To wish my house was permanently guest ready?

[apples83]

DH and I have some friends coming over for drinks tonight. As ever in this situation, I’m frantically cleaning the house to try and get it looking half presentable for when they arrive (DH did upstairs and the front room earlier and has now gone to visit his mum). Cue mad dusting, vacuuming, mopping and a big tidying away session. I’m now slumped on the sofa shattered and am only halfway through!

Every time this happens I vow that I won’t be in this situation ever again and that if someone is coming round, my house will be such that I simply need to tidy away a few bits and bobs give the kitchen surfaces a cursory wipe. As it is I have to give up half of my weekend doing some sort of deep clean like a crazy woman.

Does anyone have a guest ready house at all times and if so, how do you do it? (Cleaner not an option here as budget doesn’t allow sadly).

@adaline

But it is effort ie you could be sitting on your bum watching TV!

Likewise - I don’t at all mind the “effort” involved in having a lovely clean home, but that does involve “doing”.

And yes to half hour clean a day etc but once a week I really go for it with a deep clean of the bathrooms etc - sleeves up, marigolds Etc. If one is not that way inclined - it would be regarded as a lot of “effort”!

I also do a mad rush clean and tidy when we have visitors. I find myself hiding stuff! I try my best to keep on top of it all and seem to be constantly doing something- laundry, hoovering, wiping surfaces, putting things away. Never ends!

I think it'd be fine if I lived alone... but I live with three messy people. DD isn't too bad but tends to leave things like drawings, books, and pencils cases lying around. DS and OH leave a trail of destruction wherever they go then seem to be blind to any sort of mess. All of them leave stuff on the stairs but never actually take it up.

I would love my home to be guest ready. I have gone through periods of extreme tidiness but it never seems to last. I seem to attract clutter and find it hard it hard to keep on top of. Some people definitely have a flair for orderliness. I used to spend hours thoroughly cleaning and tidying for guests but now I have two DC, I just do enough to make sure it doesn't look a shit hole.

But it is effort ie you could be sitting on your bum watching TV!

I couldn't do that if my house wasn't tidy

And yes to half hour clean a day etc but once a week I really go for it with a deep clean

Because I do a general clean everyday, I don't feel like I need to do any kind of weekly deep clean. The shower gets rinsed after every use and gets a quick spray around every couple of days, for example. Sink rinsed and wiped once a day etc etc.

I can't remember the last time I deep-cleaned anything!

Oh I LOVE a deep clean. Audio on and I’m away. Often cleaning a bathroom that is often... very clean, but there’s always a little crevice that could do with a wipe!

I’m another one who likes the house to be clean and tidy for me rather than for guests however the rest of my family has other ideas.

I can tidy as I go (dishes straight in dishwasher, clothes in laundry basket, shoes straight off and into cupboard etc) but it makes no difference when the rest of my family walks in the door and dumps coats, bags, shoes all over the floor, has a drink and leaves the cup wherever, makes toast and leaves crumbs all over the side, takes a jumper off and leaves it screwed up on the sofa, cleans their teeth and leave toothpaste on the taps/mirror/basin.

I seem to spend my whole life picking up, wiping up, tidying up other people’s mess and yet my house is still never completely tidy.

And to make it worse we then have guests coming and dh decides the house is a mess and picks on the ONE thing I might have left out of place (eg a glass I’m still drinking from or my handbag in the hall) rather than the three pairs of shoes, two coats, four jumpers, 6 cups/glasses, 20 pieces of paperwork of his that I have already tidied up

Declutter first. Then invest in good storage.
Everything has a place in our house so there’s no excuse for things being piled onto tables or the settee.
Because there is no clutter and things are kept relatively tidy I can clean the whole house (4 bed + office + 31/2 bathrooms) top to bottom in 4 hours. Each week I will extra clean one room eg washing down the woodwork or the walls.
Every 3 months I do an extra deep clean- moving all the large furniture out to dust and hoover and run over with the carpet vax.
That normally takes a whole day.
My friend popped in unexpectedly today and the only thing I worried about was I didn’t have any biscuits to offer her with her coffee as I ate them all last night.

I agree with no clutter and good storage. I followed Marie Kondo and it sorted the attachment that i have to stuff.

"" For me, spending thirty odd minutes a day doing housework isn't much effort""

Pre smart phones, Netflix etc, we'd look for things to do in the house. Disposable income was less and there wasn't discount shops full of stuff to fill our houses with.

I clean once a week
Too to bottom on a fairly big 4 bed . It's tiresome but I want to keep it under control so I do it . I like my house tidy and downstairs is left perfect at night 99,9 % of the time! A lot of people live in messy houses and each to their own but I don't like it , it makes my mind feel messy!

I agree the main thing is space, I've moved to a bigger home, but it has less storage than my old house and I'm really noticing it (along with the addition of a whirlwind toddler), I keep meaning to declutter but haven't quite gotten around to it yet...

My house is always guest ready. I don’t spend all day doing house work, in fact I do very very little

But I have a marvellous cleaner one day a week for two hours, and I tidy as I go. Dishes in dishwasher, big pots hand washed straight after dinner, laundry put away as soon as dry etc, nothing left laying out, bed made, kitchen surfaces wiped, shoes and coats put away etc.

It all takes seconds or minutes, it’s just habit. I kind of do it without thinking or my husband does.

The trick is to get it into the state you want then just keep on top of it. With a good clean every week, then it’s always clean and tidy. I couldn’t live with mess, dirt or clutter.

Just deal with it as soon as it is ready to be dealt with and it’s no big deal.

I wfh (childminder), through the day I just tidy up the kids mess and any mess I make while making food for them.
In the morning, before I take my kids to school, I make sure I tidy everything, all jammies go into washing basket, breakfast dishes in the sink, tidy toys the kids have taken out, shake out beds and fold them back (I don't make beds anymore, waste of time) and open windows, wipe surfaces and table, stick a washing on and hang a wash up if there is one.
Before my minded kids leave, we tidy up most of the toys and books or anything else they have out. After dinner, I clear all plates to the sink, clean kitchen surfaces, scout round the house again for anything to go to the bin or the washing, put clean washing away, hang another washing up, stick another washing on, quick dust if needed (usually fireplace) hoover, steam mop (every other day) gave bathroom a wipe over (after everyone's had a bath/shower, do the dishes, iron uniforms.

Once a week on a Thursday night, I clean all windows, mirrors and tiles, properly clean the bathroom, get the hand held hoover out and give all the nooks and crannies a hoover, dust everywhere, and wipe all surfaces in bedrooms and living room, sometimes clean doors, skirting boards and walls because we have a springer spaniel who loves to shake himself after a walk, and no matter how much a dry him with a towel, it's not as efficient as a good shake 🙄.

Usually about 3 times a week I need to empty all the bins. I wash toewls, bedding and dog towels at the weekend when I can hang washing over the doors because I have no one coming into the house at 7.30am.

But no, I wouldn't say my house is guest ready accept first thing in the morning, before the kids get up, and last thing at night when everyone else is in bed.

I just don't care!
I make it look tidy: I tidy up, Hoover and keep on top of the washing and ironing. But I only occasionally dust. I only occasionally clean the fridge and microwave.

But if anyone popped round, I wouldn't be embarrassed.

Most mn posters seem to care too much, more than most people in RL.

I keep on top of mine daily so dint mind unexpected guests. Thirty minutes in the morning and being minimal really help.

it makes my mind feel messy!

I'm the same. I can't go to bed and sleep if the house isn't tidy.

Pre smart phones, Netflix etc, we'd look for things to do in the house.

Speak for yourself. I've owned homes longer than I've owned smartphones (and I don't have Netflix), but it is fair to say I have never gone looking round the house for housework

Most mn posters seem to care too much, more than most people in RL

I think maybe this depends on your social circle. But for me, I don’t know anyone who lives in a messy or dirty house. I think most people don’t like it. I get a lot of people do live like that, but I’d still say the vast majority care for their environment. Hence why people like mrs hinch became so popular, if people didn’t care, these people would not have millions of followers.

My house is mostly always guest ready. I’m a neat/ clean freak and just cannot relax if I don’t have a clean and tidy house. It soothes my mind when it’s all lovely and clean/ tidy.

DH is absolutely AWFUL. It’s like living with a teenage so I’m constantly firefighting in order to keep the house looking nice. We have had some almighty rows about it over the years, in fact it’s the thing we tow most about!

I do a 2 hour weekly clean on either a Friday afternoon as I usually finish earlier on a Friday or a Saturday morning/ afternoon if I’m out on the Friday night. But, nearly always by Saturday lunchtime the house is clean and tidy, I prefer it if it’s by 5pm Friday as then I can go into the weekend knowing the house is nice and if anyone were to pop over it’d be fine.

During the week I try and keep on top of things by ensuring the dishwasher goes on and is unstacked regularly, wiping the kitchen surfaces down if they get any crumbs/ spillages on them and keeping on top of the laundry. Without even realising, the first 30 mins when I get home from work each day are usually spent whizzing around the house, putting crap DH has left lying around away and just doing a general tidy. That’s just how it is as that’s the only way I can keep on top of his messiness.

If I lived on my own I’d never have to spend 30 mins a day tidying as I’m just a naturally very tidy person.

A lot of untidy people just don’t notice mess I’ve found. They literally just can’t see it! I shudder to think what our house would look like if it was just DH here on his own!

Mine is always guest ready but I think that living on my own helps.

I work full time doing shifts plus overtime, I'm studying a degree and any spare time I get I'm off out riding my friend's horse. I'm naturally tidy and clutter free so it doesn't take me long to do a clean, including wiping down skirting boards etc.

it makes my mind feel messy!

Same here, I really can't relax if the house is a mess!

I have an extremely untidy DH and a toddler but luckily I’m at home all day to tidy up after the both of them. DH works on our yard so pops in and out all day for drinks & snacks leaving a trail of destruction each time. I regularly clean but I’m not good at the deep clean side of things. On the surface it looks fine but when you look properly it needs a good clean (under sofas & beds etc.) it’s always tidy because I did a big declutter before DS arrived and another one once he’d outgrown his baby things. I shouldn’t have to do it all but apparently DH lived in squalor before I came along so he hasn’t changed. He doesn’t see mess and dirt (I will add that his personal hygiene is great). I can’t sleep properly when I know the house is a mess. So I’d rather just clean and tidy as I go rather than nag DH to pick things up.

Oh I wish it was only 30 minutes a day!

Just the daily stuff I do every morning takes easily half an hour.

Then clean whichever room/area I’m doing that day. This takes anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on whether I’m just flicking the duster over surfaces and whizzing hoover round or taking everything off bookshelves to dust thoroughly, tidying drawers, pulling out furniture, dusting door frames and skirting boards etc...

Then probably another 15/20 minutes to restore order at the end of the day. And that’s not counting the continuous tidying/wiping etc through the day if we’re at home. It’s not loads and loads of effort, nor is it particularly onerous or taxing but it’s still effort and it doesn’t take much to let it slip.

This is to keep it to a fairly clean and tidy standard, to get it immaculate would require more! (And for the rest of my family to have moved out)

Even when I lived in a 2 bed modern semi it still took a minimum of 40 minutes a day to keep it passable.

Most of the time I’d say we’re visitor ready but there are still times where I’m like oh god look at the state of the hall floor or why are there so many fingerprints all over the fronts of the cupboards. I like to think that anyone visiting us a) appreciates that we are a large family and b) expects there to be stuff out and signs of life!

@flowerzpowerz firefighting is exactly it! And I totally agree that messy people don’t see the mess in the same way. Dh claims to be a tidy person but he just doesn’t see that every time he makes toast I wipe the crumbs up and put his plate in the dishwasher, every time he pops in for a coffee I clear the cup away and wipe spills off the worktop, that I pick up all the chocolate bar wrappers/crisp packets he leaves lying around, that I clean his hair off the sink and floor after he cuts it...

We’ve had so many arguments about it and he says “just leave it then and I’ll do it later”. He doesn’t understand why I can’t just leave it and wipe the kitchen sides or sweep the floor just once in the evening rather than every time someone makes crumbs and it’s so ingrained in me to wipe up as I go that I can’t understand why he doesn’t just do it straight away!

Unfortunately all of our children are also messy!

You sound like me before I discovered the FlyLady book and routines.

You might not think it, but you're probably actually a perfectionist and only attempt cleaning when it's a big all-or-nothing job because otherwise it feels a bit pointless. If your house can't be IMMACULATE, you don't bother trying to do much because it'll only fall short of your high expectations/dream house... Maybe?

I was like that but Flylady taught me the secret of routines, 15-minute-bursts, being kind in yourself, and getting rid of clutter. But in a calm, steady way that mounts up over time, not this 100% or 0% perfectionist procrastination.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chaos-Cure-Clean-House-Minutes/dp/1580058027/ref=mpssa111?keywords=flylady+book&qid=1583153232&sprefix=flylady&sr=8-1

Our house is permanently guest ready. I find the following helpful –

Ruthless decluttering (Marie Kondo)

When visitors leave, wash the sheets immediately, and make up the beds when linen is dry

I don't tidy up after my family, but if they leave stuff lying around, I do put it into supermarket bags for life (one for each person). Superficially it looks tidy, but without me doing lots of work. When they go looking for something and can't find it, they go through their bag for life and put it away

Always have a box on the go for stuff to donate to charity. When it's full, take it to charity shop