My in laws are extremely dirty

hi greatgugu

you clean the surroundings which are personal to you....so that they will see and learn....how beautiful it is to be clean.

as they are used to that kind of unclean atmosphere...u cant change them all of a sudden and it may take bit of time.
have patience and get thru...

 

Hai GG,

Explain to your MIL in such a way that there are so many cleaning items for the kitchens have come and now a days minute by minute the
new dieseases are increasing like that and tell her to take rest as she is
doing the cooking everyday in a diplomatic manner.

Surely this will work out. :thumbsup

 

Wow, I am appalled by this comment. We all try to procastinate things, but believing that cleaning is not a must is out of this world!!!

Since you have already tried many ways, the only way is to let an outsider come and speak of the horrors of the unseen bacteria..

If you can somehow make them realise that they themselves will fall seriously sick one day, that should be a breaking point!!!

Try and find some way. I dont know if you get this on TV where you live, but in Sky channels, there is a program called 'How clean is your house'?
It is a definite watch for dust offenders

 

i would suggest you to keep a maid and ask her to come when you will be at home.. atleast to wash, sweep and mop....

as your working i dont think giving salary to the maid will be a problem...

you tell them that for your satisfaction you want a maid..

from your writing i understood they dont force you to do work or cook for them.. they are carefree of household things... so you convince your Dh and inlaws for a maid who comes only when your their at home.so that you can get the work done..

they are used to this unclean habit for many years. so you cant change their mind to be clean hereafter.. make your room and things clean. as far as you can try to help your MIL when she is cooking like top work. so that all work finishes at that time itself and kitchen is clean after cooking..

 

In this day and age where everyone is after clean/healthy life style, your inlaws are an odd-man-out. The only solution I can see is that, since she is cooking, tell her that its your duty to clean.

 

My suggestion
You should be happy that she is cooking lot of varieties. You can have agreement that let her take cooking responsibilty and you take cleaning whenever you have time and have a maid for your support. Dedicate saturday for cleaning.Let them see the clean environment consistently. Bring some guest to your home when the house is clean... You will see lot of difference in your in-laws soon...

 

You know, this example happened very long time ago but I think its appropriate to share it with you. When I was doing my 10+2, I was put in a residential college. The hostel rooms had 5 girls per room. there was this one girl who is exactly like your inlaws who does not believe in cleaning things or being neat.
What we others did was make sure that our corners (beds were in corners) are kept spotless. Her corned used to pretty much stink. But we made sure that ours are great looking...she was shamed into cleaning her corner eventually.

In your case also, start cleaning the home regularly. One room at a time, try to clean it. Perhaps you can bring some fresh flowers also and put in different rooms. When they see the home changing pleasantly, they will realize what a joy it is to have a clean home.

 

Hi GG,
Since you are from TN, you might have heard of
Ainthil Valayaathathu Aimbathil Valayaathu (What won't bend at five will not bend at fifty) i.e to say Old habits die hard.
Been there, experienced it..i can only say you cannot change them.They have been living around for so many years and now you are a new member. You are going to teach them bacteria, infection etc...they will surely ask you how they are healthy to date.
Ignore as much as possibe. Be patient. But yes you can clean your room and your cupboards and arrange things neatly.
Mopping and dusting can be done by a maid if required.
Have you tried to think why they keep items cooked by you in fridge? I mean to ask do they not like north indian dishes or do they keep even the south indian items cooked by you in fridge. If so then cook only for you and hubby and pack in lunch boxes and leave.
When you cook you wash the required items with soap and use it. Try to make them understand the importance of a clean surrounding slowly.
It will take a lot of time and dont ever include much of this in your talk as relations get strained. Experience speaking.

Parvathi.

 

I second Paru word for word. Patience and leading by example... your only way out.