Time to ask for help...

[buzzingtalk]

I try and balance dust (which I have to keep clear else it gives me hayfever and allergy breathing symptoms) and fun. Usually though I end up having to just go through the house every week or so and tidy, either to be able to walk without tripping over toys or to be able to do other things (like cook if I cannot see worktops etc).

Main things that have helped me (apart from not ironing) have been:

1. Majorly decluttering (either recycling clutter or donating it, or putting it into the loft, which is two boxes high all around the entrance atm).

2. Storage - making sure things either have a place to be (so that I can grab occasional things as I pass them and put them away in a specific place to tidy them) or are relegated to temporary places for when I buy storage (I will have a wardrobe one day!) has helped a lot and cut down on the moving mess from place to place thing.

3. Dusting with a damp cloth rather than with polish (gets rid of the dust a lot more) or using the brush attachment on the hoover to dust when possible. And embarrassingly, I do occasionally hoover the bathroom walls (but only cause the dust from the towels stick to them and make even more dust bunnies if I don't)!

Am reading the thread with interest though for tips regarding boy training (the three year old is Not good at picking up after himself to my chagrin ).

I have the same allergy, isn't it a pain? I'm gonna try the wet cloth thing, I hadn't thought of that. My house only takes 2-3 days to have a new layer of dust, so I have to do it every other day We only moved in a year ago and it had been decorated just for us so new carpets etc. I hoover whenever i can (few times a week) so the dust doesnt collect in the carpets. I used to live in a house with wood floors and it was awful, i know they say it is better for dust allergy but every time you walk it kicks up and unless you wash the floor every day, thers just dust everywhere.

I feel really bad for all of you on this thread who say the OH doesn't do anything! I must be blessed, I don't leave him much work to do as he lives away during the week but whenever I'm ill or stressed, I come home to a lovely clean house and he's done all the washing up/clothes washing and made me a lovely dinner

[buzzingtalk]

Mine are on the window sill.........

LOL Flo I once hoovered the floor on a threat and then sneakily emptied the bag to find the polly pockets .....

How does that work then? Sowing stuff in bog roll innards? That may be a way for me to find something to do with them other than throw them away

[kentvegplot]

I used to have a cleaner, and the house needed 3 hours from her every week. Now I have a bigger house, with no cleaner, and I don't seem to be living in a pigsty. The bits that people will see get cleaned weekly, the rest when and if I have time. I'm sure if I was paying a cleaner again, they would be suggesting 2/3 hours twice a week.

It's clean enough to be hygenic, messy enough to be fun....

[bobleponge]

Stella, I use Lord Huge of Fearnley Whittingstallshire's roast squash soup recipe and it works every time.
As regular Viners are aware, I'm rubbish at this interweb business but I'm sure you could use the Satanic Search Engine and find it easily enough.

[Flummery]

My own theory is that if you keep the place tidy all the time no-one notices what you've done. If you let it get messy then have a blitz, it does get noticed!

As the great but seriously odd Quentin Crisp said, after 4 years the dust doesn't get any worse!

Incidentally, I'm only on here to avoid housework!

[SueA]

Isn't it amazing how much interest & how many tips & confessions this thread has raised!
Going back to 'what star sign are you', I'm a Gemini & though I'm not really into that sort of thing I think in this case I really am a split personality, I'd love to be totally clean & tidy but also have a deep seated need for 'clutter/things' around me so I'm flummoxed!

[binley100]

How does that work then? Sowing stuff in bog roll innards? That may be a way for me to find something to do with them other than throw them away

Use them instead of pots, root trainers etc., the whole thing can go in the ground to save root disturbance and the added extra is that the tube will eventually rot down .

[Two_Sheds]

Sowing stuff in bog roll innards? That may be a way for me to find something to do with them other than throw them away

Don't throw them away! Use as plant pots in the summer (winter makes them mouldy), or compost them in your new composter

[piskieinboots]

PLEASE PLEASE MOTHERS! Teach your sons how to fend for themselves

Military Service works even better

P'haps it ought to be compulsory for them to live on their own for a couple of years .....

see above

[jackie j]

One thing that really annoy's me about my OH is he drinks coke out of bottles, he buys the 2ltr size and decants into the 500ml size to take to work, he only drinks out of bottles ( disgusting ) never out of a cup or glass. He then leaves them on the worktop till he decides to wash them along with his lunch boxes, this morning he washed 20, yes 20, its like skittles and I keep threatning to throw them out.
He very rarely puts his dishes in the diswasher even tho its ready for filling.
Saturday's when I get up the kitchen is full of dishes waiting to go in. I empty it before I go to work Friday night and start refilling it, does he bother, No, so when I get up he wonders why I am in a mood at the state of the kitchen. When I ask him what have you been doing this morning he say's nothing, and I can tell he has just sat on the computer all morning.