Any other MNers raised by wolves?

[NotQuiteCockney]

By which I mean, raised in complete TV-ready squalor?

I grew up in total chaos. As an adult, whenever I brought anyone to visit my parents, I would warn them, over and over, ahead of time, about how messy and gross it was. (And these were all people who'd seen my flat, so you'd think they'd believe me.)

They were all shocked and horrified to see the house.

I do think being raised this way makes me really bad at keeping things orderly, even just basically tidying up after myself.

Any other Romulus and Remus types out there? Have any of you managed to retrain yourselves? (I don't live in squalor now, but then, I have a cleaner. And DH is tidier than me, like 99% of the population.)

I like to think the plethora of books makes us look Intellectual and Above Housework. In reality, of course, they just make us look pretentious and chaotic.

Hmm, I keep pruning the books down. But then, that gives me the excuse to bring new ones in!
Actually, many of my friends who have ultra-tidy homes have no books

No books is just weird and disturbing and I would be very, very careful FMV, I'm sure they're lovely people but they must have strange, disturbing secrets

Flylady is so called because she teaches fly fishing

it was somebody else that then went on to mention the FLY couls stand Finally Loving Yourself

meaning help yourself feel better by never losing everything again and wanting to in=vite people ionto the house

my grandma got the pledge out before the home help came to clean, if that gives you any idea. my mum had four kids to look after so while the house wasn't disgusting or anything it was a bit tatty and absolutely chock-full of washing at various stages of the process. that's the bit i've inherited. how do you put clothes away immediately? mine pile up... so depressing.

oh yes, I blame my mother ENTIRELY (see my other thread on the theme of 'my mother's nuttier than yours...'. It saves me from taking ANY responsibility for my household management, which is why I'm always on here asking for stupid Martha Stewart advice ad finding out about how to fold fitted sheets (no, really...) since I missed that part of the genetic makeup/housewife training since my mother was always playing darts at the pub, writing her novel, locking herself in the toilet to read Virginia Woolf or dragging us out to Reclaim the Night demos... the poor little baby that was born into our communal household got Giardiasis infections while we, used to living in a layer of greasy fly-blown filth were always healthy.

And good on my mum I say.

So despite being 'considerably more bourgeois than her' I am keeping up the good fight and trying to save the cost of a wooden floor by getting such a thick layer of solid weetabix I'll be able to polish it soon

I do have a cleaner now though

But with Aitch on the clothese - isn't the sofa actually for storing unironed clothes on?

in ours it's the chair in mine and dh's bedroom. it's about three feet away from the over-full laundry basket, which only serves to point out the dreary circularity of the process.

Friends that we don't know to well are coming to stay imminently ...house of course like a skip..and for about two seconds the dilemma was do I bust a hump getting all Stepfordy and in a faff or do they just take us as they find us ? IF they can find us in amongst all the piles of stuff that is.
Looks like they are going to have to get lupine with the rest of us.....

There is worse than no books.
It is a Media Room with shelves with leather spine effect filling.
I have seen one.

As dd had to bellow with the rest of her class at assembly last week (which I thought not quite felicitously worded, but there you go) "Life without books is a body without a soul".

Was raised by wolves and now depressingly wolfish. Would like to change, but hope never to iron.