When you say your house is a tip, how tippy is it REALLY?

[starrychime]

Hoping to feel better by replies here . Have read lots of threads from folk who say "House is a tip, help" etc then go on to say "Right, will put stuff in dishwasher, spare room, downstairs bathroom etc out of the way" I don't have any of those things and my house really is a tip. Interested to hear what others' definition is so that I can possibly feel a wee bit better. For example what is your kitchen like just now, can you walk across the living room without tripping over anything?

When I say mine is a tip I mean stuff is not where it's supposed to be. But it's usually quite clean.

I used to despair of the state of my house, two things saved my sanity, my kids grew and I got a cleaner. I love my cleaner she has changed my life.

I tried educating DH and DCs to be tidier but I think I started too late

As NewPants says it is very depressing and I think it just gets so much that you don't know where to start so end up not starting. Have tried the 15 min timer thing loads of times and it is amazing how much you can get done and I start feeling optimistic but after a few spurts I end up giving up and that's it for a few days! Usually knackered after work and getting DD sorted for the night and just want to sit and relax instead of tidying when I never seem to get anywhere!

I don't know, DS is an odd child and favours vegetables, which he merrily chucks around when I'm not paying attention, so I find a weird squishy bit of cauliflower or a fragrant broccoli stem. Carrots go rubbery and hard, unless they are stuck under something. Or fromage frais pots, if I leave one of those out it goes mouldy inside. DS got really upset the other day because he saw a pot of "Thomas yaot!" and wanted it, but all it had was a layer of mould in the bottom I did show it to him and explain it was dirty but for some reason that made him want it more...

I do need to sort it out. When I'm in a better routine/state of mind there is never food anywhere for long. I'm back at uni on Monday - the holidays have been testing, really.

I understand what you mean about feeling better if it was tidy - but hearing that other people are the same as you also makes you feel better in the short term. Especially if all your friends have lovely clean neat homes all the time - it can make you feel worse thinking you're the only person in the world living in mess and chaos.

I would classify mine as a tip right now.

The dinner plates are still on the table because DH is going to clear up but is currently putting DS to bed. The kitchen is also a mess on the surface but spotlessly clean and uncluttered underneath the mess of getting the dinner ready.

Living room has got a sprinkling of toys and books on the floor, and the washing basket which has been pressed into service this afternoon as an Octonaut craft for DS.

Upstairs is tidy, or it was before DH and DS went up there!

Nothing that half an hour won't sort, but I am 29 weeks pg, have horrible SPD and I'm too knackered.

my cleaner lifts up my piles of crap and cleans underneath them. even bigger

the way i see it. if it was clean when the stuff got there then it can't have got dirty while it was covered. no?

i have to admit i just HATE cleaning and tidying. I am very lucky that I can afford a cleaner once a week and I do make myself keep it generally clear in between times

just sometimes I am way too knackered from looking after 3 kids under 6. that's it really. i am too tired and too lazy I guess.

if it comes down to playing with the kids or doing the tidying then the kids win every time.
by the evening i just wanna sit and chill, though we do always make sure the kitchen is cleaned ready for the morning.

a lot of the mess though is toys, and those mostly get put away at the end of the day too.
as I said before though, storage is my big issue. there are so many things that just don't have anywhere to go. but i am scheming on that. already have Ikea trip planned with my friend, so maybe that will help

I have a clearner who lifts piles of crap up, cleans underneath and them and puts them back.

I clean floors, toilet, sink etc myself most days. I just can't seem to get all the STUFF sorted out. The endless toys and papers and bags and shoes and small, plastic, unidentifiable bits of crap the kids bring into the house.

scrappy - I know it's clean (or at least acceptable) underneath as it does get "blitzed" regularly and then stuff quickly accumulates on top of it. For example - I know that the floor in the corner of the living room is clean. You can't see it - there's a 5ft high pile of ironing sat on top (which may or may not disappear this weekend). However - even if the ironing pile doesn't move for the next 3 weeks - the floor underneath isn't going to get dirty.

I could clear my worktops tonight - and if I didn't put anything away/in the right place (bin, cupboard, dishwasher etc) at all tomorrow by tomorrow evening they would be totally covered again. Yes there may be crumbs and odd bits of food on it - but it wouldn't be filthy just because it had been covered in crap stuff durng the day if you see what I mean?

My house is a complete bomb site.

The kids dumped all their crap on the way in so it's all at the front door in the hall.

Kitchen/family room is just awful -dinner dishes not cleared, just messy as fuck

Living room needs a good sort out.

Bedrooms the same

BUT in my defence, I have an exam tomorrow and another on Tuesday and it will get done properly after that.

until then, I'm just going to be a slattern

NYNP... we might be the same person! lol

My house actually looks quite tidy, but is filthy underneath.

I haven't been able to walk across the middle of the living room since Christmas because a large breeding colony of Sylvanian creatures seems to have established itself there, and I'm too slack nice to disturb them. Unfortunately they are now thoroughly scattered with pine needles since I took the tree down last night, and the dog has generously been giving them lots of hair for nest building, so I think it's time to get the hoover out...

We also have a sofa, coffee table and desk in the kitchen which are covered in a deep layer of DD's mess art and craft projects. I think if I conducted an archeological dig, we would find the Christmas strata, the Hallowe'en strata, and quite possibly the Easter strata .

I am seriously considering hiring a cleaner for a couple of hours a week so that I can threaten the children with 'everything goes in the black bin bag if it isn't tidy before the cleaner comes'.

I appear to have solved my issues with children reluctantly helping with house work - by getting a cat (well we haven't got him yet - but he's reserved for us).

I told them we can't get a cat unless we keep it tidy - funnily enough things have been put away after school/coming home, and little bits and pieces picked up along the way since I told them....

Now if I'd have realised the effect a statement like that would have had on them I'd have got a cat years ago

moved from a big place to a very small one a few months ago. STILL can't see many parts of floor..actually get bruised walking into things. Partner is a hoarder which doesnt help! Nothing dirty/unhygienic (i hate cleanin g ROUND stuff though)..just mess and chaos. he couldnt downsize, i could..i am asking him to see a counsellor about his holding onto stuff now we are in smaller space

even in bigger place, there wasn't a single surface not piled sky high. I hate it though!

to be fair though, we have no storage here whatsover. most people have a cupboard under stairs or a place/nook for mop/muddy shoes/hoover etc..or a shed, we have nothing except a few kitchen cupboards that were already here, so it's all dumped everywhere.

I'm quite untidy, my thing is to leave piles of 'clean' washing on the kitchen table, I love freshly washed clothes just too lazy to put them away regularly... well not often enough to stop them growing into a small mountain.

I hoover every day, sometimes twice, I got this from my mum when we had a dog, she was constantly hoovering. I don't have a dog, just don't like bits on the carpet.

I fight with toy mess, can't tidy it until my DD of 2yrs goes to bed as she gets highly aggrieved if she sees me putting her toys away during the day.

My kitchen can get messy but I try to 'clean as I go', but I do lots of cooking so theres always something. Probably the people that have shiny, clean kitchens don't cook. Food hygiene is important to me so my work surfaces are always cleaned before I cook.

All my surfaces are clean beneath the tippiness because I do a thorough clean once a week. My problem is four children and all their associated laundry in a smallish house. It looks good for about 12 hours and then it's right back to the tip.

Am in my fourteenth week of morning sickness , so house is tippier than usual today (5 days out from big clean). Large piles of clean laundry that need folding, dishes on assorted surface that need washing, cereal trod into carpet before school run only hoovered up 5 minutes before DH got home , Christmas tree in desperate need of denuding and chucking, and flipping toys everywhere you tread.

Starry our flat was a shithole (sorry only way I can honestly describe it) a month ago.

Two bedroom flat with DH and 2 DSs 5 and 2. Our bedroom you could just find a path to the bed, 5 years worth of paperwork, clothes etc. DSs room toys everywhere but generally semi tidy so they could play but no order. Bathroom clean but cluttered. Livling room overflow of toys, paperwork, tatt and general mess - couldn't use table piled full of crap. Kitchen clean but one work surface was unusable due to clutter and windowsill you couldn't see for broken toys and crap.

I had let it get in this state after the birth of my DS1 and couldn't see how to get out of the mess. Everytime I tried I just got more and more depressed by it and was embarrassed to invite friends round even though they still came I squirmed inside.

I then had a good heart to heart with 2 very good friends and asked for help (my god that was hard) and they were my guardian angels. They didn't judge they worked with me - we did one room at a time found places for everything, got through loads of bin bags for rubbish and charity shops. It took a week working from 9.30 each morn until 5 most nights but we did it

I still have stuff to do i.e sort out last bits of paperwork, DH wardrobe and my memory box but its now workable. I could not have done it without those two special ladies and I still choke up when I think of what they did. They laughed with me and understood when I got upset by it all.

It seems silly but I thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas because I wasn't worrying about the mess. My home is by no means immaculate but its tidy at long last and things now have a place. Just got to keep on top of it without getting obsessive.

You will get there in the end

Thanks Magna - a feel-good post I have had friends offer to come and sort me out (last time was just before I had DD and we literally got rid of enough stuff to fit out a small flat bar furniture - broken cooker, broken hoover, huge plant pots etc. But in 7 years it has got very cluttered again. I find it very difficult to throw stuff out and have been clearing out my mum's house over the past year and have boxes and boxes of stuff I can't bear to get rid of from there - china, cutlery, table linen and all sorts. I think if I asked said friend to help again she would be delighted but I would be very twitchy and hover over her in case she binned stuff I wanted - last time I was about to give birth so was desparate for a clear out so as to have room to fit a baby in the house and willing to get rid of anything she suggested.

Kitchen
Dishwasher needs emptying and refilling.
Cats dishes need washing.
All surfaces have things on them that need to be put away but we do not have the cupboard space because have just done a big shop.
Clothes horse hung with drying towels.
Tumble drier has a load of dry socks inside it.
Coffee table is covered with paperwork and craft stuff for the dc.
Dining table ditto.
There are about 10 pairs of shoes, two pairs of roller skates on the floor.
Bag of sawdust and straw waiting by back door to be put back outside in the shed.
Kitchen floor needs mopping, cooker top needs cleaning, bin needs emptying, kitchen caddy needs emptying.
Salad drawers in bottom of fridge need washing up.

However, it is not really dirty and does not smell bad.

Rest of house is similar.

Yes, it is depressing.

That must be hard Starry memory stuff and childhood is so difficult to sort. I have got those still to do and must admit not looking forward to it.

It is so easy to drown in it all though. I really felt a failure but when you don't have much space and DC to deal with it so easy to go with the flow and try to ignore it.

You will get there I never ever thought I would and maybe if you ask your friend you could go through a box at a time together so you have final say over it all but can also see it through someone elses eyes

My tip is never more than 7 days muck as I have a cleaner weekly

A typical midweek cleanup (eg 5-6 days after cleaner was here) in the lounge would yield several empty wrappers, 2 or 3 tea mugs, and empty yogurt pot or two

Other mess would be toys and lego

That said it doesnt often get that bad but when it does its very depressing!!!

Mentioned on another htread that I am now doing 7 things instead of 15 minutes on the timer cos I can fit that in any time almost, and there is nothing to stop me doing 2 or 3 lots of 7, or 7 minute jobs if I feel so inspired, but even if I jsut do one it makes me feel like I acheived something

We have 5 people in a 2 bed house so it's constantly untidy. Needs a good hoover too. Then again, we're having a new sofa delivered in a couple of months so the deep clean will start very soon so we've got room for it!