How messy is the average person's home?

[Astressedmumoftwo]

I have two kids, six indoor cats (two in foster) and an average sized semi detached house. While I can get my house "surface tidy" by most people's standards within an hour, if you open cupboards and drawers you'll find a very different story, and would possibly be killed by an avalanche. They're full of cr*p. Often I shove random stuff into a big reusable bag and dump them in a cupboard so they're out of sight when speed cleaning.

This weekend we are going through and trying to sort everything and throw a lot out , and I'm really overwhelmed with how much stuff we have in random places. I feel like I've barely made a dent.

Is this normal or am I bordering on hoarding territory?

We're just clean and tidy enough on the surface for any visitors apart from my mother, but the insides of the cupboards and drawers are immaculate. Well, most of them are. DH (son of a hoarder, starting to exhibit traits himself as he gets older) is a devil for taking over spaces and filling them with stuff he acquires and forgets about.

I'm militant about clutter. Small house, two kids and DH, I have to be. DH is verging on hoarder, I find random stuff in the Loft that's rescued from the trash that we have and will have no need for. Drives me mad.

I never have clutter anywhere. Twenty years of being married to soldier will do that to you. We moved every few years, and all that packing and unpacking made me very good at not accumulating stuff. No point packing stuff when it is never actually used. My place is always "visitor ready" and the cupboards contain fairly well organised things which are often used.

It's normal in our house too, though I wish it wasn't. I want to find the time and energy to chuck it all away.

We are moving and we could have ordered 2 skips with the stuff we got rid of. I still haven't sorted my clothes which some I've kept for 10 years in the hope I'll be a size 8 again 🤣. It may not feel like you've made a dent but keep chipping away at it and try not to buy things to replace any clutter you may have.

We have cupboards of shame that grudgingly get tackled once a year or so. If it's behind a closed door it can sod off IMO.

I have a super tidy house, no judgement on messy houses , this is just how I prefer to live.
However, I am ALWAYS decluttering or as I call it - having a clear out !
That includes the loft and shed too.

I really try not the buy much.
I'm working through toiletries now to help clear the bathroom.

Our piles of junk aren't even hidden in cupboards 🤷‍♀️

@DockOTheBay

Our piles of junk aren't even hidden in cupboards 🤷‍♀️

Haha same here, atm!

@florianfortescue

My house was very tidy and orderly until I had kids. Now every surface has piles of crap on it and every drawer/cupboard is full. I try to discard or recycle things on a rolling basis but it does get me down sometimes. I hope I'll get back on top of it one day!

Yes this is me! I’m a naturally organised and tidy person but I just don’t have the time or energy with three little kids and a messy husband!

My house looks quite neat and tidy but open the dresser cupboard or the sideboard cupboards and piles of old bills dating back to the early 2010's, Christmas tinsel, old batteries and broken pens will fall out.
Last week an old Nokia 3310 fell at my feet and I can't even remember owning it.

My house goes from tidy to have-we-been-burgled at remarkable speed but it can be back to tidy again in 10-30 minutes (ignoring the dc’s bedrooms).

So it’s definitely more of a lived in look. I’d drive myself crazy if I tried to keep it looking perfect but I wouldn’t panic about people coming round because I can pull it back into shape fairly quickly.

I’ve decluttered a lot to get to that point. Everything has a place that it can return to. The problem I used to have was that there was a lot of stuff that didn’t have an actual home, so tidying just moved the problem piles around.

Clutterbug would categorise those of you who have cupboards packed full of hidden clutter as ladybug organisers who need things out of sight to feel calm, and are better to sort into big categories. Figuring out that kind of thing and decluttering ruthlessly have made a huge difference to me.

Mine looks permanently cluttered at the moment plus I'm trying to get the kids to put things away when they're done with them (in their defence, they're 2 and 4). The kids toys and books are out of control at the moment, although I took some up to my office to rotate recently.
I need to kondo everywhere and get it organised to start with, but I just don't have the time. I think maybe I need to do one area a day, even one room a day at the moment just seems too much.

@KylieCharlene

My house looks quite neat and tidy but open the dresser cupboard or the sideboard cupboards and piles of old bills dating back to the early 2010's, Christmas tinsel, old batteries and broken pens will fall out. Last week an old Nokia 3310 fell at my feet and I can't even remember owning it.

Yep that's me. I actually binned a box of tangled chargers rather than sort them as I figured I hadn't touched them in a year

Needed a battery once
Dad "you should have one in your emergency cupboard, you know the one you keep lightbulbs, batteries etc in?"
Me "i have emergency alcohol, makeup and scented candles. Not fucking batteries"

I don't know what an "average person" is, but my house is super tidy. I have to say that every drawer and cupboard is tidy too. I've always been this way, even as a child, but I've also spent the last 4 years (it's genuinely taken that long) sorting through everything we own, bit by bit, and doing a major clear out. So there isn't much to keep tidy now!

I think these things can easily get on top of you. I have a couple of specific spaces which seem to get filled with clutter - a drawer and basket in the kitchen, the top of a low cupboard, bedside table. I do try and sort through different areas fairly regularly rather than all in one go. Clearing out cupboards is the worst job. Can you set a timeframe for doing it in chunks rather than trying to do it all in one go? I will dedicate an hour at the weekend to, eg sort out the stuff on top of the cupboard. Or I use school holidays as I work in a school and give myself a different area to tackle per holiday. Eg I've just used Easter to sort out th children's clothes.

DH verges on being a hoarder though so I try not to enter the garage, shed or loft!

DH is verging on hoarder, I find random stuff in the Loft that's rescued from the trash that we have and will have no need for. Drives me mad.

My DH must have another secret wife. Whenever I clear stuff out, he insists on checking through the rubbish bags before I throw them out. I try to do clear-outs when he isn't home now so he's none the wiser.

I have a lady who comes in to clean 2 hours per week, which gets the essentials done, and I have found it inspiring to pick a project that needs sorting. Recently it was the units in the laundry, previously its book cases.

Sometimes it pays to get help.

Our house isn't visitor friendly. The mess is a nightmare. In the family home we had an odds and sods drawer. A camping cupboard. A wash room for clothes and cupboards in our rooms. And a few communal cupboards. A garage and shed. And a full attic. It mostly worked.

Currently we don't really have much in the way of cupboard space. A small house, no garage, no shed. And it's utterly depressing.

Personally I can see it all, just knowing it's there. Partner on the other hand is a scoop up and hide type cleaner. Under the couch etc. Cleaning involves lots of moving, and is a complete trial. And stuff isn't particularly accessible. That's the most awkward part.

Sister in law has cupboards organised, but they are literally jam packed. Open the doors at your peril.

At least yours is visitor ready. We have two seats empty and every other table, top, chair, item of furniture is covered in boxes and bags.

Ironically a few big cupboards and a shed would solve lots of problems. Oh how we would love a cloak room.

I would love house guests. It's just not possible. I find just keeping on top of the kitchen hard enough.

I had too much stuff. Not hoarder territory but almost.
I've decluttered and decluttered and now I can breathe! Storage spaces are also organised.
My dc's have also been inspired to do this, and now our house is reasonably minimalist.

I often feel like a poor housekeeper due to having untidy surfaces. But then I catch sight of friends’ houses in the background of Facebook photos and think oh well it looks like we are just a typical family! We went for a bbq yesterday. It’s a beautiful house, however the hosting couple spent ages after dinner cleaning everything to within an inch of its life. We all pitched in to get the platters washed when it became obvious they weren’t going to sit down until it was all washed, dried and put away. But they carried on wiping everything down, hoovering the floor, putting a wash on with the used tea towels etc. The rest of us were whispering confessions that we would have turned the dishwasher on, thrown everything else in the sink to soak and sat down to enjoy our guests’ company! I’d rather visit a lived in house and feel welcome than a perfect display home where I’m terrified of accidentally spilling something.

Shit, I feel crappy reading this. I’ve piles of stuff everywhere. I try but it’s almost like me vs the rest of the family and I get to the stage where I think, well if you can’t beat them, join them! An unexpected visitor is my worst nightmare.

I now have a permanent bag ready for donation. Means I can easily just sort one small area into keep, donate or bin and it only takes a minute. When the bag is full I drop it off and hang a new empty one to start filling.

With children there’s always bits to donate. A top Ds outgrew but I didn’t like enough to keep, some hard Painting craft Ds received yesterday for example age 12+, he’s only 1. I’m not storing that another 10+ years before it’s suitable.

We don't have much crap (several of the drawers we have downstairs are empty), but I put it down to having moved a couple of times in the last 5 years.

Also, I tend to buy good quality items that last rather than things that need replacing. I don't keep things that can be stored digitally unless I have to (eg audiobook as opposed to a physical book).

I'm ruthless with clothing and donate or sell things that we will no longer use.

The only thing I have loads of is beauty products, but they are all organised so I let myself not be a minimalist in those areas.