My apartment is constantly dirty. Is it just me???

Question

lol. It's just my boyfriend and I living here, but I feel like I am CONSTANTLY cleaning! We seem to make such a mess. Anyone else have this problem?

I guess I forgot to mention I'm a neat freak and my boyfriend is NOT. lol. I just wanted to feel like I am not alone in this. I do tell him to clean up his mess, but then I start to feel like I'm a nag.

Answer 1

trade ya... my 13 yr is the same way.. wont pick up after himself... my trick.. if he leaves it behind and i find it... it's mine.... not that i have much use for Lego's but you get what i mean...

Answer 2

Do you know what causes that feeling? The things in your apartment aren't where they should be. Really. Trust me on this one. Go to the front of your apartment and step out on the porch or into the hall for a second and then come back into your apartment as though you had never been in there before. Treat it like a total stranger's place. Bring your boyfriend with you, of course, if you possibly can. Now, the two of you just walk through the place as though you never had seen any of the furniture or books or rugs or lamps or beds or whatever. Make notes inside your head what you would change around. If you had a little more open space, like a few more open, flat surfaces with absolutely nothing on them, it wouldn't look so cluttered to you so often. Some places gather dust. I mean, it's amazing! You dust and the next day it's back again, right? Pledge. It is a product here in the United States that grabs the dust and won't let it go again. You dust with Pledge and it stays dust free for weeks. Amazing, huh. But seriously, do the walk-through I mentioned to you above with your friend, and see if you don't notice some major changes. It's partly because you and he are growing so rapidly, and you're changing. You probably have actually outgrown a few of the things you noticed on the way through your place. I am sending good energies along with this note to help you find the foolish stuff you no longer need to have around and the strength to move it along somewhere else. This makes no loss, really, because the stuff you're going to bring in to replace it will be so much better! Sent with a big hug from Chris in South Portland, Maine, U.S.A. (I am 63 years old.)

Answer 3

Go to FlyLady.net.

Even though you are a neat freak, and her advice is for Sidetracked Home Executives who have Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome (Shes in chaos), I think her philosophy will help you.

Sign up or just read the site, and do what she says for a few weeks before you decide if it helps. It seems to be about "how to clean" which you probably don't need, but it's really about how to live, and, as a neat freak, you probably drive your boyfriend as crazy as he drives you!

The reason I know it works is that *I* am a slob at heart, but my apartment has been clean for several years! And I am much less angry at my little piggies for messing it up all the time.

Answer 4

No, it's not just you. Everything gets dirty. I have lived in a series of dirty apartments, but only because I really didn't know how to clean. Several years ago I picked up a copy of "Speed Cleaning" by Jeff Campbell. It helped a lot. Now my home is pretty clean, even though my wife and son sometimes do their best to trash the place. Pick the book up at the library. It may not change your life, but it will make cleaning a lot easier.

Answer 5

I hate to say this but yes.it is just you.Your standard of clean is very different from your boyfriends.So his small messes as he intreprets them,are a huge burden to you.But your cleaning habits are good ones.I think anyway.But in knowing that,you also have to accept that your house isn't a mess.It's just not immaculate.Here is a site where you can get some ideas to suggest to your boyfriend that might help you both live a bit more harmoniously.

Answer 6

Me too! I can clean the house and by the next day my kitchen table is hard to find from all the stuff loaded on it. Probably the best thing I did was to minimize. I removed all the little nicknack's from the rooms, (one room at a time) and by minimizing the items in the room, it is easier to do a "quick clean." I bought some of those "pop up" mesh hampers. I categorized them into "put away", "give away", "get's taken to another room", etc. My husband has his own and anything that belongs to him goes into his bin and he is responsible for putting it away (like laundry). Hopefully this will help.

Answer 7

When I lived in an apartment, I felt the same way. It's the small space, a little bit of mess and it seems really bad.

Now we are in a house it has to be really messy before I notice.

Answer 8

Does the boyfriend do his share -- like pick up after himself, wash dishes, clean the bathroom, do his own laundry? If not, then you will always feel like you are constantly cleaning and you will eventually come to resent him. Solve the problem before you have children.

Answer 9

Spend a few minutes before bed each night picking up and putting things in it's place. Do you have things piled up that you really don't need? Donate it. Trash it. Whichever. You'll be ticked at the new space you have. Promise yourself you'll spend 20 minutes each evening doing what you know needs done. Good Luck!

Answer 10

If you are constanly cleaning, than maybe you are dumping all the guilt on yourself. Make your boyfriend do some of the work, too! But if neither of you want to clean, maybe you should hire a cleaning service.

Answer 11

Put a mop in his hands!

Make sure the floors get swept and the tiles are mopped at least once a week. Set the day up and let him know he is going to be part of it.