AIBU, to think these pictures were staged

[60sbird]

Would anyone actually allow their children to make a mess like this, I know I wouldn’t
metro.co.uk/2020/10/05/these-are-the-uks-messiest-bedrooms-of-2020-13371611/

If they are real, social services need to get involved...

Number 13 with the clothes doesn't look too unbelievable, but some of the others are definitely staged. I'm also worried about the animal in picture 16. 😔

Oooh! I think I might actually know one of those people

If so, then sadly, no they are not staged.

And I see similar when I do inspections on student houses!

The cooked pizza on the floor looks staged but the rest don’t unfortunately.

That one with the guinea pig, the poor thing is in a cage that is too small and if the room is anything to go by it's probably neglected too.

Those people exist, I'm very sure.
I have a friend whom's house was at some point at the pre-state of one of these. She had obvious mental health issues.

I offered her to clean together as I think it might be very hard to clear up after going beyond a certain point with the mess. She refused. I think many are too ashamed to ask for or accept help but can't really solve it by themselves.

It's not unusual at all, I often go into houses like this (I work in the NHS) some people just don't clean or tidy and are happy to live in a god awful mess.

The ones with clothes and toys look like what my daughter’s room would look like if I didn’t tidy it for a few days. Messy but fairly easily sorted.
The ones with food and actual rubbish are disgusting.

I tell my son his rooms a mess if he has more than one pair of shoes on the floor and an unmade bed, I don’t think I could cope with this

I had a friend like this at 15, her whole house was like this. At one point I remember she started sleeping in the spare bedroom because she couldn't actually get to her own bed, due to mess.

The ones that are clearly young kids rooms are the parents responsibility, mounds of clothing not put away is not a wee child’s job. These parents should be ashamed not posting online.

I've known people with rooms like this. The whole house in one case.

The young children’s bedrooms look like “temporary” mess which could be fixed in fifteen minutes by putting the cuddly toys and the duvet back on the bed and shoving all the other toys back in the toy box. The teen and adult rooms not so much.

Yup, I know someone whose bedroom was like this.

A bunch of soon to be hoarders I suspect.

I’ve removed children from homes like this. This is not just untidy. This is neglect.

Wow - you’d step in and demand action way before it got to this stage surely.

Some of the little kids rooms, I think some of it is down to no storage (visible) in the room, so where do the toys go? Plus too many toys and clothes, which is the parents fault. Don’t buy what you don’t have space for!

The ones with rubbish etc are just horrific and I don’t understand why you would allow a your teenager to let their room get even halfway that bad before you did something.

Jesus! Some of these are full on hoarder territory. These aren’t just messy! My heart breaks for the rooms which are all pink and girly and you can’t see the floor for toys and clothes- those rooms clearly belong to much younger children, why aren’t the parents helping them keep the rooms clean?

I dread to think what the rest of the house looks like

My room looked like this growing up because I was never told to tidy up, not once. The older I get the more I realise how bad my childhood was.

These parents should be ashamed not posting online. completely agree with this

I used to know someone who lived like this. When I was staying with her for a while I couldn't bear it so I did some tidying. She did not appreciate it.

Jesus, how would you get out of some of those rooms, or in to them, in a fire?

For context I work for the emergency services and this sort of thing is actually more common than you think. Once went to a house which you literally had to crawl over tunnels of newspapers in the hallway. No access to the bed, kitchen so full only one ring on the hob was accessible. The owner was a senior ward sister in a local hospital! Completely lovely and normal person however clearly with some extreme mental health problems. We offered her help but she declined (embarrassment I think) and she said no one knew. Very sad indeed.

Yes, I too have known someone with a house like this. Her DD came for a play date and she literally just put everything she touched on the floor. Toys, books, controllers, food. She even looked through DD clothes and chucked them on the floor. Never invited her again.

@JenniferSantoro

I’ve removed children from homes like this. This is not just untidy. This is neglect.

You have removed children because they have messy bedrooms?

I absolutely believe these are not staged. I know at least 2 people who have lived far worse than this for years (think whole rooms you couldn't even get through the door to because of clutter and rubbish everywhere).

I'm also a member of a FB group where it's quite typical to see photos like this. As said upthread a lot of it is children having too many toys, or no storage or a combination of both.