To wonder how on earth people's houses are so pristine

[Cluelessat33]

So I'm a single Mum, two dogs, two cats, a 5 year old. After looking at my hallways today, which looked like it had never been hoovered, despite me hoovering it last night (and every night before). I cannot comprehend how peoples houses are so pristine. I mean honestly. I feel like I'm constantly washing up, clearing away, tidying away, hoovering, wiping, tidying. And the house still feels like a pit.

And then I stray by mistake across these Instagram video of people 'styling' their bookcase, or who have the time for a porch Halloween display and I wonder if I'm just sloppy and lazy. I take pride in my home looking tidy... it just never feels like it does. I hate unexpected visitors who need to use the loo, just in case the 5 year old has left a friendly floater in the loo since I last checked it.

Am I unreasonable for wonder where the heck these people find the time and energy. Am I a bit of a scummy mummy!?

My house is mostly pristine and I have two kids (no animals). Towards the end of the week in work / school there are a few bits lying around and the washing basket is full, but my floors etc are always spotless and there is never clutter. I love interiors so I take pride in it and having a tidy house clears my mind; we have weekly jobs we all do and these don’t get missed. I do have a gardener though and am looking into a laundry service. My secret is never ever sitting down 😂😩

Someone once described my home as Patrick Bateman esque 😳it is quite minimal but when you have children who pace around incessantly, it's what you need.

I am particular about my home after growing up in a messy, cluttered and chaotic home. I'll take serial killer chic over that any day.

@Mydogmybestfriend a cleaner is my aspiration... sadly financially not viable, but is a priority if I can ever find a job that pays me more.

Hehehehe I would take that as a huge compliment! Would love to see what it looks like. Minimalism is definitely at the heart of quick and easy cleaning and tidying.

I realised I spend about 2 to 3 hours each day, giving kitchen and bathroom a quick whizz, cooking, washing up, and clothes washing/hanging folding…

That’s for one person, I have no idea how single parents with pets do it!

When I briefly lived as part of a family, the mud and choc everywhere, mountains of dishes, overflowing laundry baskets, and dust everywhere nearly broke me!

I need order for a sense of mental well-being.

I don’t need hospital levels of clean, but please, dirt and mess is too much! Everybody needs to clean up after themselves including the children!

I think a mum who suffered bouts of OCD contributed to this.

It has pros and cons all this. It is what it is.

1. no dogs
2. cleaner
3. new build (they just don't seem to gather dust etc in the same way older houses do, less nooks and crannies maybe?)

Your house is a home and not a photo opportunity, don’t worry about it just enjoy your life.

@sekift I'd disagree on the new builds being easier to keep clean. I went from an old house to this one (10 years old) and found the older one easier to keep materially clean. New build houses just don't seem to be designed for family life. Walk straight off the road. No storage area, no utility area, straight in off the garden into the living room. I had no choice when I bought it, otherwise I'd not have considered it. Its certainly not designed for kids with muddy boots and dogs.

This. And also why I don't have pets, grew up with them but chose to never have them.

I have a similar life to you. One dog, two cats, two aquariums, and a 12 yo with complex special needs.

Ways I keep my home clean and organized are constantly purging stuff. My ds is good at this two I started doing it with him when he was around your ds's age.

Good systems. Find the problem areas and declutter and Pinterest for solutions.

This sounds kind of obvious but everything has a place. If my house is messy and I need it tidy, I can clean up in 5 minutes because it all has a home.

It’s the animals. Especially at this time of year I find, we clean, hoover and mop every single morning; the minute the dogs go out for a wee we might as well have not bothered!

We have a traditional mop and bucket and a spray mop to keep on top of it, must have done our floors 7 times today!

I mean you've got 4 pets in the house so....

I'm with you on the tip front. I keep it clean and mostly tidy but it stays that way for about three minutes.

I try and look at it that in only a few short years I will mourn there being a train track down the landing or an obstacle course of cuddly puppies each wrapped in their own blanket and carefully placed in the most awkward position possible!

I can't imagine being a child in a show home is much fun. That or they have a play room somewhere to shove all the multi coloured plastic that interferes with the colour scheme.

I just don't think we can do pristine, even without the dogs. I simply don't care enough to dedicate the time to doing the last 5-10% that takes it from "normal" to visitor-ready, time after time after time.

It is frustrating that this takes up so much of my headspace. I would probably be better off JFDI or doing like my husband and ignoring it. But I have my mum constantly in the back of my head judging me, and I think that makes me procrastinate even more. It'll never be good enough so why even start? kind of thing

@Calmdown14 this made me laugh. My daughter absolutely loves her cuddly toys, and they are generally left lying around wrapped in something.

Mine is always pretty clean and tidy ( 1 cat no dogs, too many children) as i wfh I can’t concentrate if I know there is mess or dirt so I clean everyday first thing between about 7.30 and 8.30am then I start work. Then bathrooms etc as I go to bed every night.

My house will be pristine once dc leave home… I’m in no rush. My middle dc is a whirlwind of mess.

It’s bliss 😉

@Gnomegnomegnome I’m not ready yet but I think I’ll quite like it. Although dh will still live here.

do the animals loss a lot of hair/fur, i have 1 dog he does not loss fur/hair this helps, im not keen on cleaning just do a bit at a time, try and keep up with washing/put away things so less cluttered

I lick my plates clean... that helps keep them shiny

I'm chronically messy. But the older I get, the less I care about it.

I'm not a single parent but have 2 dogs, 2 young children. A messy husband & a newly renovated house

But I work and have things like Halloween displays /do crafting with my kids

You lower your standards to "tidy and ok"

I hoover each main area once a week, mop the kitchen twice a week

I loosely follow the organised mum approach in that I think "right so main bathroom tomorrow & landing" so at night I'll leave the hoover out in the landing & mop @ cleaning stuff in bathroom

This is because my kids have a lovely happy period before breakfast so I blast an area at that point & exercise
Then we go downstairs

MY house is never immaculate if you looked closely. I don't care enough /have enough time /want to sacrifice my happy child enough to care
But it's tidy so that's fine by me 🥰

@billybear one is a cockapoo and doesn't shed at all. One shed everywhere. She's a big perpetrator of mess generally.

The answer is…they’re not. My sister is an Insta Hun 😆 and her house always looks like a show home on her account. However, you go there and it’s like a tornado has just swept through it. Well it kind of has as she’s got three boys under 6 😂😂 She just piles everything up into one corner, takes the pictures and the job’s done.

Ps also the owner of a non shedding cockapoo & a very shedding pointer 😂🤣