h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

sorry - sneezed as I hit the Post button...


...why don't we have a sneeze smiley? I suppose would do at a pinch....

Bless You! (It must be all that dust)

I never saw my mother with a duster in her hands, she nurtured spiders and we never had flies. As a result I have a far higher tolerance of dirt than most other people I know. Other people quote Quentin Crisp's comment that the dust doesn't get any worse after four years with shocked amazement. But I know from experience that it is perfectly true. On the other hand I do get irritated by untidyness, both my own, and other peoples', and I like living on my own. I got very irritated by how untidy the place would get when my in-laws came round.

I had a major tidy up and clear up just before my ex brought his new g/f around. It took me 3 days. And then they just went into the living room.

I tend to tidy for visitors unless my life is more then usually busy, in which case they know it, and are expected to put up with it. But my friends are expected to take me warts and all.

Clearing up before I go on the pull? That usually involves leg wax and body milk rather than furniture polish and dusters. After all, I want them to have sex with me, not my furniture!

B
who rather anally has a place for everything, and who gets rid of things that don't have a place.

During the week Bruce and I are lazy as Hell- the kitchen gets cleaned and tidied, but only because I won't cook in a messy kitchen. Saturady morings I often have to myself, that's when I go "f**k this place is a tip", and start tidying.

Unexecpted visitors? That's either the neighbours, whose house is a worse bomb sheel than this place ver is, or my parents, when we have ten minutes warning. Cue putting the piles of mags and bills neatly under the tea table (we don't drink coffee, so it's not a coffee table) and picking the clothies of the bathroom floor. Tnen shut every other door in the house....

This is what happens when you're poor- you may not be able to control anything else in your life, but by God, you can have a clean and tidy house....

During the week Bruce and I are lazy as Hell- the kitchen gets cleaned and tidied, but only because I won't cook in a messy kitchen. Saturady morings I often have to myself, that's when I go "f**k this place is a tip", and start tidying.

Unexecpted visitors? That's either the neighbours, whose house is a worse bomb sheel than this place ver is, or my parents, when we have ten minutes warning. Cue putting the piles of mags and bills neatly under the tea table (we don't drink coffee, so it's not a coffee table) and picking the clothies of the bathroom floor. Tnen shut every other door in the house....

This is what happens when you're poor- you may not be able to control anything else in your life, but by God, you can have a clean and tidy house....

I have a place for everything too - but the places aren't big enough for what goes in or on them.........and no-one else in the house puts things back where they found them.

I used to have a place for everything...it was the floor. Now I live with a wheelchair using nutter/husband and the floor is no longer allowed to hold everything...I try to collect things vertically instead of horizontally now.

hubby just asked for the shoe polish...which he put away yesterday...which he would have been able to reach had he not put it away...all mess has a purpose - if you are forever putting something away it is too useful and should be left out <\aside>

Spotted a woodlouse on the kitchen ceiling this morning...it was on the dinding room side of the kitchen and it looked a bit lost so I left it alone.

It depends on my visitors - real adults (i.e. non-students), such as my aunt, mother, boyfriend's parents (if I have more than 10 mins notice of them appearing) get tidied for. Students or "recently ex students who I knew as students and are pretty much my peers" (most of my visitors) don't unless it will be a big group of them and they are staying for while (i.e. a party) and then it is only tidying (putting away things which would get damaged) as the cleaning will happen afterwards and I am usually too busy cooking to clean. To give you an idea of my parties, I usually spend most of the day in the kitchen and everyone goes away stuffed. This is popular with the students, even though my parties don't usually involve alcohol.

Tidying is quite different from cleaning though - my kitchen is usually clean but not necessarily tidy, the entire house is usually *clean* but rarely tidy.

AE

A valid point: if visitors are coming, i celan and My other half tidies - we play to our strengths! Only problem is, he can't do what I call a "cosmetic tidy" he just ghasto steadily work through everything intead of prioritising for maximum effect...

Still gigglk ng at the thought of agcB bringing a furniture fetishist home with her - would he ever comE OUT OF THE CLOSET?

CAPITALS CARE OF THE CLOVISKITTEN HITTING THE KEYBOARD - OOPS!

I'm afraid I'm an "all or nothing" too. Either I take a week and polish every speck of dust, check out every book/piece of paper/dried pea, or I just leave it, waiting until I have time to "do it properly". In other words, we live in a dump with good intentions.

On top of the thoroughness, I easily get waylaid by magazines or books which may be involved in the room I'm tidying.

My mother, on the other hand, has the knack of making a kitchen habitable and presentable in 15 mins, while producing a delicious, attractive and satisfying meal with the other hand. She also succeeds in keeping the house tidy and - most important - homely. This applies to when we were tiny right up to now when she's 83 and still going strong. I wish you could all meet her.

That knack with kitchens she can even apply in strange kitchens (i.e. mine) I pop out to change a nappy (or nowadays to pour us a gin and tonic) and when I get back, saucepans are happily bubbling and not a thing to be seen on the work surface.

- why didn't she teach me to do that rather than just show me that is how it should be.