AIBU to have a filthy house?

[MissElaineNeus]

So many threads on here where people's houses, towels, linen are spotless - am I the only one who's the total opposite? My house gets cleaned once a week. We have a large dog who goes on muddy walks and then lies on the furniture. The sofas are old and stained anyway. After a couple of days past the clean, the floors are covered in a light patina of dirt and bundles of fur and dust can be found in most corners. That said, we're never ill and are fighting fit in our fifties. So I know I'm not BU but just hoping there are other like-minded slatterns!

I’m in the middle group, I maybe clean once or twice a week, I have a dog and a cat (as well as dc’s) so there are paw prints and it smells of dog in my house but I try and keep it tidy by picking things up as a I go, washing up twice a day, running the hoover around if it looks messy but it’s never spotless, it’s lived in 😁

I don't mind a bit of mess but actual dirt I can't handle.

A bit of dust under the couch is one thing but 'bundles of fur' and visible dirt is pushing it.

If it's not making you sick or putting off visitors though I can't really see it as a big deal

Clean but Messy, lived in home fine for me.

dirty home not ok

FFS wonky. Bit over the top. Millions of people have dogs. They are wonderful companions, unlike I suspect, you
Well that may be, but I am clean, don't smell, don't have fleas and don't shit outside. So if you'd prefer the latter, I'd genuinely not understand. Dogs are awful dirty pointless things.

My dog is clean, doesn’t smell and certainly doesn’t have fleas. She’s not judgemental either so...

She does shit outside though. Thankfully

You’ve just reminded me to add bath the dogs to today’s list of jobs. My house always has dog hair, however often I clean it, it seems to hide just to reappear seconds before friends arrive. It also smells of dog. Basically because it’s lived in by two hairy, woods and streams loving dogs. I try to keep it at a “wouldn’t be embarrassed if someone turned up unexpectedly” level but I hate cleaning, mainly because it doesn’t stay clean long enough to be worth the effort. It is always tidy though, which I think -hope- helps.

Actually feel a bit sick reading the OP.

And I have a dog.

There's ways to be paid for being in bed doing fun activities.

true too!

I'm a bit like you but unlike you I actually hate it, I just can't find time to keep my house to the standard that I want/the way it was pre-DD. She's 6 months old and still a very difficult, clingy baby that cries most of the time and hardly sleeps in the daytime anywhere than on me, so I just don't have time to do the cleaning that I used to. We don't have a dog or cat though so I guess the floors are probs cleaner in our house especially as we don't allow people to wear shoes in our house. We do have a guinea pig though and hay from his cage gets everywhere, and sometimes some of his poo escapes onto our living room floors too which is a bit grim.

Atm I just manage to clean the kitchen and the bathroom once a week usually when DD is having a 20 min nap somewhere that isn't me during the week, then when DH is home on the weekend we hoover the whole house whilst one of us with DD although I say whole house, it's just the occupied areas so we leave DD's future bedroom and the spare bedroom and only do those about every month or so as they're not really used at present other than storage. We moved into this house in August and still haven't finished doing all the little work jobs we wanted to do on it, it's been a standstill for months now as we just don't have time. We got our sofas in September or October I can't remember, and we are still yet to ever hoover underneath them, which is gross, DD dropped a dummy under there the other day and I had a heart attack!! And we got sofa covers about a week later which we've still never washed. All these things are on my to-do list, but I barely have time to do the essentials so they always end up not getting done. I hate it and I feel embarrassed to have visitors, which is really sad as I used to love having visitors pre-DD and always made sure the house was really clean and tidy prior to any coming.

Why do my strike through psych never work??

I prefer a tidy, clean home particularly the sitting room, bathrooms and kitchen.

It's easier now we have an empty nest but still have kids stuff here and ds back from uni for holiday. I notice more mess.

No idea why there’s psych in there

I despair at the state of ours - 2 DCs with SEND, 1 more that lives with us PT, 1 more at uni, 2 cats, 4 jobs between me and DH - and with energy management a must for me medically, there just isn't enough time to get everything done, but then, even if I cut back on the jobs it would be tricky, as I tidy and clean when the DCs are at school, and they undo it the second they get back. We can't decorate because when we started they'd drawn on the walls, and damaged them within 24 hours, so we've given up on that for now. As long as the washing up gets done, the kitchen is hygienic, the bathroom is cleaned, and the washing is done enough so that we have some clean clothes to wear, I'm winning. It's far from ideal, but until the DCs get to a point where they're not destroying the paintwork and carpets perpetually, there's little we can do. DH and I are perpetually trying to declutter (watching Consumed on Netflix helped!) but unless we both give up work and go on Universal Credit, there's not going to be enough time to deal with the house, so that's our sacrifice. For now.
But if you're struggling to keep sofas clean, I'd suggest getting a PVC/leather sofa - it's made a massive difference for us with DCs that spread food everywhere.

Could you not put cheap throws on furniture for dogs then wash

Your house, your rules!

Off topic but I think the dog lovers must have been brought up with dogs. I can't see what there is to gain otherwise. My brother's just got one with his partner but I swear it's so she stops going on about having a baby so the lesser of two evils from his perspective.
Although I have kids which are hard enough. I've heard people who have to get up in the night to toilet the dog etc and puree food. That seems like madness on top of everything I do, if you're lonely I probably get it.

I have a cat who is pretty mess. I couldn't cope with a dog. I clean once a week but apart from where the cat sits our house stays pretty clean. I couldn't live with a dirty or messy house but I don't mind going to houses which are like that, for a short time. It's your house, and if you can live with it, then fine.

What a load of blimmin excuses some of you give for not being able to stick the hoover round!

Unless you're physically disabled yourself, get it done. Everyone has different cleaning standards but some level of health and safety should be a normality.

And for the pp who suggested that the only way she could keep a clean place would be to give up work...get a grip. Plenty of us work FT, have children with needs and still manage not to sit in a shit tip.

And tenants don’t have to keep their homes clean either! How does a bit of dirt damage a home?
A bit of dirt does no damage, a lack of regular cleaning does as I've described. If you don't wipe the shower after it's use, grime will build up in the corners, on the door. If you don't wipe the cooker, don't clean the oven regularly, the same happens, dirt on the carpet can usually be cleaned, if done immediately, will leave marks if not.

I have had three lots of tenants and the difference between those who clean and togse who think they clean has been significant. It has nothing to do with children or dogs, nor working vs not. It's to do with whether you clean any dirt/mess as soon as it's made rather than wait to do it once a week or longer.

This is where the whole argument of what is tear and wear and what damage through negligence comes in.

I don't clean very often, but it's largely because of huge resentment that DP hardly cleans at all, and when he does, he does it so badly that he might as well have not bothered (who the fuck hoovers BEFORE they dust, ffs?). And we have a dog (who does get on the furniture) and a house that seems to be a spider sanctuary and gets cobwebby within 24 hours of its last de-cobwebbing.

There are some things that are cleaned daily though: kitchen sink and worktops, bathroom basin, shower/bath and toilet, and the floors get hoovered every other day. I change the bed linen weekly. Dirty dishes go straight in the dishwasher.

The sofas and carpets are old and grotty, but we won't replace them for a while. We have an elderly dog, and when she goes, we'll get another puppy. I know from experience that a new carpet doesn't stay new for long when there's a new puppy in the house.

We don't have a dog (though I love them) but otherwise the house is untidy and I break all sorts of Mumsnet hygiene rules. Like you we're in our 50s and very healthy!

There are two extremes of morally superior posters on this thread. Those who think that keeping your house clean and tidy is tantamount to child neglect, and heaven forbid that you run the vacuum round in case your child misses out on attention from you or on anything interesting. And those who think that cleanliness is next to godliness.

I am in the middle of those extremes, and I imagine most people are.

To the OP I grew up in a house similar to the way you describe yours. I was embarassed and ashamed to bring friends home. My mum hated housework, and used to run the hoover round occasionally. She never dusted, she never washed the kitchen surfaces down, toilets weren't cleaned. Basically our house was disgusting. We had a dog and a cat, and there were pet hairs everywhere. My mum did draw the line at the dog sleeping on the furniture though.

“We do have visitors and no one has complained, but we're an easy going lot.”

I would be too polite to complain if I was in your house, but I would make a mental note to wear my oldest clothes if I was visiting you.

“The idea that those who live in a clean and tidy home are dullards is ridiculous.”

I agree StoneOf Destiny

I vacuum and dust roughly once a week, and my house is always cleanish, and sometimes tidy.

@Lonicera
Do you have pets now?

Cleanliness is so subjective. One person's immaculate is someone else's filthy.

I had no idea dogs were so hated by anyone. Weird.