I may invite people to my house, but I forewarn them about the cats and dogs and clutter. Neatniks probably would prefer I just meet them at Steak & Shake or something. Judgmental people can just stay away period.
Sometimes my place is a mess, sometimes it’s passably clean according to my admittedly liberal standards. Unfortunately I’m really insecure about it, and I think even if it were pristine, I’d still feel like the world’s worst housekeeper.
My husband and I are both slobs. Sometimes we have things in shape to where we can have people over without planning, and sometimes we don’t. Right now I am stressing out because I am having people over after Christmas.
I’m a slob but I don’t live in squalor. The place is untidy and could use vacuuming, but you’re unlikely to catch an exotic disease, or become trapped under a fallen pile. Yes, please give me at least 1 hour to prepare (more if possible), but I’m not going to polish everything to a high gleam. If you know me, you know that’s not me
Actually, because my house is pristine, hermetically sealed and germ-free, I dont like ppl coming over messing it up. That, and my DH doesnt want my friends inside the house. They arent ALL felons tho.
I actually get minor invite-people-over anxiety because of the years spent vacuuming and dusting before company came when I was a child. As a visitor I hate feeling like I’ve just made the host clean their whole house. My favorite person to visit is a complete slob and proudly displays a “Neat people are just to lazy to look for things,” sign right in the entry hall.
Im a slob. Lots of clutter.
Some years ago I ran a college-level photography contest. The theme was “Your Messy Room.” We got some real pips!
The winner was a pic of a messy room…with human body parts protruding from underneath the clutter! Arms, legs, etc. Very cleverly done, too: it took a while for you to start to see them all.
Ditto!
My house is clean and tidy most of the time. I wouldn’t hesitate to have anyone over.
I tidy every night before bed. That means nothing on flat surfaces that does not belong there, kitchen counters wiped and dishes done and/or in the dishwasher.
I, however, never make my bed. It ruins the comfiness. (Okay, I do it if my mom is coming over but that’s it.)
Our house is clean and tidy. You will not find clutter, however, we are busy people who do not rate dusting high on the list of things to do.
Dishes and laundry are usually cleaned and put away.There will be an occasional spider web in a corner.
In the Summer all bets are off. There will be grass and dirt tracked into the house and we will clean as we go, but the important part of Summer is to live it, not to clean. We will be busy and happy.
Our house is clean but untidy. By which I mean, the kitchen and bathrooms are sanitary (and will be freshly cleaned when scheduled guests arrive), sheets and towels are fresh, hampers aren’t overflowing, and the floors aren’t sticky… but there is also stuff in all kinds of places it isn’t supposed to be. Some people don’t notice it and some people, like my mother, press their lips together very tightly to avoid telling me I’m a slob. Some other people, like my mother in law, come over and immediately start to clean the already-reasonably-clean kitchen. Also, to put all of my toddler’s toys in places she can’t reach them.
All these people get to deal with their own issues. My house is my house and if you want to be here, you can put up with it.
I once had a friend who when I went to visit for a few days, I would bring my own towels. She was very nice and very smart and very fun to be with, but damn. At her house, you wiped your feet when you left.
I’m a slob. My house is in various degrees of clutter depending on the room. I do wipe up any animal messes as soon as I notice them, because otherwise that’s kind of gross. I also try to dust whenever I can, because of my daughter’s asthma. But piles of clothing and the like tend to stay in place till I get around to them, which galls my very organized sisters to no end.
Sorry about the mess but… well… we live here.
I actually don’t like it when I go to someone else’s house and it’s TOO clean. I mean, like never anything out of place, never any clutter, funny “clean” smells, it’s like, hey, do you just spend all day every day cleaning this place or what?
I’m not especially clean and tidy, nor organised. It’s not horrifyingly disgusting, but I am somewhat ashamed of the mess I generally live in.
If I was rich I’d certainly hire people to take care of that stuff for me.
I agree 100% with both paragraphs here. However, as a former community psychiatric nurse, I have seen real squalor and thus think mine is minor. So I don’t let my feelings about my messiness interfere with having people around. Shit, I’d be celibate if I did.
My house is usually pretty messy, but I never hesitate to invite people over. Cleaning for a party is so much more fun than everyday chores and no one complains about helping or tells themselves they will do it “later.” It’s my favorite way to get people to do their share.
I get stressed out in messy houses. It’s why I can’t go visit my sister without playing Auntie Drill Instructor and making her kids clean at least the living room where we’ll be visiting. I don’t judge her. She has five kids and a husband who doesn’t help as much as he should and a full time job and her kids don’t listen to her as well as they listen to me because her ideas of parenting are entirely different from mine, e.g. she’ll stop the process for “mom, did I tell you this long, drawn out story about something you probably don’t care about anyway” whereas I have no problem telling small children to stop talking. No, I don’t want to hear your story right now, we’re busy. Pick up your toys and you can tell me when you’re all done. Otherwise her house is just way too busy. It’s like the mess makes everything louder somehow.
My house isn’t as clean as I would like. I’m outnumbered by boys 4:1 here and none of them view “lining the shoes up” as a necessary thing. Well, the baby can’t help it but the rest of them are old enough. But the dishes are cleaned and put away nightly, the bathroom is cleaned twice a week (again, boys), and I dust and vacuum at minimum once a week. Their rooms are terrible but I view that as Not My Problem and since they aren’t allowed food in the bedrooms, I know it’s not a gross mess, it’s just toys.
We’ve got two dogs, a cat, and a bird and two adult men in a 4 bedroom house. We do a light cleaning every weekend which consists of:
vacuuming
dusting
mopping and lysoling the bathrooms
general straightening up.
I host a board game group every Tuesday night so the house is clean for that. However, if we are truly entertaining or are leaving town and having a house sitter come in, we thoroughly clean.
If you were to pop in unannounced, the worst would be a messy pile of mail, a dust bunny of dog fur on the wood floor, a couple dishes in the sink, and some socks laying on the floor in the TV room.
Frankly, I start feeling psychologically down if I know I have to return to a messy home.
Me too, it feels sad to come home to a mess. I live in my home every day and it makes me happier and more comfortable to be here if it’s tidy so I don’t mind doing the work to keep it clean. I’m one of those people who actually has a place for everything though, so housework isn’t much of a drudge.