Sociology Urban folks don't handle spontaneous visits, house too untidy

[Second Summer]

Translated from Norwegian:

Is your house untidy and full of dust bunnies? Then chances are high you're less social than people who clean often.

[...]

People in the countryside are more prepared for unexpected visits, and keep their houses tidy, she says.

On the other hand, people in the city gamble that visitors will announce their visit in advance when they invite themselves for coffee, and make an all-out effort on special occasions, believes Grimstad Klepp.

The person interviewed, Ingunn Grimstad Klepp, is research leader at the government's institute for consumer research.

In the article she also hypothesizes that people with less education have cleaner houses because those who have good cleaning skills are typically the people who clean professionally, and they don't typically mingle with high education types, so the skills won't be passed on to them. (But instead they mingle with other people with less education, I guess, so they do learn.)

http://nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.8309447 (NRK, the Norwegian state broadcaster)

 

[KLS52]

My house is almost always tidy, but not necessarily 'clean'...I don't sweep/vacuum/dust as often as I should. If someone knocked on my door unexpectedly I probably wouldn't answer it if I felt the house looked less than presentable.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

My house is almost always tidy, but not necessarily 'clean'...I don't sweep/vacuum/dust as often as I should. If someone knocked on my door unexpectedly I probably wouldn't answer it if I felt the house looked less than presentable.

Same.
I don't really like having people in my house, generally, and definitely don't like unexpected visitors.

 

[Forster]

I'm messy, not unsanitary mind you, but very, very untidy. Not sure what that says about me.

 

[silva]

I'm very messy, and unorganized. I'll move stuff around to clean, then put them right back. I never "get" the knack of "a place for everything, and everything in it's place". That constently changes, and the more I try and assign 'places", the worse it gets, and I can't find anything.
If I just leave things where I "feel", I don't have that problem.
I'm also very non-social.

 

[Mel]

If someone announced they were coming over, hubby and I, mostly hubby, would scramble to tidy. For me, as long as the dishes are done, the floors are swept, bathroom is cleaned and tables de-cluttered, then we're ready for company.

That being said, I normally don't like having company over. Our apartment is very boring, almost no decor to speak of, our furniture is old and falling apart. I find it embarrassing.

 

[Freesia]

I prefer to go and meet company out. Or have people over who dont mind some messiness. My tidiness or lack of has nothing to do with my sociability levels. And I know how to clean well, I just find it mentally exhausting.

 

[Moll Flanders]

My house is almost always tidy, but not necessarily 'clean'.

Same here. I am quite tidy because my Mum was tidy but I don't spend ages cleaning the windows or the floors although I vacuum every day. I hate people dropping by unexpectedly but people don't come around without calling first because I have made it clear that I don't like to be surprised by guests.

I used to have a cleaner and I loved it and I definitely would hire one again when we could afford to, sorry if that makes me lazy. I used to clear up before she came over though which is a bit ridiculous.

 

[shyvas]

Same here. I am quite tidy because my Mum was tidy but I don't spend ages cleaning the windows or the floors although I vacuum every day. I hate people dropping by unexpectedly but people don't come around without calling first because I have made it clear that I don't like to be surprised by guests.

I used to have a cleaner and I loved it and I definitely would hire one again when we could afford to, sorry if that makes me lazy. I used to clear up before she came over though which is a bit ridiculous.

Same here. Sometimes I don't even bother to answer the door.

 

[Pickle Juice]

Same here. I am quite tidy because my Mum was tidy but I don't spend ages cleaning the windows or the floors although I vacuum every day. I hate people dropping by unexpectedly but people don't come around without calling first because I have made it clear that I don't like to be surprised by guests.

I used to have a cleaner and I loved it and I definitely would hire one again when we could afford to, sorry if that makes me lazy. I used to clear up before she came over though which is a bit ridiculous.

As a former housekeeper I appreciated people who cleaned up after themselves. I had plenty of customers who, if they spilled pancake batter on the stovetop on Monday, they would leave it til my scheduled visit on Friday, since they were paying me to clean. Needless to say, they didn't get much cleaning done for their money when I had to spend more time sandblasting dried spills they could have wiped up in ten seconds the moment they happened.

I think the worst was the family whose kids never managed to get the toilet paper into the toilet. Imagine leaving a weeks' worth of used toilet paper accumulating on the bathroom floor, just because they had a housekeeper, and she could clean it up.



Which reminds me, I thought that bit about people with less education being better at cleaning was funny. That's how I put myself through college, cleaning people's houses. It was the only job I could get that paid better than minimum wage. That or stripping.

 

[KLS52]

As a former housekeeper I appreciated people who cleaned up after themselves. I had plenty of customers who, if they spilled pancake batter on the stovetop on Monday, they would leave it til my scheduled visit on Friday, since they were paying me to clean.

Imagine leaving a weeks' worth of used toilet paper accumulating on the bathroom floor, just because they had a housekeeper, and she could clean it up.

That's crazy insane.

 

[Moll Flanders]

As a former housekeeper I appreciated people who cleaned up after themselves. I had plenty of customers who, if they spilled pancake batter on the stovetop on Monday, they would leave it til my scheduled visit on Friday, since they were paying me to clean.

That is disgusting.

 

[Pickle Juice]

I went on to become a full time nanny to the people with the messy kids. I suppose they did fit the article's stereotype. Both parents had PhDs. And their house, though it was in a very nice area in the hills outside Silicon Valley, was a trash heap. That was the first time I ever saw a roach. I didn't even know what it was. And the kids were constantly coming home from their fancy private school with head lice. Tsk.

 

[beancounter]

All I can say about this topic is:
Those who mind (an untidy house) don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind (an untidy house)

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I worked as a housekeeper one summer, in a fairly wealthy suburb of Savannah, GA. I will say that there was a wide range when it came to how clean or dirty people kept their house. There were people who seemed to clean before we got there, and those who seemed to trash their homes every week just because they had someone coming to clean up after them, and people in the middle. I have no idea what the education level of any of those people was. (Most were not home when we came in to clean, though there was the older couple who would sit on the sofa and chain smoke while we were there.)

It paid better than fast food, and I had spent the better part of my life helping my grandma with her business of cleaning new houses for construction companies, so I had "cleaning experience." My grandma's own house was (and is) fairly dirty; she lives in an older neighborhood in a college town, never went to school past high school, and doesn't really give a crap what people think of the state of her house.

 

[Digger]

I have to say that I don't handle spontaneous visits very well, even if I know the person well and/or they are family. I just don't like people dropping in on me without my prior permission, and I don't feel at all bad about that. I think it's rude not to give someone at least 24 hours notice before visiting.

 

[Skylark]

Things being disorderly doesn't bother me, but visiting the home of someone who is truly messy or filthy is an experience I will not likely repeat. If there's no place for a guest to sit without getting ick on them, that's bad.

 

[kazyeeqen]

My house is very very messy currently, and only pretty messy generally, but I don't mind spontaneous visits. I guess any friends that dropped in on my suddenly would understand that I hadn't cleaned.

The only thing I find embarrassing is the bathroom if it's uncleaned.

That whole housekeeper thing and not cleaning at all and letting it build all week is crazy. If I ever had a housekeeper I would want them to do things that I don't want to do, and keeping things picked up and counters cleaned off and stuff is easy. I just would rather not mop or scrub the shower if I could avoid it...

 

[SummerRain]

I think the worst was the family whose kids never managed to get the toilet paper into the toilet. Imagine leaving a weeks' worth of used toilet paper accumulating on the bathroom floor, just because they had a housekeeper, and she could clean it up.

Wow I have never heard something so revolting.

My house is always clean, rarely tidy. During holidays the house is much tidier, even when I worked full time over the summer the house was much tidier, but university work is much more tiring and also spills over into the evenings a lot more so whereas I make the time for cleaning, washing, ironing, etc, tidying falls by the wayside.

To be fair, our house has next to NO storage. It's big but storage-less, we've done the best we can buying extra furniture/etc, but it's hopeless. There is no where to put stuff in the bathroom so lots of the bathroom things are kept in the bedroom, there's no storage under the bed/etc, no cupboards, so it gets messy easily just because we own lots of things that don't really have anywhere to go. Like all my sewing things are in bags next to the bed because they don't have anywhere else to go.

But like I said, it's always clean. But whereas my parents house there is never a thing out of place, my house things tend to pile up on chairs and surfaces.

 

[amhappy1]

My house was disorganized and cluttered until I started reading about minimalism while doing web searches on how to get rid of my clutter. The house almost cleans itself now that I've gotten rid of the things I only thought I needed. Granted, my children are grown and my husband cleans up after himself, but it takes less than 30 minutes a day to keep the house ready for company.