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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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Original poster

Is your house always visitor-ready?

56 replies

Mandy21 · 26/04/2011 14:26

Question prompted by an impromptu visit from friends at the weekend and the house looked like a bomb had hit it and I was ashamed. I hadn't washed up after lunch, the children had started playing the the playroom then gone to play outside and there was a pile of washing in the hall ready to take upstairs to put away. The lounge was pretty tidy but even so, they saw all the mess in the rest of the house.

We had 3 DC of 6 and under, we have a traditional semi - lounge (which we do try to keep clutter / toy free), the back room / dining room which we have as a play room, and a kitchen.

Just interested to know how everyone else keeps their houses tidy - I must admit that we really need to organise / de-clutter in the play room but end up "saving" all the toys the oldest child had so that the younger ones can play with them and with the youngest not being 2 yet, we effectively have kept everything!

Any helpful tips gratefully received!

OP posts:

CMOTdibbler · 26/04/2011 14:32

God no. Ours is usually a (15 min to get respectable) tip. Anyone popping round (which we don't have) get what they find

Pootles2010 · 26/04/2011 14:38

I think that sounds fine. Surely whole point of playroom is its filled with toys? If living room is tidy, you're doing very well.

deliakate · 26/04/2011 17:06

Not really, depends whether the cleaner has recently been. My mum always says to keep the front porch swept and the hallway welcoming, which I try to do (but its covered in bits right now~)

usualsuspect · 26/04/2011 17:08

wahwahwah · 26/04/2011 17:10

Never - even when people are coming around!

Funnily enough, we used to joke that mums house would pass inspection should the queen ever drop in for a cuppa. And that would include the attic and garage.

Tsil · 26/04/2011 17:10

It is today but only coz I've spent 6 hours spring cleaning but generally no, it only takes half an hour at the most to tidy usually though.

MadreInglese · 26/04/2011 17:11

tidy........hmm.......I remember that, I think......

foxinthewoods · 26/04/2011 17:24

Never! I seem to clean on a regular basis, but it just gets messy so quickly. I blame it on lack of storage (a bit more space would be nice too).

Justfuckingdoit · 26/04/2011 17:29

Not in the slightest! In fact a delivery driver just rang the doorbell and I had a major minor panic that it might be someone I knew who would be exposed to the non-visitor version of the house (and no real excuse, as DD not due for 6 weeks). Stilll waiting for that tidying nesting thing to kick in

80sMum · 26/04/2011 17:35

Definitely not!

Georgimama · 26/04/2011 17:38

Yes it is. There may be toys dotted about but the living room is always tidy, vacuumed at least 3 x per week, kitchen sides clear (unless they ring the doorbell whilst we are actively preparing or cleaning up from a meal), floor clean, bathroom clean, there may be ironing waiting to be done but it is neatly folded in utility room etc.

queenrollo · 26/04/2011 17:38

my house is always visitor ready in a 'take us as we are' kind of way. My mother is OCD tidy, and always was and as a result I rebelled and my house is very definitely 'lived in'

It's not really messy by the way, but the dining table always has 'stuff' on it, I've given up trying to keep the (huge) cushions on the sofa tidy, and as we have an open fire and a very dusty solid fuel central heating, during the winter it all gets a bit Miss Haversham round the bookshelves and utility room.

HalleluiaScot · 26/04/2011 17:39

We invite people over to prompt us to tidy up. It normally looks as if it has just been burgled.

stealthsquirrelsawaytheeggs · 26/04/2011 17:40

God no. It takes hours to be visitor-ready - unless the cleaner has just been, when it is passable.

sorky · 26/04/2011 17:43

Good god no!

but my 4 kids are HE'd so are home all day. it would be impossible!

I do insist on the hallway being spotless though. That way when the front door is answered it looks delightful.

If anyone looked around the corner though, they might be tempted to ring Aggie/Kim!!

Alibabaandthe80nappies · 26/04/2011 17:45

Not always.

I tidy after breakfast, and again in the evening but anyone arriving unannounced between 3 and 7pm would find choas. Clean chaos, but definitely chaos

Collision · 26/04/2011 17:50

A friend of mine once said, 'I wont apologise for the mess as that would raise expectation that I am going to tidy up. Which I am not.'

Georgimama · 26/04/2011 17:54

I did say it was visitor ready, not World of Interiors photoshoot ready.

I wouldn't let anyone in who was likely to find fault (except my mother, she finds fault with everything).

bigbumum · 26/04/2011 18:06

whispers...yup, ALWAYS.

i jest natch!

Its tidy & spotless as there are only the 3 of us and ds is nearly 8 so tidies after himself.

BUT i have a place for everything and everything goes back into its place when its finished with by who ever got it out of its place.

My auntie's house is imaculate AND she always has cake or biscuits in too so she does the whole "entertaining visitors" properly i think. I barely have fresh smelling milk in for a cuppa some days.

But the way that our house works is that we have allot of folk just dropping in for a cuppa.
We have a very busy and full house most weekends.
Also, no one knocks, every one we know, just walk in shout "HI" and go and put the kettle on, so we operate on a very open house system, shoes get kicked off and friends/family curl up on sofas with brew in hand and gossip.

We LOVE this as a family so i kinda anticipate visitors and ensure that the bathroom is clean and there is a comfy spot for folk to sit down. Dont go overbourd because i think that it makes people feel uncomfortable and not wanting to leave a crumb!

I think "relaxed" is how i would describe our house.

andrea69 · 26/04/2011 18:30

Most of the time, yes it is :)
We've moved twice in the last 2 years and that's helped loads with decluttering. We're finally settled in a house that has very little storage so I had to be ruthless and unsentimental with regards to keeping things the children had done, memento's etc.
I only have a 4 yo at home, so it's easy for me to keep on top of things but, when my older 2 who are only 2 years apart were small, I kept to a fairly strict routine re tidying. I came from a clean and tidy home, and I keep a clean and tidy home. That said, kids that visit my house are more than welcome to drag out every toy and book from the boxes, we have messy play and if you look closely, often my kitchen is covered with a film of glitter. I keep my house tidy because I like it that way not because I feel pressure to do it.

There's also a world of difference between messy and dirty :)

peachybums · 26/04/2011 18:41

Most of our family and close friends know to call first as our house is never visitor ready lol. Tsakes us about 20 mins to tydy up but it is mainly toys laying around not 'mess' as such.

Anyone turns up unannounced they they get 'sorry its a tip' called as they walk through the door then i blame the kids or something haha

cat64 · 26/04/2011 18:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

WorzselMaamage · 26/04/2011 18:54

No, never!

Tidy houses freak me out a bit.

Housemum · 26/04/2011 18:55

I have a little plaque on the back of my front door - it says, "My house was clean yesterday, sorry you missed it"

90% of the time it's OK for friends and neighbours, messy but clean. The other day, I'm ashamed to say, it was a total state - kids had got out just about every toy in the world, I hadn't washed up since breakfast, there was a pile of paperwork on the floor that I was sorting. SIL rang the doorbell (saw the car go past just before) I'm embarassed to say I pretened we were out. She has since visited and not said anything, I was going to say that I was hanging out the washing and must have missed the doorbell if there had been any comment.

My mother is a different matter - her house is not always perfect, she always has loads of washing up, but she has the right to criticise my house. When I say, "oh, I should have tidied" most people would say, "no, it's fine" but she doesn't have that sort of social nicety. She just says, "yes, you have got a lot to do" and if I'm lucky she'll add a comment about needing to re-dye my hair or lose weight, just for good measure!

Knackeredmother · 26/04/2011 18:57

Never, ever ever.
In fact I live in fear of the hv popping round and reporting me! I have a cleaner 6 hours a week and Hoover at least once per day but with 2 kids, a moulting Labrador and full time work it always looks as though it hasn't been touched for months.
Yours sounds immaculate !

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