Sydney mum shows house after a week of not tidying or cleaning

"I wasn’t there, I didn’t make the mess."

"This mess is overwhelming," mum Dani says at the start of her now-viral video, taking her followers around her Sydney home after a week of not tidying or cleaning.

Her TikTok bio reads: "Just an average person in a cyber world of perfect people", so you already know she's all about keeping it real.

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Image: TikTok

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The mum's 'simple' solution to common household problem

In the living room, there are toys, towels, dirty highchairs and discarded shopping bags strewn on the floor, while used takeaway containers dot every table and bench.

"I've been working two jobs and studying full time" she narrates, panning the camera into the equally as trashed kitchen, "and when I come home to a mess, I don't want to deal with it!"

She adds a couple of times during her clip: "I wasn’t there, I didn’t make the mess."

There's half eaten food on every surface, dirty plates and cutlery thrown everywhere and food haphazardly left between all the mess.

"I don't want to have to deal with this, so I hide in my room," she admits. 

But the thing is, her husband also doesn't want to deal with it either, so they're often left "frozen", unable to move past the state of uncleanliness until they have a surge of motivation to tidy up.

But they recently devised a solution that lets them get out of this paralysis, which involves setting a 30-minute timer.

"We set a timer and cleaned as much as we could do in that time and we nailed it. We got a lot done. So if you struggle with cleaning, set a timer. It will change your life," she claims.

"Once it's somewhat tidy within that 30 minutes, you will keep going and it will be less overwhelming to go back to it.

"I know I'm not alone in this."

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"I don't understand how a house gets this messy"

From many of the comments, it would seem as though the mum was, in fact, alone in this.

"Just clean as you go! I don’t understand how a house gets this messy," the top comment with nearly 200 likes read.

Another viewer agreed: "Just clean up as you go and it never becomes a big job. My mum raised three babies and worked two jobs and was never behind and had taught me how."

"'I don't want to deal with it'... you must have a great work ethic, far out," another snarky comment read.

Thankfully, people did start coming out in support of the mum and her refreshing take.

"There are so many people in similar circumstances. Just people have so much shame. It’s great to share and ease the shame. Well done girl!" said one kind follower.

Another echoed: "I absolutely love your honesty."

This supportive viewer wrote: "It’s totally normal. The mornings are crazy, followed by post-work exhaustion of just getting dinner and kids to bed… plus study. You are doing great!"

Finally, this fellow mum validated Dani's experience: "Sometimes life is overwhelming and that's okay."

Originally published as Sydney mum shows house after a week of not tidying or cleaning