaculate houses' has its passive aggressive roots planted firmly in the British class system. Thankfully I've know plenty of women who disprove that sentiment from both angles, and (almost) all classes.