"Hinchers"

[SunflowerSeed1234]

OK so please don't think this is an attack on Mrs Hinch, because I promise it is not an attack on her personally.

Does anyone else just hate the whole "hinching" trend? I feel like I'm completely alone in this.

Yes I want to live in a clean home, yes I'd love to live in a show home but much more than that I want to experience life. I want to spend time with my 4 year old not following him around with a hoover flinching everytime he makes a mess.

It's made me feel really anxious about having people over. From comments from people talking about spending hours wiping skirting boards all over their houses and wanting lamas. I just can't keep up with it.

I feel like this trend just makes me feel like people will come over and be inspecting my house and my skirting boards. I go into a mad panic cleaning for hours on end now before guests arrive. Not because I want to, but from the fear of being judged for small imperfections in my home which are plenty already.

I even have a small tin of paint I use to go around the light switches to cover the marks..... all this and my home still looks like someone has taken it, turned it upside down and given it a good shake 🤣.

I really can't keep up and I just miss the days when I could invite my friends or new people in for a hot drink and a chat without worrying about them peering in my cupboards and inspecting my skirting boards. I am not perfect, my home is not perfect and I want to go back to a time when that was OK.

I also am skeptical about the cost of all these products on the environment, pouring fabric softener down the drain and excessive product usage to wipes that don't break down and sit in landfills, the plastic packaging all these products come in. I think it's hurting the planet. A lot of the time you can use one multicleaner or even buy tablets to dilute in water and reuse spray bottles. Along with the plastic cost they all have very strong chemicals in these products which are linked to things like pet deaths and miscarriages. Not to mention the pollution in the air making all of them. I feel like the world has gone made with it all and we've all lost focus on what matters opting instead for what looks good and fitting in with the cleaning craze.

The thought of cleaning for 4 hours a day just gives me the shivers. We only get one life. I want to spend it with my son and husband, making memories. I'm sure no one sits on their death bed wishing they had cleaned more....

I have some amazing cobwebs. My mum comments on them haha, I just think it's nice to give spids a home from the cold

I look at her IG every now and again. It’s not really about cleaning any more. It’s the children/alpacas and what tat she got this week from Home Bargains. Plus a plug or two of her collaborations with Tesco. 🤷‍♀️

I don't know anyone who's interested in any of that bollocks

You need different friends! None of mine give Mrs Hinch and her ridiculous cleaning obsession any head space.

She's not got a cleaning obsession any more. It's more family/lifestyle content and paid partnership with Tesco (childrens clothing range).

I feel like it's now another expectation, and its become something that if you dont do you are looked down on or judged.

But this is just a feeling - you are in control of this. The feeling is not The Truth. Most people aren’t judging the state of your skirting boards.

This is especially true if you make it clear to people that actually, you don’t buy into all this stuff. That your values are to use less products because you are conscious of the environment and that you don’t want to spend time in a show home because you don’t find it relaxing.

Tell people that. Not in a ‘I’m judging your choices and you’re doing it wrong’ way. Just in a ‘It’s great you love it but I’m not like that at all!’ way.

If your friends are genuinely lovely people with lots of different interests, why do you think that they take it as a personal attack if you say you’re not into it?

In the kindest possible way this really sounds like your anxiety and not everyone else’s issue
or even a friends issue, some of my friends homes are immaculate, most of them aren’t. Non of us to my knowledge judge each other when we go round.
and I get it I run around cleaning before people come over too, depending on who it is.
but I don’t think that’s what she’s promoting, I think they do messy activities and live their lives but rather than the cleaning afterwards being a chore it’s a nice therapeutic, aesthetic self care thing
can’t say I love cleaning that much myself but if it’s making people happy then I think it’s a good thing!
you can choose not to follow this sort of content

I stopped watching her about 2 years ago! Honestly it was all OTT and toxic in a lot of ways. Just don’t watch her and live your life.

Women already have the expectation of what to look like, how to dress, designer clothes (not a fan), what their children look like, designer gear for the children. Now we have just added another load on to the expectation of keeping home, not just a nice clean tidy home but a home that's perfect, drowned in greys and beige

Only if you deliberately seek out that expectation. It sounds like you're stuck in a cycle of reinforcement over this.

Most people aren't dedicating their lives to cleaning, organising and decorating and they're not beating themselves up by deliberately looking for and associating with the minority of people who are into that.

It's just a weird hobby to them. If all your friends suddenly took up cave diving or tree surgery, you might decide to have a go, but you'd never blindly feel that you had to keep up with them doing that if you hated it and it wasn't your thing, and this is exactly the same.

Do what you like to do and spend time with your family. It's autumn and the weather is pretty good. It's a great time to go out, kick the leaves and collect conkers.

Bonus is that you'll spend less time comparing your house with the edited highlights of someone else. You do know that, if they post a picture of a perfectly clean and decorated house, all their clutter and crap and that bit of dented paintwork is just out of shot, don't you?

Thanks so much all for your comments 😊. I genuinely appreciate it and hopefully will help me calm down a bit worrying what people think of me. My friends homes are like show homes. They look amazing. I just can't keep up with it and truthfully I don't want to. I like my home clean and tidy but humans live here. Little ones 🤣 with grubby hands haha. I could never have a perfect home with chopped cushions and no toys in my living room.

Seeing the little digger trucks out on the floor and toy cars fills me with joy to be truthful.

It's genuinely relieved my aniexty about what people think. I've worried people might look down on me but be too polite to say. Perhaps I'm just thinking it and no one else is.

Ive always said in this thread if you do that then thats great but my worry was what people thought of my home in comparison. If these rituals make you feel better and thats your therapy im supportive of that.

Strangers tell the truth. Thanks so much everyone it's a relief xx

For someone feeling so misunderstood (eg the number of times you have admonished posters for apparently not reading your words correctly), you come across as very them-and-us but unwilling to do the only logical thing- find new friends who are more like you.
Also if Mrs Hinch bothers you this much, never look up how Victorian aristocratic homes were kept. Or what 50s housewives did. Hinch didn’t invent cleaning she merely popularised the viewing of it. 🤷‍♀️
I was anxious about bringing guests into my messy house before she was even out of school.
I am not pro-Hinch but I am disagreeing with your opinion. People are complicated.

Thank you for this. It's true about highlight reels. Thank you

Personal attack might be a bit strong. I'm worried they look down on me for not living to the same expectations. Or maybe not feel comfortable in my home that sort of thing.

You need new friends. I've never heard anyone talking about her, never mind spend hours talking about cleaning products! When you kids an adult t he'll remember all the fun times he had with his mum and dad. The others will remember mum was too busy cleaning.

I get it OP. I wondered onto a cleaning fb group for some general tips to find people doing all sorts of time consuming cleaning activities I would never dream of on the regular! To me, skirting boards are part of a quarterly 'big clean'. If I have guests I make sure the bathroom is clean and that its not a total muckfest in the living room, but thats it!

Sounds like its a problem with your friends, more than everyone else that follows Mrs Hinch. Your friends make you feel like they are going to judge you on the cleanliness of your home, me and my friend talk about how much of a mess our homes are (coz - toddlers!) and the friends that have tidy homes, and no kids, never even mention in detail how clean their homes are, they might just mention in conversation they cleaned their house that day, as I would if asked what i'd been up to. I think its pretty normal to give your home an extra quick clean/tidy before some people come round but not spend hours, or paint around light switches

I have some friends who maintain incredibly clean and beautiful homes. It's not always to my taste but I say something like "gosh your house is so beautiful, I don't know how you manage! I try to keep on top of things but I'd never get as clean as yours."

It gives them the compliment whilst also keeping their expectations nice and low for when they come to visit. If I genuinely thought they were inspecting the skirting boards then I wouldn't be inviting them round rather than trying to pander to it.

Funny though because I have previously found people that go on about how obsessed with cleaning they are, and they keep their house so clean and tidy blah blah blah..when I've then gone round & I'm a bit like ohh...it's not that clean!!!! and I would never judge, its just the fact they have banged on about it so much

It's probably your generation OP. If any of my friends follow Mrs H I would eat my hat. I honestly don't think I've ever looked at a skirting board in anybody's house.

We do housework (apart from laundry, shopping, cooking and daily kitchen keeping-on-top-of) for 3 hours a WEEK absolute maximum. That's my dh and I and adult son between us.

Just stop looking.

I agree though - she should be shamed royally by the environmental activists for the dreadful trend of over-using cleaning chemicals she encourages.

Well I mean on a special group all about cleaning that’s hardly a surprise. People who go out of their way to join an online group dedicated to it are usually of that ilk. But it’s not like it isn’t easily avoidable.

If I went out for the night and an hour was dedicated to discussing cleaning products, I’d find myself some new and interesting friends.

What part are you disagreeing with?

OP I am active on social media and never see anything like this.

I think gremlins and algorithms conspire to show you things that for whatever reason they decide you are interested in.

For example, I'm a dog walker and I'm bombarded with dog related stuff on all social media channels and Amazon is forever trying to sell me dog related stuff.

It might be worth looking into how to stop the wonders of the internet thinking you want to see things about cleaning or Mrs H.

As an aside my housekeeping skills are pretty crap. My friends don't care, including the ones who have high standards. That's why they are my friends. It's ok not to prioritise cleaning over other stuff if you choose to. Xx