CONFESSION TIME: Show House or Slum House? (sliding scale) What drives your standards?

[bigeyes]

I have been struggling to keep on top of things in my house and I have been usng the Slattern thread to help. DH nagged me today and we've done 'crisis' cleaning together!

Whilst grumpily getting on with tasks I wondered to what extent does everyone clean or not as I can never seem to get the balance right.

Do you think standards of presentation have gone up with the advent of DIY/Decorating/House programs on TV?

What drives your standards?

I'm usually somewhere in the middle.

If I know someone is coming over I make an effort to tidy round. If someone arrives unexpected...well I usually have to appologise for the mess!

Hi Lucysmam are you still doing Fly??

Am at the idea of cleaning every day - how do people have time?

I clean once a week, hoover every day, wash up after every meal (no dirty dishes hanging around but clean stuff left to drain). House is tidy when we go to bed each night but I don't tidy obsessively during the day.

So fairly balanced I would think!

When I was first pg, a couple of female friends both said the same thing, at different times : "Your lo will not remember if the table was polished, but will remember fun, games, reading, and outings"

It's always been at the forefront of my mind, hence my house is more waynetta than anthea, but everyone's happy, and it's not dirty, just "surface untidy"

AAAWWWWW Two - this is was gets me I hate it when I its gets to 10.30 am or later and realise I have just gave DS his various boxes of toys (as requested!) from upstairs and not actually sat with him. I am new to SAHM i still think I am going through period of readjustment! IE

When you stay at home you DO have more mess and more dishes from extra meals but you also have the misconception that you have loads of time and you dont, it is easy to make the task fit the time avaialable - alonmg with all this domestic (oh i'll do this that and the other in house).

I have been able to do extra stuff with DS that I wouldnt have otherwise done and I never feel stressed or run down but this bloody 'balance' doesn't seem to arrive for me.

I am Anthea trapped in Waynettas house (and some might say body ). I can't relax or feel happy unless the place is clean and ordered - but I still haven't hoovered the stairs since before Christmas

Dilette - dont worry about stairs - we only just hoovered 'santas magic fairy stars' that got trodden all the way through from a visit 22nd Dec 08! (execept living room)

Yes I do WW have 2.5 stone to lose at least and put on three pound but we hey stuck to dreaded points today!

Hi Bellavita, yes I am - why do you ask?

Well depends on your POV I suppose, a Waynetta would think i'm near Anthea, and vice versa.

In the middle - i don't do much cleaning (We have cleaners who come in once a week) but my house still feels like chaos, with piles of stuff everywhere.

Then i see one of those programmes, like How Clean is your House or Life of Grime and realise i live in a show home, lol

Had family coming to stay and was out with other mums. When i mentioned that family were coming later, one said
'I don't know how you can be out, I would be at home cleaning all day'

Not my philosophy of life I'm afraid, my family know me & my standards & being out having fun with the DCs was far more important.

i just do superficial cleaning, place gets grubbier! What tips me over is when I can't find things - clothes particularly seem to end up all over the house. Then I have to have a tidy up blitz.

Must go - got to find school swimming kit before 8.30am...

I strive to be more Anthea than Waynetta but fail miserably most days. It makes me feel really stressed a lot of the time and I end up putting off going for a walk with DS until the house is clean and it never is.

I was telling my mother this and she told me to think of this instead:

"don't waste all day striving for the perfect house because when you reach the end of your life you will not look back and wish you did more cleaning"

Now I understand why she has the magnet on her fridge that says something about cleaning with children is like shoveling snow while its snowing.

Twoluvlykids, I think this is probably the same point you were making.

Oh I must have woken up full of sayings this morning... must eat and get back to normal.

I definitely like to live in a clean and tidy home at all times.

How can you hoover through every day if you have teens?! Do you just mean "public" areas, surley not kids' rooms too?

Somewhere in between, I am obsessive about drawers and wardrobes, they are all extremely neat, however I don't iron when I put things away, just as and when we wear them.

I could never have a show house though as we have far too much stuff and it would make me feel uncomfortable.

At the moment I am seperated and the DC are in full time nursery as I mainly work from home so not a lot of mess is generated thank god.

Somewhere in between. Would love to have a home like Anthea's but can't be arsed. Think it's a bit sad too. (Or that's my excuse )
Good days it's clean-ish and tidy-ish. I call it "Presentable and lived in look". Other days it's a tip (specially during school holidays!)
However, it's NEVER good enough for my MIL.

Right I think from reading posts that I am too obsessive about this cleaning business and I am going to stick to

1. Tidy up after oneself
2. Dishes and laundry done daily
3. Big clean mondays, top on thursday.

Jenice - these type of sayings have been rattling around in my head for a while and I believe them to be true - I must reisit the urge to go to extreme, then crash and burn into waynetta.

Besides my DH asked what was going on with my hair and could I make appt at haridressers - he said I could take Credit Card!

bigeyes, lol at DHs comment... my DP has said the same but I told him that I'm going for the birdnest look cos its supposed to be cool these days. The frizzy bits are strategically placed everyday!!

By stickyj on Mon 12-Jan-09 08:53:39
How can you hoover through every day if you have teens?! Do you just mean "public" areas, surley not kids' rooms too?

i hoover my teens room most days.