I go through phases. Some weeks I'm good at keeping it picked up, but most weeks it goes straight to hell and I just don't care.
Yup. I go through phases too. It usually correlates with how much H is working. If I get a little help with the kids, the floors are probably mopped and things put away and the throw pillows fluffed and stuff. If it's just me, usually I throw the toys in the cabinet so I don't have to see them and wipe down my kitchen counters before collapsing on the couch.
It's usually pretty clean - but we currently have the entire basement plus the kitchen under renovation, meaning all the stuff from those areas is packed up/distributed in other parts of the house. Plus you can't even get into our garage because it's full of lumber and random construction stud. It's driving me crazy. 4 more months until I can get things back to normal...
And then there will be a month or 2 of unexplained dust everywhere once the renovation is over. Also! Speaking of dust. Make sure they cover your furnace and hot water heater, especially when they're doing the basement. The dust killed our furnace and we had to buy a new one.
Ugh. It's a mess, which makes me anxious, but I can't keep up with all the clutter produced by the kids and the H. I do manage to clean things, though. Mostly.
My downstairs is generally tidy (after kids go to bed) I did clean bathrooms and floors and all the house last week, and I've been good about maintaining. It's not show room ready, but it's guest ready.
Making the time to do all that serious cleaning took a questionable amount of child neglect. It's really hard to clean when there are people sabotaging you.