Moms of Messy Houses 2009 Tribe - Page 6

[tayndrewsmama]

I did! : Cleaned the whole living room and kitchen from top to bottom and washed the floor from the front door through the kitchen and to the back hall. I also got all of the laundry taken care of that was overtaking the couch. Right now there's just a little bit of clutter from the kids' schoolwork in the living room, but that is tolerable and to be expected as homeschoolers.

[~bookcase~]

Um, i'm still clutterful

but I just cleaned the kitchen floor and top of extractor fan :

and i get 100% for intention

[simonsmama]

:: me....except it wasnt this weekend! Monday night, we bought a rug for our basement, and finally, FINALLY moved the tv downstairs to the basement. We've been planning on doing that for about 6 months! Of course it present new organizational problems We have a tiny entertainment stand. And 3 boxes of VHS/DVDs Plus another basket of videogames. I'm desperately trying to come up with a solution for all those movies! Anyone have any ideas??

[mamaheids]

Um, I think I need to join. I have been in denial for quite some time, since in my head I AM a tidy, clean, organized person. That is just not the way it is playing out in this (rather) new stage of life for me called parenthood, and especially now that I am pregnant with #2 and really, really tired. So I am experiencing some major congnitive dissonance! DD is almost 3, we have 2 big and very hairy elderly dogs (read: as many accidents as puppies these days) and dh does not get stressed out by dog hair, dust, nasty toilets or sinks. He does do the dishes frequently, however. Our house is also VERY small and has no storage space. I am pretty good about regularly purging things, but I am thinking we lack a few tools for organization like shelves in our storage areas and a closet organizer in the front hall plus multiple storage bins. Those unfortunately will cost a bit of money and require dh the time to install, so right now I need to work with what I have, since neither the money nor dh's time is there. Soon though, I hope!
My goal I guess would be to establish a regular routine for tidying and a weekly routine for cleaning for DH and I. I do have someone come to my house every month or two to help me deep clean the bathrooms and our laminate floors. It takes her about 2 hours and I pay her $15 an hour. That is REALLY hard for me, because I have told myself over and over that I could save the money and just do it myself. But I wasn't doing it myself. So it does help, because both jobs seem like a huge undertaking for me energy wise. I know that having my floors cleaned once a month is probably not enough, but I vaccum in between and just knowing that there is a date on the calendar that it will be done helps with my stress level.

So my list for today:
Vaccum the whole house
Change fish bowl and then scour the kitchen sink
Put away the clean laundry

Is it horrible that a list of 3 (okay 4) things totally overwhelms me right now?

Edited to add: Okay, dd just found a dog hair in her applesauce. Seriously, this is gross...

[thixle]

I read to page 2 and decided to take some pix...
Really, I try. I could keep up with it after DD1. We had a lovely apartment (full of stuff, but clean and uncluttered). Now, I'm lucky to eat everyday, let alone clean anything... and when I DO clean, it just gets undone. Or covered up. Or... blech.

The pictures speak for themselves... I seriously just started at the entrance and went around.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2755284...7613605244644/

I'll be back to keep reading when DD2 wakes up to nurse.

[milkmamamerina]

Please oh Please. If nothing else I need to commiserate...but I would really love to get on top of this mess too. By the end of the day I'm usually too tired to do anything else...I still have dinner dishes out from last night, every out of reach surface is full of stuff we've grabbed out of baby or toddler hands...(3 yo is just starting to get a little less destructive :-) The list goes on.

Every weekend it feels like all hubby does is clean while I nurse and keep up with 3 yo. We never can get ahead of the mess!! Part of me says better to give attention to kids than to have a clean house, but honestly...there is a limit to how much mess I can take.

[luckysam]

Oh, it's nice to see so many other mamas I can relate to! Sign me up! lol

[thixle]

So, I IM'ed the link to dh, and he said:

i would love to throw them [beer bottles] in the pile behind the door, but that pile throws back

and the kicker--

if you decide to clean the desk and come across my IRA tax papers, put them with the other tax papers on the dresser in there
that's really the only thing missing right now so i can do the taxes

ugh-- I thought he did the taxes last week!

I come from a family of hoarders-- and that is their most innocuous trait.
I know how to clean, I don't know how to declutter. I don't know how to keep on top. i just can't believe what everything looks like through that lens...

[Jannah6]

Just saw this thread. I'm joining right now

[KariM]

I think I'm in. At least I feel like our house is messy.

We're a family of unschoolers and I SAH with the kiddos. We clean daily, but it never seems to keep up, IYKWIM.

I haven't done deep cleaning in months and haven't done any sort of spring cleaning/big cleaning in years.

We wash dishes, sweep floors, vacuum, clean the bathroom, etc. but it seems like as soon as something is cleaned it's dirty again.

I'm still searching for that magic solution that keeps our house looking presentable while we also live in it!

[BedHead]

I've been super sick for a week and my housework is SO behind. Today I made sourdough bread and took the empties back, but other than that have been a total couch potato. We're going out for dinner and then watching movies. I just CANNOT motivate myself to do housework in the evenings, especially during the week when I get home from work. Dh cleans the kitchen up after dinner every night, but that's usually all that gets done.

[aniT]

I hired someone. She worked her butt off too. Well worth every penny. Upstairs still needs work. but man the house looks so much better.

I also scheduled her for next month so I didn't forget to get around to it. This one is a keeper and I don't want to lose her.

[Collinsky]

aniT, what kind of person did you hire? Organizer or housecleaner or what?

I think I need to save up and hire an organizer. I'm having a hard time getting on top of this. I keep saying I neeeeed heeelllllp and Dh says, "Tell me what to do" and I'm like, look, if it was that easy, I'd just DO IT.

It got better for a while, but then it slips away so easily. It's like this mess is stasis, and everything in our ecosystem is working to maintain that stasis. It's seriously wrecking my life. I'm not kidding. It's interfering in me functioning in a normal way. I keep setting stuff to the side to get it out of my house... but it stays in my house. If I gather a bag of clothes we don't need, it sits there until between the kids and the cats, the clothes are spilling out of a hole in the side. It's like the stuff is trapped in my house. I can decide to get rid of it, but it doesn't leave. I keep waiting for Dh to haul it away, to goodwill or whatever, and he's waiting for me to catch him at the exact right moment and say "take that, that, and this." So we've waited for months and months for those magical things to happen. We're both pretty frustrated with it. And we're both slobs that enable one another to be slobby.

I was watching Oprah, because it was the Messy House Tour with Peter Walsh, and I thought it would be helpful. Yeah, sure: Walsh went into the homes with a whole professional team and revamped things. I want to see someone do it alone, with three or more small children around. That's the show I need!!

[aniT]

Originally Posted by Collinsky

aniT, what kind of person did you hire? Organizer or housecleaner or what?

I think I need to save up and hire an organizer. I'm having a hard time getting on top of this. I keep saying I neeeeed heeelllllp and Dh says, "Tell me what to do" and I'm like, look, if it was that easy, I'd just DO IT.

It got better for a while, but then it slips away so easily. It's like this mess is stasis, and everything in our ecosystem is working to maintain that stasis. It's seriously wrecking my life. I'm not kidding. It's interfering in me functioning in a normal way. I keep setting stuff to the side to get it out of my house... but it stays in my house. If I gather a bag of clothes we don't need, it sits there until between the kids and the cats, the clothes are spilling out of a hole in the side. It's like the stuff is trapped in my house. I can decide to get rid of it, but it doesn't leave. I keep waiting for Dh to haul it away, to goodwill or whatever, and he's waiting for me to catch him at the exact right moment and say "take that, that, and this." So we've waited for months and months for those magical things to happen. We're both pretty frustrated with it. And we're both slobs that enable one another to be slobby.

I was watching Oprah, because it was the Messy House Tour with Peter Walsh, and I thought it would be helpful. Yeah, sure: Walsh went into the homes with a whole professional team and revamped things. I want to see someone do it alone, with three or more small children around. That's the show I need!!

Doesn't goodwill or salvation army still do pickups? However I would prefer to donate to my local womens shelter or clothes closet at a school or something. At least those places REALLY help the community and don't try to sell used things to people for 2/3 of retail cost.

[Jannah6]

I totally know what you mean about the clothes. I just gave some away and I plan on dropping some by the Health Dept.

Ladies I have to start dropping/picking up my DC from school, starting on Monday. So I have to get on a schedule. I up doing loads of laundry now

[IncaMama]

i belong here. i'm getting better, slowly...with the help and advice of some very dear friends. but yeah, i belong here. i have major organizational issues. not a lot of efficient storage. i'm getting MUCH better about decluttering. in the past 2 months i've gotten rid of about 40 trash bags and 15 boxes of stuff but there is still so much more to go.

the biggest problem spot is the family room which isn't laid out well and gathers CRAP every day.

i'm overwhelmed just posting this, partly bc i'm nak so i'm one-handed and it's getting annoying. LOL

more later...

[cloudswinger]

We're messy, but I'm pretty sure that's because we have waaaaaay too much stuff too. So, at least weekly I vacuum(used to be daily before the dogs all went away), and every other week I mop on top of that. Dh cleans the countertops, and teenboy gets to scrub the sinks and toilets. Laundry is done by both of us, although folding and putting away seems to be lacking, since we tend to have a pile in the living room for the week.

We'd have a lot more space/less clutter if all the junk would go away.... why won't it just go away by itself!? I'm working on my bedroom and the dd bedroom(which used to be the dh office/closet). All the stuff that used to be in the office is now dispersed amongst the rest of the house, so there are little piles of stuff everywhere. I'm leaving teenboy's clutter to grow on it's own, I've already organized that once.

I'm breaking down the parts so it's not so overwhelming. I managed to clean the laundry room of car parts and other things that should be in the garage, and am now going to leave the washed and unclaimed clothes there, instead of leaving them in the living room. So next will be the babygirl's room, and once I can get all her clothes and stuff out of our bedroom, then my clothes will go into her vacated drawer. My clothes currently live on a chair in our bedroom, so that will be awesome. Then the closet in our bedroom. The shelves are pulling out, and there are ancient clothes in there. After that, we will be remodeling our kitchen, so all that stuff will be all over the place again. Then when summer comes and teenboy leaves for his moms place, I might do another reorg there. It's a perpetual thing when there's too much stuff. Things just seem to move around and not leave.

[THANKFULFORFIVE]

So funny! Every time I come across this thread, I think about posting but I have been in ABSOLUTE DENIAL about being messy! Not me...no way..."it's the kids, the hubby, the dog" excuse excuse...So now, I feel liberated---I AM MESSY! There, I said it! Now someone please point me to the 12step program so I can get some help!!!
Okay, wait. I take it all back. If I lived alone, this house would be spotless. I used to get compliments on how clean my house aways was with 4 kids and a lazy(yet loving) husband....what the heck happened to me? Oh...but then I remember how stressed I was as a mommy and wife while I did all that fanatical cleaning...Okay,,,so maybe I AM messy, but I am sooooo much happier!

[aniT]

Major areas left:

My room (but the bathroom is clean)
The computer room/office
Laundry room.
and Garage.

Cross your fingers that the rest of the house doens't explode before I get to them.

We got DD 2's room cleaned yesterday. That was a major affair. Just for reference, I emptied the vacuum canister (dyson) before vacuuming her room and filled it in her room only! There is a throw rug in there (cause she has destroyed the carpet) and there was so much crap just under that rug! And it's probably about 3x5 feet.

[cloudswinger]

Has anyone been to www.squalorsurvivors.com? I went there, and decided I wasn't that bad yet... maybe 1st degree and occasionally 2nd degree. No bodily or animal fluids anymore. Potty training days are over and dogs are dead and gone.