to doubt "my house is messy but clean"?

[penguinbox]

A light hearted one but I always read this on threads about how clean and or tidy you keep your home. People say my house is messy but always clean and I think how? When my house gets messy and it sure does then I can't really keep it properly clean. I need to have a proper tidy up, declutter surfaces etc then I can actually clean!

Aibu to doubt the statement my house is messy but clean?

Maybe their idea of messy is less messy than yours?

Well I tidy when I clean and then it gets messy agIn very quickly. Probably too much stuff and not tactical storage

I always think this. My house is tidy a lot more often than it's clean, because picking stuff up takes 5 minutes but cleaning requires time and effort.

Oh biscuitdrama, don't say that I'm already confused enough with out adding humiliation into the mix!

Mine is filthy

It’s all relative. I know people who would think a few toys out on a freshly hoovered floor, and a mug on the coffee table was a mess.

That’d pass for spotless in my flat, mind.

Branleuse, glad to hear it, I might start replying to those threads saying my house is filthy but always tidy!

I could scrub the floor and five mind later there will be toys all over it. The underlying floor is still clean. But it's also messy.

*minutes

I’m currently up to my eyeballs clearing out DGP’s under stair cupboard which hasn’t been touched since 1972!

You wanna see mess? I’ll give you mess

My friend at uni says this. I then lived with her after uni - is is very, very, very messy and NOT clean. I moved out as soon as our tenancy was up and she took it over herself and rang me when she was moving out asking how I used to get the stains off the bath?! I didn't know what stains she meant and it transpired she hadn't cleaned the bath in the 8 months since I left.

She was then shocked that the HV commented on the state of her house again said "I'm messy but clean". I had to say at that point that it's really hard to be clean AND messy and how can she hoover if the floor is covered in rubbish? She was not best pleased with me.

Or maybe their idea of clean is different. E.g. I tidy, hoover and dust the living room once a week, so I consider it is clean, but it gets untidy a lot faster than it gets dirty again (in my opinion - well aware others disagree), so I would describe it as messy but clean most of the week.

Well if you're me then you pick up the numerous bits of crap, clean the surfaces, look around helplessly for somewhere appropriate to store the aforementioned crap before thinking "fuck it" and putting it back where it started.

Hmm. My house is clean. No thanks to me but my cleaners comes twice a week for three hours each time. In between that the kitchen gets cleaned daily and the bathrooms are cleaned after use.

However literally within minutes of everyone arriving hime the place looks like a tip. If I sit here now and look out at the hallway there are three different piles of clothes (clean bag to be put away, pile ready to be packed for holiday and someone's sports kit), some shopping that hasn't yet been put away and four pairs of shoes.

So I would say we are clean but messy

'Messy' as in toys out, letters and paperwork all over the table, water bottle on table, coat on back of chair, shoes by front door etc etc but not 'dirty' dusty, muddy, food everywhere.

Maybe they mean that their house is a proper mess but they shower daily? Hahahaha.

When i was a teenager, clothes and cosmetics would be left all over, but the areas available would actually be clean, like bed and surfaces would be clean, but upon reflection i was just a little scruff.

I usually assume they mean “I don’t leave rotting food lying around” when they say that. Not that they actually scrub/dust/polish (on/under/around) the mess.

I think people who say this often don't really mean that their house is messy. They are talking about the odd magazine being out of place, not day's worth of washing and lego from 2016.

Messy but clean is easy.

Clean house. Everything spotless. 5 mins later, large amazon orders arrive, Ocado food delivery, and 3 children.

Next adult to walk through the door sees toys all over the table, half open boxes on the floor with one child chasing brown paper packaging around, random half put away fresh food on the kitchen side and in bags down the hallway. Three pairs of kids shoes and coats probably dumped someone along route.

In 5 mins time it can be back to tidy again. But at this point is a mess, but clean underneath

Huge difference between messy and dirty. Messy = having children usually . Toys strewn around, maybe clothes on the bedroom floors etc.

Then there’s dirty- grimy bathroom, sticky floors, crumby carpets, build up of dishes, lots of dirty laundry, bad smell etc.

My house is never the latter but I have three DC so sometimes is the former. Not hard to understand how that is possible.

YANBU
Messy and dirty here. For all the reasons you state.

I'm messy but clean my mother in law is very tidy but a bit dirty.

At my mother in laws place there is nothing out of place and everything stored away. All services are empty, when you walk in its as if no person actually lives there.
However there is dust in the corners and on shelves and picture frames, she stores things far away in cupboards so a lot of expired food and medicine, she changes her sheets only once a month.

I'm messy, there is stuff all over the place, but everything is clean. I do a very thorough clean once a week and clean things that need cleaning during the day. I clean sheets at least once a week, appliances very time they are used, the kitchen floor almost twice a day and kitchen counter every time food is prept. But I only need half a day to make the house messy again. So its clean but its messy.

Maybe I have low standards.. scrap that I do have low standards but in my world there is messy and could do with a once over but the sinks, loos and worktops are ok and I would let someone through the door. Or there is absolutely grim, filthy toilet, sinks and hasn't been vacuumed in a year. I'd say mine is the former. Throw a bit of clutter in and you could pass it off as messy but clean.

To me messy = unclean so perhaps it's more about being untidy but clean?
My house is clean but definitely untidy at times 😊

I think Mumsnet is absolutely obsessed with fekking cleaning right now. It's so boring.