Are you a tidy person? And what were your parents like?

[gemlady]

My parents house was always spotless and everything in it's place. Our house always seems to be untidy, but my DD's house is spotless and she can't bear for the smallest thing to be out of place. Life's too short!

[moggssue]

My parents were clean but untidy, we had so much hobby 'stuff' and I'm the same. I try my best to be tidy but it just never seems to work - the mess fairy keeps getting it all out again!

[SueA]

My mum was always very tidy & houseproud & used to despair at the state of my bedroom when I was a teenager, eventually giving up & letting me live in the mess. She even took a photo of it one night when I'd got ready & gone out leaving it a tip to try & shame me - it didn't work, see the photo below taken around 1976!
I'm not very tidy & like to have plenty of warning if anyone's coming round , I'm a hoarder but I like to have 'tidy' mess, junk piled up in orderly piles!

[Beki]

LOL that photo's like what my bedroom looks like most of the time NOW!!! lol

Another forum i belong to has just done a thread called 'let's have a tour of your house', and anyone who wanted to join in tok photos of all their rooms, garden etc, and posted them. I did it this afternoon, so i happen to have a few 'untidy' photos to hand! lol. This is what my kitchen typically looks like!



And this is my living room, in one of it's tidy-ish phases (which don't last long, and even when it's 'tidy', it's not REALLY! lol)





And my bedroom? Well, we won't even attempt to go in there lol

My dd's bedroom is atrocious!!!

[Pootle]

That looks absolutely normal to me!

We're not 'tidy' but I do insist that at least the bathroom and kitchen are clean

My excuse is that I have three children and many more interesting things to do with my life. Plus I blame my MIL for clearing up after my OH when he was younger - it means that he's never got the hang of it (see also my posts about womeries in the composting section!) But what really gets me is that, as he's a scientist, he's really obsessively tidy at work...hmm, may take a few more years to get to the bottom of that one

[Waffler]

We're not the cleanest of people, but I certainly wouldn't class us as 'dirty'; the kitchen and bathrooms have to be clean; the hoover goes round at least once a week, but dusting and washing of floors happen, well usually when I'm trying to avoid doing something else (as a youngster, cleaning always suddenly needed my attention when assignments were due in!)
Our problem is clutter; neither hubby nor I are good at getting rid of stuff and are equally as bad at putting stuff down and leaving it. I don't like it like that, but it takes 2 to make it work, so there in lies the problem!

I reckon my Mum kept the house in a similar state to ours;dusting took a backseat whereas other stuff got cleaned, and the place was pretty cluttered. Although it contradicts the initial statement/hypotheses I'm going to blame Mum for our imperfect home! (at least as far as cleanliness and tidiness is concerned - other than that it's near perfect!)

[Bren In Pots]

Might be a good time to mention that I keep my bike in our kitchen

[dipseydiva]

I used to be obsessively tidy untill my Dad died suddenly, and then I thought "life is too short". So now I do what I feel like doing, ( though it is usually the garden). By the way I have three daughters, two are really messy and one cleans her room for fun!!

[janeyo]

My parents house is dirty and cluttered and I used to clean and tidy when I was little. I don't think they notice it. Now I am a clean obsessive, the hoover is out everyday. But with 3 cats and 2 children it needs to be clean (esp as baby learned to crawl today). Our old house was like a show-home and in this one I am trying to be more relaxed.

I hate people dropping in unexpectedly as I always think it's not clean and tidy, prob a throwback from living at home when I used to feel embarrassed of the house.

Our house now is a bit of a dump and needs a lot of work, plans are in to extend and I am dreading that, with the dust and dirt, but it is making me realise that there are more important things, LIKE THE GARDEN! I'm kind of thinking the house is a state, I can't improve it without major work so won't bother! And go outside where I can't see it!

janeyo

[Farmer_Gyles]

my parents were always tidy, not obsessively though - and they still are - as kids we always had to help out around the house - these days they have a cleaner

as for me, i'm a clean and tidy person, but not obsessive - i'm a single parent and my son always has loads of mates round so the house can get messy very quickly - i do get my son to help with housework *sometimes* but he's normally very willing cos he knows how hard i work

but at the end of the day, this house is a home, it's for living in, not for show - it's normally clean and normally tidy, but it WILL get messy and i'll tidy up when i'm ready - i dont care if someone comes in and it's messy

[bluemoon]

My mums house is now tidy, but when we were kids there was the usual chaos and she wasn't too distressed by it. She worked full time and I used to dread Saturday mornings as she somehow managed to fit in cleaning the house from top to bottom, a visit to the hairdresser's and the weekly shop, and all before 11.30 as we had to be at Nan's for lunch by half past twelve. When my kids were younger mine was chaotic too, but I've never been too obsessed with housework and I still find it a chore. I remember as a child though how I loved my Nan's house, it was clean and tidy, but cluttered in a pleasant, cozy sort of way. And it always smelled of baking and polish and it was such a comforting place - my mum and dad had a fairly tempestuous marriage so I suppose I felt secure there. I've actually been thinking about it a lot over these past months, we have a couple of grandchildren of our own now and a house that needs redecorating throughout, although we've finally finished the sitting room and OH, having finally got his decorating head on, has now almost finished the hall too, - so instead of going for anything too trendy I'm sort of aiming for the Granny Look. Nothing chintzy, but I'd like it to be a place the grandchildren remember fondly, not that their home life is anything like as tumultuous as mine was, but their house is ultra-modern and kind of minimalist. In the process of doing the redecorating though, we're being ruthless about chucking out loads of junk that we'd kept 'in case it came in handy', that's certainly helping from a keeping it tidy perspective.