Confessions of an Un-domestic Goddess

I try to be all things to all people. I give 100% of myself to whatever I am doing at the time. But at the end of the day, I can't be all things and I can't do all things.

Something has to give. For me, the thing that gives most often is housework. My floors don't get the attention they deserve. My kids' bathroom is generally great, but my own is terrible. I've done the cobwebs like twice this year.

In the scheme of looking after kids, performing a taxi service, providing meals, washing clothes and cleaning, cleaning is way down the bottom. I know I can't be alone in this. So, who wants to share with me in confessions of an un-domestic goddess??

Today's confession:

Last night, I tossed a board book across the room in the general direction of the bookshelf while cleaning up after the kids had finished destroying the place and when it hit the carpet, a little explosion of crumbs erupted from the carpet.

Must. Vacuum.

You've done cobwebs twice this year?! That is winning in my book :)

I dropped some scrambled egg on the floor when making DD's breakfast this morning and opted to walk around it for the next half hour until I let the dog in to eat it.

We have lived in our new house for about 7 weeks now and I am yet to mop the floors properly. I've cleaned up spills and the two toilets, because I have two little boys with no idea how to aim, but other than that, I've vacuumed or swept every few days and that's it.

I could have written your post word for word OP! Our en suite is off limits to all visitors (except my mum), I would be mortified if anyone went in there. I have a pack of baby wipes in the kitchen cupboard just for spot cleaning the floorboards. I'm lucky my DH usually does the mopping around here, I just cannot stand it. If we have guests coming and I need to tidy the living areas, any clutter is relocated to the spare room.

I haven't done a bathroom in 2 years.

I have a cleaner

I have a robot vacuum

I'm incredibly lazy about housework.

I don't know where the iron or the mop are.

I have a cleaner - she only comes once per fortnight but I don't even vacuum in the "off week" :( I sometimes sweep if someone is coming over...

I loathe hanging washing on the line...so it ALL goes in the dryer. Terrible for the budget and the environment but good for my sanity!

Since having baby number 3 I CAN NOT keep up with the washing. The spare room is now known as the 'washing room' because it houses a constant pile of folding to be done.

We have a fortnightly cleaner too and I don't mop, vacuum etc in between either.

I need a house put-away-er. That's my big confession. I have four of my own coats 'stored' on the back of the couch. Ditto pairs of shoes on the floor. DD1's toys take over every spare space and lately I haven't been clearing them after she goes to bed. Our kitchen bench is covered. It is supposed to be a breakfast bar but I couldn't squeeze a bowl or cup on there if I tried.

I can't see my laundry floor ATM :shakehead: :redface:

I have paperwork everywhere.
Cant see my kitchen bench.
Have lived in the house 3 months- mopped the floors twice, vacuumed 4 times.
Everyone is living out of floordrobes.
I keep putting dishes back in the dishwasher instead of just handwashing, because they keep coming out still dirty because the dishwasher tablets I have are crummy.
I left pastry crumbs from one end of the dining room to the couch last night because I was too exhausted to clean it up once the kids were in bed. I vacuumed it up at 7am this morning.

We are barely home and when we are it is just long enough to throw on a load of washing while DS trashes the loungeroom for the 1000000th time.

I can't keep up with the washing in winter. We have a HUGE pile of things needing to be washed next to the kitchen (our laundry is tiny) and a HUGE pile of clean clothes next to the bed in our bedroom that still need to be put away. I loathe housework. Loathe it. I dream of the day (hopefully soon!) that we can have a cleaner in so that I don't have to worry my self with it :lol:

I have too many confessions, so I'll just add two:

Until yesterday, I hadn't seen my broom in 2+ months, despite looking for it. It was under the kitchen table. No idea how it got there, or how I never noticed...

Also yesterday, I discovered that my vacuum can be broken down even further than I thought for internal cleaning. I had been wondering why it was losing its sucking power, and blamed it on a failing battery.

Not a great house cleaner here. I just don't have it in me. I could wipe a bench the exact same way as someone else, for them it would be clean, but for me it would still be icky. Same with ironing. If I do iron, the moment I put the clothes on, they just don't stay that way. I envy those that they go out their clothes still looked ironed.

I do what I can and rope the kids in when I can. They sometimes fold the washing for me and unload the dishwasher. I also get them to straighten the couch from hell (it gets messy the moment you look at it sideways).

I don't iron. Heck, I don't even own an iron. My dryer is my big iron..

Hmmmm.... I have lived in this house for 4 months. Mop?? Do they exist? Lol

I have a cleaner once a fortnight and night before I go nuts tidying up so can see bench and floors to clean!!! I only sweep or vaccum around table as kids make such a mess at meals!! Otherwise I don't clean much at all!!
I have baskets of washing needing to be folded a basket of just socks needing friends!!!

I do not iron ANYTHING. I buy DH work shirts that are wash shake hang and I love them!!!!

My house is 100 per cent spotless 100 per cent of the time.







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The washing is the only thing I manage to keep up with.

Yes I'm a crazy person who irons...excepts DH's stuff.....he does his own.

I've resorted to buying a tub a bathroom wipes fir the girls so they can keep their bathroom clean...the novelty is yet to wear of that thrill yet.

Let's just say DH didn't marry me for my domestic skills! ;)

We have a cleaner once a week. She does our bathrooms, mops and vacuums and then anything else she has time for.

My dad calls my bedroom the 'Chinese laundry' I have about 5 baskets of washing to fold. DH likes washing, but won't fold it.

I have 5 baskets to sort the washing into. We sort into whoever's clothes each basket and then the kids put theirs away for 50 cents each and DH and I do ours. They are never folded, and I don't iron except for uniforms (which DH usually does because he has to iron his own uniform for work).

I only washed up today because I had run out of space to wash dishes as I needed them, because the sink was so full of dirty dishes. There is a bowl of food in my fridge which has been there for WEEKS and I don't know what it is, and I'm just going to throw the whole bowl out because I'm too scared/disgusted to look in it.

My darling boys threw my mop head onto the roof of the house over 2 months ago. I haven't missed it.

I went away for a week and while I was gone my Mum and sister cleaned my house for me.

Today my Mum returned a basket full of washing she had taken home to wash for me. I was surprised. She asked did I not notice the missing washing basket? Nope.

My mum comes over occasionally to help me clean. Well, she comes over to visit and ends up cleaning even when I ask her not to :rofl:
Thing is, when I thank her, she always says "but I haven't even made a dent in it!" and I always think "my house looks almost spotless!" :chair: Somehow the clean freak gene missed me...

We live out of our washing baskets :).
Bedroom's a mess, nursery's a mess, living room is a mess until 5 mins before someone's coming over ;).
Haven't steam mopped the floors since...I don't even remember...but they're seriously due with Eid around the corner.
Always leaving dishes to the next day :rolleyes:.
Lots of little handyman jobs needed to be done around the house. Toilet flush has been broken for a few months now, no sign of it being fixed anytime soon either.

Considering an idea I saw on fb where you put get well cards addressed to yourself up on the mantle or coffee table so when unexpected guests arrive they think you've been too sick to clean :p.

I best join in here. Sometimes I even move the kids to an appropriate spot to stand for a photo :/ or do a quick tidy first. :redface:

I have been getting better as the kids get older though. I generally keep on top of washing (not folding) & dishes. Most of my house just needs a 'quick tidy'. Kids rooms need a little more tlc.

Do you think it's a generational thing? I never remember my mum letting our house get messy, and she worked 14 hour days, 6 days a week. How did she do it??

My side of the bedroom is a disaster! I have a pile of clothes that comes up to my hip... I clean it twice a year (when we have big parties at our house and I can't guarantee the bedroom door will stay closed). Don't even ask about our ensuite...

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Do you think it's a generational thing? I never remember my mum letting our house get messy, and she worked 14 hour days, 6 days a week. How did she do it??

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My observation (with baby boomer parents) is that we have more "stuff" to jam into our house and more complicated lifestyles (eg, I commute 4-8 times longer every day than my parents ever did, not to mention that I *must* work to keep us out of penury since one wage no longer cuts it). Plus i have higher expectations of what I want out of life. My house might not be so squeeky clean, but I'm well on my way to finishing a uni degree.

Also, back in the day, my mum did that housework. All of it. Part of the reason my house looks ahem "cosy" some of the time is because my DH does some of that work, to his standards. I decided a long time ago that it was not my mission in life to follow around a man, re-doing things while he blissfully (and in the manner of men since the beginning of time) assumes that it is his effort that has made it so. So there might be mess, but it's honest, feminist-minded mess.

So that's my confession: I have honest, feminist-minded mess. :rofl:

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I best join in here. Sometimes I even move the kids to an appropriate spot to stand for a photo :/ or do a quick tidy first. :redface:

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Yes, this. I have some great photos of my kids that I just won't share on facebook/email because of the pigsty behind them! Spontaneous photos don't happen very often around here - I always make the kids move to a certain wall haha ;o

Today's confession: I got the iron out last week and DD (5yo) asked what it was.

ETA: I love you all, my fellow un-domestic goddesses.

I think this thread is for me too! I washed the dishes last night. They get done weeklyish. If dh does them lol. The bathroom was cleaned last month I think. I do not vacuum or mop. Ever. Dh does that. I do keep on top of the washing. I fold as I take them off the line. If for some reason that doesn't happen it takes several days to get to it. Dh cooks. And mows the lawn. Beds do not get made unless I'm changing the sheets. I do sometimes pull them up. Meh. I work. My kids are happy. Can't afford a cleaner. So mes is a fact of life.

Post those pics peekaboo! I'm sure most of your friends won't notice and if they do they'll love you for it.

My house is a constant mess. We have too much stuff for this little house, I know that, yet cant bring myself to do the declutter that it really needs! I try to do as much as I can, but hey, I cant do it all on my own!! There are 4 other people living here with very capable arms and legs and they all know how to clean, put washing on, hang it out, put dishes in the dishwasher, but do they do this? Well, tbh, DH will put a load of his washing on, his work uniforms. Last week I caught him going through the basket of clean washing to be folded for his stuff, and not bothering to fold anyone elses. It does my head in!
He makes the school lunch for youngest DD and his own lunch, but do you think he could wipe down the bench? Not once has he done this! He leaves his mess for me to clean up!
My floors desperately need mopping. My pantry is currently overflowing as no one can ever put shopping away, they just drop bags of shopping on the bottom, hoping that it will miraculously make its way up to the correct shelf!
I usually have a complete meltdown where I will go feral, then I manage to clean everything and have it nice for a couple of days before it all starts again!

Yes to this whole thread!!!!
I usually get bursts if motivation to clean out cupboards and the pantry and then I pull everything out and lose motivation and end up with piles of junk all over the house!!
I'm also notorious for putting a load of washing on and leaving it in the washing machine for a day or so before I work up the energy to actually hang it out!
I change nappies in various rooms of the house and leave the nappies where they came off and DH comes home and picks them all up and puts them in the bin! He calls me the nappy bandit!

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Considering an idea I saw on fb where you put get well cards addressed to yourself up on the mantle or coffee table so when unexpected guests arrive they think you've been too sick to clean :p.

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I used to leave the vaccuum out, plus a duster. I would quickly dust the most obvious area, like the coffee table and tv cabinet, that way it looked like someone interrupted me cleaning ;)

Honestly though, having a duster just hanging about the lounge room is really handy. Quick dust of a shelf or two every now and then helps.

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I used to leave the vaccuum out, plus a duster. I would quickly dust the most obvious area, like the coffee table and tv cabinet, that way it looked like someone interrupted me cleaning ;)

Honestly though, having a duster just hanging about the lounge room is really handy. Quick dust of a shelf or two every now and then helps.

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I dont own a duster. Lol sometimes I blow at it or wipe something with a tissue or cloth...

Baby wipes are a good all-rounder lol

My version of mopping today was walking around the kitchen/dining rooms with disinfectant wipes under my feet :/

Fried kale self-converts to kale chips after 24 hours under the high chair.

That's what I discovered today.

Argh.. Cleaner didn't come this week, (her DS was sick, so I told her to look after him)..

So tonight after work, I have vacuumed, and tomorrow I might even mop.

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My version of mopping today was walking around the kitchen/dining rooms with disinfectant wipes under my feet :/

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Love it lol!

We had visitors today I had piled up 6 washing baskets in our bedroom and closed the door. I had them double stacked and one of these double stacked towers tipped forward and wedged up again the door. Took both DH and I pushing on the door to get back into our bedroom! I had created a barricade of folding and baskets :)

Haha calluna I don't own a duster either, despite having a very dusty house! Should probably invest in one, though.

A confession I forgot to mention - when ds and I wake up for the day we usually just sit in bed for a few hours because I can't be bothered going out into the house.
Our curtains also never get pulled open, hence dust is rife!