What sort of things make you go 'bleurgh' in other people's houses?

[inbuiltcolourtv]

My house is a bit messy but also desperately short of style. It's going to take years for it to be how I want it to be. In the meantime I'm trying to work out what to focus on first in the way of just making it seem a bit... nicer. I've just been wondering about the sorts of things people might notice in a house that I might not. What would you just not notice, notice but not care about, notice but go 'bleurgh' to, or dislike so much it puts you off the person?

E.g... do you notice dust on skirting boards and pictures or only on obvious surfaces? Is it naff to have a hoover in a corner of the hall where people can see it? How much does having mismatched furniture matter if it looks like you could afford to have it matching? Is it a bit crap not to have any kind of 'design' to any room? Does a downstairs toilet full of smelly teenage trainers matter?

What sort of thing in a house most puts you off someone, even though they may not realize it's offputting? I just feel like my whole house is embarrassing and I can't work out what to fix first - what's most urgent and what doesn't really matter?

Yukky is dirty bathroom and/or kitchen.

Clutter is offputting. Shoes in the entrance hall are horrible.

Smelly shoes anywhere guests go is not v.nice I'd make teenagers take them elsewhere when they've taken them off.

Get some plants, remove clutter and put it away or chuck it. Mismatched furniture is no big deal. Something nice on the wall is good, and doesn't always have to be too pricey.

Next catalogue look with Brown curtains,Brown leather couch , Brown twigs in the corner Brown display cabinet Yuk i love White with bright colours like Magenta

Kitty litter in the litchen is just vile. Why would you let an animal defecate where you prepare food? WHY?

am suspicious of overly clean and tidy houses (or maybe just jealous because ours is never pristine )...and I hate matching furniture

Our hoover is often lying around-just means I haven't had time to finish the hoovering

but I do dislike dirty bathrooms and kitchens. Grubby hand towels, a mucky loo, slimy draining boards- all grim
(and agree with whoever mentioned animal hairs o the furniture-yuck yuck yuck)

not sure it would actually put me off the person though unless it was an absolute filth pit

our hall is chocker with shoes-it's a nightmare and sorting it out has been on my to-do list for months

dust balls

dirty toilet

no books

dirty toilets and cats, especially if they are allowed in the kitchen and even more if their toilet tray thing is in the kitchen

dirty bathrooms, smell of pets, cat food bowls with cat food in anywhere in kitchen (always makes me want to wash my hands on seeing it), lots and lots of clutter of the ornamnet type.

"shoes in entrance hall are horrible"

erm, where do you suggest?

i have 5 cats and believe me you cant tell a cat "dont go in the kitchen" they just dont listen

OP - start with the things you have got right. You have clean loo, clean hand towel and soap - so get some really nice soap, get rid of the teenagers' trainers and add a nice picture, mirror, plant or something to make the loo definitely nice, rather than just ok.

Get rid of SOME clutter, so say the coffee table is clean and dusted but igonre the shelves. Put something nice on the coffee table even if just a set of coasters.

So don't try and do it all, just get some small bits nice and it will all seem better, IYSWIM

i know you can't tell cats what to do, thats why i don't like them!

don't your cats go outside? I don't have a litter tray for my cat

the thing that makes me shudder is dirty light switches & door handles , can't bear to touch them

FWIW my cat is a lot cleaner and easier to manage than my 2yo

no i dont have a litter tray i have cat flap well not me personally ..the door, they all go outside thank goodness

Dirty toilet and kitchen surfaces. Dishes that do not look clean when they are brought out with stuff on/in them! And seeing something manky getting spilled but not cleaned up, or only half heartedly cleaned up. And stinky dog smell.

The dust/mismatching, clutter etc is all fine. As long as the above is not there. I.e. untidy is fine - dirty is not!!!

(admittedly, clutter makes cleaning harder, so likely that alot of nicnaks everywhere might point to a dirty house.....)

Acanthus, you're right, focusing on small areas would be a good plan. More plants would be good (ty Romarana too).

As far as shoes go, I don't know where we'd put them if not in the hall either. What sort of storage do other people have for that sort of thing?

Just remembered one other thing I hate - toilet doors that don't lock! Not nice for guests.

that dried up cracked soap - clearly the folk who live there never wash their hadns after using the loo because it would not have got that bad.

dirty toilets

stale smell.

dark rooms.

bed linen which looks like it was bought 25 years ago and stayed on the bed since.

oh yes, dirty loo. yeuch! And a sticky kitchen floor. and a stinking cat litter tray.

Cockroaches. - friends of dh had them in their flat. They made me food once and I just kept prodding it with a fork to see if it moved. I used to leave my bag in the car so that nothing could hitch a lift . I refused to go in the end. Gave me the heebie-geebies. Especially the splotches on the carpet.

Remembering my late Dad, gawblessim: when you have just shared a meal with someone at their house and they put their plate on the floor for the cat to finish their leftovers, leaving you wondering how much feline slobber you yourself have just ingested.

And yes he did have a dishwasher but never used it as he thought it was rubbish.

1 thing puts me off other peoples houses, cigarette smoke.
When you go in someones house that they smoke in all the time and everything stinks

Gosh I wish I knew people who had houses like this....I'd feel a little more [smug emoticon]. I have friends whose houses are are so frigging tidy it makes me sick! You run around after your child picking up every crumb behind them and you can't move incase you leave a trail of dust behind. They just don't get invited to our house .
I'm not bothered about most stuff as long as the room is hoovered and my cup is clean. But I must admit when I use a bathroom and I have to dry my hands on my jeans because the towel is grubby and has that awful 'musky/mildew' smell because it hasn't been changed in weeks. Thats pretty gross.

Although I would find a cat litter tray in the kitchen a little icky, I would actually think better of the person for trying to collect the shit from their own animal rather than letting it do it all over neighbours' gardens.

I would hate to smell cigarettes. Am allergic to them anyway, so perhaps that's why I despise the smell so strongly. This would put me off visiting the person again. Not much else would put me off.

Dirty handtowels in loo
nothing else really surprises me
smelly bins?
smell of nappies in bin

I have a fairly clean, messy-ish but not too cluttered house, myself.

I have pretty high tolerance to other people's houses, though. Only real filth puts me off. I'm much more interested in people than houses. Also love to nose at other people's books (although as we haven't got round to putting up shelves in our house yet, most of ours are stacked in the loft. Boo!).

Ok, if I am being really permickety, I'd say: I don't like show homes. I don't like those letters that spell out 'LOVE'. Or Ikea art. I secretly raise an eyebrow at people who stack billions of decorative cushions on their bed. I'm not at all keen on hairy, smelly animals. I do like a good, clean towel.

That is the extent of my snobbery, though.