Help I don't like cleaning

I stopped buying newspapers for that very reason. OH would insist on keeping them so that he could go through them properly when he had time, which meant a huge pile would build up and eventually have to be disposed of in the recycling bag, which would then weigh a ton! He can read them online if he really wants to - but I don't think he ever has...

I had a cleaner in a previous life when I was disabled for a while. It didn't really work though as she refused to clean the childrens rooms as they were too messy (I had similar rules to Vampirequeen) and I had to spend a lot of time struggling to tidy the rest of the house before she came. I find that cleaning is the easy bit, it's finding homes for all the 'stuff' is the problem. Newspapers and books in particular.

Hi,

I think you just teach your hubby to make clean your house. A clean house looks very attractive weather it is 2BK. The guest always come and in their mind there is question that their house would be clean as compare to our house. So it should be clean.

Regards,

pattieb - I too discovered it wasn't the kids who made the house untidy - I can only blame a messy husband now.
I am not my mother's daughter & was traumatised by the sound of the Hoover at the crack of dawn. My kids always asked if grandma was coming if I got the vacuum out. When she did come, I used to spray polish round the front door so she'd think I'd been cleaning. I do a big clean before people come at Xmas but always end up with allergies & sinusitis. I employed a cleaner for a major clean in the summer before a family do but she spent so long reorganising shoes & cleaning materials (umpteen bottles of good intentions) she only got two rooms really clean and I still ended up doing the rest & getting allergic rhinitis. I'm too apologetic to 'direct staff' & I feel as guilty about it as my own lack of cleaning!

I like to tell myself I'm more organised than I was and the house is kept tidier than it used to be but DH has a thing about cobwebs and is always pointing them out to be. However much I try I can't get that bothered about them, as long as they're little ones up in the corners and trailing across the room a la Miss Havisham I can't see that they matter.

Strange isn't it?
Both my children were very untidy when they lived here. Now they have their own homes which are very neat and tidy......and I'm still living in a tip!!
Hmm I think that says something about me??

I think the remark he made might have been on the lines of 'like mother like son'. He turned into a reasonably well organised adult with the help of a good woman whom I also love dearly.

Did she see the funny side or have a Godzilla moment? lol

I bought a poster for DS2's bedroom door - a picture of a pig with the caption: 'it's my sty and I like it'. Couldn't have been more appropriate.

If you don't like housework, I recommend living in a very old house. I bought my daughters thatched cottages, 250 years old, next door to each other. They had such tiny windows, you couldn't see the cobwebs, but they really seemed natural in such old houses. Then they moved to shiny new houses and found they looked horrible if they let them get too messy.

I haven't retired yet, at least that's my excuse! I keep thinking about doing so, but then I realise I would have to start clearing out stuff.
And I change my mind.

I forgot to mention....these rules helped to prevent Godzilla moments.

Every teenager has the right to live in a tip if they so choose. However I did have three rules.

1. Laundry rule.....if it's not in the bin it doesn't get washed.
2.Penicillin rule...nothing to be left in the room that will grow penicillin or any other mould.
3.Bedroom door must be closed when unoccupied.

This thread is quite reassuring, others might just be as bad as me!

I have the double problem of not being good at cleaning or tidying.

One thing I have tried with some sucess is just to put away about 3 or 4 out of place things when you go into a room. It doesn't impinge too much on what you were really intending to do. It does leave drawers stuffed full of "Stuff"
The best solution, with which I do not have much sucess, is not to leave stuff lying about in the first place!

Having visitors is the best remedy, but it usually results in a bit of a panic. I have just had both my children and partners over. Windows were cleaned and cobwebs removed. The house looks good OK right now but it won't last.

I do have two "Free range" Budgies who leave quite a few feathers, feather dust, and neat little poos around. This means that basic vacuuming of our living room does get done daily.

You can tell what my decision was. However, I shall soon find I have nothing left to wear, so ironing will have to be done.

What a question anno you need to conserve your strength to fight off the bugs etc that are around at the moment - off to the grotto for a sit down and refreshments.

I have a mountain of ironing waiting to be tackled. Now, do I take the plunge or take refuge in the G'net Grotto?

You will, Barrow, and if you don't it won't matter .

baubles I'm like you I'm afraid, thought I would have a good clear out when I retired - didn't happen. There were always more interesting things to do, going places with DH, meeting friends, reading some of the books I had always wanted to read etc. etc. etc! Once DH had died I found that whenever I tried to sort things it would raise memories and I would sit in the middle of the muddle sobbing - so now I leave it alone. I will get to it one day

My daughter had six children so some of the younger ones had to share a room. When they were older and some had left home she used to try to ignore the mess in the teenagers' rooms until she thought they were actually a health hazard or she was running out of crockery. Of course, the messiest ones are now very fussy about keeping their own homes tidy and she was rebuked for not putting her suitcase away tidily when visiting one of them!

I have to have order and I have to know things are clean. I can cope with the children's room because they're children and it's a small room. Also they try to keep it tidy. I go in midweek to clean it and finish the tidying although they're very good.

VQ -I think we were separated at birth! I can't stand having any bit of my living space that I can't reach to clean.

Every summer I have a clear out. If it hasn't been used for a year then I don't need it so it goes to the charity shop.

I'm one of those people who go looking for dirt in my home so I pull out the fridge, freezer and washing machine every month to make sure the floor under them is cleaned.

There is a TV programme about people who tackle real filth - I think it is called something like 'The Grime busters'. It is like watching a horror movie - you have to wonder how some people manage to live in their houses when they are filled literally from floor to ceiling with junk. (I am sure nobody here has anything worse than a bit of clutter!) I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to keep stuff that they can't access and never use.
I do realise that some people have a problem which causes them to hoard, even empty cardboard wrappings from food.
When I mentioned casually that I thought I might suffer from mild OCD, I was told pretty sharply that this is a really debilitating condition which can confine the sufferer to their home and make them avoid contact with other people. My daughter said to me: You just like things to be tidy, you don't have any kind of 'condition'. She is very good for me!