Is your house inexplicably cleaner now?

[GrumpiestOldWoman]

We have been at home all day every day and haven't had our usual 4 hours of cleaning each week - but I'd say our house is definitely cleaner and tidied than before

We're both still working full time, albeit from home, and we have fairly full on jobs so putting in our full hours. I would say my working hours are slightly longer as I don't need to rush to pick up DD sp tend to work a bit later.

Is anyone else noticing this?

No. Messy husband home 24/7 and we have spent a lot of time in the garden and not the house. Garden is looking much better though!

Mine is a bit tidier. I have realised my commute really tired me out, even though it less than an hour both ways😊. I today the kitchen during my lunch - which really involves making a coffee and sandwich and taking it back into the office.

Every time I come downstairs to make a coffee o do a quick clean or tidy. Anything to break away from work,

Hahahahahahahahahaha

Haha, I wish! I’m a childminder normally so doing a fair amount of messy play/sensory play, snacks everywhere, toys discarded whee they are dropped. It’s a different kind of mess with my own 3dc (9,11,14) and dh.

I’ve lost track of how many glasses I have moved from the lounge to the kitchen. How many times I’m washing up each day. The Lego seems to have exploded through out the house -I have no idea how I will ever get all of that back under control. The dining room table hadn’t been clear for 3 weeks and the amount of crumbs on the carpet from the 11 year forgetting he needs to be still while he snacks is doing my head in!

I’m staying calm about it all. It’s giving me a job to do to tidy up after them (completely wrong attitude I know) and I am trying to pick my battles.

Haha, no. We hardly ever used to be in the house before lockdown, now we're here all day every day, doing more crafts/baking/games. It's messier if anything.

Toddler + newborn = flat like a bomb site. I'm trying my best to tidy but then the toddler just comes along and trashes the place again. My poor DH is having a nervous breakdown with all the mess

no, it's horrible*, nowhere near as nice as usual. I'm totally unmotivated & everything 'normal' is taking so much longer than usual, I just can't be bothered tbh ... it's not like I'm going to have visitors any time soon!

We were part way through a bathroom refurb when all this started so dh has been desperately trying to get that functional = building materials & general chaos.

I've been shopping for three households (parents are shielding & dd1 has been isolated - now free yippee!) so there's constantly boxes of stuff being packed for delivery.

Oh & the oven packed up last week so we now have the old one in the front garden & all the packaging from the new one in the front garden waiting for the recycling centre to reopen.

*I know that objectively it's sanitary & wouldn't get me on tabloid TV

Definitely! I don't have a cleaner any more, but also have no commute so have gained 3 hours a day which is amazing as I am still working from home. As well as cleaning (and the 2 DS also helping for some cash) I've been catching up on all the jobs - my range shelves sparkle like new, vacuumed the tumble dryer, Marie Kondo'd my clothes, have worked round every cupboard over time. Not sure what is next though!!

No one is going to notice, no visitors coming so doesnt matter.

No. It's vile.
All I do is cook, load the bastard dishwasher, empty the bastard dishwasher, clean the kitchen, sweep, put toys away, hoover, Dettol everything, clean toilets and mop.
Still living in a shit hole.

How is it even possible??

God no. It’s not bad but having the kids at home 24/7 gives them double the opportunity to spill things and scatter things. Especially DS2, we will soon be buried under a light layer of books, comics and half finished art projects that he can’t put away because he is still using them...

Yes, definitely loads cleaner despite three feral kids doing their best to wreck it. It's not inexplicable though, it's because I actually have time to get the hoover out and move furniture for once. I do miss my once fortnightly cleaner though :(

Astounding for me, but yes I wfh and now find that I feel better with a cleaner and tidier place.
I am not an averagely clean or tidy person.

No! No cleaner, we both work, have primary school aged children, and neither of us like cleaning!

Not necessarily cleaner, but definitely tidier.
As I'm here looking at it 24/7, mess irritates me.

Haha! 😩

No it's way way worse as we're all in the house most of the time now. For my mental health I've mellowed that the house is a mess and not to get over-whelmed trying to do so much cleaning and tidying. I focus on my bedroom being a sanctuary so it's one room I'm not stressing about.

It's cleaner but that's because I'm cleaning it instead of my rubbish cleaner.

Mine is foul, absolutely filthy. Four of us at home all day every day. Kids in and out the garden making mud pies, dragging sand in. Every cleaning session starts with tidying up so much stuff. Every meal is cooked from scratch. My whole house needs painted now, more plates broken than ever before. I start each day by cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, you’d never know by lunchtime . However I feel very lucky for everything that I have.

Yes. I am a much better cleaner than my actual cleaner. I have also started tidying out a minimum of one drawer or cupboard per day.

Yes. A mixture of good weather and living in pyjamas means that my laundry basket has never been so empty.

We're not doing vast amounts of home schooling but one of the things that DC have to do every day is tidy a room - so now they are not letting rooms get messy because they'll have to tidy them.

Plus we have been spending hours just chilling in the garden so the living room isn't getting too much play time resulting in a million toys on the floor.

And DH has been working from home, so he's got zero commute time and is around to help clean and tidy

The opposite I clean one room and then go get a cup of tea and it's like the cleaning never happened .

No! And I normally keep my house very clean and tidy but with all 4 of us here all day every day there is more washing/dishwashing/cleaning than ever before to do.

My garden is looking amazing though as I'm spending lots of time on that!

I make sure the front door handles and letter box clean every day. Kitchen/bathroom clean every day but other things I need to start on tomorrow. I've been trying to make the most of the nice weather and spend time in the garden rattler then do housework every day.

No. 5 people and the other four cant be bothered so Ive given up! Much worse than it usually is. Less laundry though. I did clean the windows downstairs though.

Oh my god I needed this thread so much. Sorry OP, no. I’m working FT from home with a ten year old in a tiny apartment and I’m boiling in this weather.

It will get blitzed, soon I hope. When I can be arsed.

Only saving grace is I have no washing pile but also nowhere to store allll the clothes!! It turns out I need washing to be dirty as there’s no space for it all....