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[quote=Anonymous]I would move on. I've worked with several families over the years (long time nanny). Most were extremely tidy and had professional cleaners come to the house twice per month at the bare minimum. Two families were much messier (interestingly enough, both of those families also had teenagers).

One family was just generally messy. I spent HOURS during nap time (while teen siblings were in school) organizing and cleaning, even though I hadn't really been asked to, I just wanted to help. In particular, their play areas were disasters, with just a million tiny random toy pieces all over. They already had nice shelves and baskets (things were just thrown in randomly), over the course of a week I meticulously sorted and organized toys, putting them into the baskets and labeling the baskets, etc. Monday I showed up and it was literally as if I had done nothing; everything was just as disorganized as ever.

The other family had only teenagers (no young children); just an after school type gig. They were hoarders. Like, BAD hoarders. Easily could've been on the show. Honestly if their children had been any younger OR if they weren't close friends with the clients I worked with in the mornings at the time (who I think must have never stepped foot into their friends house!), I would've called CPS.

I again, went out of my way to try to help them. When I started, their basement was so full of dirty clothes that had been just thrown down there that they completely covered the stairs and floor, and in some corners were stacked floor to ceiling (it really seemed like they bought new clothes instead of washing used clothes). Anyway, I did load after load of laundry. I stacked up laundry baskets outside their respective rooms with big "CLEAN" signs on them. Then I realized that most of them couldn't even reach their dressers or closets. They had two HUGE dogs who shed horribly, and the clean laundry sat in those baskets for days (weeks?) until they were just completely covered in dog hair again.

The kitchen was a similar disaster; dishes piled up that hadn't been washed in weeks. The usually just brought home take out and really didn't cook or use anything other than plastic plates and utensils. They had roaches in the kitchen. I washed filthy, utterly disgusting dishes, and put them away, and tried my best to help keep their home livable. To no avail. Every day I would show up and they would've dirtied more dishes and just left them there. I would do all dishes before leaving Friday at 7, and return Monday to dishes left from later Friday night and all weekend.

I REALLY wanted to help them. But, there was nothing I could do. The first family, well, it was certainly messy and disorganized, but it was livable and ultimately there were many other issues I had with that family that were much worse deal breakers than the mess (like refusing to offer guaranteed hours, changing the schedule last minute constantly, the fact that MB started her youngest on SODA at 20 months, oh, right, and the fact that they were always very late in paying me). The second family though, that mess was an UNHEALTHY environment (physically and mentally), and not livable, and a definite deal breaker.

Bottom line here: 
1. YOU CANT CHANGE THEM!
2. Decide for yourself if this is livable/safe or not.
3. Even if livable/safe, is it a deal breaker?
4. Move on if you need to.[/quote]

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