Common phrase

[Scottishshortbread11877]

Hi all, on the back of another thread I started thinking about what people actually mean when they say "my house is messy but clean." I can't imagine bins/toilets/worktops/floors being very clean if the house is messy. Do people clean around the mess? Surely when cleaning you would pick things up and put them away. Or if it is cleaned and then becomes messy surely it is no longer clean? I imagine messy to mean toys everywhere, clothes not put away, dishes not done, dust everywhere, so I would never think somewhere can be messy but clean. Every time I read the phrase I always conclude that their house cannot be clean if it is messy. No judgement but just doubting how clean the homes are while simultaneously being messy at same time.

But what about when people tidy then clean, and it gets messy again. It’s not suddenly got dirty.

I mentioned that scenario in the op, if it's messy again then it is no longer clean in my opinion.

"Or if it is cleaned and then becomes messy surely it is no longer clean?"

Messy and clean are two different things. You obviously disagree though, so I’ll leave you with your opinion.

For me it means there are toys all over the playroom floor but it was dusted, hovered and the floors washed yesterday so it’s clean but messy. There maybe also be a collection of random items in the kitchen bench which we don’t use for food prep. The stuff will be tidied up within 24 hours but for now there is visual clutter.

I suppose it depends on how often you feel the need to clean.

Yes it is still clean.

You have conflated clean and messy in your head, but you're incorrect.

If person A thoroughly cleans the house then puts the washing on the sofa to be sorted later, leaves out some books, starts a jigsaw on the table, leaves the ironing board up - that makes their house messy, not dirty.

How could the house become more dirty because things are not nearly stored?

I think of messy as items not in their proper place - such as DH’s pile of clean laundry lying on a chair, waiting to be put away. Or the dog’s toys dropped in the hallway on greeting someone - that sort of thing is messy, but it’s not dirty.

Dog hair everywhere, crumbs on countertops, dust - that’s dirty. The two are not synonymous.

I agree that messy and clean are two different things. Clean things in the wrong place is clean but messy

I'd day our house is messy because there's always toys out, or shoes not put away properly, dishes on the draining board, the wfh stuff all the dining table, a big sort out going on in the conservatory and I prefer not look in the preteens bedrooms.

But every room is throughly clean and tidied in rotation. It just doesn't take long for life to reappear.

Yes, agree with pp. It's the scenario when a room has been cleaned recently and then becomes messy with things scattered about. I know you mention this in your OP and reject it, but I disagree with you.

To me messy means untidy, clean means clean. So by the end of the day when my DS has been home it is often messy, eg Lego out, books all over, giant cuddly toys etc. It's tidied away before he goes to bed and the house is tidy again. I haven't had to clean again eg dust/polish, clean the bathroom, hoover top to bottom, because it was already clean albeit messy/untidy.
Another example, I recently decided to pull out the understairs cupboard and organise it, while I did that the hall and morning room were messy because there was stuff everywhere. It was still clean.

Theres too many factors to know what the situation is unless you're checking the place

If somewhere is clean, but then gets messy, its not suddenly 'dirty', its just untidy and messy

If somewhere is clean, then gets messy and stays messy for weeks on end, months on end, by the end of that period it cannot possibly be clean because you cannot effectively clean around mess, you cant get to the floors or surfaces or behind things to clean while its still a mess

It’s not that hard, OP. Think of ‘messy’ as a synonym for ‘recently cleaned but untidied by people leaving stuff around’.

If I clean the living room and then DC comes in and spreads toys everywhere, it becomes messy - but it's not had time to get dirty.