If only we had house elves

Do other people not actually live in their houses or is it just that we are the slobbiest family in the entire world?

I was just looking through an article called other peoples pantries.
The pantries are so clean and tidy, not a torn packet or rubber band in sight!

Unlike our own which is a motley jumble of boxes,bags packets and tins, some piled on top of others.

I have noticed that other people have clean, clean worktops, shiny like new, not a stain or cut in sight.
Mine are somewhat discoloured and scratched. The result of spills that wouldn't come off and little dears cutting without the cutting board over the years.

Our wood floors are a little dusty and smudged. They used to get cleaned far more often.
The sliding windows in the back have deep scratching where out German Shepherd dog wanted out.
Our stairs have a gouge where a piece of the wall was dropped when we were rebuilding our walk-in cupboard as a bathroom to make room for DD to have her own bedroom.

Others have beautiful built in wardrobes and all their clothes are tidily concealed within.
Ours are sectioned shelves made of unfinished fibre board ,some are a little saggy as the smaller sections are lined with books. My clothes live in a collection of deep cardboard boxes that act as drawers. OH has the same on his side of the shelves.We have linen coloured curtains which we bought to hide it all but they never get drawn closed because it is such a hassle to have to drag them back all the time.

Several of our doors were part stripped to reveal the awful shiny stain beneath, not wanting to reveal it all,we never got round to covering it back up.

Once,when the kids still went to school, we visited a house across the road from us to collect the little boy in my sons class. Their house was showroom like. My daughter who was about 4 said, why have all the chairs got cloths on them?' and the other mother said 'well I cant get the chairs in the washing machine!' which was very funny. My daughter did laugh! I smiled and wondered if she would faint if she were to come into our house..

When I read the Harry Potter series of books, I recognised the Burrow (The Weasley House) at once, it was where we live !