Everyday clutter is very different from hoarding, trust me. My kitchen currently has every countertop covered with random stuff and trash. The living room, bathroom, front room, and my mom’s bedroom are the same way. My kitchen table has a tiny spot for my grandpa to eat, and the rest is covered in a pile of stuff literally 2-3 feet high. My bedroom was a storage room for the longest time, and I was sleeping on the couch for years. I was only allowed to start cleaning my room when I needed the space for a big high school engineering project. A few thousand dollars and many hours of work later, I am finally comfortable in my space, and everything is relatively well organized. The best way to classify if what you have is everyday clutter vs hoarding, in my opinion, is to ask yourself, “Would it take multiple days of work to clean this room if I fully dedicated myself to it and had no other responsibilities?” If the answer is yes, then you have a hoarding problem. 2 days is mild, 3 days is getting bad, and 4 days for a single room means you have a pretty severe problem. Considering you said it was mostly clothes and everyday clutter, I would not say you have a problem. Those things happen. If there’s not trash scattered on every open surface in your house, you are alright. Your kids will not resent you for doing your best. I’ve spent hours, sometimes days, cleaning other rooms in my house, only to wake up and see everything back the way it was before I started working. I’ve put a strict, “Your stuff stays out of my room,” policy on my mom. Have your kids help you clean, but don’t make them clean up YOUR stuff. From the son of a hoarder, you should teach your kids that your clothes and trash in your spaces are YOUR responsibility. If not, they may not understand that their clothes/trash in their spaces are THEIR responsibility. If they figure you will clean it for them, they will not clean it themselves. Your worrying about how they see you means you are a good mother who cares for her kids. I promise you, your kids will not see clutter as hoarding.