Spinoff: how clean is your house? (normally)

jenna8984

kvruns said:

I look at clean and clutter to be different.  It would usually pass the uncluttered test (other than the bedroom) but notsomuch the clean part for some parts of the house. not unsightly dirty or anything like that but I wouldn't eat off the floor lol.

Same here. I love organization and putting things away. So I open mail, and I either put it in my purse to pay from work tomorrow or I throw it in the trash. Shoes are generally put away, clothes always put away, dishes always put away.

BUT I'm embarrassingly terrible at actually cleaning. We just sold our house and in the 4 years I lived there, I never cleaned the windows once. I steam mop the floors (no carpets) about once every 3 months. I never move furniture or dust, so when we just moved it was sickening how much cat fur and dust was behind all the furniture and along the baseboards. I really want to change my habits in the new house because that's really not ok and I'm sure it contributes 90% to my allergies.

dolewhipper

stefuhknee said:

I suck at being an adult and my apartment is often a disaster. When I know I am having guests I make sure I do a deep cleaning but it's so hard for me to maintain. My son has this fascination with throwing everything that's on some type of counter onto the floor, his toys are often all over the living room, he throws his blankets and pillow out of his crib, I spend most of the time picking up after him only to find a trail of things in the opposite direction. It's exhausting! I don't have a dishwasher and when I cook I manage to dirty everything and dread washing the dishes afterward. I've been spring cleaning for the past 3 weeks now.

This is us (just without the child). H is the clean one, almost borderline OCD. For his birthday (and using some of our wedding gift cards), we got a roomba and that thing is amazing. We would be lucky if we got to sweeping once a week and we have that thing going every other day.

We aren't dirty persay, I'm just a product of my mother who was messy and clutter everywhere. It was more important for my family growing up to go out and do things together than clean, so things piled up and up and that's what I saw. Currently 3/4th of our hallway to the bedrooms are blocked by just random boxes of stuff we're unsure to do with , and my half of the bedroom is a disaster with shoes and bags everywhere. It just was never made a priority growing up, which has just stayed the same now.

While married, H and I have a unspoken rule about cleaning; I do the cat litter, dishes and laundry and he pretty much does everything else. If we do a deep clean of something (like the bathroom), we take turns or do it together. 

I am not a tidy person. 

littlepep

Eh. We keep our house fairly clean. We have two long hair cats so keeping the cat hair at bay is damn near impossible. There's a 100% chance you will find a cat hair tumbleweed at any given moment in our house. Even after we sweep. 

We leave a few things out and whatnot and there may be a few dishes in the sink occasionally, depending on whether the dishwasher is full or not. For the most part though, our house is never really messy enough for me to be embarrassed. 

Maggie0829

Our house is always clean.  Messy on the other hand, well that depends on which room you go into.  Typically there are a handful of dishes in the sink and a small pile of papers on the island. Our family is usually the worse because that is where we spend the most time.  The couch pillows are always messed up or stacked on the floor.  H will leave his slippers on the floor and his video game controller and headset on the coffee table.  Dog toys are usually everywhere.  Our bedroom is the second messiest room.  Typically there are socks on the floor and the ironing board has been set up for months with a stack of clothes that need to be ironed/folded and put away.

I always freak that my house is dirty and I go crazy before my parents come up for a visit or we have company over.  I never think it is perfect enough, but then I have to remind myself that our house isn't for a magazine photo shoot but a place to live and relax.  So then my craziness slightly ebbs a bit.

classicalandedgy

Our house is always clean, mostly because we have a cleaning service weekly.  It is at times messy, laundry, shoes etc... and we have a seven year old so you know toys, but never more than 15 mins away from being company presentable.  So that is pretty much what I need for advance notice if someone is going to come by.

sarawifenow

We clean every Saturday, so our house is usually clean. Cluttered, but clean. I hate putting laundry away, so there is usually a pile somewhere waiting to be folded and put away. There are sometimes a few dishes in the sink, but for the most part our place is company ready.

novella1186

labro said:

My house is clean enough that if I have a 20 minute warning I can usually do a run through to do a quick catch up or find a few spots that need an extra swipe or some attention. We keep our laundry in laundry baskets, make the bed every day, there aren't usually dishes in the sink unless I haven't unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher. We have a dog so I try to sweep and vacuum on a semi-regular basis to keep the dust-bunnies from breeding. I got a steam mop for Christmas so I find myself mopping more frequently. I feel like it does a much better job than my old swiffer mop or my even older regular mop.

I'd say our kitchen table is our one consistent problem area. It's the catch all for mail, the newspaper, packages, travel mugs, water bottles, the dog's leash, etc. I feel like I can't keep it consistently clear. Part of that problem is H's insistence on receiving paper statements, so we always have a ton of bills and account summaries that need to be filed away. It drives me bonkers, but I'm part of the problem too since I'm not always on top of (or interested in) taking care of it.

This is our problem too. I recently took the leaves out of the kitchen table to shrink it down to a tiny square. My thought process was that if there was less space to pile junk, we would pile less junk. There's definitely less junk but it's still just as cluttered. 

There's so much random nonsense on there. Everything from cook books to junk mail to spray paint. Ugh. I feel like every time I clear it off or clear a few things off, 12 more random things appear there. 

dolewhipper

I feel like this is speaking to me:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-mccarthy-md/my-house-is-messy-and-i-dont-care_b_4853787.html

While I'm not "crumbs on the floor" messy, we are definitely untidy. 

Maggie0829

novella1186 said:

labro said:

My house is clean enough that if I have a 20 minute warning I can usually do a run through to do a quick catch up or find a few spots that need an extra swipe or some attention. We keep our laundry in laundry baskets, make the bed every day, there aren't usually dishes in the sink unless I haven't unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher. We have a dog so I try to sweep and vacuum on a semi-regular basis to keep the dust-bunnies from breeding. I got a steam mop for Christmas so I find myself mopping more frequently. I feel like it does a much better job than my old swiffer mop or my even older regular mop.

I'd say our kitchen table is our one consistent problem area. It's the catch all for mail, the newspaper, packages, travel mugs, water bottles, the dog's leash, etc. I feel like I can't keep it consistently clear. Part of that problem is H's insistence on receiving paper statements, so we always have a ton of bills and account summaries that need to be filed away. It drives me bonkers, but I'm part of the problem too since I'm not always on top of (or interested in) taking care of it.

This is our problem too. I recently took the leaves out of the kitchen table to shrink it down to a tiny square. My thought process was that if there was less space to pile junk, we would pile less junk. There's definitely less junk but it's still just as cluttered. 

There's so much random nonsense on there. Everything from cook books to junk mail to spray paint. Ugh. I feel like every time I clear it off or clear a few things off, 12 more random things appear there. 

I feel like everyone has one spot in their house that is always cluttered with random shit (we have two...our kitchen island and our office desk).  And no matter how much you clean that area off and put things away there will always be random shit in that spot.

madamerwin

And dirty dishes in the sink is my biggest pet peeve. Why? We have a dish washer and it's empty. It takes about 5 extra seconds to put them in the dishwasher. It's not even one step away from the sink. 

If it needs to soak, fine. Let it soak for 10 minutes and then put it in the dishwasher. But nothing should ever sit in the sink for the day. Like never ever. Ever. Never...

Me too! I cannot go to bed if there are a bunch of dirty dishes in the sink or on the counter. It takes five minutes to load the dishwasher, why does the sink need to be full of dirty dishes, ever?

I would say our house is generally clean, but cluttered. We vacuum and wipe down surfaces every couple of days at least, but we just have so much stuff crammed into a small house... The bookshelves are a little crazy.

As I mentioned, I cannot leave dirty dishes overnight. The dishes must be done and counters wiped down before bed. The bathroom on the other hand.... While not filthy, we could probably do a better job keeping it clean. The biggest problem is that the kitchen and bathroom have OLD linoleum, and no matter how often I clean the floors, they look dirty by the time they dry. 

My biggest problem is that I HATE putting laundry away. I love doing the laundry, but unless I force myself to fold it an put it away immediately, it will sit clean and wrinkled in the laundry basket until all the clean clothes are gone. I seriously cannot think of any household chore I hate more than folding laundry. Though emptying the dishwasher comes in close second.

ashley8918

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

dolewhipper

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thing I am supposed to do? 

Let me know, because I had no idea either.

Maggie0829

dolewhipper said:

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thing I am supposed to do? 

Let me know, because I had no idea either.

I have never cleaned a wall (why would you need to unless you like to throw spaghetti or something) but I have wiped down the base boards.  Those things get super dusty/dirty.  I definitely don't do it as often as I should though.

ShesSoCold

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

I wipe down the walls because I have a super drooly dog and there would be dried drool everywhere if I didn't. 

I never cleaned the walls at our apartment until it was too late. The walls were disgusting with dog snot. And the paint was too cheap to wipe; it would wipe the paint right off. So now if I clean the walls weekly I don't have to worry about that. 

novella1186

dolewhipper said:

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thing I am supposed to do? 

Let me know, because I had no idea either.

I have to clean the bathroom walls. I don't know if this is normal or not, but we get a bunch of dust on the walls, and then they get moist from the shower, so then there's weird gross dust streaks on them and it grosses me out. And the other day a bunch of my random stray hairs were stuck to the wall in there. 

TrixieJess

My house often looks like Toys R Us exploded. We try to keep things contained to one area, but it just gets bigger and bigger. If I leave a basket of laundry or diapers within reach, I can be guaranteed that that will be all over the place too. 

The good thing is that my son likes to "help" clean. He has his own little broom set that he uses to clean up after meals. He also uses the handheld Dyson to "clean"up. 

lyndausvi

If I didn't have DH it would be cleaner.  It's such an internal battle with me. 

. I do not like dishes everywhere or even in the sink for that matter..  They just do not bother DH.   

Clutter the same thing.  Drives me crazy, just doesn't bother him.   Most days I  straighten up but sometimes i don't out.  If I go more than a few days (rarely) DH will straighten up the clutter.      

I guess my general routine is to come downstairs and straighten up DH's mess from the night before.    Then start work.  Then mid-day I have lunch and clean up DH's breakfast dishes while I'm making my lunch.     Then after work I straighten  up again. 

 If DH cooks dinner I always clean up after him (seem fair since he is the one cooking).     My stuff is normally cleaned up right away.  Except lunch, I sometimes have to wait  if I'm busy at work.

The boy leave his shit everywhere.    However, I find it's my issues that I don't like it sitting around, not his.   Actually he gets annoyed because he is looking for something and I've already put it away somewhere.   Sometimes I have to take a step back.

We dust and vacuum weekly. DH loves to vacuum and do the floors.   Bathrooms twice a week.  Laundry is once a week.   It's upstairs so out of site of company.   

novella1186

So, I'm definitely guilty of leaving dishes in the sink. Usually it's just when the dishwasher is already running, or if it's done running but still full. One of the weird random things I can't stand doing is putting the clean dishes away. Hate it. HATE. IT. 

FI, however, leaves garbage in the sink, which absolutely drives me bananas. Like sometimes he'll make me tea, which is very sweet, but then he leaves the damn tea bag in the damn sink. Why?! The garbage is RIGHT THERE! Tea bags do not go in sinks!!! And he'll put empty pop cans in there. Again, why? A sink is never a place for a pop can! 

I don't complain about it much, though, since I definitely have some faults too. 

classicalandedgy

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

I just do that with bathroom wall usually, they get all sweaty and shit from steam. Other walls only if they are dusty or have a cobweb or something.

Maggie0829

lyndausvi said:

If I didn't have DH it would be cleaner.  It's such an internal battle with me. 

. I do not like dishes everywhere or even in the sink for that matter..  They just do not bother DH.   

Clutter the same thing.  Drives me crazy, just doesn't bother him.   Most days I  straighten up but sometimes i don't out.  If I go more than a few days (rarely) DH will straighten up the clutter.      

I guess my general routine is to come downstairs and straighten up DH's mess from the night before.    Then start work.  Then mid-day I have lunch and clean up DH's breakfast dishes while I'm making my lunch.     Then after work I straighten  up again. 

 If DH cooks dinner I always clean up after him (seem fair since he is the one cooking).     My stuff is normally cleaned up right away.  Except lunch, I sometimes have to wait  if I'm busy at work.

The boy leave his shit everywhere.    However, I find it's my issues that I don't like it sitting around, not his.   Actually he gets annoyed because he is looking for something and I've already put it away somewhere.   Sometimes I have to take a step back.

We dust and vacuum weekly. DH loves to vacuum and do the floors.   Bathrooms twice a week.  Laundry is once a week.   It's upstairs so out of site of company.   

I am the same with my H.  H is very messy and it drives me batty.  When he went away for over a week last month I was amazed by how clean and organized our house always was and how crazy messy it became when he came back home!

KatieinBkln

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

Nope, I'm with you--cleaning is just not a huge priority for either of us. (We both love it when the apartment is nice and tidy for company, but keeping it that way? We suck). I don't like, wallow in filth, but I currently have a few dishes that need to go in the dishwasher, there is clutter all over my living room, and I haven't been "caught up" with laundry in what feels like years.

I like to think things would be a bit different if I had a house that lent itself to entertaining. Even just having more space for shit would mean I could have a catchall room/basement for all the stuff that seems to sneak into places it doesn't belong.

FI is out of town till Thursday, so I'm planning a huge tidying up party for myself on Wednesday night--I think he will be pleased! I'm going to throw out the coffee table that just gathers clutter.

amelisha

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

Oh, girl, I should ship you to my mother for a week and if you don't have a nervous breakdown, you'll emerge the kind of person who cleans everything from soap dispensers to all the walls and the inside of every drawer and cabinet to every damn key of the ten-year-dormant piano.

Everytime I look at anything in my house I hear her voice, holding back laughter and saying "Oh, is that clean to you?" It's effective, but there are occasional side effects like looking behind the TV stand, seeing how messy the cords look, and spending three hours fixing it with tears running down your face while you wail "Why doesn't anything stay cleeeeeaaaaaaaaann?!" so on second thought, I don't actually recommend it.

[Deleted User]

My apartment is in a general state of chaos on any given day, but on Friday nights it is usually spotless. I live in 2 different places right now due to work, so I spend Thursday-Sunday at the apartment. When I get there on Thursday night, I just sleep, but Friday in between work I do a SERIOUSLY deep clean. I don't know how, but FI literally desecrates the apartment every week and I get up there and it looks like a tornado of beard hair and mail and general junk has swept across the place. We also don't have a dishwasher, so you better believe that sink always has a dish or two in it. Ugh. I cannot wait to live there all week and get a slightly nicer apartment.

So, when I am there, it is clean. When I am not...just good luck if you stop by.

sarawifenow

amelisha said:

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

Oh, girl, I should ship you to my mother for a week and if you don't have a nervous breakdown, you'll emerge the kind of person who cleans everything from soap dispensers to all the walls and the inside of every drawer and cabinet to every damn key of the ten-year-dormant piano.

Everytime I look at anything in my house I hear her voice, holding back laughter and saying "Oh, is that clean to you?" It's effective, but there are occasional side effects like looking behind the TV stand, seeing how messy the cords look, and spending three hours fixing it with tears running down your face while you wail "Why doesn't anything stay cleeeeeaaaaaaaaann?!" so on second thought, I don't actually recommend it.

lyndausvi

Maggie0829 said:

lyndausvi said:

If I didn't have DH it would be cleaner.  It's such an internal battle with me. 

. I do not like dishes everywhere or even in the sink for that matter..  They just do not bother DH.   

Clutter the same thing.  Drives me crazy, just doesn't bother him.   Most days I  straighten up but sometimes i don't out.  If I go more than a few days (rarely) DH will straighten up the clutter.      

I guess my general routine is to come downstairs and straighten up DH's mess from the night before.    Then start work.  Then mid-day I have lunch and clean up DH's breakfast dishes while I'm making my lunch.     Then after work I straighten  up again. 

 If DH cooks dinner I always clean up after him (seem fair since he is the one cooking).     My stuff is normally cleaned up right away.  Except lunch, I sometimes have to wait  if I'm busy at work.

The boy leave his shit everywhere.    However, I find it's my issues that I don't like it sitting around, not his.   Actually he gets annoyed because he is looking for something and I've already put it away somewhere.   Sometimes I have to take a step back.

We dust and vacuum weekly. DH loves to vacuum and do the floors.   Bathrooms twice a week.  Laundry is once a week.   It's upstairs so out of site of company.   

I am the same with my H.  H is very messy and it drives me batty.  When he went away for over a week last month I was amazed by how clean and organized our house always was and how crazy messy it became when he came back home!

I was in my own personal hell while RVing this weekend.   I loved RVing, but there was so much shit everywhere it was stressing me out.  

This is very my my motto:

novella1186

KatieinBkln said:

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

Nope, I'm with you--cleaning is just not a huge priority for either of us. (We both love it when the apartment is nice and tidy for company, but keeping it that way? We suck). I don't like, wallow in filth, but I currently have a few dishes that need to go in the dishwasher, there is clutter all over my living room, and I haven't been "caught up" with laundry in what feels like years.

I like to think things would be a bit different if I had a house that lent itself to entertaining. Even just having more space for shit would mean I could have a catchall room/basement for all the stuff that seems to sneak into places it doesn't belong.

FI is out of town till Thursday, so I'm planning a huge tidying up party for myself on Wednesday night--I think he will be pleased! I'm going to throw out the coffee table that just gathers clutter.

This makes me feel so much better lol. Seriously, sometimes I look around at all the clutter and mess, and then I look at FI and say, "Are we gross? Are we just failing at being adults?" 

Seeing FSIL's perfect house and then walking into my house just sucks. 

KatieinBkln

novella1186 said:

KatieinBkln said:

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

Nope, I'm with you--cleaning is just not a huge priority for either of us. (We both love it when the apartment is nice and tidy for company, but keeping it that way? We suck). I don't like, wallow in filth, but I currently have a few dishes that need to go in the dishwasher, there is clutter all over my living room, and I haven't been "caught up" with laundry in what feels like years.

I like to think things would be a bit different if I had a house that lent itself to entertaining. Even just having more space for shit would mean I could have a catchall room/basement for all the stuff that seems to sneak into places it doesn't belong.

FI is out of town till Thursday, so I'm planning a huge tidying up party for myself on Wednesday night--I think he will be pleased! I'm going to throw out the coffee table that just gathers clutter.

This makes me feel so much better lol. Seriously, sometimes I look around at all the clutter and mess, and then I look at FI and say, "Are we gross? Are we just failing at being adults?" 

Seeing FSIL's perfect house and then walking into my house just sucks. 

I mean, I am DEFINITELY gross. I need a wife. Not like, a real-life wife, who is a person. But rather the antiquated, patriarchal, oppressive notion of Wife, the person who picks up after you, cooks for you, schedules your life, and does so with a smile!

Someone should work on making a robot like this. A WifeBot.

hellosweetie1015

Yeah... my mom is neat as a pin. I hate it.

I can remember one time, a few years ago, I'd come home for a weekend to visit. I didn't get to come home often, and I wanted to hang out with my mom. We spent all day Saturday and most of the morning Sunday cleaning; I got to actually visit with her for an hour Saturday. And then, Sunday, when I finally thought I'd get to actually sit and talk to her and visit with her, she announced that she was going to work on getting the storage space cleaned up.

This storage space was invisible to anyone who came in the house. It was over the kitchen and completely walled in, with the exception of an entrance hole hidden behind a curtain. The only reason anyone went in there was to get the Christmas stuff out or put it back; otherwise it was full of old clothes no one ever wore, and old books and thematic units from when we were homeschooled, and VHS tapes we no longer had a reason to own but Mom couldn't bear to get rid of. There was no reason that storage space had to be done right then. It just hit her that it was something for her to clean. 

I left an hour later, pissed off and hurt that she decided that cleaning a space that literally no one ever saw, even the people who lived in the house, was more important to her than visiting with me.

I'll keep a clean house, but so help me I will not make my kids feel like that clean house is more important to me than they are.

Maggie0829

lyndausvi said:

Maggie0829 said:

lyndausvi said:

If I didn't have DH it would be cleaner.  It's such an internal battle with me. 

. I do not like dishes everywhere or even in the sink for that matter..  They just do not bother DH.   

Clutter the same thing.  Drives me crazy, just doesn't bother him.   Most days I  straighten up but sometimes i don't out.  If I go more than a few days (rarely) DH will straighten up the clutter.      

I guess my general routine is to come downstairs and straighten up DH's mess from the night before.    Then start work.  Then mid-day I have lunch and clean up DH's breakfast dishes while I'm making my lunch.     Then after work I straighten  up again. 

 If DH cooks dinner I always clean up after him (seem fair since he is the one cooking).     My stuff is normally cleaned up right away.  Except lunch, I sometimes have to wait  if I'm busy at work.

The boy leave his shit everywhere.    However, I find it's my issues that I don't like it sitting around, not his.   Actually he gets annoyed because he is looking for something and I've already put it away somewhere.   Sometimes I have to take a step back.

We dust and vacuum weekly. DH loves to vacuum and do the floors.   Bathrooms twice a week.  Laundry is once a week.   It's upstairs so out of site of company.   

I am the same with my H.  H is very messy and it drives me batty.  When he went away for over a week last month I was amazed by how clean and organized our house always was and how crazy messy it became when he came back home!

I was in my own personal hell while RVing this weekend.   I loved RVing, but there was so much shit everywhere it was stressing me out.  

This is very my my motto:

Yup, especially if you are in closer quarters then what you are used to.

There are days that I can just feel my anxiety growing when our house gets really messy.  Then I go on a cleaning binge and feel much better.  In fact, I am getting pretty close to that at the moment with H's side of the closet.  I fold and stack all of his t-shirts nicely and then an hour later a handful are in balls or thrown off to the side and the stacks are about ready to fall over. Or his shelf full of hoodies which I have now just started throwing up there because I have fully given up hope that they will ever stay neat.

ashley8918

KatieinBkln said:

novella1186 said:

KatieinBkln said:

ashley8918 said:

You guys would DIE if you saw my house. We are downright filthy compared to you people.

Mail, laundry, and fucking toys EVERYWHERE. I honestly only clean if people are coming over, and I don't have guests very often because my condo is small and doesn't lend itself well to guests anyway. And cleaning for company involves picking shit up off the floor, cleaning the tables/counters/etc, and MAYBE steam mopping if you are really special. I laughed so hard when i read "cleaning the walls" LOLWUT? Is this a thinhg I am supposed to do? 

Nope, I'm with you--cleaning is just not a huge priority for either of us. (We both love it when the apartment is nice and tidy for company, but keeping it that way? We suck). I don't like, wallow in filth, but I currently have a few dishes that need to go in the dishwasher, there is clutter all over my living room, and I haven't been "caught up" with laundry in what feels like years.

I like to think things would be a bit different if I had a house that lent itself to entertaining. Even just having more space for shit would mean I could have a catchall room/basement for all the stuff that seems to sneak into places it doesn't belong.

FI is out of town till Thursday, so I'm planning a huge tidying up party for myself on Wednesday night--I think he will be pleased! I'm going to throw out the coffee table that just gathers clutter.

This makes me feel so much better lol. Seriously, sometimes I look around at all the clutter and mess, and then I look at FI and say, "Are we gross? Are we just failing at being adults?" 

Seeing FSIL's perfect house and then walking into my house just sucks. 

I mean, I am DEFINITELY gross. I need a wife. Not like, a real-life wife, who is a person. But rather the antiquated, patriarchal, oppressive notion of Wife, the person who picks up after you, cooks for you, schedules your life, and does so with a smile!

Someone should work on making a robot like this. A WifeBot.

I would also like a wife, please.