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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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Original poster

Does being tidy come naturally to you?

74 replies

JonesTheSteam · 19/11/2006 21:29

Been thinking about this today.

I am just not naturally tidy. I am absolutely useless at putting things away after I have used them. I leave things all over the place, and then moan when I can't find them. I know it's sheer laziness and I'm making more work for myself in the long run, but that's the way I am.

Don't get me wrong - my house is generally ok for someone with two young children. But I do tend to leave it until it's getting on my nerves before having a blitz and tidying up/cleaning!!

But it just doesn't come naturally. Do you think there's a way of making it become natural?

OP posts:

satine · 20/11/2006 15:11

I'm quite obsessed with tidiness - any stress or anxiety in my life is expressed as a need to obsessively tidy and de-clutter. I'm like Lockets in that I feel genuinely happy if the house is clean and tidy. How sad am I? I often think that my life would be far easier if, like my mum, I couldn't care less about a bit of mess.

peainthepod · 20/11/2006 15:45

Not naturally tidy at all and neither is DH . Unfortunately I also hate it when house is a mess and needs cleaning. I don't even mind tidying/ cleaning just not sure where to begin and what to do!

I do manage to load/ unload dishwasher and keep washing up to date but thats about it. My mum is neat freak and has days when she does certain things. Came as a bit of a shock to me how quickly my flat became a mess when I left home .

If anyones got any tips on how I can start some sort of schedule that'd be great.

Ruwla · 20/11/2006 17:12

flylady is a good website

elibumbum · 21/11/2006 13:14

I am not naturally tidy. I have a threshold of untidiness - as soon as it is breached a tidying frenzy takes place! I wish I was naturally tidy as it would make things easier in the long run!

abgirl · 21/11/2006 13:55

Hmm, flylady is OK but for me is too prescriptive. I don't think I am naturally tidy but feel much happier when everything's put away and the place looks clean. I work full time and devised a schedule for my DH when he gave up work to become SAHD. Is kind of like this:

Mon - change and wash all bedding
Tues - change and wash all towels and clean bathrooms
Fri - total house blitz, clean, dust and hoover all rooms throughly. (We spend an hour doing this in the evening together)

In addition we do laundry every day; I wash up each evening after dinner and we have a general tidy up of the toys in the lounge. I also hoover in the evenings if the state of the floor warrants it.

We are gradually going round each room in the house and decluttering/clearing out and this is making our weekly tidying much easier.

3xamum · 21/11/2006 14:56

I think I am bordering on the Monica Gellar (for you friends lovers out there, you will know what I mean!) Even before kids it was a standing joke amongst friends that my bedroom in our shared house was pristine and they were all disappearing under a pile of rubbish. Its annoying though when I'm knackered but still feel the need to tidy.

3xamum · 21/11/2006 14:56

3xamum · 21/11/2006 14:57

Never done a double post before. Whoops

SoMuchToBits · 21/11/2006 15:05

Yes, I've always been tidy. When I was a child and other children moaned about being made to tidy their rooms, I used to think "but why isn't their room tidy in the first place?"

It never occurred to me not to be tidy, just seemed normal. However my dh is not at all tidy, and thinks I'm obsessive (surely not???)

sockmonkey · 21/11/2006 16:06

I try to be tidy, but it is just not easy. DH is fantastic at tidying - it seems to take him 2 minutes. My problem is I get easily distracted. I start to tidy, find something else that needs doing and do that instead.
Part of the problem is that because DH is such a neat freak, I tend to leave it for him to do

msrlmoss · 21/11/2006 16:14

I used to be ultra tidy; obsessively so. Then I moved in with dh, at the time the messiest man on earth, or so I thought, all because - shock horror - he didn't pair up his socks!

I started to relax my standards to cope with him a little better, but funnily enough, when we bought our first house last year, he became really houseproud almost overnight! It was like he'd just never seen the point of tidying a rented house.

Of course we'll have to see what happens after the arrival of dc1 in March...

sweetkitty · 21/11/2006 16:33

yes another neat freak here

I try and limit myself to 2 hours cleaning a day then I stop and say sod it and play with the kids (and the odd bit of MNing) I don't want them growing up remembering me always cleaning all the time. I think I have got a boit more relaxed about it now but like others on here I cannot relax until the house feels tidy.

cece · 21/11/2006 16:36

Not naturally tidy but I do get very anal about some things. Like how the shopping oges on the conveyor belt at supermarket and then into the bags - get rather stressed when one of the staff 'helps' me pack my bags. Sometimes they put cupboard things with firdge things

Blackduck · 21/11/2006 16:37

No - and dp is even worse.....I do blitzs where I clear up piles of papers (does the damn stuff breed?), put things away etc.
Funny, when dp does go for it he is anally tidy (and I can't find anything cos it all has to be out of sight...)

cece · 21/11/2006 16:37

sweetkitty 2 hours per day!!!!

OMG our house is lucky if I do that much a week!

comebacksummer · 21/11/2006 16:56

i am the worst kind of person in this regard, as I only ever SURFACE tidy- as long as everything is put away and looks reasonably tidy, I'm happy... but don't ever, ever look in my oven (haven't cleaned it in 10 years, omg...I suspect my MIL may have attacked it every so often though), or under the beds (ditto), or behind the sofa, or behind anything that you wouldn't see the mess from the front...
I am actually scared of lifting up the playroom rug as I haven't touched it for so long things may be living under it... yuck

Albertsmum · 21/11/2006 19:39

Cece - I am totally with you on the supermarket check out thing. Drives me mad when you get help as I have brought all my bags from home and certain things go in certain ones. And nappies and loo roll don't need a plastic bag as well..

Not naturally tidy myself but finding stange pleasure in it gradually. I used to think my flat mate had OCD as she insisted on cleaning our bathroom once a week!! Makes me cringe to think about it.

justamum · 21/11/2006 20:49

do you mean to tell me not everyone has two rolls of carpet in their dining room, 2 pushchairs in the hall and more toys than you can shake a stick at hiding in every available corner, not to mention a master bedroom that is full of junk that used to be in the junk room but is now dd's bedroom!
I am not naturally tidy but I think about it more than DH who never puts or throws anything away. He drives me crackers! This house drives me crackers sometimes because however hard I try I never seem to get to the stage where things are organised sufficiently for cleaning to be easy.

earlysbird · 21/11/2006 21:04

oh I so agree with you about the 'help' with packing thing Cece, I have frequently sent them away, even when I have more than a trolley full of stuff and DTs screaming in the trolley I do like to be organised

Pregoness · 22/11/2006 10:39

I am pretty obsessive about this sort of thing.

All the dusty has to be very evenly spread, toothpaste 'flick marks' have to be on the left AND right hand side of the mirror, no washing up gets down until the bowl AND draining board are totally full, and EVERY door in the house must have atleast one towel, tea towel, item of clothing hanging offa it....

so agree with moondog - "everything has it's place.." - I do believe I have found these places!!!

trixymalixy · 22/11/2006 11:01

I wish I was naturally tidy. My DH and I are terribly untidy.

My DH and I have decided it is time we have a grown up tidy house, but we are tackling this one step at a time.

We started with making the bed every morning, which gradually became habit, and we are adding a new habit every so often e.g. tidying the living room every night before going to bed.

I also agree that having a big de-clutter makes a big difference.

jajas · 22/11/2006 20:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pregoness · 23/11/2006 00:54

jajas - I KNOW!!

I am a keen advocate, and practicioner, of Quentin Crisp's theory (bless him), that if you leave the house cleaning for four years...it doesn't get any worse!! Simple.

ludalightsandlanterns · 23/11/2006 07:04

I don't think being tidy has come naturally particularly, just I grew up with a tidy parent and it must of rubbed off....
I have never been a hoarder...and I really can't stand clutter. My dad was a very typical virgo...very particular about things...would spend all afternoon cleaning his brasses and straightening pictures etc.
My house is mainly tidy.... I have three small children who do their damndest to untidy!
We just don't have clutter really.
I also have a good routine now and I am a regular FLYer...which helps get you motivated loads!

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