Dirtiest house you've been in?!

[fizzychuck89]

Hi. This is my first post and I'm new here????
was just startingmy daily routine, but today feel like I'm on a major ocd rampage as visited a friends house that was seriously filthy and it's set me off..Their house stinks of cats and dogs,the kitchen sides are manky, bits all over the floors, and downstairs loo full of washing and skidders down the toilet???? I could go into more detail, but I'll leave it there...oh and it was a party so there were about 20 guests arriving at the house.
What's the dirtiest house you've been in? I had to wipe my feet on the way out!

I completely agree about young children! DS is 2, amd DD 6 months. I do find myself getting annoyed at crumbs over a carpet I've just hoovered, or sticky hand prints on my clean windows. Then feel bad and have to have a stern word with myself that it's what kids do, and it won't be forever...
Park and coffee shops sound like heaven to me! We live on a military base in the middle of nowhere, so this is probably why I spend so much time cleaning and tidying around the kids! ????

Fizzy He is 15, his OCD is based around cleanliness, so the bathroom has to be spotless and his bedroom, the rest of the house he can deal with as he stays in his bedroom mostly, he has only recently been diagnosed so starts CBT when he comes home from holiday, he also checks and re checks the doors a lot but his OCD is mainly based around his bedroom and the bathroom.

Sorry, I have just re-read and noticed some cross posting. I am not being ignorant about MH issues or OCD. Did not mean to start a horrible thread! I fully understand and appreciate some houses are neglected due to mental health issues, whilst some are surgically clean for the same reason.

My friends have no mental health issues and are just lazy(!). I apologise again for causing anyone offense. I am just genuinely curious.
Surlycue, I'm sorry I didn't realise you suffer with ocd. How do you manage to keep control of it?

arseforelbow I hope the treatment helps him to learn how to control it.

?Thank you fizzy he is also on a high dose of Sertraline.

fizzy I had anti depressants for the anxiety...Prozac (fluoxetine is generic name) 40 mg per day, though I think you can be prescribed 60mg a day for OCD. Takes a while to work but helped me to calm down enough to do Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is a talking therapy where you try to manage your anxiety and triggers in daily situations. I found it very practical and helpful and not at all 'lets unpick your childhood' (mine was dysfunctional and we'd still be there talking about it now!), but a kind of ' 'we've got x number of sessions for you to learn to techniques to live with this condition'. You do have to want to overcome it though, I'd say I was on the receiving end of some tough love from my family about getting it under control as it was limiting us all.

I used to do home care and one house i visited was the reason i left my job. It was disgusting. The room downstairs where this lady slept was caked in faeces, it was everywhere. The kitchen worktops where filthy, like really really dirty and greasy. The carpet was sticky and the husband admitted it hadn't been hoovered for years

I was actually bowking and nearly sick whilst in there. I handed my notice in the next day. I have never seen anything as disgusting in all my life. Yes this woman was bed bound but her husband done nothing and was in good health (i also had to report safeguarding issues as i suspected physical abuse)

I actually got very frustrated trying to get help from my useless GP, i asked him to refer me for counselling, he insisted i was just depressed, i was but not just! He wanted me to go on anti depressants before counselling which just terrify me tbh and no way i could take them so i gave up with him which means i dont have a medical diagnosis. In the end i decided i just had to manage it myself. i told all my close friends and asked them to "keep an eye" on me if they see me slipping. Some were a bit "oh i'll come help you clear out, get the house straight" which is lovely of them but not what i needed, i very much need to go through everything item by item and decide myself how to deal with it. I have major issues with "throwing away" money. I struggle to donate or bin things i think i could get 99p for on ebay despite them having sat in a bag in my room for 4 years. I have reduced my hoard from an entire bedroom (floor to ceiling) to a (large) corner of my room. Still not great but much improved. I dont gather anything new anymore, my hoard isnt growing. Sometimes i will catch myself washing a plastic tray from a packet of grapes to keep "for something" but i always make myself throw it out. If i need a tray there will always be more grapes. Moving house was a real eye opener because it meant other people saw my hoard and my dad was vocal about it. It was hard to hear but it helped to see it from other people's perspective. Its still hard finding the balance of what is ok to keep and what isnt but mostly i do ok. My plan for this summer is to clear that corner in my room so i can get new carpet. That's my reward to myself

Oh I see, thank you I didn't know what the treatment consisted of! I've had fluoxotine myself but it didn't suit me so was switched to citalapam.

arseforelbow I hope everything goes well for you, it can't be easy.

that's good Curley and I appreciate you 'sharing' without me sounding twee and what forget;said.

Personally I do find cleaning helps me feel better about things in general and I can control it but then so does a mooch around the shops. I definitely had MH issues myself when my dds lived at home and were teenagers. my ED still upsets me and again I can't control them.

I've been in a house so bad that the council took legal action to declare the occupier as lacking in mental capacity because he wanted to stay there but they considered it so hazardous they were prepared to force him into a home.

Tbh it wasn't as bad on sight as I'd expected!

The toilet wasn't too bad. (He didn't use it)
No animals, thankfully.
Fridge had food over a year old.
No clean crockery or cutlery or work surface. Lots of full bin bags.
So much clutter there was just enough space for 2 people to stand in each room.
Front lock broken so anyone could wander in any time.
Garden a junk yard.
4ft piles of junk in living room.
Windows looked like they hadn't been opened or wiped for years-could hardly see out.
Bed had no sheets, covered in stains, heavily soiled clothes lying around.

No cleaning company would allow their staff to enter on 'health & safety' grounds.

He was a nice enough old guy. I felt sorry for him.

Sorry curly I've just seen your post about how you manage. I understand what you meant before now, I misunderstood amd thought you were obsessive compulsive with cleaning and organising rather than hoarding. I must have seemed a bit of a dick to you!
I think it was very brave of you to go to the GP and ask for help, even if s/he was useless!
Funnily enough, my obsessive compulsive gran's MIL had an enormous hoard. She kept buying from those catalogues that you ordered from over the phone in tge early 90's...think it was her way of trying to get some social interaction. I don't remember much else other than when she died going with my gran and mum to clear her flat out and not being able to get through the front door!

Well done for clearing so much space you should be so proud!

I always think it's better to do something rather than nothing, so even clearing away one item a day or a week or whatever you're comfortable with is a big step.
I'm sure you'll be able to treat yourself to a new carpet soon, good luck!

The home of a friend who put me up for a couple of weeks when I moved to the other end of the country, many years ago. I cooked all my meals in the microwave and ate them out of the packaging as I could stand the thought of using his plates etc. I took my own bed linen thank heavens but it was still rank and I never walked anywhere in bare feet - yuck! Left as soon as I could!