Does cleaning your home come naturally to you?

[musey]

I've always wondered what really makes the difference between a "clean" person and a "messy" person. Just their nature? Or does most everyone have to forceably remind themselves to be tidy?

I've always been clean (as opposed to dirty) but not neat (as opposed to messy). There's usually at least bit of clutter around, unless I've been really conscious of it lately. However, the surfaces are always dusted, counters wiped, floors vacuumed... I just can't seem to keep "things" from accumulating here and there. I like the cleaning part, just not the "clearing" part!

I've always been envious of those homes I visit that are in tip top shape... though I wonder if that's their normal condition, or just their "guests are here" condition.

 

[neatfreak]

As my name suggests, I am a pretty clean person naturally. I just tidy up as I go along and don''t really think about it...I think it''s much easier to do it as I go along because if things accumulate you actually have to take blocks of time from your schedule to clean. If you tidy as you go along, it''s easier because you don''t really have to block out time to clean if that makes sense...

 

[KimberlyH]

I voted other because I like having a clean house, but J does most of our housework. I clean up after dinner every night and it comes naturally to me to wipe down counters, etc. but I''m also cluttery, I have piles in several places in our house, but especially the office. When I lived alone I cleaned once a week and my apartment was always very tidy, I kept it that way because it was small (600 sq. ft.) and there was no way of avoiding the mess. My piles tend to concentrate in my office, where I work on school and I can close the door and not have to look at them, which makes me happy.

 

[diamondfan]

I have ocd about certain things, but when it comes to scrubbing and mopping etc, no, I need help. I can tidy up or empty the dishwasher or wipe down counters, but heavy cleaning eludes me.

 

[musey]

Date: 10/6/2007 10:03:18 AM
Author: neatfreak

I think it''s much easier to do it as I go along because if things accumulate you actually have to take blocks of time from your schedule to clean. If you tidy as you go along, it''s easier because you don''t really have to block out time to clean if that makes sense...

It makes total sense. I''m trying to train myself to do this, because life would be OH so much happier (and prettier

) if things were tidier around here!

 

[diamondfan]

PS that does not mean I live like a slob or anything, just it is not by my hands that everything is tidy and nice!

 

[surfgirl]

I voted "other" because while I am indeed a clean/neat person, I prefer to hire someone to clean on my behalf, as it were. That works much better for me!

 

[Kaleigh]

I am constantly tidying things up, but the heavy cleaning goes to my cleaning lady.

 

[strmrdr]

*looks around*
*pleads 5th* Twice.....

 

[MichelleCarmen]

There are certain activities I do without thinking much about them, like keeping the laundry in check and disinfecting the bathroom (hooray for Lysal wipes

). Just about everything else is torture to me. I have NO motivation and it doesn''t help any that my kids never help out. This post could easily turn into a huge vent for me, so I''d better keep it short. I will say that my mom was NEVER into cleaning, but my dad and I cleaned every Friday, so in my upbringing, I grew to see cleaning as a joint effort and unless the work becomes a family event, I slack off until I find something I really want to buy, then I use that as a reward for my efforts.

My house isn''t REALLY messy, though, just not spick-and-span like pictures in "Homes & Gardens."

 

[zoebartlett]

I WISH I were the type to keep a spotless house but it's never happened and I doubt it will. My FI and I have made a cleaning schedule and we try to follow it. There are certain chores we do daily, once a week (we've designated Sundays) and others that we do once a month. We're both guilty of keeping clutter around but I'm more inclined to scrub something with cleaner than my FI is. My pet peeve is when something needs to be cleaned/scrubbed and it doesn't get done (like the kitchen counters or the bathroom). I'm determind to get this place in tip top shape by Friday though, because I'm having a dinner party.

ETA: There are certain things that come naturally and I don't think about it as I'm cleaning -- kitchen counters, unloading and reaoading the dishwasher are a couple examples.

 

[phoenixgirl]

It's definitely my nature, but that doesn't mean I enjoy cleaning or always have the time or motivation. But whereas my husband doesn't notice things that are lying around, I do and want them put away. I consider a maid service to be an essential service (because I like things neat, right? I know lots of people who don't like to clean so they just have messy/dirty homes.).

I'm definitely the neatest person in my family. My parents will keep clutter at bay, but let their bathrooms, refrigerators, etc. get really gross. When we go to my parents' beach house with our friends each summer, I joke that I am giving the bathrooms their yearly cleaning . . . only I think it's no joke. Ick. We had a weekly cleaning person growing up, but then she became a dental hygienist and my mom thought she couldn't justify hiring someone new as non-working person with no kids at home, so then their house got grosser over the years. Recently she's decided that if her children all hire cleaners, she can too. I think it's just once a month, but that's better than nothing.

I tend to express my psychic stress with clutter . . . when I feel stressed out, there will always be one or more parts of the house where crap just isn't being put away, usually the office, the pile of mail by the front door, all the stuff in the back basement room, and possibly folded laundry. I know it's there, and it's kind of stressing me out, but it's more stressful to think about dealing with it, so it remains until I need to "productively procrastinate" or until I can't take it anymore. Or someone is coming over, of course.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Cleaning does NOT come naturally to me. I think part of it was the way I was raised. My mom is such a pack rat and our house was always a little messy. We usually always had house cleaners for the heavy cleaning (so the house wasn''t dirty). I try to break the mold and not hold onto things as much as my mom (paper is her down fall) and remind myself to clean. DH does help out when he gets tired of my lack of motivation. But he grew up in the opposite environment. My MIL is a neat freak. Her home ALWAYS looks perfect. I wish I was more like her!

 

[door knob solitaire]

My husband "caught" me dusting today..."WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he begged me to stop. He wanted his old wife back. Didn''t care for this new one at all!

Later in the day he passed me and asked if I needed to rest? I said huh? He said "You better not over do it. You have already put in a full day...with that dusting earlier...heck you could probably use a vacation. Is your dusting arm OK?"

I voted other. ... I am just not sure how to answer your poll honestly. I am quite confident he would be able to answer it correctly...you want me to get him?

DKS

 

[Elmorton]

I grew up in a very messy house...I love my parents, but they sortof never outgrew being in college, and their house looks like a crazy fraternity where two people in their 50s just happen live. As a result, I''m a straightener. Things HAVE to be in their proper places or I go a little crazy. When I''m on the phone, or before I get ready to go to bed, I walk around straightening the house - it''s probably a tiny bit OC, honestly. I''m a little less anal about REAL cleaning (mopping, vaccuming, dusting), but it''s OK because that''s DH''s thing.

 

[musey]

LOL @ DKS!!!

 

[Eva17]

Hmmm, productive procrastinater, i like that. and i fit that.

I don''t enjoy cleaning, try to tidy up behind ourselves. General rule is, if someone came to my door right now, could I let them in.....

If the answer is no, then it''s time to get up and get moving.

I have a friend who will say, "no, you can''t come over, my place is a mess" I don''t get how that can be the norm. And there is only two of them. I have six people and two dogs in my house, and 363 days out of the year, I could let you in.

 

[musey]

Date: 10/6/2007 8:59:17 PM
Author: Eva17

I have a friend who will say, 'no, you can't come over, my place is a mess' I don't get how that can be the norm. And there is only two of them. I have six people and two dogs in my house, and 363 days out of the year, I could let you in.

That's how we are, too! I think part of it is being over-sensitive, though. I don't like to have people over unless our place is darn-near spotless--which is nowhere CLOSE to the norm for us! We don't turn down visitors... just do a whirlwind clean before they come. However, we definitely don't invite people over as often as we would if we kept it tidier around here.

Anyway, your idea of "if someone came to my door right now, could I let them in... If the answer is no, then it's time to get up and get moving" REALLY makes sense (duh, I can't believe I never thought of it that way before!!). Thanks for posting that, because I think may make it my new housekeeping mantra!

 

[kcoursolle]

Aw, musey if only we were roomates in college...we are cleaning opposites and we would have had the perfect house. In my house I always purge things and get rid of clutter. Everything has it's place and I'm really anal about this. However, when it comes to actually scrubbing the kitchen floor or cleaning the bathroom surfaces...I hate it!!! It takes me months sometimes to *clean* things even though I pretty much always tidy up here and there. Things will be dusty and dirty, but I go crazy if things are cluttered.

 

[Mara]

hah cleaning does not come naturally to me at all. greg is the cleaner one and i am the forgetful messy one. i take a drink of water....wander around and leave the glass on a counter somewhere. inevitably he comes along, sees it, rolls his eyes at me, takes it to the sink. later i might come back going 'where's my glass'...ahha. i am really forgetful and always mentally going a mile a minute. he's a very clean 'everything in it's place' type person. somehow we manage to co-exist though, it took us a little while, but for the most part we have it figured out. i have finally learned to 'clean as i go along' while cooking which took me a long time to figure out. before i'd just kind of make a big mess then clean it up afterwards. it would look like a bomb hit the kitchen. also i do things that i never used to like rinse dishes right away (rather than just put it in the sink and wander away OR leave it where i ate and wander away!) or similar that might seem intuitive to someone but for me i really move so quickly that literally while eating breakfast i'm already thinking about the next thing i need to do...so i get forgetful about 'finishing up' whatever i was doing aka taking my dish to the sink, rinsing it and putting it in the dishwasher.

the funny thing is that i guess i have never been really MESSY necessarily, as you noted musey, things are typically dusted, clean surfaces, etc...but i just never feel super organized. and it's funny too because while greg is more the neat freak of us two, he also is a 'pile creator'...all his stuff goes into piles in various areas around the house (bill piles, etc) and then he cleans the piles up. so i tease him about his piles sometimes, since he thinks he's just so neat.

when people come over though they always say how clean and nice the house is, even if we both think it's kind of messy. i am really into decor and the house 'looking nice' though so i think that is a big part of it...since we have had our own place, i put so much into it that i find i really want to keep it looking great and pretty clean. it's so funny though, i go to everyone else's house and always think 'gosh their house is so neat and clean, not cluttered like ours' and then they come to ours and they say the same thing we thought about theirs!! grass is always greener i guess?!?!?

 

[monarch64]

I have to remind myself NOT to clean...it''s just second-nature to me to keep things organized and tidy, plus thoroughly cleaned. I''m a self-proclaimed clean freak. DH however is more of a messy/slobby person and doesn''t care about maintaining cleanliness and organization, but will go on a tear every once in a while and help me really, really clean. I feel like I''m always cleaning, but I don''t mind that, I''d rather live in a neat and clean environment that a disorganized and somewhat dirty one. Since we have two inside dogs I also try to make sure that pet fur is disposed of on a daily basis, which means dusting and vacuuming and taking a Bounce sticky roller thing to all the upholstered furniture at least once a day. I cannot stand to sit down on a couch and get up with fur all over me, lol!

One thing I can live with is not making the bed every morning...but as soon as I come home from work I go up to the bedroom and make it. I don''t want to take the two seconds in the morning but for some reason I get satisfaction of doing it at 6 p.m. Go figure.

 

[iheartscience]

I''m a total mess maker, especially with my clothes and shoes. I just try stuff on and throw the stuff I don''t want to wear wherever I happen to be standing. It''s like my mind can''t see a mess until I''ve just completely covered a floor with clothes/table with schoolwork and books/whatever. My fiance is definitely not that neat, either, but he cleans all the time. He''s like Mara''s husband-a pile maker! I like to tease him about it when he points out my messiness. I tell him he''s not clean, either-he just cleans up after himself!

We live in a huge 2.5 bedroom apartment-one bedroom is ours and it''s fairly clean, one bedroom is my clothing room and it''s completely covered in clothes, and the .5 is a tiny room off the kitchen we keep our bikes and random stuff in and that''s pretty neat. The kitchen is always clean because my fiance actually likes to do dishes by hand-he says it relaxes him! The 2 living rooms are usually fairly clean, too, depending on my homework situation. But I have tons of books and magazines but not really any tzotchkes so I think it looks somewhat cluttered, but not too bad. Luckily the rooms are really big, though, so I think that helps.

I always wish I was the type of person who cleans all the time, though. I have a twin sister who is beyond clean. She''s completely obsessive compulsive and she can''t even walk out of a room without straightening everything up. I could use some of what she has and she could use some of what I have, I think!

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 10/7/2007 1:13:06 AM
Author: Mara
i have finally learned to ''clean as i go along'' while cooking which took me a long time to figure out. before i''d just kind of make a big mess then clean it up afterwards. it would look like a bomb hit the kitchen.

My FI never cleans the kitchen as he cooks and it drives me insane. My mom is the same way. Both of them in the kitchen at the same time...NOT a good idea! I clean as I cook and it''s so much easier, for me at least.

In other areas of the house, I''d love to be more organized. If only I could file bills, paperwork, etc. as soon as I open them, my life would be much simpler. These are the things that sit and sit and somehow never find their own way into our filing cabinet.
I''m in love with storage ware and organizers, etc. but for some reason, it''s easier to THINKK about organizing my life the way I want it to be instead of actually DOING it.

Eva and Musey, I love the mantra! I think I''ll be using that one too. Hmmm, if someone were to come over right now, would I be comfortable with him/her seeing my house in its present condition? No. Must go clean.

 

[musey]

Date: 10/7/2007 12:26:48 AM
Author: kcoursolle
Aw, musey if only we were roomates in college...we are cleaning opposites and we would have had the perfect house.

Too funny, K! I kind of wish that that''s how FI and I were--"cleaning opposites"--but we''re both the pretty close to the same in that regard. He lets things go a little further than I in the "dirtiness" arena, and not quite as far as I in the "messiness" arena. But the difference is hardly enough to balance out... just enough that I pick up a little bit of his cleaning slack (but I don''t let him "pick up" after me, so I guess us being opposites wouldn''t really help, anyway!).

 

[Sabine]

Date: 10/6/2007 9:51:46 PM
Author: musey

Date: 10/6/2007 8:59:17 PM
Author: Eva17

I have a friend who will say, ''no, you can''t come over, my place is a mess'' I don''t get how that can be the norm. And there is only two of them. I have six people and two dogs in my house, and 363 days out of the year, I could let you in.

That''s how we are, too! I think part of it is being over-sensitive, though. I don''t like to have people over unless our place is darn-near spotless--which is nowhere CLOSE to the norm for us! We don''t turn down visitors... just do a whirlwind clean before they come. However, we definitely don''t invite people over as often as we would if we kept it tidier around here.

Anyway, your idea of ''if someone came to my door right now, could I let them in... If the answer is no, then it''s time to get up and get moving'' REALLY makes sense (duh, I can''t believe I never thought of it that way before!!). Thanks for posting that, because I think may make it my new housekeeping mantra!

I''m actually ashamed to admit that I fall into this category of people. We went out with friends one night, and decided to go back to our place to watch a movie, and the second we opened our door I was mortified in seeing our place through their eyes. I had laundry hanging all over the kitchen because that''s where our washer/dryer is in our small townhouse (not even in a closet, just next to the dishwasher). I literally had bras hanging to dry on a basket on the floor, and I was mortified!

I''m not the type to shirk cleaning, but I think the space issues we have here make all my efforts seem wasted. I haven''t dusted in 2 weeks because every surface is covered in clutter. We can''t even eat dinner at our dining room table because there is no clear space on it. And every week FI and I DO try to clear things up and then clean things up, but some weeks with our busy schedules it just doesn''t get done, or gets done so half-heartedly that it might as well not have. We are in desperate need of one of those space-saving organizational makeovers, but can''t ever seem to find the time or money to really find places to keep things.

Just to redeem myself, I will add that I do keep the bathrooms and kitchen squeaky clean...I don''t think I could live with myself otherwise.

 

[ephemery1]

Date: 10/7/2007 12:26:48 AM
Author: kcoursolle
Aw, musey if only we were roomates in college...we are cleaning opposites and we would have had the perfect house. In my house I always purge things and get rid of clutter. Everything has it''s place and I''m really anal about this. However, when it comes to actually scrubbing the kitchen floor or cleaning the bathroom surfaces...I hate it!!! It takes me months sometimes to *clean* things even though I pretty much always tidy up here and there. Things will be dusty and dirty, but I go crazy if things are cluttered.

K, I am TOTALLY with you on that! Clutter bugs me, and I derive some sort of weird satisfaction from sorting and straightening and organizing things... and especially throwing things away! So everything always looks lovely on the surface... throw blankets are folded on the back of the couch, mail is neatly organized in the "inbox", front hallway is clear and welcoming. But when it comes to getting out the Tilex and scrub brush, I will procrastinate for WEEKS... usually until somebody important is coming over and I have no choice.

Plus dusting and vacuuming set off my allergies, so I avoid those tasks unless I know I''m going to have plenty of time to recover afterwards.

Something about general "cleaning" is just overwhelming to me... like an impossible task that will never be truly finished, so I never even start... hehe.

I should really hire somebdy to come in every couple of weeks... how much do you guys pay your cleaning people, just out of curiosity?

 

[door knob solitaire]

OK Musey...I hope you are happy.

I spent my entire day...repeating your name (@#*%!?) as I scrubbed and scoured and wiped and folded and straightened and de-cluttered...and ...well...that darn doorbell isn''t ringing. There isn''t a line of guests at the door. There are no prospects this week/month of any...just me and hubby and two shedding hair balls.

We can''t touch anything...we can''t sit on anything...we can''t look at anything...it is all perfect. We can''t live here! We have to move!!

Couldn''t you have left well enough alone? Your post made me realize I was slacking. And look how I spent my day off. Well, now what do I do? Read a book? Do my nails? Arghhhhh!

DKS

Hey, you think you can remember to post something similar in about 6 months or so...I should be well rested by then and there may be a need to do it ALL again.

 

[door knob solitaire]

I am taking this too far...

In the midst of a cake in the oven...I thought I heard my timer...only it sounded REELLY far away. So I kept on working...slaving...cleaning...then I smelled something funny...

EUREKA my cake My CAKE!!! Ran to the oven...it was obvious it was in the SUN too long. A little dry...and tad too George Hamilton...why??? What was the timers problem? Where is the TIMER?

Arrrghhh....MUSEY!!! (#*%@!!) (@#*&$!!) and (#*@^%!!!) guess what I had done with the timer? I put it back in its place because for some reason I am on cleaning kick...and the timer can''t be heard while stored in its rightful place!!!

MUSEY!!!

DKS

 

[chrono]

I like things clean and tidy. I especially don''t like clutter as I can''t find anything when it''s all over the place. The trick is to keep it tidy, as it is easier to do it when done in small bits everyday. The same thing goes for cleaning. But I don''t like detailed and major cleaning.

 

[zoebartlett]