fifty shades of dust and clutter

I would love a house as you describe it but realised 50 years ago it was an impossible dream. My DH is a hoarder and does not seem to see clutter. The only time he clears up is when the cleaner is coming!

I like my house fairly tidy but, although it drives me dotty, I realise that we live here and would much rather it got messy than it stayed how I left it!

And, as dragonfly says, we are forced to tidy up when the cleaner is due!!

This resonates with me! After bringing up four untidy children and an equally untidy husband I now live alone, and most of the time my apartment is just how I like it. Yesterday, however, was my third day of emergency childcare. After I put the baby to bed for his morning nap I setttled on the sofa with a cup of tea, the last mince pie, and a good book. It was then that two friends called and said they were passing by. I looked around my apartment: the dishwasher hadn’t been emptied and there were this morning’s breakfast things on the worktops plus some dishes and glasses that hadn’t made it into the dishwasher the night before, a bag of recycling and three empty bottles on the floor by the sink, and a clothes aired fully loaded in the guest bathroom, plus toys and books strewn over the living area floor. Of course I let them in, and we had several cups of tea and a nice chat.
A friend lost her partner very suddenly, and she said one of the hardest things to bear was the tidiness of her house: how she missed his coat on the back of a chair, his shoes askew in the hallway, his always-open wardrobe door.

I like the house to look clean and tidy although it doesn’t stay that way for long. I think it’s part of my relaxing process in the evening - much nicer to sit looking at a tidy room rather than a lot of clutter.

How my neighbours manage to live in showhouses I do not know. Even if I call round unexpectedly there is not a thing out of place, everything is pristine and sparkling, kitchen work surfaces empty, no washing up in the sink. No books, magazines lying around, no coats slung over the bannister, no bits of paper lying around waiting to be dealt with. I make a big effort when it's my turn to host the monthly coffee morning and manage to achieve the look for about a day - then it's back to normal! The thing is that I feel their houses have no character and no clues as to what sort of people live there. They have no bookshelves, and everything is very 'tasteful'. My DH was a boarder so I had little chance and was alwaysq

Pressed post too soon by mistake! I was always saying that the house looked like a tip, but my goodness, how I wish it looked like that now! DH always used to say that it was our home and that it should look 'lived in', not a showhome. He didn't see untidiness or clutter and really wouldn't have cared what sort of mess it was in. Obviously it was kept clean and I used to have a massive tidy up every so often, but it was soon back to normal. So basically I have a big clean and tidy-up when I'm expecting visitors, and the rest of the time it's a lick and a promise!
I have a friend though who changes the colour scheme in her sitting room and kitchen every couple of months. She will just fancy something different and has big plastic boxes labelled with the colour, full of matching accessories, and will change everything including curtains. Boxes are stored in the loft till next time. In the kitchen even the kettle and toaster are changed and she has matching sets of mugs, cutlery, tea towels, coasters etc in different colours. (I have one set of matching mugs and the rest are odd ones picked up on holiday or free from events.). Never know what to expect whenever we visit!

I find it very difficult to function in a cluttered and/or untidy environment. Even as a child, my bedroom was always tidy . I knew then that I could not live with someone who was untidy or a smoker. Unfortunately DH hid his untidiness very well until I married hi . Then it was too late.

I try to contain his untidiness to areas I can cope with. We share a study, so I keep my side tidy and leave his half the way he wants it. We have a huge workshop, but he won't use it as it is the other end of the garden so I cope with the breakfast table being a mess and stuff stacked in the back hall.

I still dream of living in a tidy house, where I know where everything is and everything has a place.

I like a tidy, minimalist environment. DH has his study and garage to store his model boat collection, numerous power tools, useful "stuff", any books he wished to keep. Lately however, his guitar collection is creeping into our sitting room which is the one area of the house I insist on being clutter free. I return said musical instruments, music stand, books etc back to his study at regular intervals. I think this is a reasonable compromise.

Wow, I’m impressed with your friend sapphire. Although that’s a shade too far for me. I like to think I keep the house clean but there’s nothing quite as mortifying as a visit from someone whose glance is caught by the humongous, swirly cobweb that you just know wasn’t there yesterday. Or when the local councillor you asked round to discuss a local issue sits in the kitchen diner facing the huge pile of dirty washing, mainly underpants, which you have been nagging DH to move for days. Why that day, why that time. Or the time that having scrubbed the house from top to bottom, lined up the guest towels and generally gone to huge effort for some particularly discerning guests, and dh just needs to do a huge poo, leaving a throat tightening aroma and a streak down the pan just moments before the doorbell rings. Such is life i suppose

I too like a clean and tidy house however I also accept that when our DGC come to visit the house is theirs to make a comfy, playful environment. I accept this as long as I can get it all tidied up again once they leave. I don't keep our house this way for anyone else but for me and DH who also is clean and tidy (sometimes a bit more than me). We are all different and accept/not accept how others want to live. It your own choice.

I am a neat freak so the housework. Washing etc gets done everyday- clean clothes everyday. DH does a lot of it but no cooking which I do from scratch everyday. I like to think the house does look homely, we do have books and pictures but no photos or ornaments. We have colours as accents and have kept the décor neutral. I just cant think in a mess. DH's desk is a different matter but that's in his study(third bedroom) my desk is tidy. My parents had a services background so were both very tidy and I was a nurse so tidy and excessively clean after a 3 year spell as an Infection Control Nurse left me a fear of unidentified grot.

Oh sorry - to answer the question I do it for me/us as we have few visitors and anyway I like housework!

We have oak floors so always get dust rats ! And as we live near the sea our windows are murky with salt crystals. Still I prefer that to our last home which was dusty from road traffic etc.
I like a tidy and clean house but I am getting used to doing the minimum some days

much nicer to sit looking at a tidy room rather than a lot of clutter.

My mum used to say that, funnygran, when she visited and, having got the young kids to bed, read their story, etc., I would come into the sitting room with a cup of tea (or wine), use my slippered foot as a toy sweeper-upper so that at least they weren't underfoot in the well trodden areas, and collapse into an easy chair.

Actually, thinking about it now, my mum doesn't actually do relaxed. She has an endless twitchy energy. She used to get... not annoyed exactly... but flummoxed at how still I could sit even when I was a small child.

If the weather's fine (it often isn't where I live) and I have any energy, the house can go hang while I do stuff outside. We have a large, difficult garden (which I love) and MrB is not a gardener. He helps with specific tasks requiring more strength than I have when I ask him to.

Always what needs to be hygienic in the house is hygienic. Dust and cobwebs in places where it hardly matters... shrug.

The thread title made me laugh and then the first part of your OP, petunia made me feel full of awe!

That's how I like my house, too but I have to confess that I'm probably just as untidy as DH.
The bit about the loo resonates too - we have a downstairs loo and I am forever telling asking him to use the bathroom upstairs just in case we have visitors and they go to use a less than pristine downstairs loo! It falls on deaf ears.

Right - we have visitors coming tomorrow so I need to whiz round with a duster and vacuum and shove things into cupboards

What are dust rats BbBevan
Are they those balls of fluff which seem to appear from nowhere, daily, on wooden floors?

I am very tidy and organised but not houseproud. Over the years the kitchen has played host to tack, haybales, hen feed (and hens) motor bike engines (not mine) plus the assorted males that appear with them, and so on.Cobwebs provide a home for the resident midge controllers. A while back I had some fractures (topical on todays threads) and decided at that time to get a cleaner, who is still with us. Sounds dreadfully posh but she does an excellent job and we sparkle in lots more places. CH (current husbands) desk is another matter ....................

We did a house swap for a holiday when our DC were small and the hardest part was cleaning my house for the other family who were strangers. The exchange was arranged by an agent.
It was nice to see the children happily playing with new toys but their house was so boring and bland.
There wasn't a book to read or any evidence of an interesting life.

Coming home to my tidy house was a treat.

I am resigned to living amid clutter.
I sometimes wish I had a magic wand to tidy it more often but as others have suggested, the alternative could be worse!

We call them dust bunnies here .
I like to have the place clean , but tidy is not what I can do ! I try , goodness knows I try !!1 no idea why the stuff seems to drift out of the drawers and multiply on the surfaces
I got a new cupboard in the hall , folded all , well most of my scarfs ,gloves and hats , they looked so pretty that DD3 asked if DD1 had done it ... grrrrrrrrrr . Now I am afraid to get out a scarf in case I make a mess
The thing is , I love to see the place tidy just for me

Grammaretto I used to feel like that about the houses of members of 2 of the baby-sitting groups I belonged to when DC were small. Not so much impeccably clean, but without books or pictures on the walls.

We then moved to the university area of a large town and like us the members of the baby sitting group had books, pictures and interesting 'stuff' in their living rooms.

I'm sadly disappointed in this thread. I thought from the title it was going to be about sluts like me, instead it's about a bunch of clean freaks. I know I'm inadequate, I know I should clean more. I just can't be a***d. I surrendered long ago. Dust and Clutter Rule! OK!

Yes Jalima they are and they move about also, seemingly under their own steam.

Oh trisher what a relief! I was getting quite disturbed by the amount of cleaning going on by other posters. I'm supposedly retired but I do quite a lot of activities outside of the house and as long as the loos are clean that is all that matters. We have family tramping in and out and yes, our home is cluttered but people seem to like to be here so it can't be that bad. As one friend replied when I felt I had to apologise for the mess: 'I've come to see you, not the house'. There are times though I wish I had a show home house but with DH around that will never happen. His mantra is: see a space put something in it!!!