I am Lenny in that scene in the simpsons: "Please don't tell anyone how I live".

I clean the common areas, kitchen, bathroom, living room and relocate all unsightly items (clothes, pile of mail, etc.) into a spare closet and shut the door.

I pretty much live "neat" all the time. I just close my daughters bedroom door and I'm good to go as I like living in a neat house myself. :)

There are different 'levels' of cleaning up for guests in my home.

For my very close friends just dropping by - they get to see how I live on a day to day basis. No special cleanup.

Casual get together with a group of friends - A wipedown of the kitchen and the bathroom, close the bedroom doors and make sure the mail pile is under control.

Large party - Super scrubdown of the whole place. Bedrooms are clean, bathroom and kitchen are super clean (but a good guest would never open a closet)

Overnight guests - Super scrubdown with a super duper scrubdown of the bathroom (shower) and guest room.

i clean the bathroom and kitchen and vacuum. my cat leaves hair everywhere and while i can live with it, i don't expect my guests to.

I notice that I feel most comfortable in other people's homes when they are clean and I don't have to dodge piles, so I try to make my home the same for others. While I don't go crazy with cleaning when I'm just having a friend or two over, I do try to tidy up because I am not immaculate by nature and I want everyone to feel they are in a comfortable and clean space when they are in my home. With a dinner party or overnight guests, I certainly do a special clean up. In fact, having house guests is one of the best motivators for me to get my home in shape.

Mostly I just do a quick straighten. If it's a special visit or I want to "show-off" the house I do a proper cleaning.I was kind of embarrassed a few weeks ago when a friend stopped by and the house was a bigger mess than it usually gets, as I hadn't gotten even normal cleaning done, but most of the time I don't worry too much about it.

We all want to put our best foot forward. However, I learned a long time ago to never apologize for the condition of my house. Since it does bother me that I might get caught with my pants down, I try to keep it as though I could have a guest at any minute. Not perfect but presentable.

But there is one little trick I have. If you do get that unexpected guest, have a small cleaning kit hidden away in your guest bath. So you can excuse yourself for a second and make it fresh without them knowing what you did! :)

I love clean. I revel in it's beauty. So if you come to visit me, it smells fresh, is free of clutter, and feels inviting because of my efforts. I'm proud of keeping my home and my possessions in good working order and free of issues that might make a person worry about safety or hygeine. I come from a long line of clean people. Before company comes, bathrooms are pristine, towels are laundered, pillowcases ironed, lightbulbs and lamps are wiped with vinegar/baking soda/detergent wash. I have four pets and have been told more than once that my house smells "fresh" with no pet odor. I could go on but you get the idea. It's a comfort, a pleasure and a privilege to live this way.

I have to say I agree with mapchic's comments, and as well as basing it on how long someone will be over (and what they'll potentially see), I also base my level of cleaning with who it is. I also sort of follow Let Get Organized advice, and I keep the clorox wipes in my bathroom cupboard, as these are the best for doing a really quick bathroom wipedown.

Alas, I am in the frantically clean if guests are to arrive box. I have 5 house bunnies who make my house look terrible...at times. I try to go with the flow, but feel unsettled if my house is not company ready.

We clean! Or, rather, I clean. My husband cooks. It's a good partnership. :)

We (I) strive to live in a tidy house. 80% tidy all the time. When guets come, I'll do a sweep of our typical junk-landing areas and remove accumulated debris. I'll d a vacuum and make sure the kids' toys are put away (that's their job! If it's left out, it goes "on vacation" indefinitely). Smudges on the mirror are wiped down, and I lift the toilet seats to make sure they look spiffy, too. I'd say it takes maybe 1-2 hours to do a thorough inspection of all floors. It pays to spend several minutes a day to clean, and to minimize the clutter of life. :)

I tend to clean for guests. But then I am also the type to put chocolates on the pillows for overnight guests. But don't anyone look in my closet or my dresser drawers. I go for the SEMBLANCE of clean. A reasonable facsimile.

I make a mad dash to put away clothes, papers and dishes.

as hard as it can be to do a special clean up i guess it's easier than getting new friends..then again hmmm...

I keep my place pretty neat, but sometimes it gets a little messy in spots. If I know guests are coming, I clean everything. Everything but the closets, cupboards, etc. They stay closed!

If I really cleaned up every time we had people over, we'd never have people over. With three kids under age 5 in a three-bedroom one-bathroom bungalow, it gets a bit crazy. I absolutely always tidy the bathroom and do a quick clean of the toilet and sinks (baby wipes are very helpful for this.) Other than that, my motto is "if you're coming to see us, drop by anytime. If you're coming to see the house, give me two weeks' notice and a cleaning lady."

My apartment is always clean, guests or no guest. I clean every Friday afternoon.

I clean like a madwoman before any company and even repair people. We have way too much stuff (collections/knick knacks) to keep everything dusted all the time...that's the main problem. And I like to deep clean the kitchen and bath since they are dated. We rent. So the cleaner they are they better they look.

After 24 years my husband has finally learned to go to bed on his own when visitors are coming the next day. I would make a great nighttime office cleaner! I really hit my stride about 1 am for some reason!

oh my goodness we clean when we know someone is coming over. Its the only time I do it :) with the exception of tidying, sweeping, dishes.. But I agree with some of the others, there are levels. If they have kids and have been to our home before I'm much more relaxed.

I pretty much always straighten up before people come over, if I have enough notice. I'm not going to freak out if a neighbor/friend drops by and sees a mess, though. I sometimes find myself cleaning for company and then wishing I could keep it that clean for myself. I do like when it's clean, it just seems to take so much effort!

We're pretty tidy. Drop ins welcome, but if we're both home I drift off to the guest bath to "fluff up" for the guest's use.

I keep a general level of tidiness all the time, but when I'm expecting company I super clean the bathroom. It's the only room where a guest would be alone and start really really looking at their environment- and I don't want them to be grossed out by what they find!

I always do a special clean up for visitors because I benefit both ways. My guests feel welcome, they can relax, so can I, we all get to have a good time and after they leave, I keep the good feelings plus a clean place. It's a win win situation.

Like most others, it depends on the type of guest and how long they're staying. One or two local friends, I tidy and hide piles of stuff just out of eyesight; more than that, I'll do a deeper clean. But oh, when my mom visits, it's no-holds-barred, top-to-bottom, clean-ALL-the-things situation. I may be 29, but I still love getting my mom's seal of approval at my living situation :-)

I love cleaning for guests! I generally keep my place pretty neat, so it's not a big deal to straighten up my desk, put away clothes, etc. I have people over all the time, which is a nice incentive to keep my apartment clean.

The only exception to this whole thing is my tiny galley kitchen, which is usually a disaster. But if the rest of the place is neat, I'm happy. Plus, it's a nice feeling when people leave and you can relax in a clean house.

I finally splurged and got an every-other-week cleaning lady, so I just tidy up and do the dishes before guests come over. My husband has a tendency to drop his stuff wherever, so I do a general sweep of the house and attempt to relocate the piles to more appropriate places, like the office or the garage, depending on the clutter.

And I've totally been known to store dishes in the dishwasher if I haven't gotten around to washing them yet. Oh well.

"I come from a long line of clean people." This cracked me up!!! What the __?!

Am I the only person that actually invites people over just to force oneself to clean the house? More than a few dinner parties have been predicated on this...

Fortunately, I'm a pretty tidy person. So I am not scrambling to do TOO much at the last minute. But I do try to tidy up a little bit, if there are things laying around.

if it wasn't for visitors, my place would probably never get cleaned. thank god for friends.

No you are not the only one Sagaka! I do that quite often. I have just moved house and I have invited over people on the weekend so that I am organised by then, nothing like a deadline.

I like a clean and orderly home, so I tend to keep it that way all the time and I agree with a previous comment that it shows respect for one's home.

I have too much stuff and have instituted a saving vs. shopping goal. Instead of seeing my possessions grow, I'm looking forward to seeing my savings account grow.

Recently I've found myself unprepared for the unexpected guest and viewing my home from a visitors viewpoint revealed clutter under all the furniture clogging the flow in each room. In addition to being a shopaholic, I've also been the recipient of many goods from others. Thus, if I don't need it, I no longer accept it.

My goal is to never have to clean before company but to be able to swing the door wide open, smile brightly and say, "Come on in."

After reading all these comments...im not surprised that the people reading this article are neat people in general. Id guess that AT readers are probably tidy-er than the average person...in fact I bet anyone who takes an interest in reading home design blogs is probably neat. I am just speculating.

I keep our place company- ready at all times. I wash dishes during cooking and straight after meals, wipe the bathroom every morning after I´ve combed through face and hair, put things away few times a day ( everything has a home and everything needs to live in their homes ), have a cleaning system that involves everything imaginable from car to purse to fridge and wiping mirrors etc. I now also have the luxury of extra help for the time being ( just underwent a major surgery ) to give a helping hand in heavier stuff like dragging rugs to air outside and vacuuming and mopping as often as I please ( vacuuming takes place 2-3 times a week, rugs get dusted and aired weekly ). I dust and polish myself a couple times a week ( one needs to polish when immersed with black lacquered furniture ) from places I can reach without bending or reaching and the help aids me with the very high and low places. Of course there´s always some crumbs or whatnots with a small child but that´s not the end of the world and it´s easily wipeable. Even my little one knows that he collects all of his toys when he´s done playing with them and always straightens up his room before bed ( it´s called earning a story read ) and he even wishes for a new mop just for himself so that he can start mopping his own room. These are traits and habits that just happen once you get to the knack of them.

Also, I love to read other people´s cleaning and sorting routines. I´ve found that with a calm and nicely kept home keeps a nicely kept head in place.

I make a point of being clean and tidy in the rooms of the house I consider to be "public." That would be the living room, dining, kitchen combo) and the guest bath. I do a quick pass-through of that area before bed every night — putting away things, plumping cushions and pillows (no karate chopping!), quickly wiping down the counter tops and the sink, taking out the trash, turning on the dishwasher. I awake, therefore, to a presentable house every day, which keeps me calm.

I clean (dust, vacuum, steam clean tile floors, full clean of the kitchen and baths, sweep the sidewalk and patio) once a week in between doing the laundry. As far as I'm concerned, no one has any reason to go in the office, the bedrooms, or the master bath unless invited. I usually have out-of-town overnight guests twice a year and before they arrive I do big extras like cleaning ceiling fans, blinds, baseboards, and doors; washing windows; refreshing the plants, etc.

So I'm OK for visitors on short notice, but I appreciate a call before dropping in so I can make MYSELF presentable.

My kitchen always needs cleaning, so I clean it. I wish I had someone to clean up after all my wonderful cooking. Otherwise, a few private things get put away, and anything someone might trip over, then the place is good to go. That doesn't mean it's perfect, it's good enough. I used to be in the scrub everything camp, but the older I get the less I can make myself do things I really don't want to do.

I definitely clean before people come over. I'm not a disaster, but papers and clothes have a way of getting all over the apartment. I focus on the kitchen and bathroom and definitely make sure all surfaces are wiped clean. I appreciate when other people clean before I come over. I see it as a sign of respect. I recently invited my sister and her family over for dinner, and they came over dressed as if they were going to a fancy restaurant. I loved it! It made me feel like they really appreciated the dinner invitation. I feel that it is only polite to reciprocate and not only clean my home from top to bottom, but to make myself presentable as well.

I clean properly for visitors, but am a bit slapdash otherwise. So I make sure I invite people over often enough to make me keep the house clean.

If I'm having people over, I make sure that the areas they'll spend the most time in are really clean. Anything upholstered gets supersonic vaccumed and I make sure the bathroom sink is spotless. If my mother is coming over...well, I have to make sure EVERYTHING is clean. She'll look under the couch if she gets a chance.

I clean like mad before some people come over (parents, first time visitors, etc.). But when it's friends who visit all the time I just do a quick version. Wash dishes, wipe counters in the bathroom, consolidate junk in the living room, make sure there's nothing obviously gross laying around.

Your article captured EXACTLY how I feel! I too think it would be freeing to not think twice about how clean my house is. Maybe someday (sigh)....

I keep my house pretty tidy, mostly because I work at home and find that I am more productive/at ease in neater surroundings. So when people are coming over, I usually have no more than a couple minutes' straightening to do.

This is going to sound awful but, when I am a visitor in another person's house, I am totally judging them. I WILL notice if it is untidy, dirty, smelly, unorganized... I've never ended a friendship over it but, I definitely notice and remember!

So with that in mind, I ALWAYS deep clean before company. If you ever come over, my place is spotless and smells of the vanilla candles that I've lit half and hour before hand. It's crazy anal but... I never want people to leave saying "her place was a mess!"

Just don't come over unannounced... that's another story! :P

I'll do a quick straighten, wipe down, and vacuum of the "public" areas for a visit that's a few hours ---dinner, drinks, etc. For overnight guests, my monthly cleaning lady is scheduled the day of or the day before.

Yes--this is pretty much me, too.

I think it's human nature to judge someone base on what you see.

I live in a small place, so it doesn't take a whole lot for the place to resemble a train wreck. So I try to tidy up often. Recently, I've started to keep my place within "20-minutes" of being clean. Now all I do is get rid of the dishes in the sink, give the bathroom a quick once over, and clear the coffee table.

Long-term company is different... I'm cleaning everything.

I keep my house company-ready at all times as well. I have no problems with unexpected company, because they'll see my house as it really is---neat and clean. I concur with lindaDmyers and weirdrockstar, it's a priviledge to live this way. I fling that door wide open and say "Do drop in".

No kids, weekly cleaning, so I'm more-or-less company-ready all the time. (Friends say ours is the cleanest house they know. So much so, that we seldom get reciprocal invites because they think I will judge them, which I don't...) (Or maybe it's because WE have the home theater!!)

Anyhow, If it's near the end of the week and I know someone is on the way over, I will vacuum the living room and the rest of the main floor. Maybe wipe down the kitchen counters. But that's about it. If it's a party and people will be all through the house, more pre-planning and thorough cleaning happens. Generally, we clean as we go -- dishes straight into the dishwasher until it's full, papers in neat stacks if not filed, cat toys back into the big metal bowl where we store them... That IS how we live. So company only nudges that little extra touch-up.

I love a clean house, but my schedule keeps me hopping too much to keep it sparkling. My fiance and I do a thorough cleaning once a week, but if guests come by and it is already messy then, oh well. I do try to pick up and sweep when people are stopping by though. So many of my friends have cat allergies that it seems like a nice and easy thing to do that will make them more comfortable.

I'm with mapchick on the levels of cleaning.

I've got a toddler and 3 pets in a cramped bungalow, but we keep our house generally clean at all times. There's a bit of clutter here and there, but that can be easily hidden when I know I have guests arriving. When either of our parents come to visit, I go into mad-cleaning mode and clean everything top to bottom (OH doesn't really care, but I do!). I don't want our parents to think that we live in a sty.

My husband wants our home to look as if nobody lives here--no clutter, no personal items anywhere, no pictures on the walls, even. I am not a slob, unless it's compared with him. Still, he is horrified by clutter but oblivious to dirt. I will mop the floors (we have tile floors, which show every spot and slightly moist footprint from outside), clean the bathrooms, etc. I want it to smell fresh. I worry about people opening the fridge and finding a gross drip somewhere. I can forgive anything at other people's houses, but I worry that in my own home there will be some defect that will make people say, "Eeeeewwwhhhh!" And that I wish to avoid.

i am more frequently than not a victim of CHAOS...Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome!

A mess and never company ready.

Haha, jukesgrrl, that's me too - my apartment is generally quite presentable, but I myself am usually clad in ratty pajamas.

It took me a lot of self-discipline to get to where I am right now. Which is this:
1. My house is kinda clean most of the time. I try to put things in their place once I am done using them.
2. My dog sheds! So I sweep the floor almost every day. Having dark wooden floors is a curse. But I love those floors.
3. I have people over all the time. Sometime with very little notice. It takes me about 15 minutes to bring my home to a presentable condition. Well, the downstairs atleast. Upstairs is where the old monster still lives.

duh!

I like to have things neat, but they don't have to be perfect. Unfortunately I've had roommates for the last four years, so other peoples' crap is a part of my life. And my living room.

I'm deeply embarrassed when kitchen and bathroom aren't tidy and clean - I try to do those every day. I clear tables, floors and seating every night, so it always looks organized - but don't open a drawer!

For anything else it depends on the person and the occasion - the less I appreciate the visit and the more I feel the need to apologize for my mess, the more I clean.

Good friends can drop by anytime and find me in spotty painters clothes and the hallway covered in cat fur plus sawdust plus spilled coffee - to neighbors dropping in I will apologize that they have to pick their way through the mess, but don't feel guilty.

I realized it relaxes them - they don't feel the need to scrub when I'm coming by.

I WOULD deep-clean for my MIL, but she never calls ahead, so we both have to live with her thinking I'm a slob :-)

If someone calls ahead, I'll clear away clutter and/or projects in the hallway and the living room and shut the doors upstairs. If they have or bring kids or pets, that's it.

If the guests have no pets and/or kids, are allergic or super-neat and judgemental I vacuum again the same day (my cats shed like crazy), and take that visit as deadline for dusting all 60 bookshelfs, scrubbing all doors and frames, waxing the antiques and stairways, window-washing, cleaning radiators etc. - all the stuff I hate doing and tend to postpone until I can't stand the dirt anymore.

I've gone so far as disabling the lighting in the glass vitrine when guests arrived because I hadn't managed to dust it... I always reserve about 30 minutes before guests arrive to make myself presentable and to get a nice smell from the kitchen - fresh coffee, lemon juice, scones or freshly baked cookies. Even very clean and judgemental guests were distracted by smell and commented they felt more appreciated by me taking the time to prepare a punch especially for them (10min.) than sweeping the driveway (>30min.) when I apologized for it.

For overnight guests I finish sewing and ironing, since that happens in the guestroom, dust and vaccuum it and deep clean the bathroom and kitchen cupboards.

Spontaneous overnighters have to live with no wardrobe space, since I've stuck the laundry in there. I always redress the bed and the basket with towels etc. after a guest leaves, so it's ready for the next. I put a fresh glass, bottle of water and some sweets on the nightstand - those little touches seem to cancel out quite a bit of dust...

Still, the attic-converted-to-shared-office is off limits to guests apart from close friends - and since I've seen their respective messy corners, I don't need to feel any shame or guilt.

I don't worry about the mess, and visitors to my chaotic home don't seem to, either. I do rush around, making sure there is food and drink to offer guests, though. Nothing more embarrassing than not being able to offer at least a glass of wine with some nibbles if someone drops in, or extending an invitation to stay for supper.

I know cleanliness is not an indication of income level but when my apartment is clean and organized I feel rich. When I go to other people's apartments and houses in my neighborhood I'm a little grossed out. Most people don't take as much pride in their home as I do. To some people a home is just where they hang their hat. I live in my home and love being there.

We just moved into a large 3 bedroom with a porch, which is big for New York City and big for Queens too. I love my life with my husband and kids so I want to show it off to my friends. I don't mind appearing like I have a perfect life but i have to be careful about how I speak about it.