Kelly Rose Bradford: Here's a tip - don't worry about it!

Nov 24 2008 Surrey Herald

I have a confession to make: my house is a tip. My stairs have long since been utilised as some kind of ultra modern filing system - I've drawn the line at alphabetically labelling them, but each stair has a distinct pile of junk on it, mainly odds and ends that have no home anywhere else.

And it's the odds and ends that seem to be slowly taking over the house and resulting in my domestic decline.

Boy is as messy as I am, his room a shrine to small, plastic toys, endless reams of paper and all the rubbish he brings home from parties - one shelf heaves under the weight of party hats alone.

And will he let me bin them after a discrete period of time? No, he will not. He forms attachments very quickly, and will remember exactly which party each brightly-coloured conical titfer came from.

Which is all very sweet and lovely until you realise he averages one party a week, and is only five,so a few years down the line,his room will potentially be some kind of paper based millinery Mecca.

I have to admit I hoard too: books, newspapers, magazines, pebbles from the beach, interesting 'things' I've picked up on my travels.And, despite moaning constantly about all the rubbish hanging about, I just can't help bringing more things in, so it's no wonder I feel I am drowning in a sea of 'stuff'.

I was interested to read a housekeeping survey of 4,000 women undertaken by disinfectant manufacturer,Zoflora.

Two thirds of mums feel they are letting their family down if the house is untidy, and a whopping three quarters never feel on top of the housework.

It also revealed our top cleaning shortcuts - everything from brushing crumbs under carpet (Not guilty,Your Honour) to hiding clutter in drawers and cupboards (guilty as charged) and eating straight from the packet or box to avoid washing up (Yuck. How completely disgusting.I only do it occasionally, honest).

In my defence,I must cite working from home as not being at all conducive to keeping organised and tidy - despite having insatiable urges to wash the kitchen floor when a deadline looms, I never feel a strong pull to leave the computer and get stuck into a pile of ironing, or clear all the stair-based clutter.

In fact, I probably spend at least an hour a day perusing online stores and thinking what other junk I can bring in.

And it seems the professionals agree with me - television housework guru Aggie MacKenzie says long working hours and busy social lives mean we simply don't have as much time to keep on top of housework as we'd like.

Which is entirely true.So I've decided I'm not going to worry too much about it, because as someone else once wryly told me,when you die,it's doubtful they'll put 'she kept a very tidy house' on your headstone.'