Do you all have tidy houses?

[chocolatespread]

I'm not lazy, I do try hard, but I never seem to match up to 'normal' tidyness-wise . I know it gets my DH down (not in the sense that he wishes I'd do more, but more kind of he wishes we had the circumstances to be tidier) but I have three aged 7, 5 and 2 and DS2 has 'loops' as we call them of turning all paper into confetti (a broadsheet can be confettied in 5 mins flat), posting things everywhere, wrapping items from all over the house up in newspaper, etc. Also, as it is, I often don't sit down 'til 10 or 11, without then deciding to do housework.

Now, these seem like decent reasons to me, but if you all have tidy houses and some of you have greater difficulties than mine, then I need to get my act together more.

Not only is my very untidy, I have lost the battle re wallpaper - ds started pulling down bits of paper everywhere in every room and I have just painted over them.

One day I will get round to stripping the wallpaper and doing it up - when I have enough energy and time.

My flat contains 2 adults working full time.

2 cats sleeping full time.

It's not tidy unless my mate is visiting - she's allergic to feathers and dust (and now 13 weeks pg ) so the hoover has to go round and the cushions be sorted lol

Its clean because we just move stuff to clean underneath, then just put the mess back where it was

Yoshysmum, that's why they invented spray disinfectant. Just squirt it everywhere, and it drips down underneath the mess...

We have to keep reasonably tidy because our letting agents come round to inspect every 3 months and I'd hate it to look too awful. However we do require a blitz of the whole house which takes a couple of days before they come, shoving piles of stuff in cupboards and 'finding' the carpets so we can vacuum them. It's not too bad if ds is at school because we can tidy away the dvds that he insists on laying out in rows everywhere, but not so easy if it's in the holidays!

Lol at spray disinfectant dripping down image. Mine is occasionally clean but never tidy. Neither at present!

Though my lovely auntie has come fro Christmas and (the best present ever) cleaned my bathroom and manage too get the dc to help clear their rooms with a Santa ruse.

I sometimes achieve one tidy room occasionally.

Does that count?

Mine is clean but the untidiness is temporary - the kids' crap might be strewn across the floors for as long as I'm home, but I have storage organised so it takes me 10 mins max to get it put away once they're out of the way. I have untidy piles of laundry waiting to be put away and just about every high surface has piles of papers and small toys on it. It's untidy, but the areas that matter are neither dirty nor dusty (even the top of my fridge and freezer are clean as of this morning!) If the floor is covered with crumbs, I can guarantee they're fresh enough to eat because we vacuum at least once a day :o

Oh and our table is always clear - except when I'm sorting out the ever growing piles of laundry!

Tidy here, dh likes everything in its place and everything clean(ish). When dh is at work its a mess .

Thing is, sometimes DH will take the kids out for a couple of hours for me to tidy round, or occasionally he'll take a day of annual leave and I can get loads done, but it as if I never did again within, say, half an hour or ten minutes, or whatever.

signandsing - bit of a diversion from the subject, but I had to say that I got my module result .

my living room and bathroom are always pretty tidy as those are the rooms any visitors are in the kitchen is usually tidy(ish) but my bedroom...well lets just say i cant open the door fully!
ah well, everyone needs a dumping ground dont they?

Clean but not tidy basically means here that:

I clean the house (hoover, sweep, mop, whatever) and put things away as best as possible. But the boys toys are everywhere, there are piles of clean laundry to put away after I've done the ironing. Our recycling is overflowing as they didn't collect last week due to snow (but hopefully will this week). And the sideboard in the entryway is piled high with caps, mittens, etc as it's a huge catchall. I also have a huge stack of paperwork to go through, as I've been putting it off until after the holidays.

So it's clean, but not tidy.

hey chocolate well done! start again in Jan?

Thanks, signandsing. Starting EK310 in Feb. Don't know how i'm going to manage without DD's daytime naps which seem to be phasing out now. Eek...

With regard to tidiness, DS2 has become fascinated with the vacuum cleaner, which might have a good effect on the house.

I do what I absolutely need to. That's it!

We moved house aprox 3 weeks ago, having spent a year in my previous house. I have 4 dc's age13, 9, 4 and 3 and dh. 1 dc with SLD. I was rushed into hospital and kept in for a week the week we actually moved which left dh with all dc's and the packing!! A group of lovely friends, who we have only known for a year rallied round and helped DH clean the house, pack the boxes that hadnt been done (most of it)and used their cars/trucks to move us. I have never been so mortified yet grateful at the same time!! My house, whilst relatively clean on the surface was actually minging!! And its never, ever tidy.

oh monster what lovely friends, (and I know absolutely what you mean about grateful and mortified.) Dh is 'mess blind' so if something is in a part of the house that people outside family don't usually go to (and thus looks like the proverbial bomb has hit it) he takes people in there no problem, clears them a space to sit down .

but then he says none of his friends would notice either....

Hope you settle in well in new home.

chocolate good luck with EK310, feel free to pm me about how it goes...

relieved to have read this thread. i thought it was just me with a messy house. it's awful. embarrassed to let people in. clutter and destruction everywhere. mainly courtesy of ds 3.4 adhd/asd poss dyspraxia.
it really gets me down. feel too exhausted to do much about it though. am single mum and rarely get a break from him. he's still awake now. just had to get him out of bed and bath him (again) as he decided to smear poo all over himself. have loads of christmas toys to find room for including a 4.5 foot thomas tank train set off his grandparents. most nights he trashes his room, throwing all his books (he has loads as i love reading with him) and toys all around room. have no where else to store them as live in a tiny 2 up 2 down.

Tip here. Mine are 7 and 4 and ds1 walks THROUGH things.

Can really relate to that 'mess blind' thing! And simultaneously totally oblivious to my embarrassment!

tiredmummy - must be really tough on your own. That's what I meant in my OP about tougher circumstances than mine, because at least DH takes them all out sometimes so I can get stuff done. In your situation you have nothing to prove; just getting through is great and you can be proud of that. The books thing made me smile, though. I have a bit of a children's book addiction, which the kids also seem to share, thankfully. Books are definitely a major problem in our house!

Can't see the floor. But I think it's clean...

took kids out for 2 hours this afternoon and lunch dishes still on the table when i got back (DH watching TV)
tidied them away, and girls asked to do painting. husband said he'd do painting with them (cue me tidying laundry). 8.40pm paints still on the table. and i am the messy one?!?

Justa came to my house and said it was tidy....that was a fluke as DD was at school and DS having a long nap...I also hide my washing mountain in the spare room! My house is half painted, pots in the dishwasher, more washing in the machine/radiators/linen basket in the hall, dust everywhere and it needs a good hoover...I manage to keep on top of the kitchen mess and bathrooms but the rest is a work in progress always! Thank god foe my million toy boxes to clear the clutter away!