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Housekeeping

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Original poster

What motivates your housework?

64 replies

SnotBaby · 05/01/2010 20:44

Come on, I need suggestions to help me out of hibernation!

So far the only thing I can come up with is "visitors"

Anyone with a tidy house care to tell me what keeps them going day after day?

OP posts:
coldtits · 05/01/2010 23:37

visitors

clemette · 06/01/2010 00:02

Unexpected visitors, or even people coming to the door and spying the hell-hole that is our hallway.
My new strategy is to make sure the hall is clear every evening, and to do one other little job each day (I am doing the daily flylady missions - today's was to wipe down all the kitchen cupboard fronts).
I am never going to be a domestic goddess due to lack of both time and inclination, but I do like it when the house looks straight. Hmm, still working on how to resolve this conflict...

butterscotch · 06/01/2010 00:24

Visitors - planned ones....

When at home when i get a text from DH saying he is on route I do a quick scoot around i hate housework though with a passion

ninedragons · 08/01/2010 01:29

Biohazard order from the council.

Luckily DD's weekly babysitter is a gem who tidies up while DD has her nap, because she doesn't like sitting down doing nothing or reading for two hours. Nutter.

alypaly · 08/01/2010 01:37

MN is stopping me from cleaning...my house has gone to pot since i found MN last year

solo · 08/01/2010 03:30

Housework? LOL!!!!!!

spilttheteaagain · 08/01/2010 17:36

Coming on here and reading one of those "How often do you hoover/change your sheets/clean the loo etc?" threads generally gets me scurrying around in shame to do said task that everyone else apparently does twice a day and I haven't done since Christmas...

FuriousGeorge · 08/01/2010 18:45

Visitors.Especially ones with clean,tidy orderly homes.Recently I have had a few people around and it has given me am incentive to try and keep control of things-being snowed off work has helped-I swear if I was a SAHM,this place would be spotless.Unfortunately we can't afford for me not to work.

Hassled · 08/01/2010 18:48

A combination of fear of unexpected visitors and the grim realisation that if I leave it too long it just becomes a complete hovel and will take hours to sort. I didn't work out the "Little and Often" approach until I was in my late 30s, though.

displayuntilbestbefore · 08/01/2010 18:51

What motivates me is the fact that if my house is clean and tidy I can invite friends over spontaneously and not have to worry about dashing round like a crazy woman hoovering before they come. Just makes me feel calm and organised!Plus it give sme more time to spend with dcs if everything is kept on top of on a daily basis.
So I suppose you would say the possibility of visitors is the motivation for me!

MayorNaze · 08/01/2010 18:52

somehow i have got the idea that it is equal to exercise and so it means that i can then "treat" myself to biscuits with my coffee

plus the older i get, the less tolerant i seem to be of mess and dirt and it riles me until i sort it. and then i am happy

alypaly · 08/01/2010 18:54

but are people coming to see you or the house....just thought id throw that one in,sorry

MrsJohnDeere · 08/01/2010 18:58

People coming round.

I often invite friends to come for coffee on Tuesday morning to motivate me to clean and tidy after the chaos of the weekend (dh very messy).

displayuntilbestbefore · 08/01/2010 19:02

alypaly - fair point, friends are coming to see us not the house but I personally don't like to have people round if the place looks a tip and just being in the house myself is more pleasant if it's clean and tidy (in between chaotic play/toys) so even if they come over and the place is tidy for just 5 mins before the dcs all chuck everything out on the floor, it's still a nice first impression and more welcoming IMO than inviting someone in to a pigsty!

GentleOtter · 08/01/2010 19:03

Mice.

I hate them with a passion and they get in to this old house very easily.
If droppings are found then the entire area has to be stripped of everything,bleached then a gazillion traps set and even when they are caught, I avoid the area for a bit.

PavlovtheCat · 08/01/2010 19:03

right now, my desire to snuggle in bed with my newborn til the wee hours dozing and feeding and the bedroom being total chaos.

Visitors, my new sense of desire for 'order', desire not to break my neck tripping over toys, shoes etc, need to keep on top of washing, wanting to sit in a happy tidy showhome type home.

Not that my hom is anywhere near tidy, but i can dream as i put the lids on pots for the millionth time in the kicthen

PavlovtheCat · 08/01/2010 19:04

oh yes, mice. That is a good one. Although less of a problem in the winter i find.

alypaly · 08/01/2010 19:09

displayuntil best,only threw that in to see if people realise that true friends will accept you whatever(within reason)...and what is the real you,(i dont mean you personally)the untidy one who is embarrassed at the thought of people popping round in the melee or the one who has just tidied up because guests are coming.

This was brought home to me earlier this year when boyfriend had a birthday at my house and i apologised to everyone when i invited them, that my kitchen would be a mess, because i was tiling. On egood friend said'for gods sake who cares about the state of the kitchen,we wouldnt miss the birthday for anything. Now if i get caught with an
untidyhomely house, i dont fret so much.

displayuntilbestbefore · 08/01/2010 19:40

yes, I agree with you alypaly.
I'm too houseproud for my own good tbh but it must be an age thing, the older I get and the more dcs I have had, the more I like to have some sort of oasis of calm, even if only at the start and end of the day! But I don't tidy at the cost of a good social life

alypaly · 08/01/2010 20:02

i used to be so houseproud when DC's were little and trying to be supermummy aswell....it took its toll on me as i have been a single parent for 16 years now and i tried to do everything to the best of my ability...and more.
I ended up collapsing with nervous exhaustion. I wanted house tidy.three course meals on the table cooked to perfection,garden done ,diy done. DP was really lazy and i ended up doing it all myself...but it cost me my health. Now i have eased up on myself as my doc taught me a clever thing......try and achieve 10 % below my 100% and that will be other peoples 100%. IYGWIM and it worked. And im less stressed

displayuntilbestbefore · 08/01/2010 21:05

phew, that sounds like a tough time you've had but glad you have come through it and with a healthy stance on things.
Brilliant tip about aiming for 10% below your 100%. Must adopt that myself in certain areas of my life.

FuriousGeorge · 08/01/2010 22:48

I know that people are coming to see me and not the house,BUT most of my friends have bigger and nicer houses than me.I can cope with that,but if my house was not only smaller,more dilapidated AND untidier than everyone else's,my inferiority complex would just about explode. at friends whose kitchens are the same size as the whole ground floor of our house.

alypaly · 09/01/2010 01:05

im in the same boat...Both my DS's friends ( all private school boys)parents all have mansions and like you say my whole downsatirs is the size of their downsatirs loo. Do i feel inferior...yes.I feel like a pauper and would just die to cook in a kitchen like they have. But it is not to be . They still enjoy coming round to mine though as they say it is more homely and cosy. Now i know how to interpret the word cosy in a travel brochure....bloody small.

FuriousGeorge · 09/01/2010 21:23

Thanks Alypaly-I'm glad it's not just me.[my dd's friends are public school educated too].I'm pretty content with my lot-I reason that you can spend your whole life wishing for what you'll never have and it can make you very discontented and unhappy.I try and remind myself that there is always someone better off than you,and that my mansion dwelling friends probably have someone that they are envious of too.

But,Id still love to have their kitchens,dammit!

FuriousGeorge · 09/01/2010 21:26

Also,my better off friends have cleaners,but I know from going around the day before the cleaner comes,that if they had to do it themselves,it would be as bad,if not worse than mine.I suppose they have more house to mess up too.