Are you a neat freak?

[larussa]

I wouldn't call  myself a neat freak but everything has a place and there is where I keep it.   I know where every single thing is.  I never have clothes anywhere around the house, that's what closets and drawers are for.  Never, ever have clothes laying on the bathroom floor, even my SO is very aware of this.

Dishes are washed immediately after being used whether in the dishwasher or by hand.  Cannot stand anything sitting in the sink. 

You will sometimes see dust on my furniture or maybe carpet that needs to be vacuumed and that is why I'm not a neat freak, I do get to it eventually but not immediately. 

 

[furmonster mom]

I'm pretty fastidious about the kitchen... but after cleaning other people's houses for 15+ years, I'm a bit burned out on the "clean everything weekly" thing.

We tend to clean on a "as noticed" basis.  Some things get done weekly, some things get done monthly, some things... well, we won't discuss the dust bunnies under the dresser. 

Generally, we keep the common areas tidy.

I don't consider myself a "neat freak' (that would be my dad), but compared to some of our friends' houses, ours seems practically spartan.

 

[Willowy]

I don't like clutter. I'm fine with cat and dog toys strewn about, but not stuff being where it shouldn't. So my house is pretty tidy that way. But I'm not good at cleaning :/. So my house has dust bunnies and hairy bathroom sinks and smudgy windows. Which is funny because I clean the Post Office (it's an agreement with the union---in small offices clerks do the cleaning and get paid for their extra time) but it just seems a lot different in an office setting vs a home setting.

 

[feralvr]

I am sorry, I didn't mean to go on and on about our issues. My tendencies towards neatness and organization really clash with his hoarding. I rarely talk about it and I actually feel a little better releasing some of my frustration here, semi-anonymously.

Glad that you feel comfortable sharing with us, hun. I honestly think that most of us have things we would appreciate unloading. It really helps our hearts and souls to be able to talk about it. No one will judge you or your husband here. No one is perfect and actually, perfect would be boring. :grphug: I am proud of people who can open up and, just as important, you doing so will encourage others to take your lead to share and trust that you will be embraced not shunned. BIG HUGS - Happybird. :heart3:

 

[cass]

I was when I lived alone in a unit without pets! Now with 2 short haired cats and 1 LONG haired and 1 just fluffy.. ive got black,brown, grey, orange and white fur, so its safe to say everything of every colour gets covered in fur
I vac every 2nd day but between that and cat toys, there is always something on the floor! Oh and litter tray and food dish cleaning! Ahh! Lol. Its constant!
So ive become a little more relaxed when I see a mess!

 

[AbbysMom]

I am sorry, I didn't mean to go on and on about our issues. My tendencies towards neatness and organization really clash with his hoarding. I rarely talk about it and I actually feel a little better releasing some of my frustration here, semi-anonymously.

This can be a good place to vent.

 

[margecat]

Yes.  With 10 cats, despite all of my best intentions, it doesn't always happen, though!

About the person in the first post, who had the immaculate house, and had a cat: it is possible.  I often entertain, and people are amazed that I have pets (some are people who don't know us, and haven't been told about the cats beforehand). I've had people with severe cat allergies spend many hours at a time here, and they had no problems. You just have to vacuum every day, vacuum the furniture as well, and air the place out. I also go through every room systematically, checking weird places for cat hair, etc. (Mine love to rub up against outward corners, and they leave a yucky slime on the corners.)

I also have as much washable stuff as possible, and launder it regularly.

I just hosted a bridal shower yesterday, for 13 people. I don't think anyone knew we had cats, until Loki came downstairs to socialize! And they LOVED him!

 

[misty8723]

I used to be,  but I'm just so tired all the time now I can't keep up with it.  DH is home all day and he is the opposite of neat freak, I just can't  keep up with it all.  Clutter drives me nuts, but clutter is everywhere.  I used to be organized at home and at work. Then was organized at work. Now it's gotten so busy at work I'm not organized anywhere.  Drives me up a wall.

 

[betsygee]

 
I was prior to having three children. I am still clean, but I will let things go until the next day (or the next...) as long as it is just messy and not dirty. There is a difference! I can tolerate mess but not filth!

DITTO!!  My thoughts exactly.  Except substitute "seven cats" for "three children".  

 

[stewball]

Ha ha ha!
That's what I and anybody who knows me would do.

 

[happybird]

Thank you, Mani, Feralvr, and Abbysmom. It means a lot to have support. :grphug: Being able to vent about it helps, because I certainly don't want our RL friends to know or judge my husband as some sort of weirdo. We don't ever have people over (besides, I don't like the thought of other people using our toilets, lol! I am just as bad as my husband, in other, germ-phobic ways). I was having a bad week in general and this topic popped up on a day when I was feeling a little overwhelmed by everything. I looked for a pdf of Letting Go, but could not find one, so it is now on my list of books to get when I make my monthly trip to Barnes and Noble. Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[laralove]

My ex-boyfriend thinks I'm a neat freak. My mom would say I'm a mess. I think I'm somewhere between. I keep a very clean and tidy house when I'm not overwhelmed with work and anxiety/depression. Right now, it's a bit of a mess. But not so bad that if I was going to have company, a half hour of tidying and dusting wouldn't leave me comfortable to entertain. 

That said, I can somewhat relate to happybird. My ex-boyfriend's room and workbench look like a typical episode of Horders. It's not collected things so much as garbage. He keeps all of his mail. So he'll have months of catalogs, bills, random spam, all piled in random spots. He keeps stickers and pamphlets and things he gets from events he goes to. And then there are all his beer cans and the thin cardboard cases. His room is a sea of blue from all of the boxes full of crushed cans. Then there are oversized garbage bags full of trash. His room is littered with dirty dishes on, in, and around his desk and dresser. Yes, *in* his desk! His floor is strewn with dirty clothes. He burns candles and incense to cover the smell. And so his room is also covered in dust and ash (from all the crap he burns). It's absolutely disgusting. I've never seen someone physically capable of taking care of themselves live like this. Not in person, that is. Only on TV.

That was one of the major reasons we broke up. Who wants to be touched by someone who lives like that?

And even now, ALL of the cleaning falls on me. I clean the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, litter boxes, everything. He'll only even take the garbage out if I ask him to. Sometimes he'll empty and fill the dishwasher. If I ask him to clean the kitchen, he thinks that means empty and fill the dishwasher! Wiping counters is a foreign concept to him. And to clean the burners on the stove he absolutely destroys every time he cooks? Ha! Yea right. Would never even occur to him to do that! His idea of cleaning the bathroom is wiping down the toilet seat.

Absolutely disgusting. I feel sorry for the next woman burdened by his pathetic and inexcusable laziness. So yea, not an actual horder. Just incredibly and disgustingly lazy.

 

[cass]

If I leave my house 1 day without a vacuum, it looks shocking! Quite often I do..haha with work and I help care for my Nan so I just want to relax when I get home!
My 2 "shedders" are my fluffy white girl and my long haired calico torbi. So mostly the fur is white and because nothing in my house is white, it really stands out! Also Lola (calico kit) literally eats everything off the floor (including prickles) so I cant leave it too long! When I do vacuum its an effort..the floor, couches,cat castles..etc etc! I also was all their bedding and everything washable!
The constant play fights equal a snow storm of fur..daily! :/

 

[cass]

Wash ^

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I have a small magnetic white board on the side of my refrigerator now. I don't always look at it though.

   I have a chalk board!  My Grandparents have always had one in their kitchen next to the phone.  I think all the grand and great-grandkids have loved doodling on it.  When we bought our house we finally had the wall space for one!  My only thought is; it sits right in the background of a lot of pictures I've taken of DS in his high chair and I wonder if anyone on facebook has noticed how the list basically hasn't changed in many months.

  I don't put the daily tasks on it though. 

 

[dragonheart]

It depends. Right now my apartment is a disaster courtesy of the ongoing bathroom renovation. My new vanity/sink is in my dining room, old cabinets and tools are scattered through the house and everything is covered in drywall dust. It makes no sense at all to clean anything right now because tomorrow work begins on the new floor, which means sanding. Which means even more dust everywhere. Cleaning would be totally, utterly pointless as I'd have to do it all again tomorrow, and then again the day after that. Also everything that was in the bathroom is now temporarily stored in the dining room.

All the clutter is driving me mad, but it's a necessary evil until all of the work is done. After that I can get all of the junk out and get it cleaned up and put everything back in its place. I'm pretty bad about vacuuming (I do it at my job all the time so I just don't like to at home) and even worse about dusting, but I am a stickler for everything having a spot, preferably put away so it's not just out and visible. I'm also fairly minimalist about possessions so I'm constantly getting rid of anything I don't use.

 

[stewball]

My house is clean. My bed is made. My wash is in the basket. Their box is scooped daily.
The bathroom and second look are clean. The sittingg room is clean but catastrophe.
You can't find a place on the coffee table for cup of coffee.
It gets tidied when the cleaner comes.

 

[pinkdagger]

I'm not a neat freak. My boyfriend would say I am, my mom would say I'm messy, but thankfully no one would call me a slob.

I sweep and mop once a week, and spot sweep as necessary. My belongings are relatively contained - I can't stand clutter in the kitchen, mostly because our neighbours have had bug problems in the past and I do NOT want our kitchen to feel inviting to bugs. I don't dust as often as I should, but I am a freak about clean dishes and clothes on the floor. I will not accept clothes on the floor, which is where my boyfriend always leaves them (and he half-heartedly misses the hamper when he's sorting and tossing in there). My clothes, when I'm getting dressed every single day, end up on a chair but still not on the floor, lol. I clear off the chair every few months and put everything away.

I'm always neat about the pets. Food, litter, and cages are always kept clean but I do slack about sweeping up tracked litter and bird food tossed out of the cages. I wear indoor sandals now, ever since noticing one night that my feet had dirty grey soles upon coming to bed, so that stuff doesn't bother me as much since it's not sticking to my feet.

 

[andrya]

No, not even the least bit.

l like my house clean! l cannot stand dirt, but mess doesn't bother me in the least.

My friend (who also died of cancer a couple of years ago) was the opposite. She used to say a bit of dirt never hurt anyone, but she couldn't stand any mess.

As long as my house is clean, l have no problem putting my book on the floor, my dirty clothes on the bathroom counter, the cat dishes to soak in the sink, etc. lt just feels temporary, whereas dirt is crying out to be cleaned 

 

[stewball]

My house is clean. My bed is made. My wash is in the basket. Their box is scooped daily.
The bathroom and second look are clean. The sittingg room is clean but catastrophe.
You can't find a place on the coffee table for cup of coffee.
It gets tidied when the cleaner comes.

20140611_021453.jpg

• stewball
• Jun 10, 2014

My dressing table.

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• stewball
• Jun 10, 2014

My coffee table.