What do you do when you are the only person in your house who gives a monkeys about keeping it clean and tidy?

[crosstraineraddict]

I am at my wits end.

No amount of begging, pleading, asking, demanding, calmly talking, ultimatums, going on strike etc will teach my DH and DCs otherwise. He and the DCs leave mess everywhere. They also make everything very mucky, so that the house needs cleaning from top to bottom every single day otherwise it looks as though it's not been cleaned in months. And of course before cleaning I have to tidy up, which I'd say takes me between 1 and 2 hours per day depending upon how mess they've all been during the previous evening and that morning.

DH has says he won't do any housework as he works. I work too, although I work part time rather than full time. I don't mind doing the housework as such, but I do resent having to pick up everyone's dirty socks, wet towels, wrappers, shoes, when they're left everywhere. If there's anywhere where things can be left, they all take advantage of it. For example about 6 months ago I totally cleared out our understairs cupboard, and sorted it out, and put a cupboard in there for shoe storage. These days you can barely get the door open as they all (although mainly DH) have thrown things in; shoes, bags, coats, random things that they cannot be bothered to put away, bit of paper, wrappers, everything. DH will occasionally empty the dishwasher but literally puts things into the nearest cupboard, all just thrown in one cupboard.

I really don't know what to do. We can't really afford a cleaner, and in any case I'd still need to tidy. I like a clean tidy house but am not obsessive about it, a general sense of cleanliness and tidiness would do.

[Nagoo]

Do the bin thing.

Your lazy entitled fucking 1950s throwback DH as well.

I can't believe he does nothing then moans about it! You are not a fucking slave

[80sMum]

Ooh, I feel your pain OP!
My DH is 57 but behaves like a 14 year old when it comes to keeping things clean and tidy. He's simply incapable of keeping things nice. Drops things everywhere, leaves dirty plates on the living room floor, opens cupboards but never shuts them, leaves lights on and forgets to flush the loo! He just seems to blunder through life not noticing the things that other people notice. Your DH sounds similar. You have my deepest sympathy, as I know only too well how demoralising it can be to live with someone with that type of behaviour.

[monsterchild]

I don't know, I'll ask my DH.

[IWipeArses]

Well, your DH sounds like a rude selfish shit frankly. The children are copying him.
Don't accept it, it's just not on for them to treat you that way.

[GoldPlatedNineDoors]

Your DH may not think it fair for him to do housework but he seems to not even tidy up after himself! Id make a stand - clear away after yourself and the kids (id tackle dhs behaviour first then move onto the dcs) and purposefully leave evrrything he leaves lying around. Clean around it. Let hom get arsey when he gets in and complains about his own mess.

Or, present him with an invoice for a part time cleaner.

[uberalice]

What colditz said. I sometimes threaten to play "The bin bag game" and that usually gets things moving.

[Acumens100]

When I was a child, we did all do housework together on a rota etc, but occasionally the house still did get in a terrible state. My mum, quite calmly, laid out four bin bags in the sitting room. and said that in half an hour, anything not in our rooms would go in the bin. And she did it.

(It worked!)

I do not think your husband is very kind to you. I'm sorry. That must be very difficult. I would not like to be treated like that.

[DameFannyGallopsAtaGhost]

How about announcing that you're going to be doing 15 minutes cleaning everyday, and that everyone has to join in?

You can get a lot done in 15 minutes, it's not a scary amount of time, and you can assign each individual to a specific room or task before you set the kitchen timer.

If you do this everyday you'd be amazed the difference it makes.

[poppyboo]

Do a massive declutter, get the children involved if they want to 'save' their stuff! Way less stuff automatically means way less mess.

[Arithmeticulous]

There was an article in the Telegraph this week about a Canadian mother who went on strike and blogged the results - on phone so can't link.

[ArthurShappey]

Link for you.

[expatinscotland]

What Bubblemoon said. And a bin bag for your selfish, lazy arsewipe of a husband, too.

[Durab]

I used to put everyone's stuff in a bin bag on their pillow. If it hasn't been emptied and put away by the morning it goes in the bin. Didn't take long before they started tidying up after themselves. Very occasionally if one of them has a lapse, they'll get home to find a bin bag on their pillow again, but there won't be much in it and they empty it very quickly

I also agree that Flylady helps. It helps me to keep on top of things and clutter does attract clutter, so if surfaces already have a pile of stuff on them it's more likely to be added to than if the surfaces are all clear (I also work only part-time and therefore, do see most of the housework as my job, but don['t consider putting everyone else's things away as part of that)

[BeingBooyhoo]

personally i would either

a) stop doing anything for anyone else and i would have no guilt about it (unless the dcs are very small of course, then i would do their washing/meals etc) and i would declare that no friends or visitors would be allowed over to the house as a result of the mess. things like treats would all be cancelled as you would be forking out for them unless they wanted to earn the money for it by contributing to the running of the house.

b) or i would employ a cleaner to come in for an hour a day or two hours every other day or something and pay for it out of the joint account

and i would stop being teh person responsible for knowing where everything is. if teh dcs dump their shoes in a heap then cant find them i would let them suffer the embarrassment of going to school in crocs or whatever. stop organising cupboards so tehy are tidy. look after your own stuff and tehy can learn the hard way to look after theirs.