To think that I can't be the only person who lives in a messy/sometimes dirty house and cleans before anyone comes round.

[Bumpandkind]

This morning I wake to... last nights supper on the table, bomb site kitchen, evidence of baby led weaning on the floor, bin juice stains in the porch, last Saturdays paper all over the sofa (family section partially eaten by baby and stuck to floor). I could go on. My brothers family are coming over for lunch so my husband and I will blitz this over the morning and the outside world will never know. I would never be truthful about this in real life so just curious if there are any other closet statterns out there?

My house is so nice when my DH isn't home. Which means it's only nice rarely so I know all about the "OMG someone is coming in 15 minutes" blitz.

I have my moments, but am semi reformed.

The one thing that has made a difference to my life is buying a dishwasher.

It has been life changing.

It's only washing up, but the burden being lifted frees you up to do other things. It makes the kitchen look tidy all the time.

If you have to room, get one!

I am a dishwasher evangalist.

No - I could not live like this! What do you do if people turn up unannounced!

I never leave the breakfast dishes / stuff on the side all day !

Just whack it all in the dishwasher (kiss the dishwasher) and all's good!

Clothes get taken off the drier, folded and either put away or put in the ironing basket. Ironing once a week.

I am basically a control freak and can't relax if there's stuff all about me. I'd love to have some more slatterny tendencies!

headinhands I have friends who say that all the time....and there is never any mess!

why? weird!

Mines okay at the minute, but only because I have a few hours child free on a Friday afternoon so tend to blitz it then.
But kitchen is a state as the dishwasher was full and there is clothes on the kitchen floor sorted into piles for washing.
Living room is generally tidy, but not because we have a conservatory/toy room on the back of it so I throw all the kids toys in and shut the door.
Conservatory looks like an explosion in a toys r us.

I NEED a dishwasher - no room atm and it'll be another 2 years till we can afford to extend.

Me too. No toddlers to blame either. Invasion of the PILs and my parents looming over Easter, we'd better start tidying now! And when they're here, mine still end up scrubbing the (reasonably clean) kitchen while I'm at work. There's no negativity or comments though, they 'like' it apparently and I'm over it

I couldn't sleep well knowing that the kitchen was dirty or the house was a mess. I just get it done by making everyone else who lives in the house help, I don't see it as just being my job.

I don't judge friends who live in a bit of a mess, that's up to them. What I do hate is when people say their children will grow up remembering all the fun times and not the fact that they lived in a messy house. My children remember the fun times they had despite living in a clean tidy house. I haven't spent less time playing with my girls, I've just been organised and spent time cleaning/tidying on an evening.

My mum however, she is a different story, she is obsessed with housework, she has to have everything in a certain way. Even the kettle has to face a certain way apparently, she won't let us sit on her sofa unless we put a throw on it first. She wasn't as bad as this while we were growing up, it just seems to have become her 'hobby'. Hoping I won't ever be so bored that I consider housework to be a hobby

That was the inspiration for my name
It does actually get me down sometimes though, I would love to keep a nice home!

I am another one who take a whole family approach to keeping the house tidy. If the children get out their toys they put them away in the correct places when they have finished with them. If they don't, the toys are scooped into a binbag and put in the garage for a week or two - it works for us!

I would love to be the kind of person who couldn't sleep because their kitchen was untidy. I really would

Me too, I have an active social life to encourage me to tidy up the house, one week with no visits and it looks as if I had not clean in ages (removes wine glasses from Worksop left there since Thursday diner)

My house is a hovel. I blame having 3 under 5s and a DH who doesn't seem to see mess. I hate it, but at the same time I refuse to take sole responsibility for it. I make very little mess yet end up tidying most of it, which I want to stop doing.

I'm not good at tidying (though I try) and I blame it at least partiality on my mum, who did everything for us as children and didn't teach us how to be tidy. I don't want my lot growing up to be the same-has anyone got any tips for encouraging good cleaning/tidying habits in small children?

Worksop? Worktop even!

My house isn't sitting perfect but it's tidy, if it's too messy I get crabbit. I hate being out all day and walking into a messy house too.

I have 4 DC's so I currently have 3 baskets of clothes that need put away and 2 baskets of clothes needing washed but that's the only thing that needs done today.

No, I can't relax. I've been known to creep downstairs and washing floors in the middle of the night. Before I get the baby up I freshen up his room. I plump the pillows in the sitting room and tidy it before I go to bed.

But I wish I could relax a bit more. I don't mind going to other people's houses and seeing them untidy - I think they show a happy normal home

Don't blame your mum, my mum was also very untidy, but years of embarrassment at having friends visiting when we wee young have made me a wizz in sorting the house up in record time (normally in the hour before the doorbell rings).

Admittedly, I used to be very anal before I had a child. (I don't wipe the skirt boards anymore when I am expecting visits)

I don all my jobs in the morning. If somebody comes and messes it up, I'll do it again next morning.

I'm happy to leave stuff overnight but feel I have to blitz in the morning to be able to know it's done and get on with the rest if my day.

DH is the opposite, he prefers to flit about in the veining and does sod all in the morning. Sadly his flitting about in the evening doesn't tend to be housework so it gets left till morning.

One of my simple pleasures is cleaning the house, going out for the afternoon and then coming back in to a home that's all clean, tidy and smells of bleach and polish and the like. Light the candles, crack open the wine and relax!

I couldn't bear to come down to food/bin debris in the morning. Two pregnancies of horrendous morning sickness have left me cautious about what I encounter first thing! I do hate housework though and am generally disorganized and cluttered so I have to do a big tidy before visitors. I only ever seem to have the motivation for superficial cleaning as well - I very rarely do a deep clean so I do feel like the house is pretty grubby round the edges and often messy.

Tidiness was a major, major source of conflict in my family growing up and whilst I'm sure it's possible to maintain a clean and tidy house whilst also making great memories with children, I remember a clean and tidy house being at the cost of terrible arguments and really not worth it!

I cleared the mess off the kitchen table the other day because my mum was coming and the first thing ds asked when he came in was 'are we going to bake?' as it only gets cleared for visitors or baking

I also cleaned the downstairs toilet and binned/shredded lots of paperwork that had been lying about.

Actually, this morning I've just cleared up my mess, DD has done hers and still every room looks like a bombs dropped. Dd and I are going out whilst he's in bed, knowing everything that's left is his

We're in a period of transition as I am a SAHM who had just started studying so I'm wading him into doing more at home. He's not terrible on purpose, just needs to relearn home responsibilities.

My sister lives like this and I find it stressful. I can't sit and enjoy a cuppa on her sofa as I'm itching to pick stuff up. I couldn't sleep knowing there was any food debris anywhere, as we live in an old house prone to you know what's.

My DP is annoyingly clean and tidy, and I must admit I love being able to relax and not tidy stuff when he's not here, but not to the extent of sitting in a bomb site.

We have a cleaner once a week, it's a great discipline as I have to tidy up so she can clean :)

Oh no, mine is tidied properly once the kids are in bed and I'd never leave last nights dinner out. I have to tidy before I leave the house too as I couldn't walk back into a mess! A dishwasher makes all the difference. Dh couldn't really care about tidiness and would happily leave dishes out etc - it makes me all squeamish!