July 2010 Weddings
House Renovations
Married Bio
I am a gluten-free, gun-toting wife! :P
I love you, Daddy...2/24/1953 to 2/13/2011
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Is your house clean?
When you're not expecting any company?
With our schedules lately, we (meaning mostly ME b/c thats how we do things) can't seem to keep the house neat. Its not like its dirty really, just cluttered and its really bugging me....but I have no idea when ill have a few hours of freedom from work lately when i CAN clean!!
What about yours?
House Renovations
Married Bio
I am a gluten-free, gun-toting wife! :P
I love you, Daddy...2/24/1953 to 2/13/2011
Re: Is your house clean?
I would say my house is always cluttered, unless I am expecting someone.
It is so frustrating. If everyone would just put things back when they are done with them, it would always be clean. No matter what I have tried, I can't get them to do this one simple thing.
With my work/school schedule (MWF class from 8-noon then work from 1-10) and still needing to do homework and projects, my house can get pretty cluttered. Then when you add in my husband coming home and bringing a ton of stuff every other week, and then 3 small kids, I feel very overwhelmed sometimes. it's not that the house is ever dirty just cluttered.
I took about 2 hours yesterday and made the kids help me. That had to match up all the socks, put their own laundry away, and take out all the recycling. Not only did it help me to have them pitch in, but they felt special that they got to help too.
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We tend to pick up a little each day, and my husband is definitely wearing off on me (he's anti-clutter). He likes things put away. "If" I put things away, they need to be organized and I need to be able to see it clearly. So, I have spent the past few months transforming each closet & cabinet into mostly organized spaces. I know I am driving him crazy b/c I still have boxes that aren't unpacked from the move, but I want everything to have permanent "homes" before I unpack.
When my mom came, and when his parents came, and when we had friends over for dinner recently... it was awesome to only have to spend a few minutes straightening up instead of hiding all my clutter (which would be my natural tendency!). We just made sure to wash the bathrooms really well and sweep all floors again. And close the door to my office... which is definitely more "me."
If DH wasn't so anti-clutter, I am sure our house would be a zoo right now!
Usually it looks like a bomb went off within 15 minutes of me being finished with cleaning, thanks to DH. He comes in from work and throws his work clothes on the kitchen counter, shoes in the middle of the hallway, lunch in the midle of the living room... the list goes on, it's nuts. Then when it's time for bed he has magically gotten toothpaste all over the mirrors I just cleaned, etc etc. It drives me NUTS!!! Just makes me not want to clean at all because within 5 minutes of DH getting home from work it looks like the Kevin Tornado came through. We even registered for, received (and I have been trying so hard to enforce) several over-sized baskets to place strategically all over the house to contain DH's random crap. The strategy worked for a while, but I feel like it's falling through now.
Unless we are having company, then he is good about trying to keep it clean.
We deep cleaned last week, and by some miracle it is still clean. We really struggle with clutter. When it gets really bad, I just can't deal with it because it's so overwhelming. Luckily, DH doesn't mind decluttering, and I don't mind cleaning, so we're a good team.
But to answer the initial question - no, our home is typically not clean when we aren't expecting to have company.
I spent some time last week on the Cleaning and Organizing board, and was referred to a website called flylady.net. There seem to be some good ideas on there if anyone wants to check it out. One of my goals this year is to keep a clean home, but I don't think it will be very easy for me.
Oh my gosh, I have a Kevin Tornado too! He drives me absolutely crazy!!! It would be a full time job just following him around picking up his flung clothes and used dishes. Ughhhh. And we have 3 - 3! - laundry baskets!
So, no. Our house is not clean when people show up. Not dirty, but definitely not neat.
I got e-mails from flylady.net a few years ago... and the biggest thing it tought me was just to do a little at a time. Doing a few little things (making the bed in the morning, wiping off counters, etc) really do add up and make a difference.
When I lived alone, my apartment was a DISASTER the majority of the time. Working crazy hours and travelling most weekends (and working the weekends I didn't travel) led to little time for cleaning. And besides, the 86 year old woman who lived above me when I was in Grad school would yell at me if she knew I was cleaning (she would come and knock on my door)! She said I would have plenty of time to clean when I was old, and that I should enjoy being young and not worry about the clutter/mess/etc!
My house is never super clean, but I try to keep it tidied up and somewhat clean enough that when we have people over it's not a major production trying to clean every single room.
When I was younger my mom would go into a frenzy every holiday or occasion because things needed cleaned. I vowed I would not do that! Even doing a few things a day around the house make a huge difference, and cuts down on the stress when entertaining.
Our house is usually decently clean...just a few books, sweaters, or water bottles that get left behind around the downstairs. It takes about 30 minutes to straighten up before people get here, and that counts vacuuming, dusting, etc.
Now, the office is another story. That's kind of wherever anything that doesn't have a home ends up.
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OK it is definitely nice to know that you ladies have Tornado husbands too. Ziggy is just like that - but we've been working on it. He used to throw all of his dirty clothes on the living room floor but after a year of nagging and getting upset about it, he's finally started to throw them to the top of the stairs. Its progress, slow, but progress. At least its an easy toss into the hamper in our bedroom from there.
Other than that, its just dishes in the sink/dishwasher, junkmail all over the counter (if we forget to toss it in our junkmail-burning-bin), folded laundry on the livingroom table (dont know why its so hard for us to bring it upstairs to put away) and cups left ALL over the house by Zig. You'd think keeping a small house clean would be a sinch.....NOPE. It freaking sucks. All the while trying to renovate/re-organize and such? Yeah right.
*sigh* i just want to come home from work and not be overwhelmed by all the housework i need to do in order for me to not puke at the sight of my messy house!
House Renovations
Married Bio
I am a gluten-free, gun-toting wife! :P
I love you, Daddy...2/24/1953 to 2/13/2011
I'm just so glad I'm not the only one
I tried explaining to DH that some days coming home, I just want to walk right back out the door. I hate seeing it that way, but it's true.
There needs to be a H-training program for H's that don't know how to pick up their own things. That would be awesome.
HAHA i agree! I get so jealous of Zig b/c he gets out of work early (well, he works 8 hours but starts at 6am). I start at 6:30am and don't get out till 5 most days! Then he goes home and takes a nap! What a life.
House Renovations
Married Bio
I am a gluten-free, gun-toting wife! :P
I love you, Daddy...2/24/1953 to 2/13/2011
Maybe my DH could lead it, ha ha! He goes out of town every other week for work, and 2 of those three nights I leave everything everywhere... and then clean/straighten up the night he's coming home
Maybe start small? like one thing a week or one thing a month?? I know he was getting frustrated with me when things weren't put away... so I started pointing out that I was trying and told him all that I WAS doing and things I did that he wouldn't necessarily notice or care about (see above, all the "internal" organization of closets/cabinets/etc). If I get up after he does, I try to remember to make the bed. I clean up the bathroom every day and put everything I use away, etc.
There are things I know he won't do the way I like (like fold sheets or hang up tablecloths instead of folding them), so I just do them. Same with cleaning out the kitchen sink! I cook, he does the dishes, but then I end up cleaning counters/washing out the sink b/c I want to know they are actually clean and crumbs on counters or in the sink don't bother him?
I'm embarrassed to admit that I am the clutterbug around here. The house overall is much neater now that DH lives here than when I lived alone, but I still have my piles. He is definitely not happy that certain parts of the house are still not in order nine months after our wedding (he moved in with me). At the same time, while he says he likes things neat and organized, he has his quirks as well. So our house is so-so, but it's better than it used to be, and it takes less time to clean for company. My MIL and SIL always seem to have neat as a pin houses. I wish I knew their secret.