how clean is your home...really? - Page 2

[philomom]

Originally Posted by Brees_Mama 

I love that.

FWIW, I prefer going to someones house and it being "lived in" or "dirty", whatever you wanna call it. It makes me more comfortable.

I prefer to visit houses that are somewhat clean. It makes me feel more welcome and more at home.

I only have two messy friends who are worth the trouble to visit their houses that make me feel "icky and sticky". These are outstanding people and I don't go their homes often but sometimes I make the effort just because they are so cool personally.

[berry987]

Love this thread -- I struggle with whether I am keeping my house clean "enough" and I feel like all I do is clean all day! I have three kids (6, 4 and 2), a dog and three cats (a constant source of tracked dirt in the house!) My kitchen is usually clean and tidy (I do dishes right away, wipe the counters often, sweep at least twice a day, etc.) But the kitchen is where we spend most of our time and is the most visible spot in the home, so I put the most effort there. The rest of the house is either clean or tidy - but not usually both at once. I hate clutter, so I get rid of stuff often and try to keep everything in its place. I wipe the bathrooms down regularly, but mop only about once a month. The floors are a darkish wood so they don't show much dirt -- luckily because I am sure they are very dirty! It just seems like I can't get it all done at once - if the laundry is caught up and all put away the toys have overtaken the living room and the bathrooms are a mess. And vice versa. 

I feel like my house is a little like my own reflection - I can't really judge it against others very well. I've been in friends houses who are obviously messy and kind of gross and then the other extreme of super clean houses (usually people who have house cleaners). Most people I know fall somewhere in the middle and I imagine I do too. But just like my own reflection, I judge my house harsher than others. I get really, really frustrated when it gets messy and tend to see all the smudge marks on the walls and not notice how tidy it generally is.

[diana_of_the_dunes]

We're sanitary but a bit cluttered. I vacuum/sweep constantly, because we have a furry dog who is constantly molting, plus DS has not yet outgrown the tendency to put anything and everything into his mouth.  Dishes are done nightly by DH, though he often leaves a few (I don't ask why or complain.  I hate dishes and don't want to compromise the fact that he does them).  Laundry is a constant, especially with cloth dipes, and there is always some waiting to be washed or waiting to be put away.

The living room is always presentable, even though that's where all of DS's toys live.  I'm good about picking them up constantly, and I don't really consider scattered toys clutter anyways.  It may not be perfectly dusted and vacuumed every day, but it's definitely ready for unexpected visitors.

Unfortunately, the dining room is open to the living room.  This is the room we seem to live the most in, and it shows.  And we just finished a mini kitchen renovation, so there's a refrigerator in there at the moment.  The buffet is our clutter catcher/landing zone, and the overflow is on the table.  It's not teetering stacks or anything, but there's more crap than I'd like in there.  We have way too many pairs of shoes piled by the back door.  However, the floors and table are crumb-free, and any spills are wiped up immediately.  

The kitchen, being recently reno-ed, is clean.  There's a bit of clutter on the microwave, and there are usually dishes in the sink, since our new dishwasher isn't hooked up yet.  Counters are crumb-free until I go to work and DH prepares dinner for himself and DS.  

The upstairs is more lived-in.  Our spare room collects laundry, since DH and I work opposing schedules and one of us is almost always sleeping.  It makes putting away laundry a little more difficult.  The bathroom is clean, but the bowl usually needs swished, since we follow the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" method of flushing.  DS's room is clean, but I often have a small pile of recently-outgrown clothes on his dresser waiting to go to the basement.  It's sanitary, though, and the most I'd really be embarrassed about is the fact that DS has a tendency to take condoms out of our nightstand and distribute them throughout the upstairs!  I never know where/when I might find a few...  

The basement is the "man cave".  DH's standards are lower than mine, and I'm terribly embarrassed of it.  He leaves soda cans (empty) laying around, and his home-based business supplies are taking over.  I avoid going down there, because it usually pisses me off that it's so awful.  However, I have designated it as his space, so I don't nag him about it unless we're having repairs done and I know someone will be seeing it.  

I'm mostly just tired of living in a construction zone.  It's clean, a bit cluttered, and not finished.  We have woodwork missing, painting unfinished, and a dropcloth on our stairs until I can put the finish coat on them.  I'd be great having people drop by if my house weren't in a constant state of reconstruction!!

[clutterwarrior]

Quote:

Originally Posted by diana_of_the_dunes 

I'm mostly just tired of living in a construction zone.  It's clean, a bit cluttered, and not finished.  We have woodwork missing, painting unfinished, and a dropcloth on our stairs until I can put the finish coat on them.  I'd be great having people drop by if my house weren't in a constant state of reconstruction!!

I actually wish I was living in a construction zone...it would be better than nothing happening at all!  I have been wanting renovations for years, and frankly we just can't afford them.  Really hoping we can get renovations at least started before I turn 55 (which is in 4 years time!)

[Aeress]

Oh no, another how clean is your house thread. lol

We are rearranging our kitchen so it is very cluttered right now. Our school room is chaotic, I didn't police how the kids were using it and then we were on vacation, so it is getting picked up Monday. In general, I need to do a big spring cleaning- washing curtains, walls, cupboards etc.

I am ok visiting homes that are to me, normal kid messy.

My house was in great shape for about 6 months, easy to pick up and keep clean, but then the holidays hit and winter and well, I let things slide. We will get back into the cleaning program this spring.

[diana_of_the_dunes]

Originally Posted by clutterwarrior 

Quote:

I actually wish I was living in a construction zone...it would be better than nothing happening at all!  I have been wanting renovations for years, and frankly we just can't afford them.  Really hoping we can get renovations at least started before I turn 55 (which is in 4 years time!)

Y'know, I suppose the "nothing happening" part is actually more accurate.  We've been plugging away VERY slowly since we had DS 18 months ago.  The plan was for the living room and upstairs to be done before he was born.  His room was done, but I never finished refinishing the stairway, we just refinished the floors last May, and the woodwork and closet doors are still not done.  In the winter, we ground to a halt completely, and we just now got a new kitchen floor out of necessity after a minor flood.  We now have 5 rooms in various states of work.  It's habitable, but it's the eternal un-finished-ness of it all that gets me.  I do much better when we're accomplishing something, though I'm very ready to just live in this house a little before we sell it!

[cappuccinosmom]

Hmmm, I'd say it's clean enough that I'd be fine having guests over.  However, we don't have very high standards. The house is old.  No amount of cleaning will make the carpet less ugly or the window caulking less cracked, you know?  If someone dropped by, I'd probably excuse myself and quickly run up to wipe down the bathroom and make sure the shower curtain completely covered our ugly tub.   Otherwise, I'd be OK with them seeing the rest of the house.

It isn't sparkling.  I'm still working on cleaning the walls after the last tenant smoked in here.  It's disgusting.  But you don't see that grime unless you're the one with the damp rag that's turning yellow.  The kids know they're required to put toys away, and they don't have a lot of them to start with.  Laundry is done, and I fold and put away as soon as possible so it doesn't pile up. 

In general, the house is tidy and orderly.  There's always something that could be done--stuff on the windows, spots on the kitchen floor, a few dishes in the sink.  But those don't make it "dirty", nor do they seem to make guests uncomfortable.

[cappuccinosmom]

I should add, when we travelled last January, we visited two friends whose homes were not magazine-clean.  Both had older homes, both had multiple kids running around.  It was sort of generally tidy, but stuff on the floor, crumbs on the table, smudges on the window, etc.  The house of the one friend smelled like a dairy barn, because they're farmers, and live a few feet away from a dairy barn, and are in and out all day.  Even taking boots and dirty clothes off in the hallway, the whole place had that farmy atmosphere.

I love visiting those friends.  My kids love it.  We just settled in and were perfectly comfortable.

[berkeleyp]

Well, reading this thread, it is obvious that we all have very different standards for what it means to be clean.  I live in an old farmhouse with ancient glass and floors so my house will never look immaculate.  I rarely clean the windows, as the glass is very thin and cleaning them can cause cracks in addition to lots of chipped paint (lead of course)  My floors are beautiful old wide boards but the cracks between them are also wide and get filled with dirt that I can't get out despite using the vaccuum attachement in each crack every week.  I think I clean less because it still looks old and kinda dirty even when I do a thorough cleaning.   I find that I have a pretty high tolerance for disorder so I let the clutter pile up on the mostly unused dining room table and around the edges, you know the corner coffee table or the little ledge of my hutch.  When I clean for guests, I notice all these little things that just ended up somewhere and never got put away and then I wonder how I didn't even really notice.  THis is why I try to have people over fairly often because it ensure I do the proper cleaning.

I clean my kitchen about daily but in the middle of the day, there might easily be a few dishes scattered around that haven't made it to the sink yet, let alone the dishwasher.  But I really clean the kitchen -all dishes clean and put away, all counters cleared and wiped down at least every day or two so the mess is never that bad in between.  I do a load of laundry or two every day but I don't always get to folding it so there is usually at least one load of clean laundry in my bedroom that needs attention.  I NEVER mop but do spot clean the kitchen/dining area and wipe the bathroom floors by hand.  I vaccuum about once a week and clean the bathrooms the same. 

A few times a month, I usually freak out and go on a cleaning spree - it never takes more than an hour or two to restore order so I guess its not that bad.  I figure, if you can clean/pickup for an hour and get your house looking pretty good - you're in good shape. 

[USAmma]

At certain times of my life my home was not clean at all. Not filthy dirty, but just dusty and unorganized and cluttered. A lot of this was when my dd2 was so sick for the first few years, and then I went to nursing school! Getting back into the routine has been great the last couple of weeks since I'm not in school anymore. I can say that my home is truly clean again. I just have to stick with the morning routine and it takes about an hour a day. If I get off the routine, which I did on Saturday as we we very busy, the house really fell apart. :-( 

[~Boudicca~]

Originally Posted by HollyBearsMom 

My house is rarely in such a state I would be embarrassed if someone stopped by unexpectedly. Laundry baskets full of clean laundry ready to be folded or full of dirty ready to be washed is pretty standard.  A dishwasher full of dirty dishes is pretty standard too. Mail piled up on the table and general household clutter is pretty normal too.  To me this is nothing to be embarrassed about. 

That said the bathrooms a guest would use are always pretty clean since they are rarely used otherwise. I am a big cook so my kitchen is always spotless.  I clean as I go.  Nothing makes me crazier than having to clean before I can start cooking.

We never make our beds but what guest comes and checks out your bedrooms?  We don't mind it so who cares?

Dusting/vacuuming etc is done *maybe* once a week so if said guest showed up unexpectedly and walked around barefoot yeah that might be embarrassing! 

Oh and I am freak about "fluffing" the couch cushions/pillows, straightening the magazines/books on the coffee table, etc before I go to bed each night so our family room looks pretty good at the start of each day.

Yeah this is pretty much how we are around here too. It did take a few years for me to figure out how to make it happen and maintain the house like this, things were not always this smooth.

[clutterwarrior]

Quote:

Originally Posted by USAmma 

At certain times of my life my home was not clean at all. Not filthy dirty, but just dusty and unorganized and cluttered. A lot of this was when my dd2 was so sick for the first few years, and then I went to nursing school! Getting back into the routine has been great the last couple of weeks since I'm not in school anymore. I can say that my home is truly clean again. I just have to stick with the morning routine and it takes about an hour a day. If I get off the routine, which I did on Saturday as we we very busy, the house really fell apart. :-( 

I can identify strongly with your post....due to periods of depression including the time when my DS had cancer, I don't know if anything got dusted really.

I finally have more of a handle on it....although I still get days when I can't lift a finger due to feeling down/PMS etc... 

My house is now clean enough that if anyone came in, I would not be embarrassed, (unless they opened the (very high up) top right cupboard in one room, which I know is in dire need of cleaning and I am too scared to open it!)

Re beds not being made, this used to be me, but since starting motivated moms, I started doing them just because they were on the list, and I have been surprised to find what a difference it makes, and the whole family have commented how much they enjoy having the beds tidy during the day!
 

[USAmma]

Originally Posted by clutterwarrior 

Quote:

I can identify strongly with your post....due to periods of depression including the time when my DS had cancer, I don't know if anything got dusted really.

I finally have more of a handle on it....although I still get days when I can't lift a finger due to feeling down/PMS etc... 

My house is now clean enough that if anyone came in, I would not be embarrassed, (unless they opened the (very high up) top right cupboard in one room, which I know is in dire need of cleaning and I am too scared to open it!)

Re beds not being made, this used to be me, but since starting motivated moms, I started doing them just because they were on the list, and I have been surprised to find what a difference it makes, and the whole family have commented how much they enjoy having the beds tidy during the day!
 

Yes, I had forgotten how much depression played a part in my house too, when the kids were younger. It was like my inner self was being expressed through the state of the house. I too make the beds daily now and you are right, it just makes things look so much better. I hope your depression stays away.

[mama naturale]

I really struggle when my babies are small. Now my house is clean but my youngest is 2.5 and its so much easier because he is out of nappies, not feeding all night, etc. He doesn't make as much mess now. :) I feel like I can be more on top of things without a baby in the house. This will change next month! I really have no idea how people can have really clean houses with a small child.

What I find helps is keeping the house decluttered and also having support from my husband and kids (who are old enough to tidy and do a job or two).

I think my state of mind definitely has an effect too. How I am feeling emotionally will show up in my motivation to clean or not.

[oldcrunchymom]

Well.  My house is messy.   It's actually well organized but it's only 500 sq ft so if five things are on the floor it looks like a huge disaster.  Plus, I suck at doing dishes, so there are ALWAYS dishes in the sink except sometimes on Friday nights after my kids go to their dad's--I might do them all then because I know the sink will stay clean for the weekend.  Right now, there are a bunch of spices standing in the middle of the kitchen floor because I cleaned out and reorganized the kitchen cupboards (hauled a bunch of stuff to Goodwill) and didn't buy enough new racks to hold all the spices.  Oops.  There's always some little thing like that making a mess.  The FedEx guy usually looks a little scared when he comes to the door.

[Tumble Bumbles]

My house is very clean most of the time -- but there are reasons for that (other than me being June Cleaver...not...lol)

For one, I only have one child (talk to me when I have a newborn in June!) and she's of an age where she's not constantly making messes. She is able to clean up fairly well, and is past the toddler tornado stage.

Secondly, we live in only about 1000sf, so if I had a 2500sf house I imagine that would be more difficult to stay on top of.

Thirdly, I'm a sahm. Parenting and the home is my chosen (and very happily) "career" for now. If I worked full-time out of the home I can imagine it would be way more difficult to keep my home as clean, or if I were a single mama doing it all on my own, etc...

Additionally, we are seriously decluttered -- to the point of near minimalism (but not quite there yet). I think that is one of the biggest reason my home appears clean (even if it's not "white glove ready"). Having far less stuff than the typical American family gives the appearance of cleanliness even if there are some dust bunnies or crumbs here and there.

Also -- we have a lot of convenience items that aid in keeping a house clean -- like a washer/dryer and dishwasher. A few years ago, we lived in an apartment that had neither a washer/dryer or dishwasher -- so things got messier faster because laundry would pile up as well as dishes -- and my daughter was also a crazy toddler getting into everything.

So the point is, depending on where you are in your life, how old your kids are, whether you work outside the home or not, etc... I think has to do with how clean your home is at any given time. Everyone's circumstances are different. I don't judge people for having less clean or more cluttered homes than I -- I just feel calmer, happier, and more organized when my space is orderly, but I acknowledge that there are factors in my life that help me have an orderly home.

Now, in a couple of months when I have a newborn and a homeschool-aged kid, things may not be so orderly for a while, and I'm okay with that.

[mrskatiekuj]

thank you for every ones replies. I do not feel quite so alone anymore!

[triana1326]

Originally Posted by Brees_Mama 

I can completely relate to the bolded parts. I could have written those.

And I'd love to have a Roomba! I think my kids might kill it within 2 days though, lol

I found the Roomba for $25 at a garage sale two years ago. We just had to replace it because we wore it out when I used it to clean the floors at the local bookstore I work at when I was too pregnant to vacuum comfortably. The replacement was $100 on Ebay, and worth every penny! That was my tax refund splurge. The Scooba was also an Ebay find for $75! I've never had such clean floors. The only problem with them is that I have to wait for the battery to recharge after using them for more than an hour...maybe I just need to get an extra battery?

[triana1326]

I was diagnosed with postpartum depression just before Christmas, and I have noticed a complete turnaround in how clean my house is now compared to before I went on meds. I could barely gather the energy to get out of bed, let alone clean and organize an entire house! Now I've got enough energy to do the things that need to get done and cut myself some slack if I don't get to some things until the next day. Before, I would make myself sick with guilt and anxiety that I hadn't done anything all day long other than sit on the couch.

I still don't like the fact that I'm on meds, but the drastic improvement speaks volumes to me that I need to be on them for the foreseeable future. I hope that you both find some peace too...

Originally Posted by USAmma 

Yes, I had forgotten how much depression played a part in my house too, when the kids were younger. It was like my inner self was being expressed through the state of the house.