To wonder if "my place is not tidy but it's clean" can't possibly be a true statement in a very mess place?

[Flingmoo]

I'm not talking about people who claim "oh it's such a mess in here!" when it's just a few toys on the floor or cooking utensils out while they're actually cooking... I'm talking about people who have extremely cluttered and untidy houses.

If you have mess everywhere, how can it be clean? e.g. If you have 100 shampoo bottles, soaps, shower gels lining all round the edge of your bath, do you lift up every single one to clean under it? If all your bookcases are full of not only books, but ornaments, nik naks, drinking glasses and old cups of tea, surely it can't be clean underneath all that mess...

I'm guessing lots of people will tell me IABU, but it's just something that crossed my mind the other day. I find it a bit when people say this, when I've just used their bathroom and feel dirtier after washing my hands in their yukky sink than I did before I went in...

SiL says this.

"It's not filthy, it's just messy."

Nope. It's both.

Of course it's not true, you can't clean mess!

Once a month I clean all my nic-nacs and once a week I clean under them.
Despite constant tidying my house is messy but I hope not dirty!

I don't really have people over though as I hate the idea people judge you on your home.

Different levels of what is 'dirty' - the people saying that are presumably referring to a lower standard than you are.
Eg: They might change their bedsheets, bleach their drains, wipe their kitchen surfaces, hoover available floor, take the bins out, clean the fridge/oven/microwave, wipe up spills, etc etc but not dust or steam mop or polish or wipe behind things very often.

I think there is a point in the middle of tidy / messy where you can still be clean, but it's easy to tip over. Eg our bedroom might be messy because DH has left three changes of clothes all over the floor but the floor was hoovered the previous day and when the clothes are picked up it will still be clean underneath

'Dirty' is a meaningless word. Every surface has bacteria on it whether you see it or not.

There's no such thing as clean, only 'I cleaned it at this time'.

Personally I think everything else is more interesting than housework and I clean the odd thing every week.

The place has to be tidy so it can be properly cleaned. I go through every room making sure it's all tidy each week before the cleaners get here.

My house is constantly untidy, there is a load of clutter and piles of paperwork. Every flat surface seems to collect books, CDs, papers, craft stuff, it just all piles up. The bathroom counters are covered with pots, bottles, brushes, make-up etc. (teenage DD!)

I hoover 2-3 times a week, I dust at least 3 times a week, and yes I do move everything to clean under it. In the bathroom I push the bottles up a bit, wipe the counter, push the bottles back and move onto the next bit. My sinks and toilets are spotless, they get cleaned every day or two.

Probably once a month or so we all have a 'blitz' and put everything away, but we are just bloody lazy naturally messy so it all piles up again. If you come in my house just before the 'blitz' then it looks a right tip - but no, it's not really dirty.

I'm not saying every messy house is clean, and I'm not saying my house is spotlessly perfect. But unless there's visible dirt, I don't judge.

I have wanted to start this thread so many times OP! People ALWAYS come out with it on cleaning threads because it's acceptable to be untidy but not to be dirty. I always think

Oh - I thought this thread didn't get posted as my browser crashed and I couldn't see it. At least a few of you share my view! I meant messy place in the title, not mess.

My house is tidy. But it is rarely clean enough.

I can manage the tidying, everything in its place etc, but don't have time to clean anywhere near as thoroughly as I would like on a regular basis.

I would say my house is messy and moderately dirty. Certainly isn't filthy. But not spotless by a long shot.

I'll own it. My house is both untidy and filthy, this week. We've been replacing a rotten door frame and replacing the doors. Dust and sawdust everywhere and housework has taken a back seat while I varnish stuff.

I would say I'm messy but clean. I'm wondering if I'm not that messy though!
I don't have any bottles out in the bathroom at all. I do tend to leave trail of coat, shoes, bag behind me. I also will have about our or five a4 piles of assorted gubbins/paperwork/magazines that I CBA to tidy. I don't care if there are a lot of toys out at any one time. I make a lot of mess when I'm cooking, but then it all gets cleared away. I have a big pile of half worn clothes on a chair in my bedroom. Most of these things don't interfere with cleaning.
So as well as there being different degrees of cleanliness, there are also different degrees of messiness.

I think that once you get to a certain stage of mess then surely it also becomes unclean - because you can't clean under the mess?

I've got a 'chairdrobe' that gets sorted once a month week and clean clothes tend to pile up in baskets till we suddenly have a cull but there aren't dirty dishes everywhere and the house is hovered more than once a week - dusting is lacking a little though. Must try harder!

DD is super messy. But am always cleaning. So house can be a bit untidy but clean. Not super untidy though ever.

Maybe they just mean all dishes/ cups / food is dealt with. There's mess (paper, toys, books) and there's stuff that would rot. My house is cluttered (to me). My kitchen (food prep) is clean. But they're probably defensive if you're coming across as critical? Maybe?

My interpretation of this is that my kitchen and bathroom are clean (and not too untidy so I can clean). I do loos every day or two for example. The rest of the house is messy but it isn't dirty as in unhygienic, because dust isn't full of bacteria etc which would grow if we didn't clean sinks/fridges and so on.

I feel this is the right balance of clean but messy for me!

I grew up in an average sized 3 bedroom house but there were 9 of us living there. With that many siblings there was always stuff everywhere. Piles of books and newspapers and toys were everywhere. However, the hoovering and dusting were done at least once a week from top to bottom. Beds were changed weekly, the washing machine was on constantly (no tumble drier) and the dishes barely landed on the kitchen work surface before they were washed. My parents would not have tolerated a 'floordrobe' from any of us - clothes were hung up immediately or put in the wash if dirty. So you could say it was messy but it was scrupulously clean.

Hell, I'm cluttered, messy and quite possibly a bit grubby- well my house rather than me!
Not proud of it but find it hard to be otherwise.
Hope you are not my friend op cos you would judge me and I would fail the clean test....

On the other hand, i know people whose very tidy houses are not particularly clean where it counts. They may not be clutter accumulators, but neither do they clean very often or very well. If you go to use the bathroom or kitchen, you realize they may be neat, but that they havent washed the toilet, or worktop, or inside the refrigerator since who knows when.

I have a clutter mountain in my office come junk room. It builds up over time (mostly stuff waiting to go to recycling centre which is a fair way away etc) and every so often (every 6 months at most) it gets to tipping point and I get rid of most of it...
No way is the mountain and under it clean....rest of room is though... (Sometimes I think I should get a screen to hide it behind...)

But then again I can clean, dust and mop say the living room ...and then DDs pull out their comics, pens, toys, puzzles maybe get crumbs on the floor, leave a cup and an apple core on the side ...within an hour it can look extremely messy ...but it is clean...and 99% of the time it gets tidied up before bed time...

I actually had a friend whose house was both incredibly untidy and clean. I used to imagine her picking clothes up off the floor to clean underneath and then dropping them back down.

To have a sparkling yet messy/cluttered house takes a lot more time and effort. It's quicker/less effort to have a sparkling house that's free of mess/clutter. The less mess a house has, the simpler it is to keep on of the cleaning. Well that's my theory anyway. I have a sparse/tidy but slightly grubby house because I hate cleaning. I don't judge my friends on the state of their house because they are wonderful and so much more then the four walls they sleep/eat/relax in. I also find that the more interesting characters/houses belong to messier people

I have a friend who's a minimalist. Her house is so tidy, eveything in its place, not much stuff BUT IT'S FILTHY!

She never cleans. Dust everywhere, don't start me on the toilet either.

So it can be the other way, too.

However in answer to your question I think there's loads of levels. You can be somewhat messy but still have a clean kitchen/bathroom and do the vacuuming often enough.

But you can't be a 'hoarder' or exceptionally messy and be as clean as someone who's quite tidy, generally speaking. Whether that person IS clean just because they're tidy is another question!