How tidy is your house?

[horseyhorsey17]

This is just following on from a few comments I've seen on the AIBU thread about people not socialising as much as their parents did - a few people saying it's because their homes aren't tidy as they and their partner both work, so they're more embarrassed about having people over. So I just wondered: is this common? My house is always pretty tidy - not immaculate, as I work f/t, and have two dogs (I'm constantly hoovering up moulting labrador hair) and two kids, but one of my kids is naturally really tidy and they both help out, so generally the house is pretty clean. I actually enjoy cleaning (I find it therapeutic) so that helps. I hate decorating though - and bloody gardening, although I do it anyway. Most of my friends' houses always seem pretty tidy too. My late dad, on the other hand, always looked like his house had been burgled. I think him and my stepmum had some kind of endless ongoing passive aggressive row about it not being either of their jobs to clean, and my dad was too tight to pay for a cleaner, so it just never got cleaned! I'm glad I didn't inherit the 'mess' gene.

No judgment from me, I'm just really curious about other people's homes and what level of mess/tidiness you're comfortable with? Do you like your home or do you wish it was bigger/cleaner/fancier?

We have a small home so it's easy to keep tidy. 2 bedrooms and a box room, one bathroom, one washroom, kitchen, living room, home office. I have a friend who has 3 bathrooms and she says she hates it.

I work part time and choose my own hours so there's always time to keep on top of things. Toddler has plenty of toys but they're stored in a cupboard and rotated out every few weeks so there's never a jumble of too many things out at once. Easier to tidy away at the end of the day.

I'm very lazy when it comes to hoovering and cleaning so I like it to be as quick and easy as possible. I'd rather be doing anything else. Small house and minimal belongings seems to work best for us. Too much clutter and I can't cope. We regularly have clearouts to avoid clutter creep. We could have afforded a bigger home if we stretched ourselves but I don't want more space to keep clean and tidy.

If someone messaged to say they were popping round in ten minutes our house is always tidy enough. All of our friends have young children too. Everyone knows it's sometimes chaos.

I think my house is tidy enough, and my friends/neighbour houses are tidy enough. But we (or visitors!) are not comparing our houses to the reality or even memories of our granny's house... We are comparing and competing with unattainable over-filtered and ever-edited standards of social media.

My house is an absolute tip at the moment. It's too small and we have too much clutter. I get easily distracted, so find it really hard to focus on getting anything done. Throw in a baby and a dp that has a tendency to buy more stuff and also never seems to see the mess or does any kind of cleaning. Just lil ol' me doing all the housework.
The only time it looks any good is when people are coming over to see us, then we pull our fingers out!

I did similar actually - downsized to a smaller home (bog standard three bed semi) so that I could stay on top of it (and also so the mortgage repayments were smaller). I do love my home, even though certain aspects (it is built into a hill so gets black mould really easily) drive me a bit nuts.

And TV - the houses you see that apparently belong to normal people with bog standard jobs on TV shows are invariably like showhomes. Especially in thrillers for some reason - they always have big open plan homes with lots of glass and giant fancy fridges that they immediately get a glass of white wine from every time they walk in.

Our house is always pretty tidy and clean, children grown up and moved on, so just me DH and dog. Having said that, we are looking to move as I am fed up with cleaning it - its 5 bed and even if you close the doors on the unused bedrooms, crap seems to tiptoe and creep into these rooms and it all needs tidying again. Added to the fact my dog thinks she can make a nest in any bed and my DH not being the tidiest - drives me up the wall. I work FT still, so always on the go. I cannot WAIT to downsize. I am clearing out clutter as we speak and I honestly feel the need to have a bigger home (once children have gone of course) is utter madness when there are just two of you . So its a hamster wheel of drudgery ....

Our house seems to go from tidy to messy in a blink of an eye, on the days when we're at home of an evening then everything is quite tidy but a couple of days of being busy or away at the weekend (when we usually do a big clean) then it looks like a tip. We have 2 bathrooms and a downstairs toilet they are usually always quite clean and tidy, the adult living room is always tidy, the kids living room seems to be quite tidy and then all of a sudden needs a two hour clean. The bedrooms are never too bad but the hall gets cluttered and the kitchen diner seems to collect clutter too - we are not naturally tidy people so have to work hard to keep it tidy

I remember reading something about how certain places like the dresser in the hall or the table in the kitchen can become 'in trays' where you end up dumping all your stuff when you walk into the house, and then it just builds up from there. I can totally understand this.

It's a bit of a tip tbh.

We do a big tidy and clean on a Saturday morning but by the end of Sunday it's already looking messy again. We have DC age 4 and 6 and both work full time, so not much gets done on weeknights in terms of tidying beyond the very basics like wiping down the kitchen surfaces and loading/unloading the dishwasher.

There are four of us in our 3 bedroom mid sized property, 2 kids under 6 plus a cat.

I am a SAHP but that means my youngest is usually home all the time too.

Eldest has multiple clubs etc after school so we are out of the house after school hours 3 out of 5 days, and on a Saturday.

My DH works full time plus OT so is often out then home/eat/sleep and out again.

I'd say our house is CLEAN but not as tidy as I'd like. It gets cluttered quickly with all the quick changes and pit stops between work and activities etc.

Our robot hoover is on atleast 3 times a day on the lower floor, and is placed upstairs every couple of days. (no food etc allowed upstairs for kids or pets)

I struggled with it all for a while, years actually, but then I realised with our life and family keeping tidy is a constant chore at the moment... So I don't stress over it as much now. So long as things are clean under the clutter I am happy.

Fairly tidy and clean, could be better so I'd rather notice before coming around.

I'm on my own and all my socialising is elsewhere. My living room has 2 bicycles and my conservatory an inflated SUP, always ready to go. I'm just too busy to be on top of everything 24/7

I'm trying to raise the bar a bit, I reckon I could & should do better just to meet my own preferences but having moved into the house in Dec there's so many tweaks and improvements to make 😅

Mine is very clean and tidy. 3 bed, main bathroom, ensuite, downstairs loo, kitchen utility and living room.

I live alone so it's easy, I hate clutter and clean up as I go along. Always tidy up after dinner (kitchen) and before bed (living room) and before I leave for work, then get through the house in an hour most weekends.

It's harder if you many more than one person in the house and have lots of stuff.

I wouldn't want anyone rummaging under the stairs or in the utility but, yeah, my house is clean and tidy the vast majority of the time.

I can’t do mess for long, so when it does get that way, it doesn’t stay that way for long.

Our home is not that big, we are minimalist so that definitely helps. Two young adult children still at home. DH works away Mon- Fri. Large dog and a Maine Coon cat. I love to clean though and rearrange furniture so it always gets a good clean that way. I always tidy everything up before bed. Robot vacuum is always on the go.

Very tidy….I never go to bed with a messy house….got a wash waiting to go on line in the morning…..kitchen and utility are spotless, floors all mopped downstairs….pillows plumped….everything in its place…..but I’m late 50s, my kids are all grown and flown and I only work 2 days a week so no excuse

Our house is pretty clean all the time thanks to a regular (basic) cleaning routine and tidy about 70% of the time… I do 10 minute tidies once or twice a day to try and manage the clutter. The kitchen and hall seem to be mess magnets. I could get the house ‘visitor ready’ in about 20 minutes though any day so don’t consider it too bad.

Bearing in mind that my husband is the untidiest man in the world - fortunately he has redeeming qualities to offset that - the state of our house right now is not bad. Or maybe it is and he's just worn me down over the years.......