fifty shades of dust and clutter

I am so tidy in my mind....I just can't put it into practice. If I am going to have family visit I chuck everything into my cabin and galley cupboards.
Then a sweep and damp wipe down to remove dust from the multifuel burner that seems to get everywhere. My brother is going to visit. He has never seen my boat....He will want the full tour. Oh gawd....I need help.

Unfortunately I am naturally an untidy person, unlike my mother and daughter who are clean freaks. Now my place is on the market so whenever I have a viewing I have to whiz around tidying up and cleaning. It is very galling if the viewer does not turn up (as has happened 3 times) and I am left with a clean tidy home and nobody to see it.
By the way my small bedroom is not used. Yesterday morning expecting a viewing I went in there with my vacuum and discovered a HUGE spider web across the floor from the door curtain to the chest of drawers. The door leads out to the garden and the curtain is to keep draughts out. The web was at least half an inch thick. I am an arachnophobe. but I had to deal with it, as hubby passed away about three years ago. My vacuum could not suck it up, and I had to wind it up around the nozzle. This morning it was back again, just as thick, in a slightly different place. It is no exaggeration to say half an inch. I think the spider must have gone back and forth several times across the same area. No spider could spin a single web that size - could it? It must be behind the door curtain which I am petrified to move....

I do it for myself as I think the house just feels lighter and more airy when it's clean and tidy (and much healthier to live in) but my OH just plonks things down all over the place (I think he sees a clear surface as a welcome to put something down on it). I've let my standards slip over the years (had to or get divorced!) and so lost interest in the house, but when he was away for work I'd have it the way I wanted it to be. For me, the ideal would be for us to have separate flats - living next door to each other - so that I could have my space clean and tidy, and he could have his messy. Am still working on that one !

I hate clutter but live with a husband who puts things down on the nearest surface. We each have a side table beside our armchair. His has two phones on it, unopened mail, his wallet, head phones, tooth picks, new parts to fix washing machine, and receipts. Mine has a neat pile of magazines. When his table is full I see him pass something on to my table. When he's not looking I place it back on his. Oh the games we play!

I try to be houseproud, but I’m afraid it often slips away from me. I have a very untidy and messy OH, and if I try too hard with the housework, I just get so annoyed. He can sabotage a full morning of my cleaning etc in minutes, leaving me fuming. It’s partly the mess itself, but also the taking for granted someone will be along to clear up in a minute.... I’ve found that as he won’t change, it’s best to not be as particular as I would like, to avoid getting myself irritated and stressed by it.

The only time I get into full panic mode is when my SIL is expected. She cleans like a woman possessed (floors washed at least daily) and has a way of ignoring any mess that is quite mortifying.

So agree with you Carly. I love space and no clutter...my husband is a hoarder. When he retires soon, we may come to blows! I’m seriously considering having an ongoing clear out from now until he’s actually finished work. He won’t notice that a lot of stuff in the house has been chucked, and then it’ll be easier for me to keep it how I like it...and I can nag him to not make an almighty mess ( he’ll never tidy anything). Your idea of two separate dwellings sounds good to me as well though!

I think dust rats are related to the fluff bunnies that live under my bed.

I'm not obsessive about tidiness but do like the bathroom & kitchen to be clean & tidy. Clothes are clean not necessarily ironed .

I'd rather be outside in the garden or enjoying the glorious Devon coast & countryside (I live on the edge of Dartmoor) on nice days.

My home is small & storage is at a premium, my dining table is my office. Lots of photos, books, pictures & ornaments in my Lounge plus my Orchid collection & a few more houseplants.

I have a fridge magnet which says "only dull women have immaculate houses" & another which says "you can look at the dust but please don't write in it" . Luckily my DH was uninterested in housework.

My DH is without a doubt a slob.......a handsome, charming, talented, fantastic in bed slob. He has never knowingly, hung up clothing, shut a door, put anything away, wiped up in the kitchen, etc etc. He has his own man cave which is a complete nightmare. But at least it's all contained.

I'd love a tidy house. When I was first married everything was just lovely-OK we were both out at work all day.
I remember a friend coming round after my first son was born & she laughed & said that at last my house looked like a home & not a show house.
DH no. 2 changed things for me. He is so untidy-hoards things, never clears up anything & TBH I have pretty much given up. It's just a thankless task to keep up with it all.
He is still working so even if I do keep house clear it is only until he gets home. I dread to think what it would look like left to him.
I can't even get I to his study to clean & hoover & now it has spread to hall & dining room.
I give up!
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My house would look literally immaculate to the untrained eye. Everything in it's place, uncluttered surfaces etc etc.
But don't look too carefully! Can't remember when the windows were cleaned. Don't move an ornament or you'll see the dust on it and around it. I hate washing the tiled floor in the huge downstairs hall. But if I do those real jobs, it does give me a feeling of contentment!

I love a tidy clean house!

A house becomes a home when it has that “lived in” look - or that’s what I keep telling myself!!

oh petunia - "The house is miraculously like this for about one hour per week". After reading your first paragraph, I literally burst out laughing when I read this.

I would love my home to be as you describe in the first paragraph. Alas, I don't think I've ever achieved it even for the hour that you do.

However, as we are now in empty nest zone, and I only have the least manageable child left at home (the husband), I am hopeful of making small progress.

I would love the house to be immaculate just for me. I think I've earned it over the last 33 years. But I'm not particularly optimistic of achieving it.

Baggs my approach too!
DH thinks he is tidier than me but he just likes things out of sight! If I am going to make an effort to tidy I will do it properly..it does not happen that often!

I love it to be tidy BUT I have been trying to declutter and find homes for things and the place has been in a state of turmoil now for years it seems, I get one room done and then in order to do another, the first one then gets full of more stuff that needs a home! Problem is I need help to do all this and when it only comes once a week it's a long process! decided to change my very small bedroom into a craft room with all my bits in as well as my clothes, so that I don't need to go upstairs, so have bought another bigger wardrobe - that is out in the garden as hoipefully someone else will be purchasing the other today (how we are going to get it out?? lol) I will sell the bed once I can reach it! Also spotted an wonderful cupboard yesterday which will swallow said craft stuff, and that is coming today too, so that will end up in the garden under the pergola too for the time being - argggggh!

I also love a tidy, clean home - but how I would love a houseful of people to make it a proper home, instead of me just looking at it.

Hi
Anyone heard of Marie Kondo. She I the latest guru of tidiness. Her programs are on Netflix

I know someone who wants their homes to look like an illustration out of magazine. Always complains that there is too much clutter and stuff about. He comes to us and comments on how homely it is and how relaxed he feels in our place

I thought like you Trisher - it was going to be about the different layers of dust and hence their different shades of grey. Yuk you're all saying. Don't you find that when you've just tidied up cause someone might call round - they don't, but when you haven't bothered for a while - they do. Oh why is dust a must - just don't bust anything moving it, cause as soon as you're not looking it'll land again.

We have managed to minimize clutter, thanks to my not too bad allergy to house dust and a fortnightly collection of paper, plastic, bottles, jam jars, tins etc. by the municipal re-cycling plant.

And after years of not being tidy, we got into the habit of putting things away when we had finished using them while sailing, and have stuck to it, now we are back ashore.

But we are not fanatically tidy, the house does look lived in.

Some people had no lives and have lots of time to clean. Or no jobs! Life is messy! These posts are ridiculous. House shaming lol. I’m done with this site. Too much finger complaining. Must be lonely in your perfect worlds!

justagirl - bye then. Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.

(Were we all supposed to be devastated by that post?? Whooooshed right over my head, if it was!)

I love my house when I’ve just cleaned & tidied but it doesn’t stay like that for long,my husband is really quite tidy but we have 4 children & 8 grandchildren,I would much rather have my family around than a spotless house.I can remember when I was young hoovering & cleaning everyday but there is more to life than cleaning.....as my grandmother use to say ‘it will all be here when we are dead & gone’.Our house is always clean but it’s our family home & I would never want to change that.

I get told the ‘place is full of clutter’ and, although I don’t need to live in a place in a magazine I do like it to be tidy. There is a surface in the kitchen that has been covered in
DH ‘stuff’for over a year!!! I am told he’s ‘getting round to it’ - we all need a roundtuit!

I too like my house to be clean and tidy but over the last few years have started to do jobs around the house when they look like they need doing. I hated being on a treadmill of doing the same job on the same day every week. O.K sometimes things look a bit grubby but never unhygienic . I can relax when the GC are here but always tidy their stuff up at the end of the day.
Just bought a new vacuum after 32years. Have to fight DH to have a go!?