I'm with Hetty, don't much like living my life just to clean. I like to see signs of life. I try and keep the floors fairly clear so I don't fall, for safety, and also if someone comes round they don't. I try and keep the place without a lot of surplus stuff, I'll never be a minimalist, but very unfortunately my ex was a dreadfully untidy hoarder. I couldn't get him to even take his dirty plate through to the kitchen, the place was awful and couldn't have anyone round. I ended up, when he went, having to spend such a lot of time getting rid of his stuff to him, he wouldn't take it and wouldn't let me throw it away. it took so long and was such a hard job and he left me with such a lot of things that in the end he said he didn't want. Because of that, I had not been able to sort my stuff out properly for a long time, he'd put his stuff on top of it, the loft was stuffed as well as everywhere else, there was stuff that he'd cluttered up the garden and shed with too. It did my head in, my shoulder too and the time it took to get people to take stuff away, go up the tip etc took up so much of my life and it had to be done because I needed to do essential repairs that he had made it impossible to do with all the stuff he had in the way. Eventually, I got rid of it all, sorted my stuff, got the work done, well a lot of it, and can now keep the place clean and relatively tidy, so that if someone is coming over it doesn't take long to move a few things to clear a chair. And keeping on top of getting rid of stuff that is out of date, thinking about say not keeping old insurance documents [unless you are an employer] receipts for things you don't have anywhere, clothes that are not flattering or fit or are tatty, hobby stuff that you no longer use for whatever reason, means that I won't leave a huge problem for my children.
I think both extremes make it so difficult for other people and both are most definitely to be avoided.
