Uncleanliness

[McDreidel09]

Specifically, the condition that my mom's house is in.

I am a neat person. I am the type of person who believes everything has its place, the bed is made every morning after I get up, dishes are done after dinner every night, pick up right after yourself,etc.

I come home once a month,hoping to relax a bit. However, I tend to get a bit stressed out because the house is in such disorder. Dishes are not done everyday, but every few days. The dishes are not even rinsed off, but left there to harden. Laundry is left downstairs in the basement, not folded. Empty cups,dishes,fast food cups are left in the living room. Everything is out of place.

The day before I left for school, I cleaned up the entire house, like I normally did twice a week. One week later, it was all undone. Every time I come home, it's the same thing. Both my mom and sister give excuses. My mom complains about how tired she is from work (ummm. I cleaned the house twice a week after opening at work and working for about 8 hours. I did the cleaning RIGHT AFTER I walked in the door.). My sister says she "forgets". It's pure laziness in my eyes.

Seriously. How hard is it to pick up after yourself? To take your dish into the kitchen and rinse it off? How about after eating dinner, doing the dishes? What about laundry? Is it really that hard to bring it up and fold it as you watch tv after it is done in the dryer?

You might see me as high strung and so worried about little things. However, I see it this way: If my house is clean, I don't have to worry about it. I can go do what I want. When I did my twice weekly cleaning, it took me two hours each day to do the dishes, disinfect the counter, table,fridge, and stove, sweep and mop the floor, clean the toilet,sink,and bathtub,sweep and mop the floor, clean my room, dust, vacuum, straighten up, and during all of that, take care of the laundry on Saturdays, the designated laundry day. So four hours a week to do deep cleaning and maybe a few minutes to pick up after myself.

[Boozy]

Well, all I can say is that it's a good thing it's your mom's house and not yours, then.

[Greenday]

I live in an apartment with four other guys. My desk is a lil messy, I don't make my bed that often. But the rest of the guys are complete slobs. They never clean. They never wash their dishes unless they need to use one. I raised some hell a few weeks ago. It's just embarrassing. After raising hell, I walked back into the apartment one day to find the living room and kitchen spotless. I jokingly around asked them, "Wow, it's so clean, who did you pay to clean it?" You know, figured four guys should be able to clean it pretty fast (no way in hell am I helping, I keep all my communal stuff clean). Turns out they paid some girl that is one of our neighbors $40 to clean the two rooms. How pathetic. Within a week it was a wreck again. The week after that they paid her another $40to clean the apartment. How lazy can you be? And I know these guys don't have money. Lazy SOBs.

Anywho, I just can't stand people who leave communal areas trashed. Living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms. Bedrooms are fine as long as you don't share it, but in rooms where people hang out or everyone uses, clean your crap up.

[McDreidel09]

Well, all I can say is that it's a good thing it's your mom's house and not yours, then.

Unfortunately, I am a resident here on my breaks until a certain time.

[AdminAssistant]

I actually have the opposite problem. Now, let me be clear, my apartment is clean. Dishes are done...usually within 24 hours and I generally keep stuff off the floor. But my place is what you might call "lived in." When I go home, Mom is always fussing. If I leave a half-empty glass in the living room, she'll follow me, "Is this your glass? Are you done with it?" Despite her bad back, she insists on vaccuuming if people are coming over. As in, move all of the furniture, vaccuum, move stuff back....it's too much. She won't ever just relax.

[protege]

Well, all I can say is that it's a good thing it's your mom's house and not yours, then.

That's what I was thinking. Well, that and don't bother with it--if your mother and sister can't take care of things...don't worry about it. That is, it shouldn't be *your* problem.

[Peppergirl]

That's what I was thinking. Well, that and don't bother with it--if your mother and sister can't take care of things...don't worry about it. That is, it shouldn't be *your* problem.

I might be reaching here, but she probably can't relax in a dirty house. I am not a clean freak, but I keep a fairly clean house. When I go to FL to my parents for xmas, I end up cleaning just out of habit. Not that they're dirty, they just don't keep as clean a house as me.

And its not that I care, really - its just that I cant relax in that environment, so i do it.

[DrFaroohk]

That sounds like my house. Dishes get done like twice a week, cups and bowls and plates just stay whereever we ate until dishes get done. Our living room floor is constantly awash with toys.

Laundry never gets done properly. Typically clothes just stay in the dryer. Unless we have to do TWO loads of clothes, in which case the next load gets piled on top of the dryer. We've lost many many socks simply because they have fallen behind the dryer.

Yeah we're gross.

[LadyBarbossa]

That's what I was thinking. Well, that and don't bother with it--if your mother and sister can't take care of things...don't worry about it. That is, it shouldn't be *your* problem.

My sentiments as well. And don't get me wrong, I can't really relax unless the house is clean either, but if it bothers me that much, it's usually worth it to clean it up myself, even if I have worked or been at school and I'm tired. And that's what Mom would tell me if I dared complain about it anyways, lol. "If you don't like it, fix it yourself!" Which she's fine with so long as I don't try to rearrange everything.

[McDreidel09]

Now, you guys would be right about how I shouldn't care. However, I do. This is why:

I don't have my own place yet. I live in a dorm. On my breaks, I do not have an apartment that I go to. I have my mom's to go to. My next break is for an entire month. I am sure as hell not living in that condition. I am stuck here when I'm not at school until a certain time.

If someone walked into my house, they probably wouldn't get why I am the way I am about it. I do have a different standards of clean, partly because of the rape. After the rape, I began obsessing over cleaning and I cleaned ALOT. This OCD has been confirmed by a professional. Even without that, I have been a pretty organized and neat person.

And this was not intended to insult anyone's housekeeping. This was mainly a rant about coming home to a dirty house that shouldn't be because I set them up for success with keeping it clean.

[Dreamstalker]

I wouldn't call myself particularly neat (the computer room/my bedroom is generally controlled chaos but at least the piles are organized--the pitfalls of moving from a studio apartment back into a room that's about 1/4 the size), but I do try to keep stuff clean and picked up. I'm guilty sometimes of leaving half-full coffee cups usually in the living room, but if mom sees fit to dump it down the drain I'm fine with that.

My second college roommate--GOOD GRIEF was she a slob. In short, she saw the common areas as her personal storage unit...prior to being shuffled in together, we both had apartments to ourselves but I kept the living room/kitchen area picked up and generally presentable. Her kitchen habits were appalling; she never washed dishes and would keep cooked rice until bugs got into it. I'm still amazed that none of my food got contaminated in the refrigerator.

[Boozy]

And this was not intended to insult anyone's housekeeping. This was mainly a rant about coming home to a dirty house that shouldn't be because I set them up for success with keeping it clean.

I understand your frustration about living in a dirty house. That would drive me nuts, too. But unfortunately, it isn't your house, and you are presumably not paying rent when you're living there. As an adult returning to your mother's on breaks from school, you are a guest in her home. So your choices are: Clean the place yourself as a favour to your mom and as part of your keep, or bite your tongue.

[McDreidel09]

Oh I do clean up the house. I don't even talk to my mom about it. I just clean and shut up. However, inside, I'm pretty pissed. I hear all the time when I'm at school about how my sister isn't doing this or that or how my mom is too tired to clean, so my sister should do it. The excuses piss me off the most. When I come home, my mom doesn't consider me a guest. She considers me as a part of the household.

Also what makes me mad is that I am expected to clean THEIR mess that THEY made while I was gone, basically the moment I come home. There shouldn't be a mess. Things should just be done, not saved for me when I come home once a month.

[blas87]

One reason I fear moving in with my bf one day is that he is messy. Very messy. And just depends on his mom to clean it up for him (the messes he makes while cooking or getting ready in their house), and just messes up the guest house until he can't walk through it anymore, then will clean it spotless, then mess it up again.

While I haven't vaccuumed or swept in ages and there are blonde hairballs and dustballs everywhere here, you will not find ANY clothes or garbage or anything like that on the floor. You can walk through my apartment. There isn't anything sticky or gross on the counters or by the sink.....anything that spills immediately gets cleaned up.

[kiwi]

I lived with my Mother while I was at university, she is very slovenly (and will admit that) and frequently blamed me for the house always being messy and dirty.

When I moved out she commented after about 6 months that the house seemed even dirtier and messy than when I lived there, if finally dawned on her that SHE was the messy/dirty one. When she told me I wanted to shout it from the mountain tops because both my brother and I keep our respective houses pristine. We were both sick and tired of living in a digusting mess. Our rooms were always clean and tidy, I did the bulk of the housework (because if I didn't nothing got done).

That's why I took over the majority of the cooking when I turned 14, I had food posining twice in a year because of her unsafe food habits and took matters into my own hands literally.

I didn't get charged board for living at home at university or on my breaks when I worked full time, I took my cleaning and cooking as payment to my Mother for letting me live at home for free.