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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Why on gods green earth do people step over stuff on the stairs?

76 replies

Yellowleadbetter · 03/03/2022 08:10

It’s there because it needs to go upstairs and as you are on your fucking way upstairs, fucking take it with you.
FFS.
It’s not rocket science, it’s simple, surely it’s simple?

OP posts:

Jvg33 · 03/03/2022 13:00

Ugh. It reminds me how unvalued I feel. What is more annoying is when DH leaves something on the stairs to take up and I end up doing it as it's still there three days later!

MumThatsNotFair · 03/03/2022 13:04

I'll see your stuff on the stairs and raise you: washing all but one or two dishes 'because the drying rack is full'.

Rage.

CurryLover56 · 03/03/2022 13:05

Unfortunately I’m sometimes guilty of this but then there’s loads so I do a blitz! I ask DD13 about a billion times to take her stuff up but she very rarely does. DH doesn’t put stuff on the stairs in the first place but rarely takes it up either.

ChocolateMassacre · 03/03/2022 13:06

It's because the magic house fairies will do it. No need to empty the dishwasher, scrub your used oven trays, do any laundry, take your mug through to the kitchen, put used towels in the dirty linen basket. Just leave it all for the magic house fairies who LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cleaning up after grown adults (screaming hysterically at this point ).

I did in fact have this conversation with DH the other morning as he's been getting lazy recently. It culminated in me shouting, "Didn't you know, our fucking house fairies got run over by the Amazon delivery-man last year?"

LizBennet · 03/03/2022 13:07

My DP leaves for work at 6:30am, every single morning he leaves a teaspoon 2 inches from the sink. Not IN the sink, or the dishwasher, just placed next to the sink. 22 years later I'm convinced he is now doing it on purpose 🤔

JessieOh · 03/03/2022 13:10

I'm going to whisper this because I don't want to jinx it, but on Monday afternoon this week my two teens removed their piles of clean laundry from the stairs as they went upstairs! Without prompting or reminding or any signs/notes left by the clothes.

The only reason I can think of for this miraculous event, is the panic we had on Monday morning trying to find clean dry school uniform after a weekend of me not being a domestic goddess for reasons not relevant to this thread.

I mean, I didn't like the panic but if neglecting the housework helps them realise these things need to be done and I'm not an invincible house fairy, I'm all for it.
Might be worth a try.

Quamora · 03/03/2022 13:17

@MaryAndHerNet

Why on god's green earth would someone take something to the bottom of the stairs and not just 20 seconds Futher by popping it up stairs?

Because we live in a 4 story house and I already go up and down stairs a million times a day (never empty handed) so I’m not going to add even more journeys carrying other people’s crap that they’ve left lying around. I give them a stair each and expect them to carry their own stuff up.

Blogblogblogblog · 03/03/2022 13:18

I get this with the dishwasher. I want to design a dishwasher that indicates whether it needs loading or unloading without opening the door. Because that’s the excuse I get ‘oh thought it was clean’, when a pile of dirty stuff is placed on the counter above the dishwasher.

Herja · 03/03/2022 13:21

Because I just cannot be arsed! I figure it's fine though - I'm the only adult in my house, so there's no one for my stair piles to annoy but me (the kids certainly don't give a shit), and, tbh, they just don't trouble me. After a day, I don't see them anymore, they become part of the general background: I return to them when I want something from them. It's my prefered system! (My house is not a shithole though - I have stairs piles and one paperwork pile, but the rest is clean and tidy.)

I can see why it might be annoying to someone else though - but I like my own annoying habits, so I live alone rather than have to alter my general habits and character to appease someone else.

SartresSoul · 03/03/2022 13:35

Hate this too. Everyone in my house does this, I just keep piling things up until it gets dangerous to step over. It’s always their things they need to take up to their rooms (DH included) but they just ignore them. Drives me nuts.

NotSorry · 03/03/2022 13:42

I'm trying to instigate in my house "don't put it down, put it away"

It's progressing very slooooowwwwwllllllyyyyy

FaceLikeASlappedAss · 03/03/2022 13:47

Mt teen is the worst for this.
Recently I had laundry to go up. Bedtime beads for the dcs you name it.
Teen had walked past it to come down get food after walking up past it.

So I scattered it so mainly in the centre of all the stairs. I was finishing tea then going to take it up. But thought I'd see what he'd do.
He straddled it and walked up that way!
Wtf.

KitKattaktik · 03/03/2022 13:52

My ex was once trying to step up 4 steps at once because of the stuff on the stairs, so I asked what he was doing.

Well, all this shit is in the way!

Well, that's your shoes, your uniform, your coat, your unopened post...

Your servant didn't come in today!!

CustardySergeant · 03/03/2022 13:53

@BrightYellowDaffodil

It's because they'll have to do something with it when they get to the top of the stairs...

Mind you, I can't criticise because I live alone and I do this to myself!

So once something is downstairs, in your house, it stays there because you won't take it upstairs? How unusual.

dementedma · 03/03/2022 13:55

Here they step over or on wet towels on the bathroom floor. I've given up now

tuppencenonethericher · 03/03/2022 14:12

The act of leaving stuff on the stairs drives me mad to be honest. My mum used to stay at home all day and would leave random things in the way on the stairs. I'd get home after a 12 hour day of school then a shift at work, carry up my books/bags and a drink to make a start on my late night homework, only to be shouted at for not carrying up the washing basket or random "bits" on the stairs. She's had all day, and is sitting watching TV for hours! Don't mind me, let me dump all my stuff in my room and come back down to get your crap you couldn't be bothered spending 30 seconds to take up the stairs at any point today.

I have a house with DH and DC and have no far never felt the need to leave anything on the stairs - just take it up and put it away!

(Disclaimer: I totally get that not everyone is like DM and you probably actually have been busy rather than sitting watching daytime TV)

BrightYellowDaffodil · 03/03/2022 14:16

So once something is downstairs, in your house, it stays there because you won't take it upstairs? How unusual.

I put things on the stairs to remind myself to take them up. But I always find myself thinking "I'll take that later" because I'll have to do something with it when I get upstairs. It's not like everything I own has slowly migrated downstairs and is all piled in the hall while the upstairs is barren...

SockFluffInTheBath · 03/03/2022 14:17

Because the House Elf only put it there to make a fun ninja warrior type experience for people going up the stairs 🙄

SockFluffInTheBath · 03/03/2022 14:18

Same as the lazy fuckers who artfully arrange empty toilet roll tubes on the cistern instead of putting them in the bin which is all of 2 metres from the toilet.

KindlyKanga · 03/03/2022 15:25

@SockFluffInTheBath

Same as the lazy fuckers who artfully arrange empty toilet roll tubes on the cistern instead of putting them in the bin which is all of 2 metres from the toilet.

I left them there for a month once just to see what happened..it was chaos.

bilbodog · 03/03/2022 15:38

I have to give brownie points to my DH who recently emptied the laundry basket and started sorting and folding everything to put away - until i pointed out that it was all dirty washing i had just put in the basket to take downstairs 🤪🤪🤪

StarsAndSugarlumps · 03/03/2022 15:50

I left them there for a month once just to see what happened..it was chaos.

I did this, and DH started making sculptures with them

KindlyKanga · 03/03/2022 15:53

@StarsAndSugarlumps

I left them there for a month once just to see what happened..it was chaos.

I did this, and DH started making sculptures with them

We had similar then DSD1 joined in and started drawing on them and giving them hair made of dental floss.

Blogblogblogblog · 03/03/2022 17:06

They got to 16 empty toilet rolls before I cracked.

Blogblogblogblog · 03/03/2022 17:11

…and binned them

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