Why do Thais not care about a neat and clean home?

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 10:08 PM, djayz said:

With all due respect, I honestly don't believe it has anything to do with money or payments. It's a mentality thing. 

Do I stay at home and clean or go out and meet my friends for somdam aroi maak? That is the question. 

I see it daily in my home... 

Ignore the dirt and get out quickly. It's "too late/hot/dark" to clean... (honestly, I've already cleaned up by midday anyways). 

We're not going to change this mentality overnight. 

There'll still be monkeys to train tomorrow. 

  

Not true in all cases. If I brought a speck of dirt into the house I got it in the ear from the wife.

However, outside she didn't care an iota.

[Antonymous]

21 hours ago, attrayant said:

When I first moved to Thailand back in 2011 and visited the inlaws' house (where I presently live) for the first time, I thought they had just moved in because it looked like all the moving boxes had been unpacked but nothing had been put away yet.  No no, I was told, that's how it always is.  As my brother inlaw (who spent five years living with me in Washington DC) likes to say, "everything is everywhere".  I've managed to keep myself sane by commandeering what used to be a two-car garage and turning into my office, where I stay most of the day.

 

When the Brother inlaw complains to his father about all the 'stuff' laying around everywhere, an irritated response always shoots back: "You were never poor like I was!".  And thus we come to the understanding that everything has micro-value and must always be saved.  Great piles of things in every corner of every room equates to personal wealth.  Stuff ≈ money.

 

This leads to a huge organization problem.  Since nothing has its own place and everything can be anywhere, things are often just left lying in the last place they were used.  Tools that were used to tighten a loose cabinet handle are just left on the nearby countertop when the job is done.  Are you looking for the screwdriver?  You'll have to ask whoever used it last or walk around the house hoping to run across it.

 

To make matters worse, there are decorative knick-knacks everywhere.  There is barely one empty square inch of table or cabinet space anywhere.  Any time a little trinket is found, it gets a home among all the other odds and ends on any of a number of tables, shelves or cabinets.  For example:

<SNIP>

 

 

 

 

 

One of the very best posts I've ever read on TV. Very well written and illustrated. Hilarious.

 

It is also a common 'problem' from my observation. I have some inlaws who have the same mind-set and behaviour. I gave a 55" plasma TV screen to the MIL a few months ago because it was on the blink and I had bought a new one. I kept asking every day if it was still OK and working. It is, but the classic response from Mrs Anonymous was: "Mum loves it because it is the biggest TV in the village and all the neighbours come to look at it (as opposed to watching it). She is so proud. Mum will still keep it even if it stops working!"

 

[tutsiwarrior]

looks like when yer useta bein' of 'limited means' ye don't throw anything away even when it stops working...and then the useless junk piles up to the ceiling along with the associated dust, grime, etc...

 

and then a cousin comes along and points to a non functional rice cooker and sez: 'hey, I could use that...'

 

and when I say to the step daughter with regard to her daughter: 'the little girl's asthma can be aggravated by all the dirt where lives, sleeps, etc' she just smiles in the usual way so as to say: 'dumb falang...if the kids are scrubbed and in clean clothes then nothing to worry about'...

 

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[gk10002000]

Thais, in general being poorer than people in many western countries, I think they also tend hold on to stuff longer and not throw things away as quickly.  So clutter appears.

[CanuckThai]

This is why Thai folks need temples....an uncluttered, clean place to hang out In for a few hours....

[JSixpack]

On 4/8/2018 at 8:59 PM, wildewillie89 said:

The Mrs, and also her folks, like to have a lot of useless stuff laying around the house that makes it look a tad clattered, but the houses are cleaned everyday. Whereas back home, nowhere near as much stuff laying about the place, but by no means was the place cleaned as often.

We just added a storage space when we built the outdoor kitchen, so now inside is a win win.

 

It all depends. Most Thais I've known have been pretty neat and clean. Sometimes housekeepers help with that.

 

Back home I have some friends fanatically neat & clean while others practically live in a pig sty. The older they are, though, the more junk they've accumulated. I can hardly turn around in one friend's house w/o knocking over something. Open the drawers and closets of some of the neatest and there you'll find a big mess--the neatness is only outward. :) As some poster has said, Westerners have more non-family guests over.

 

 

[Hardie]

On 4/8/2018 at 3:13 AM, Peterw42 said:

People are confusing neat with clean. My wife loves clutter and is untidy "BUT" the floor gets moped and swept 2-3 times a day, clothes get washed after a 5 minute wearing, I had to re-grout the shower because she scrubbed all the grout away. 

She is still trying to break the world record for hoarding plastic bags, cardboard boxes and take-away containers.

Plastic bag hoarder? Let the games begin...

[Justfine]

On 11/04/2018 at 2:14 AM, gk10002000 said:

Thais, in general being poorer than people in many western countries, I think they also tend hold on to stuff longer and not throw things away as quickly.  So clutter appears.

Hoarders are common in the west. Storage boxes do great business.

 

Most Thai living areas have far less stuff.

 

 

[JAFO]

I do not think its that they do not care, I just think their idea of clean vastly differs from westerners view and the priorities are different.

 

My wife keeps a tidy house but not clean as I see it.  She never moves things to clean under or behind.  We have a large home and as folks know keeping a place up takes a lot of work and takes both of us maintaining it.  I clean the house with my wife as I will move heavy stuff and she gets the hint. 

 

Honestly though I find it basically no different then the US. I have friends that house and property were always clean and well kept (Of course many have house cleaners and gardeners) and I know many that it was basically a dump and typically their garage was this holding area for crap they won't toss.   Same goes here in Thailand.  I have been to a few friends houses that are quite clean and others that are quite dirty and their bathrooms were scary.  

 

I think like one poster said, its all about the company you choose to keep. I attempt not to judge but man some folks both here in Thailand and the states live in utter dumps.  

 

 

[kevc]

To westerners they consider homes as their castles, but the reality is, that in most owned western homes the buyers are mortgaged up to their necks and therefore have to keep their properties up to certain standards otherwise they won`t be able to sell and the banks/mortgage lenders won`t give loans on properties that are in dilapidated conditions. In other words, property owners in western countries become trapped in a system where they have to live and work for many years for the upkeep of their properties.
 
In Thailand whereas they place more emphasis on land values and properties can be cheaply built, they consider their homes as just roofs over their heads not as assets of investment value.
 
Now you know.

No I like many westerners just like a nice home to live in its got nothing to do with property prices but I agree Thais just see it as a roof over there head on the night time.


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[MuntyC0re]

that's Thai culture

[jimster]

On 4/8/2018 at 4:32 PM, robblok said:

My house would look a lot worse if my GF did not clean it. I can clean but detest the work.

 

But what I noticed is that Thais (not all) often let their house maintenance deteriorate fast. Most foreigners I know seem to be more on the ball with making sure all things work in the house and major things like painting / the floor and other major things are well maintained. 

 

 

True to some extent but a bit of a blatant generalization. In our house my wife and her family are obsessive about cleanliness. The bathrooms and floors are cleaned regularly and if anyone is a bit untidy it's probably me. Complaints are constantly coming in about the messiness of my desk and my drawer full of receipts (even though the receipts are inside the drawer and not visible from outside)! I would find it hard to believe my Thai family are an anomaly and other Thais indifferent and even careless about cleanliness and neatness.

 

As for maintenance, where I live most of the neighbors in the moo baan are trying to keep up with Joneses by regularly making upgrades to their homes. Whether it's a fresh paint job, a new kitchen or some other work the angle grinders are in action somewhere much of the time.

 

While the houses of many poorer folk may be in a dilapidated state, I find it hard to believe the OP and other posters believe that Thais in general don't keep their homes tidy. At least they take their shoes off outside, whereas Americans like to wear their dirty shoes to bed, yuck!

[balo]

On 5/5/2018 at 5:15 PM, jimster said:

As for maintenance, where I live most of the neighbors in the moo baan are trying to keep up with Joneses by regularly making upgrades to their homes. Whether it's a fresh paint job, a new kitchen or some other work the angle grinders are in action somewhere much of the time.

Where do you live ? In a hi-so area? 

 

I would say the majority of the Thai population would not make the upgrades you talk about. No need for it , maintenance will only happen when things start falling apart.  

 

[The manic]

over 25 years here I find the Thais obsessed with hygiene an s often confuse my untidyness with dirthness..they are obsessed wirh cleansing. This thread is predicated on a false assumption. Asian are always cleaner than westerners and taught us hygiene 500 years ago. Bum guns ate cleaner than toilet paper and all Thais I have known clean their room morning and night.  This thread is racist trash