I shouldn't be posting in here because I haven't found the secret! We keep on top of dishes, clothes and the kitchen (which if you saw our kitchen is no mean feat!) BUT I can't tell you the last time I properly mopped the floors. If I can't tell that it's dirty then it ain't in my opinion. Sure I will wipe off food DD flings from the high chair but day-to-day dirt that I can easily ignore, I will.

I can't stand stuff on rugs and carpets though and bought a cordless vacuum cleaner. I have a dodgy back so big vacuum cleaners are just too heavy for me and the cordless one is BRILLIANT. No messing about lugging it out of a cupboard and plugging in, you just grab the cordless and things look presentable very quickly. I'm so in love with the thing, I often use it three times a day and marvel at my new-found domesticity.

I would really like a more tidy home but given that DP and I are both quite messy and we currently have very limited storage space, that's a work in progress.

Like someone else has said ... just work out what's essential for you. For me, it's a cleared kitchen bench (so I can cook), clean dishes and vacuumed rugs/carpets in the bedroom plus dirty clothes in the hamper and folded clothes in another hamper or ideally put away.

If someone forensically tested my hard floors, I'd fail miserably but ya know what ... DD has been to the doctors once in two years so I'm all for the dirt building immunity argument.