How clean is your house?

[mommy2abigail]

I'm asking this here because I think it's relevant to a HS life...please don't move it.

Ok, so when I walk into other friends houses, whose kids go to school, their houses are so much more tidy than mine! THey have that model home, not even lived in look...and I want that! And I feel like mine is relatively clean, I do clean it most everyday. Some examples are:

Stuff on the kitchen table. While we don't do 'school at home' at the kitchen table, it often becomes the puzzle/game/coloring spot.

Books. Everywhere. On the table, rug by the bookshelves, couch, bedside, floor, ect.

Art supplies. We try to do messy stuff outside, but still, that means our patio table usually has some bottles of paint and a cup with brushes on it.

The kitchen. Because E loves to climb into the dishwasher when I'm loading or unloading, I have to wait until dh gets home to do that. Doing it while she naps isn't an option either, the clanging of dishes wakes her up. So, by the afternoon, we have sink full of dishes. I also try to cook all meals from scratch, so we have not only dishes, but pots/pans/cookware.

Floors. We have two big hairy (husky and samoyed) dogs who go in and out as they please. They live mostly inside since its hot in FL. Kids also go in and out all day, tracking in dirt and what not. I vacuum/mop at least once a day, but there will always be a hairball, some blades of grass or some sand on the tile.


I guess I could be stricter regarding going in and out, cleaning up after art projects, the dogs, meal time, ect. But 1. I'm generally too busy to stay on top of stuff all. the. time. dd2 keeps me going! and 2. I don't want to be the parent that has all these crazy rules! I had an obsessively clean mom who never let us do anything messy and I always swore I wouldn't be that way.

Now, just to give you a picture, my house is clean...it's not dirty or filthy. Just stuff is out in places it doesn't belong, you know? Every morning, I walk through the house and put things back in their spot, hairbrush into the bathroom, shoes in the closet, papers in the trash, ect. But still, by the afternoon, it seems like I didn't do anything! Any ideas or blogs of well organized mamas you all like to read? I would love to have a ton of kids, but sheesh! with just 2 it's crazy enough! I can't imagine having 8 (which I would LOVE) and multiplying the mess! Help me get it under control!

[LilyGrace]

My house is usually pretty clean. That doesn't mean you wouldn't see art stuff, books, papers..etc. if you walked in here, but we've managed to keep a system of portability here - everything is on trays, in shallow boxes, or in sets when they're in their homes (mostly open shelves). When they're taken out, the container goes with it so they're still "put away" even when on the table or the living room floor.

I mop once a week, sweep about 4x a week, but don't have any pets to add to the mess. Dishes get done in the afternoon and evening, which are then put away in the morning so I can shove new things in the dishwasher until early afternoon when the cycle starts all over again.

I get what I can in 10 minute tidies and if I can't, well, I don't worry about it. Homes are supposed to be lived in, not looked at.

[AAK]

You actually mop daily! Way to go. . . you are doing fine. Your house seems to be the picture of someone who uses it--not the picture of a filthy mess.

We usually have projects on the dining table too, and dishes in the sink. Books, of course, are everywhere. I don't get to mop daily (fortunately, we don't have indoor pets) and I don't vacuum daily. I do sweep daily though. Laundry is also often folded on the couch and so if you come over unexpected I sometimes have to clear it off. Because laundry seems to be a constant thing over here. But, I don't think our house is that bad. We are always mindful of the mess and we don't let it get out of hand. Sure, if the kids were gone all day, I hope it would be more clean, but they are home and this is real life.

Amy

[theretohere]

First, I think that there is dirty and then there is messy. The difference being in my mind items left out vs. old food/ dirt. My house is always clean and I'd say we do a large amount of arty type fun stuff. We're big on the "put it back when you are done with it" thing and my five year old has learned to be pretty efficient.
We don't have any pets contributing to the chaos, though, and I will admit that I'm slightly obsessive about cleaning.

[mommariffic]

My house is a mess.

I have one almost two year old that I'm going to be starting on a pre-k type thing in the fall, but we are still messy! I've got three dogs [Bernese mix, Shepherd, and Great Pyreneese puppy] so there's always hair and paw prints, since we have one acre fenced in and the dogs spend their days outside, coming in for bones or pets.

My living room is kind of clean because we aren't in there too much, unless we are watching a DVD. The dining room is also the "craft space" and there's paints, crafts and projects all over the table. The kitchen is always looking a bit haggard with paw prints [like I said] and half finished dishes in the sink, and FORGET my bedroom, which I'm only in when I'm writing or sleeping

So yes, messy. MESSY MESSY MESSY. I gave up though :]

[elizawill]

my house is usually tidy...simply meaning it "appears" presentable. however, if you started poking around my home, you'd soon discover i've hidden most of my clutter in drawers and my cupboards are a wreck. my kids have huge basket toy bins, so clean up is a breeze in that regard. i make beds when i'm still high on caffiene & do 1 load of laundry a day. that keeps me from getting behind. i tidy daily, but "clean" once a week.

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

Our house is messy. Perhaps even very messy.

Two WOTP, two kids, 1 dog...the appearance of the house is very low on our priority lists. We tidy up on good days but it never lasts. DH is a neat freak at heart but the rest of us can clutter faster than he can clean so it's an uphill battle.

[purslaine]

Mine is a mess.

I do not delude myself - it would be a mess if my kids went to school.

However, it would be slightly less of a mess if they went to school. My youngest in particular is very messy - her current obsession is cutting up paper into tiny, tiny pieces:. My kids also swear they will clean stuff if they make things - but their idea of clean and mine differ.

[3momkmb]

Um..not very.

We have clutter everywhere despite the fact that I tidy every night before bed. Papers piled by the computer, clean clothes waiting to be folded and put away, glasses on the coffee table, books and other work all over the kitchen table. Add to that the fact that anything left out gets spread around by the cats at night (I've lost more pens like that!) and my house looks very...er...lived in (yeah, that's it!).

We also have pets, two dogs and three cats (two long haired) and even if I vacuum everyday (which I admittedly do not) there would be hair on things. If the cats wrestle on the ottoman it's instantly covered in hair for instance. We have one of those hair removing thingies and use that on the furniture and have very few rugs, but pet fur is part of our reality. Also, longhair cats and shedding season= hairballs I clean up what I see but they are sneaky.

I do the dishes once a day. That's it. DD empties the dishwasher in the morning and we fill it as the day goes on. What doesn't fit in the dishwasher gets done by hand but I only do it once unless we have some kind of dish emergency. Because of this there are dishes in the sink more often then not. I refuse to be a slave to the dishes

Bathroom get wiped down twice a week by DS, he also empties the trash and the hamper into the laundry room. DH cleans the toilet when it needs it (*I* didn't pee down the side of it!). The bathroom usually look pretty good, but not spotless.

The bedrooms are another story. I would be embarrased for anyone to see my bedroom (clothes on the floor, water bottles by the bed, non-made bed). DS is a neat freak and DD pays him to clean her room up so the kid's rooms are better, but we don't make beds everyday or anything.

This resonates with me:

I don't want to be the parent that has all these crazy rules! I had an obsessively clean mom who never let us do anything messy and I always swore I wouldn't be that way.

My mother was the same way. We were never allowed to play with play dough because it might get on the carpet, never painted, etc. We did a lot of stuff outside (chalk, played in the woods) and we had a pool so it's not like my childhood was deviod of fun or anything but I always swore I would encourage messiness in my house.

[Peppermint]

Well, we've had a rough few months healthwise around here, but- generally, our home is pretty clean. I HS and have 4 kids.

It sounds like you do want things to be more tidy, and that is possible without being like your mom.

It is all a matter of cleaning things up right after using them, and teaching your kids to do the same. I was not taught to do it, and it has been a struggle for me to learn it, which is why it is so important for me to teach my kids. If they choose not to be neat when they leave my house, that is fine, at least I will have given them the tools to know how if they want to be tidy people.

Don't get me wrong, there will always be painting that have to dry somewhere, or projects that are still being worked on when we have to leave the house to go to some activity, but- for the most part, once my kids hit around 3, I teach them to pick up what they've been using and put it away before they move on. I find that with toddlers and babies around, you kind of have to do this, or else things get ruined, yk? If you leave your paperback chapter book on the floor here, it will be ripped. You need to take it back to the bookshelf.

I think part of why I am doing this is that I was a teacher, good teachers always teach the kids to put things away when they are done, otherwise their rooms would be a disaster, yk?

So- if you aren't happy with the clutter, work on teaching the kids how to clean up their own things, and you clean up yours. (of course, mom also has to clean up after baby-toddler-tornadoes )

[cappuccinosmom]

My home is usually tidy because I can't stand it any other way.

Books: Right now we mostly read library books. They go in a basket in the living room. They get put away when reading is done. This is The Law.

Dishes: I recently started keeping a dishpan *under* the sink, inside the cupboard. We don't have a dishwasher so I do collect a bunch before I wash, but this way my kitchen doesn't look so horrid. It's amazing the difference that small change made.

Art stuff: The project must be cleaned up before another one is started. I don't mind cleaning it up as long as the children are able to wait to move on to the next thing.

Toys: I have a couple of different boxes, easy to access for the kids. What they take out, they know they need to put away. If they "forget", I "remind" them before we can do whatever's next on the agenda. I also sorted all our toys and put them in seperate boxes, so they don't have to dump out a whole box to get one little thing. About half the toys are behind a cupboard door and they usually don't even remember they're in there.

[linguistmama]

I'm starting to ask my older dd who is 4 to help more with putting toys and clothes away after we're done with them etc. But I think things are still going pretty well since we usually clean everyday. Clutter gets dealt with, dishes done etc. It doesn't get gross, just untidy which gets taken care of every evening.

[hadleys_mom]

We're pretty organized and tidy for two reason. First my dd is visually impaired so things can't be left out on the floor or she'll trip over it. Second, the 4 of us plus our dog live in 900sq ft so when the clutter gets out of hand, there is no place to move or do anything. I pick up a couple of times a day, wipe down as I go along and once a week or so do the really cleaning. I'm so much more relaxed when the house is picked up but I'm not anal enough to put it before having fun with the kids.

In my experience, the houses that are show room clean feel cold and inhospitable and I'm the most comfortable in friends' homes that are lived in and less sterile. Stuff sitting out to me is a sign that you are really living in your space.

[Jenelle]

A couple thoughts stand out to me.

One, I stopped comparing myself to others awhile ago. Having child #3 probably did that for me. You do your best, everyone's needs are met, there are only so many hours in the day. It's a juggling act, and honestly, that hairball on the floor is the least of my worries.

When my kids look back, I would like them to remember that I sat down with them on the floor and played games. They will not remember the crumbs on the floor. I am sure of it.

When I see homes that are spotlessly clean, I think good for them if it makes them feel good, but I am not down on myself for it being cleaner than mine. Whatever time they spent cleaning and making sure that everything was "perfect", I was probably sitting down and reading my child a book, or outside swinging them on the swings, etc. It is really just a matter of priorities, and mine happens to be quality time with my kids. And not stressing out about things that really don't matter.

I figure I will have plenty of time to clean, organize, have pretty things, etc. when my children are grown and I am no longer the center of their universe. And then I will sit and look at my pretty, clean house and wish I had some little kids around to mess it up. I am sure of it.

[sha_lyn]

Right now mine is a mess. We are in the middle of cleaning out DDs closet, just ended a week of Girl Scout Day camp and it has rained every evening this week. The dog has tracked in mud, and I've been too tired after camp to clean it up. We run in, unload our crap for the day and collapse. I try to keep it under control but sometimes it spirals out of control like now and I don't even know where to start. At least we just cleared off the dining room table so we can finally sit down and have a meal together this week.

[greenthumb3]

Originally Posted by Jenelle

A couple thoughts stand out to me.

One, I stopped comparing myself to others awhile ago. Having child #3 probably did that for me. You do your best, everyone's needs are met, there are only so many hours in the day. It's a juggling act, and honestly, that hairball on the floor is the least of my worries.

When my kids look back, I would like them to remember that I sat down with them on the floor and played games. They will not remember the crumbs on the floor. I am sure of it.

When I see homes that are spotlessly clean, I think good for them if it makes them feel good, but I am not down on myself for it being cleaner than mine. Whatever time they spent cleaning and making sure that everything was "perfect", I was probably sitting down and reading my child a book, or outside swinging them on the swings, etc. It is really just a matter of priorities, and mine happens to be quality time with my kids. And not stressing out about things that really don't matter.

I figure I will have plenty of time to clean, organize, have pretty things, etc. when my children are grown and I am no longer the center of their universe. And then I will sit and look at my pretty, clean house and wish I had some little kids around to mess it up. I am sure of it.

: I like this perspective! Sometimes I do forget esp. when I step into someone else's lovely home and wish mine looked like it that day! I think it is important to realize we can't do it all, all of the time and some things will fall to the wayside that are less important.

I would say, who knows, maybe it was a lucky day for them that their house was that clean? (Maybe not, I know a few people, bless them, whose homes like spotless every second of the day most days) I know it's a rare day that my floors are clean, dishes done, laundry clean and put away and toys and projects are tidied at the same time! If someone came to my house on that ONE day they might think it's like that all the time.

Like some pp have mentioned, I clean once a week, mop once a week, sweep occasionally, and I have a system down for the dishes. I empty the dishwasher in the morning or while lunch is cooking. (My 6 yr old's job is to put away the silverware) When dishes get dirty, I rinse them and stack them next to the sink, which makes it easier to look at if they are waiting to be put in the dishwasher Sometimes they wait that way until before bedtime, which is when I put them into the dishwasher. Keeping the sink open and clean makes me feel better, not to mention having space to use it without a bunch of dirty dishes to reach over.

I JUST finished putting together an IKEA system and it now contains all the children's books, music, toys, arts and craft supplies, board games and other such stuff on one wall. They are on shelves and in removeable drawers and when we need one for playing or a project, it can be taken to where it is needed, and then easily put back where it needs to go--and the kids can help! This makes SUCH a difference--I can't tell you how this is already saving my sanity.

Of course, the house does look lived in, but I am starting to give in to that reality. If I need to "see" it clean, I wait until the kids are sleeping and gaze on the organization of it all and try to memorize what it looks like--b/c it will not look that way when they wake up! But I rarely have the energy to clean it like it should--we do a deep clean every 4-6 months, and I sigh after each time, b/c I know it will be a few months until it looks that nice again! Oh, well!

Have you thought of hanging up a sign in your kitchen or hall to remind yourself (and guests if you think like that) about your "home tidiness philosophy"? maybe give it a thought. Here are some I like:

"Homes are for personal expression, not good impressions."
(from the movie His, Mine and Ours)

"Cleaning a home while the children are growing is like shoveling the walk in a blizzard." (paraphrasing)

"Excuse the mess, we live here." (I like that one!)

"Housework is something you do that nobody notices until you don't do it."

"Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy."

"We labor to make a house a home, then every time we're expecting visitors, we rush to turn it back into a house." ~Robert Brault

"This house is protected by killer dust bunnies."

"If birds have little birds
and fish have little fishes,
why can't sinks have little sinks
instead of DIRTY DISHES!!"

"If you can’t sweep it once a day, rake it once a week!"

"Clean houses never last. Hugs and kisses do."

"A clean house is a sign of a broken computer!"

[phathui5]

THey have that model home, not even lived in look...and I want that!

I don't think that's realistic in a house where people are home all day.

Books. Everywhere. On the table, rug by the bookshelves, couch, bedside, floor, ect.

While the kids don't always remember and need to be reminded, I do require that books be put away when we're done reading them. Library books go in a basket under the living room table. Our books go back on whatever shelf they came from.

Floors. We have two big hairy (husky and samoyed) dogs who go in and out as they please. They live mostly inside since its hot in FL. Kids also go in and out all day, tracking in dirt and what not. I

We have a basket by the front foor where kids have to put their shoes as soon as they come in the front. If they're coming in the back, they leave the shoes on the back porch. There are mats for wiping feet by both the front and the back door. I can't help with the dogs, except to suggest that someone wipe their feet off when they come in.

[dotnetdiva]

I've been pretty proud at how organized my house has been since I started hsing. I can't stand to study myself in clutter, so homeschooling pushes me to stay somewhat neat and organized. Soooo much cleaner than when I was a WAHM! The comparison is astounding.

I'm not saying the house is impeccably neat though, but "organized" and neat enough is what makes me happy.

[umbrella]

It's your kids' ages. It gets easier.

[2xy]

We're messy but not dirty. Two teenagers, two parents who work outside the home, one parent in school part-time, one dog and two cats. The house isn't at the VERY bottom of my "to do" list, but it's pretty close.

To be honest, I prefer a lived-in house. When I visit someone who has an immaculate home, I feel uncomfortable there....like I shouldn't breathe or I might taint something. I have a couple of friends who are super-tidy....one pays a cleaning lady and the other is a minimalist. Neither of them are homeschoolers. I've never visited the home of a fellow homeschooler and found it to be super neat, although I'm sure they exist somewhere.