Just wondering!

I don't think my house has ever been pristine, since my MIL died. I clean and tidy for visitors but do not put myself through the torment of preparing for her visits, with her 'I'll just lay my coat on your bed, it doesn't do with hanging up' and 'I'll put the dishes away' while opening every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen!

I think I'd be tempted to go to the other extreme with someone like that. What needs to be clean is clean in my house and the rest is what most people would call a tip. Take it or leave it.

We have a wipe down oilcloth on the table now because I got fed up of washing and ironing tablecloths. I go more for pacticality than poshicality.

practicality

When my aunty used to visit (long gone now ) I would always go to put her coat over the bottom bannister post. But that wouldn't do. It had to be laid carefully on the bed.

She would only stay for a couple of hours! It was sweet really.

I clean the house if just my married daughter comes to visit. (and you should see her house )

Hoover, bit of a dust and bathroom freshened up. Anyone that likes me enough to visit me knows what I live like and they come to see me - not my house!

I clean loos and kitchen surfaces. Visitors have ben known to write messages in the dust elsewhere.
I love wipe down oilcloths Baggy and only use a proper tablecloth at Christmas.
On the rare occasions that I iron something, the iron invariably needs wiping clean of dust too, as it has so few outings.

A friend of mine knows she has an iron.... somewhere.

My house isn't a tip, by the way, but if one compared it with show houses that look as if no-one lives there, it would probably score somewhere on the 'tip' side of the scale — for which I am glad. I'd hate to be such a bore that I needed a spotless and un-lived-in-looking house.

I have two small notices on the wall behind my bathroom sink. One says: Dust bunnies live here and the other: You can touch the dust but please don't write in it.

My sides are splitting Baggy how hilarious!!

I live near the sea in a lovely part of the country and so get many visitors. They certainly don't come for the pristinely clean accommodation. They enjoy the good cooking (boasting here a bit!) and the entertaining company of myself and DH. It may not be 5 star but the flow of visitors speaks for itself. I am so pleased that they accept things the way they find them and if we go by Baggy's quotes - we have quite a few bunnies and can provide drawing materials!!

Most people come to see you and don't notice what the house looks like, those that do? well, what sad lives they must lead Anyone seen the fridge sticker that says 'only boring people have immaculate homes'?

Zephrine, I have that one on my fridge! I've also got one hanging on my kitchen door saying, "The house was clean yesterday - sorry you missed it"! These were both presents from my friends. A card I received some years ago from another friend has a verse on the front saying,

I love a house that's 'lived in'
With clutter here and there.
A magazine left open,
A jacket on a chair.
A smell of something cooking
A special recipe?
An over-eager offer of hospitality.
I love a house that's 'lived in'
It seems to stand apart,
For in it is a woman
Who has a loving heart.

I'm lucky to have such understanding friends, aren't I!

I find a clean and tidy house keeps me cheerful. I get down when a mess develops.

I've got a sign above my worktop which says 'NOTICE TO STAFF' Will ladies please rinse out tea pots, then stand upside down in the sink. ON NO ACCOUNT must hot bottoms be placed on the worktops; and another which says 'My got up and go got up and went'; but I diverse : hoover hall carpet, clean loos and make space on kitchen worktop, otherwise they take me as they find me - which is usually in a complete guddle

Guddle - what a lovely word

Yes you are Green and they're lucky to have you!

I seem to have found my soulmates on this thread. My dust-bunnies have dust-mice for pets...

Anyway - spiders webs catch flies and I hate flies!

Dust mice! Oh how cute!!!!

When the sun shines in at certain angles, I notice cobwebs. The rest of the time I don't. There are certain ones in a corner window that I like to watch the progress of — you watch the dust build up on them after they've been abandoned. MOG says it appeals to my 'artistic' nature! Spider silk is incredibly strong! Weight for weight, it's stronger than steel.

Ok for really fat bluebottles, then Baggy!

Too many visitors to make a special effort for. House is clean and usually 'tidy but lived-in'. Guest bedrooms are immaculate always, but family bedrooms are usually the messiest rooms in the house. Bathrooms/loos are thoroughly cleaned once a week, but otherwise just get a quick clean daily. When a new lodger is arriving I always make a special effort to ensure the house looks its best.

Oh yes. Can't count son and daughter's (occasional use) bedrooms. I shut the door on those.

I do the Fly Lady swish and swipe thing in the bathroom when I have my bath in the morning. (got it from a mumsnet thread.)

I do that too, jangles — shower tiles while I'm still in there, then the sink and its taps, then the loo. Pretty much every day. So the bathroom is always clean where it matters and the dust bunnies (and their pet mice {love that, annobel!}) on the floor behind the sink pedestal stay happy and don't harm anybody. My kitchen routine is similar as regards food preparation surfaces. The kitchen floor, on the other hand, gets swept frequently — most days — but mopped only 'regularly', by which I mean regularly once every few months. We don't eat off the floor (but the chickens sometimes do ).

I do that too Baggy - clean the shower before I start on me although I sometimes have to come up for air when spraying the shower cleaner. I think I am the only one in the house who ever cleans anything in the bathrooms/loos - I will have something like that as an Epitaph on my grave - still thinking what would be appropriate