To those of you that live in a show home....

[Mummy2022FT]

Maybe not as extreme as a 'show home' but If your home is presentable and you actually maintain it (the hardest thing of all) how do you do it? What are your tips/routine?

My house is horribly messy, but when i need a good clean up I watch cleaning tips from traveller women, they're experts at keeping a clean home! Search for traveller cleaning tips on YouTube or tiktok because they're so helpful.

I tidy as I go. I don’t go to bed leaving rooms messy and stuff laying around, everything is put away,

It's really easy. I'm very organised naturally, I tidy as I go. A quick clean and a quick eufy round the floors, and it looks fine. It's not spotless, it could even do with a dust, but it's presentable and if someone popped in now, I wouldn't cringe.

In fact I've got literally nothing to do for the next 4 hours till I go out with 2 friends for their birthday curry. I always have loads of free time, because I just get all jobs, all washing and ironing done, ages ago.

I use the organised mum method and keep on top of the routine quite strictly. It means no one room is left more than a week so dust is manageable and busy areas are cleaned daily. Same with washing, load on every morning before the school run and out on the line as soon as I'm back. Clothes dry from the day before put away, beds made and focus room cleaned. I do all this before I sit at my laptop each morning so I'm done and dusted by 9.30/10. Kitchen mess is minimal because I tidy as I go. Very rare I leave the dishes from the night before and all school letters/mail is sorted and dealt with instead of piling up on the side. I'm a bit ocd so wouldn't let anyone in the house if it wasn't ship shape. I actually envy those who love quite chaotic, their homes are so welcoming and they don't give a hoot. I just couldn't do it 🫣

I think keeping a show house is effortlessly easy if you don't live with untidy people...

It’s not show home , but it’s clean and tidy most of the time. I’m a minimalist which helps enormously with keeping it that way. I do little and often. You have to maintain each day, not a big clean up once a week.

Oh and I go through each room every morning resetting if needed and tidying and cleaning up. Takes very little time and energy.

In what way they helpful? If you are messy?

Minimalism. I constantly declutter. I’ve found over the years by constant battle was cleaning up the clutter. I keep cupboards tidy with shelves and hooks and keep the bare minimum in them. My rooms have minimal furniture. My room is a bed, wardrobe and dressing table. My children have kallax storage and cupboards with shelves in. I honestly find it quick and simple to clean up the mess when needed because I prefer to bin what we don’t use or need. Clothes are sorted by season and I store away the winter in summer and vice Versa. My living room is a corner sofa, coffee table and sideboard with the tv on the wall. It’s very small though and this makes cleaning up after the children that bit easier. My only issue is the laundry, that is my biggest problem when it comes to the housework.

I tidy and clean pretty much constantly. Cleaner for really thorough clean once a week. Declutter regularly.

We're both tidy people by nature so everything is always put back in its place when it's used, there's never really any mess. I have set things I clean or organise each day to keep up a routine - my friends always joke about it because whenever they come round I apologise for the mess if I've got a cup in the sink 😂 they're also always amazed that the house doesn't smell as I've got cats, that's one of the biggest things people comment on.

Hoover twice a week, clean bathrooms properly every week but toilets a quick brush each day, bed always made, kitchen cleaned each night when doing my nightly "closing" routine. I plump cushions when I leave a seat, damp dust a few times a week etc. Tbh it's definitely a manifestation of my OCD!

Simple-
All the family play an equal part

I clean once a week thoroughly - windows/ skirting boards/ dusting / hoover / mop

Fridge / oven monthly but wipe daily

Microwave daily wipe

Dp does washing / dishwasher as much as I do
Everything has a place

Kids clean up after themselves and wipe all surfaces

Robot hoover daily and have a gardener

All of the above ( except I don’t have a gardener so the gardens a mess!)
But you also need to be of a mindset of putting everything away and constantly maintaining.
I never leave anything until tomorrow….. I’ve learned the hard way, that just allows things to pile up.
Get on top of it all, then it’s much easier to stay on top of it. But it does take a constant maintenance

We bought our house as a show home but I changed everything. We do keep it as a "show" home though as we love it so much and we love it looking it's best.

At the moment it's just dh, myself and my adult dd though we have just hosted my sister's family. We have 14 hrs cleaning a week and dh and I both keep it looking good though dd definitely creates most of the work for our cleaner!

I'm taking tips! We both work full time and ga e a large house so it's not easy!
I'm taking away from this thread to do little bits to tidy along the way

• Don't own too much stuff.
• Have a place for everything.
• Tidy things away immediately - don't leave things for later.
• Don't have kids!
• WFH 3-4 days a week, providing opportunity to do a few quick chores throughout the day

Thanks everyone. Im one of those tidiers that waits till it all builds up and then have to spend one whole day (literally the WHOLE day) tidying and cleaning

I tidy as I go, do all the “every day” chores first thing in the morning (laundry, dishwasher, wiping down the kitchen and bathroom) and then clean a room a day. Takes no more than an hour in total. Once you’re in the routine it’s honestly easy.

I used to be like this. Dh and I are naturally unorganised and messy but we had a massive declutter (an embarrassing amount of ‘stuff’) and I now do things as I go so we no longer need big cleaning sessions.
I do like TOMM but don’t really need it anymore as everything is done already.

Absolutely. I don't live with the right people for that.

No show home here but I find an app called Tody really helpful. I track all cleaning stuff there.

Now if I have a spare few mins between meetings or waiting for the kettle to boil I look at the app and see what 'red items' I can tick off in that time. Beforehand I found it hard to prioritize and could only really clean in big blocks of time. Doing little bits here and there has made it much easier to keep on top of stuff.

Doing things straight away makes a big difference.

Say I've written a card and wrapped a present on the kitchen table, I'll immediately put the scissors back in the kitchen drawer, put any packaging and scraps of paper in the bin, run the pen back upstairs to the holder on my desk, put the sellotape back in the correct drawer, neatly roll up the wrapping paper and put it under the spare bed where it lives etc, so the job is fully done and dusted.

Everything in its place and a place for everything.
Reset the living room before bed. Tidy cushions, put stuff away.
Don’t leave supper dishes overnight.
During the day, clear up as you go.

My mother’s mantra was “Put it back where you got it from.”
This was because she, like me, had a place for everything and everything was put back in its designated place.
Try it.

Keep everything as minimal as you can and use clever storage.

I'm naturally a very messy person. I keep on top of things because if I didn't my house would be a shithole.

There is no in between. So I put everything away when if finished, because if I didn't it would spiral very quickly.

Everything thinks I'm a very tidy organised person, when really I'm an entire Monica cupboard waiting to be discovered!