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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the key is to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Stuff I wouldn't not care about includes toys strewn around the house (I have kids, I get it), stacks of mail or other paperwork around, dusty surfaces, especially bookshelves and other surfaces that don't get used as much, most other clutter, etc.

These are the things I'd judge or would make me uncomfortable walking into someone else's house:

- Trash that smells bad. It takes one minute to take out the trash.
- Visibly dirty dishes around. A few near or in the sink wouldn't bug me, but anything that has been sitting out for hours is gross to me. Especially in any room outside the kitchen.
- Dirty floors. Run a vacuum or broom right before people come over. You can just do the main areas or the ones that look dirtiest, and you don't have to do a thorough job. Just good enough.
- Dirty toilets. You can clean a toilet in 2-3 minutes. And you only have to do the bathroom they will use!
- Messy surfaces, especially food mess. Just wipe down counters and tables before people come over. I recommend getting a good smelling multi-purpose spray (I like Mrs. Meyers) because it will also make the house smell a bit better.

Also I second the suggestion to open windows. A lot of my suggestions relate to making sure the house smells reasonably fresh and I think that's big. No one wants to go into someone else's house that smells of trash or last night's dinner or is just kind of stale smelling. Some clean laundry sitting in the a basket waiting to be folded? No big deal, it probably smells good![/quote]

+1 with also a nod to 21:07.

In addition to hiring out (or not), work with your DH on being more conscientious. His behavior is not okay- autistic or not- and you shouldn't be shouldering all of this yourself. You shouldn't even need to but start by assigning him chores/zones. Putting a band-aid on it by hiring someone doesn't address the underlying issues and just enables the behavior. If your house is dirty, don't have company and meet elsewhere-park, whatever. And no, I am not a super neat freak with a white-everything house who wraps everything in plastic and doesn't let people touch things. [/quote]
+2

There are lots of suggestions in this thread for solving the overall cleaning problem. It's okay to have kids over when your house is messy/cluttered/dusty, but at a minimum, you need to clean the bathroom and kitchen counters/table/chairs/dished so that your guests have a clean and sanitized space to sit and eat a snack. I can still picture a friends house from when I was 10 - counters piled high with all sorts of stuff - papers, toys, food, dishes, trash and the 6-8 inches of counter space sticky with jelly, dried juice, crumbs, unknown crud. Uh, no, I don't want a snack. Remember that kids are eyeball level with the counters - they see it all up close![/quote]

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