To take pictures of the kitchen & livingroom?

[justcallmethefixer]

And stick them on the doors to remind dc's (and me) what clean and tidy actually looks like!
Ds(15) & dd(13) are out, I've spent the morning pottering about cleaning both rooms I sometimes forget how nice they can be cleaned & tidied. It's not taken long so why oh why do they become pigstys with in minutes of us all being home

YANBU.

I often feel like leaving messages around the place, like 'Can't you wipe the worktop?' and 'Are you all unable to top up the dogs' water?'

It gets better, they are now staying out for the night so I get to enjoy a tidy home for an evening too

Oh, enjoy! I know that pleasure.
It's a bit like the first day of term, when everyone goes out, I tidy up and nobody makes a mess for, ooh, a few whole hours.