I officially have house envy.

[missmoopy]

Visited an old friend last week in her new house and I now hate my house!

Its not so much the house, but the cleanliness. Her house is spotless, her carpets are clean, everything is beautifully co-ordinated, there are tasteful knick knacks dotted around.....bitch

My house has greige (used to be beige) carpets, I haven't decorated in years, there is clutter everywhere which seems to multiply whenever I try to declutter, my skirting boards only get wiped when I can't bear to look at them anymore......I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning and tidying so WHY DOESN'T MY HOUSE LOOK LIKE HERS?? [hangry]

She has ocd and no social life and is desperately unhappy and has no sex life. T'is the only possible explanation

Either that or she has no children.

clean your greige carpets! it will make a worls of difference. I hired a carpet cleaning thing the other weekend for about 50 quid, and it has made a massive difference (needless to say we are not a shoes-off house).

She has a dd (4).

She seems happy, and I am fairly sure they have a sex life. I have no fucking social life and my house is still a tip!!

She probably is a bit ocd...

I always have house envy

And garden envy

And husband envy

Just envy in general, actually

I spend so much time cleaning and it doesn't seem to ever show. I put it down to

older house and having work done
being very poor so having to DIY/do the work in stages
having a charity shop habit
gardening and dogs (death to carpets and walls)
having no dishwasher (aka place to hide washing up)

There's only me and DD though, I have no idea how we create so much mess.

Does she live in her house? Or is it like my perfect SIL who works long hours along with BIL, kids in childcare long hours, at clubs all weekend, catered for at grandparents and hence house is perfect because they're never there to get it messy?

If it makes you feel any better I have what looks like a greige carpet in my kitchen. It is in fact cat hair and dog hair. Underneath it all, there are some lovely black tiles. I think

I have constant house envy, but it doesn't matter if it's a Georgian Rectory, a Victorian Townhouse, a 2 up 2 down or a 1 bedroom flat.

The is always something that I love about them, I'm just a house ho!

It's a new house, it is bound to look like that....for now!

When I moved into mine I marvelled at how organised and clean and lovely it was and thought It can't be hard to keep it like that, a few months on, with all the unpacking finally done, and new 'crap' accumulated,I was wrong.

Thedevil, her last house was exactly the same. Even when she had a newborn her house was spotless!

OMG ANTagony I could have written your post!

I love that fact that my house has that untidy as hell lived in look, its a home. Your friend probably spent two days cleaning her house because you were visiting

I do wonder why people have such tidy houses as surely a house is indeed a home? Nah, sadly, loumacca, she has always been the same, and its always spotless. I would rather my dd grew up in a comfortable house than a showhome, BUT I do wish I had time to decorate, could be arsed to hoover/dust more often, had a dh/dd who didn'y leave things all over the palce/hoard shite...etc etc...
[hgrin]

One of the reasons I love my MIL is her fridge magnet which says: "Dull women have immaculate houses". It's a bit unfair, really, but there might be an element of truth in it...?
[hwink]

having a tody house and an uncomfortable show home are not the same thing. My house is very tidy and my DD is free to make as much mess as she likes, i just tidy up when she is finished.

nancy, sorry, I meant no disrespect! I am envious of people who have the time/money/patience/energy to have very tidy and clean houses!