Houskeeping-- What is acceptable/not acceptable? - Page 2

[applecider]

That's funny, I was just reading that other post thinking the exact same thing! According to that post half the people I know would have cps taking their kids away.


Laundry Always in a state of unfinished-ness. Maybe some clothes on the floor, hamper never empty, sometimes all the clothes are put away.
Floors crumbs frequently, I don't sweep every day , spots here and there that get wiped up sometimes with a kitchen rag on it's way to the laundry
Dishes do them all maybe every other day? Try to rinse them off daily and at least pick them up off the table.
closets don't have any!
Bathrooms picked up, cleaned maybe once a week.
General clutter lots of clutter.
windows, baseboards don't clean too often, we are in the midst of remodel so no baseboards . Windows when they starts looking super grimy.

Now after reading that, many of you may think I'm a total slob, and maybe I am, I'm sure my DP would be happy if it was tidier/cleaner around here. I go through spurts where I will be super cleanly for awhile and then totally slack for awhile. Depending on my state of motivation or depression. I tend to need to see a big mess before I can be sufficiently motivated to clean it up. My mother cannot understand how I ended up like this. I do clean quite well when people are coming over. I would like to have a neat and tidy house like most of you seem to have, but I just can't find it within me. I guess the fact that some parts of the house are not finished yet makes me not want to clean them because they will still look yucky so what's the point? Currently the couch cushions are all over the living room and the train tracks are all over the adjacent room. And I probably won't pick them up before bed because I don't feel like it, they'll just be all over the floor again tomorrow. And don't have the energy to make my 5yo do it.

[mamaofthree]

i guess mine would be infested with vermine. although i had a friend who had a mice issue and they always had a clean house. they ended up having to restore everything to keep them out.
i don't know. i have yet to meet someone whose house was so bad i wouldn't visit or let my kids play there. for a a "tidy" house is easier to relax in, but what i consider tidy may not be what others consider tidy. what you described would be fine for me.
right no my house is a bit messy for my taste (for it being MY house) but if i went to someones house that was looking like mine right now i wouldn't even blink an eye.

that is crazy about CPS. goodnight! how can they say you have to have new furniture? i mean you can put food on the table, dress your kids, give them shelter and be a great parent, but they want a nice sofa too? i guess my kids would be gone, our stuff is OLD, some is almost 18 years old. lol (and i am not talking antiques! lol)

h

[hillymum]

Laundry....I almost always have clean laundry folded in piles on the dining room table. They sit there until each child takes his pile upstairs and as I do laundry almost every day there isalmost always going to be new piles waiting to be put away. There is however very little dirty laundry hanging around!

Bathrooms......I hate scrubbing toilets! I totally ignored them for 2 weeks but scrubbed them yesturday. Normally they are really cleaned once a week. The sinks get wiped down after each use (ha ha ha, yea right!), sorry, they are supposed to be, but boys, you know?...A really good clean once a week and a quick scrub whenever I have time.

Kitchen.....My kitchen is well loved (used). i've at least taught the kids to put dirty dishes above the dishwasher or in the sink. The kids empty the dishwasher every day so thats a controled mess. Hand washing gets done when there is a decent amount so it's worth doing. My counters are spotless and cleaned once a day, but I swear you wouldn't know it!

Closets are organised and tidy, just because we have loads of them.

general clutter....I hate clutter so I go through piles and chuck trash out as often as I can. Kids toys are put into baskets frequently but I don't freak out if there is a pile to be picked up. i also don't freak out if the sofa becomes a fort!

Floors....I have 3 boys, 3 cats and a dog. I vacuum everywhere on the main floor every day, and I swear within 2 hours it looks just as bad as it did before my effort! But then again we have a cheap nasty carpet with stains so that might contribute.

Windows......are done by my 6 yr old. He either cleans them or decorates them. Either way we can still see out of them so I am not worried. Oh, and we practice spelling on them with markers as well.


Baseboards.....I really should teach the kids to clean those one day!

[cappuccinosmom]

Laundry? (clean but in baskets, left in the dryer, on the couch for days waiting to be put away...)
Floors? (crumbs, or clothes on the floor in bedrooms, toys on the floor, spots on a kitchen floor).
Dishes? (dirty in the sink for how long, clean but not put a way, dishes left in the living room or a night stand...)
closets? How cluttered can they be? stuffed, or tidy and usable?
Bathrooms?
General clutter? kitchen table, dresser, counters?
windows, baseboards etc?, how often would you expect them to be cleaned? how dirty is too dirty.

Any one of these things might not bother me. I'm not even sure how to deliniate what would make me uncomfortable, but it would definitely be along the lines of general clutter, if that general clutter looked to me to involve food and dirty stuff lying around.

I absolutely don't care about windows and baseboards. I clean them when I can't ignore them anymore.

Dirty dishes would bother me if I noticed they were habitually left all over the house, and left to sit for long periods of time. Food remnants attract pests of various kinds, and grow mold, and other interesting stuff.

Laundry strewn all over the place would fall under my general clutter category, but would only really bug me if it was obviously dirty.

Don't care about closets. Shove it in and close the door, I'm good.

Floors. Spots and stuff don't bother me. Sticky foodstuff and crumbs all over would, again because food remnants attract icky critters if they're left to sit there.

Bathrooms need to not be filthy.

What I do:
Laundry: usually run it all through once a week. Wash and dry one day, fold and put away the next.
Floors: Vacuum high traffic areas whenever necessary. I *hated* having a carpeted dining room because I *hated* gunk on the floor and with three little kids it was just impossible to avoid. Because I hate gunk on the floor, my kitchen floor is washed once a day, at least.
Dishes: I try to wash after each meal (we dont' have many dishes to begin with). If I can't, all dirty dishes go into the dishpan in the sink and get washed the next meal.
Closets: No clutter. We try to keep a minimum of stuff, so they mostly just have clothes in them.
Bathrooms: Wipe down sink and toilet daily (takes 30 seconds). Scrub out tub when it's grimy. If I get behind, I take the time on Saturday to just get it deep cleaned.
General clutter: Makes me anxious and cranky, I try to avoid it.
Windows/baseboards: I ignore them.

ETA: I have met a few people whose houses I would not want my children running free in. One family had several hoarders, and loooved to organize and constantly try to make it "more homey" but it was difficult to walk through, very dusty, had vermin issues, and I always walked out feeling itchy and jumpy. I loved the family. But wouldn't be able to take my kids there. We also used to have neighbors, and the one time they invited us to their house it was very hard to be comfortable. They had cats and the smell was overwhelming, hair all.over.everything and again I was extremely anxious and physically uncomfortable. They were the opposite of hoarders, there was very little *stuff* in the house but while it looked tidy it was smelly, and surfaces were very grimey and sticky.

[moondiapers]

My home has to pass licensing inspection for daycare....

Laundry? I do a load of laundry every day. So everyday until naptime there is a load of laundry waiting to be folded and put away on my bed. But it's only one load and it gets put away at naptime. There is also always a load in the washer and a load in the dryer. I cycle everything through once every morning.
Floors? floors in the main living areas and kitchen get vacuumed or swept once a day, and spot cleaned as things are spilled. They get mopped once a week.
Dishes? Never more than one meal's worth of dishes in the sink.....usually it's just pans because I empty the dishwasher everymorning while I make breakfast and pack lunches...then dirties get added as the day goes along and I wash pans and turn the dishwasher on before bed.
closets? Out of sight out of mind, lol. They get tidied up once per season usually.
Bathrooms toilets and sinks are wiped down daily. Mirrors cleaned once a week, tub/shower once a month (I have a spray that gets misted after every shower to keep it clean).
General clutter? kitchen table is decluttered daily so we can eat meals there. dresser tops and nightstands get pretty bad, LMAO
windows, baseboards windows and window coverings get cleaned once per season. Baseboards are the same, also behind the fridge and vacuum the fridge coils.

My garage????don't even go there...

[oceanbaby]

Our house is kept pretty clean (not always neat, but always clean), but certainly not by any sort of Martha Stewart (or my MIL!) standards.

I stay pretty on top of the kitchen. There are often a few dishes in the sink, but we use a lot - I do dishes about 3 times a day. I constantly wipe down counters, but if you catch us at the wrong moment it could look pretty bad. I sweep the floors usually once a day, vacuum every few days, dust once a week or so.

Bathrooms are usually pretty good. Sometimes the kids have done something yucky in the sink I haven't seen yet, but otherwise I try to wipe down the sink and counter every day. Toilets get cleaned when they are starting to look unclean, but never are they filthy or stained.

We often have stacks of folded, clean laundry in the appropriate bedroom waiting to get put away, but never ever dirty laundry spread around. We use hampers.

There will often be toys on the floors, but I usually have the kids pick up when they are done, or I pick up in the evening. We have a rec room downstairs, however, that does look like a toy chest exploded.

There is often a small pile of papers/magazines on either the kitchen island or the dining room table, but otherwise I don't let too much junk accumulate. My office is kind of a paper disaster right now though, and I would be seriously embarassed to have anyone see it.

There have been two instances of a friend's house (two different friends) being too dirty for us to hang out in, and both times it was pretty bad. Really old crusty dishes all over the place, dirty floors, pet hair, overflowing litter boxes, dirty laundry scattered all about, etc. I just can't deal with that. I don't care if your house is messy, and your mirrors don't have to sparkle, but if it's getting grungy or smelly or food/pet messy, then I'm probably going to avoid coming over.

As far as CPS, I'm assuming it has a lot to do with the individual caseworker and circumstances.

[EviesMom]

Originally Posted by texmati

Laundry? (clean but in baskets, left in the dryer, on the couch for days waiting to be put away...)

If it must sit around for a day (like today when we just got back and had 4 loads to do in a day), it's in baskets in the master bedroom. At least out of view of company.

Originally Posted by texmati

Floors? (crumbs, or clothes on the floor in bedrooms, toys on the floor, spots on a kitchen floor).

I have a shedding dog and 2 kids. Generally this means no crumbs, but some dog fur. I aim for sweep once a day, but it's really once every other. Toys are fine during the day, but must be put away by bedtime.

Originally Posted by texmati

Dishes? (dirty in the sink for how long, clean but not put a way, dishes left in the living room or a night stand...)

Dishes are also gathered by the end of the day, but nothing other than water is allowed out of the dining room/kitchen other than a rare treat to eat snack in the living room or breakfast in bed. Dishes can be dirty and in the sink during the day. They go in the dishwasher by nightfall. I LIKE to empty in the morning and load throughout the day, but I'm working toward that as a habit.

Originally Posted by texmati

closets? How cluttered can they be? stuffed, or tidy and usable?

How many closets are there? I need some space to work with day to day. But if there's closet space and drawer/office space available for what needs to be put away, then if other closets are cluttered/packed with storage, so what?

Originally Posted by texmati

Bathrooms?

Clean. But as I keep telling the kids "The bathroom is NOT a playspace. You have the whole apartment to play in." There's some kid drawings in bath crayon on the shower walls. It'll wash off, but I don't mind if it stays a few days.

Originally Posted by texmati

General clutter? kitchen table, dresser, counters?

We have clutter spots--top of the bookcase, office desk top, closet under the stairs. I don't think any are too bad though I need to clear them out. It isn't days of work for me. Kitchen table and counters are an "every night" chore here.

Originally Posted by texmati

windows, baseboards etc?, how often would you expect them to be cleaned? how dirty is too dirty.

We're in a highrise, so windows get done by the building about 1/year. You can't do them yourself. Baseboards I try to do 1/month or so. DD thinks it's fun to run a baby wipe over them, so sometimes they're clean when the floor is not.

I can't think of anything else, but please include if you have any other dealbreakers.[/QUOTE]

I only base playdate situations on things related to safety-- drug-addict or drunk, hoarded objects that could be choking or falling hazards, unsecured guns or dangerous objects, chemicals/dangerous chemicals unsecured and/or used right next to young children or potential sexual predators/abusers/some definitely major issue. Or it would have to involve feces other than "the dog had an accident and we just discovered it less than 10 minutes ago;" typical kitty litter changed daily-ish; or baby/toddler diaper accident less than 10 minutes ago.

I refuse to visit or have visit us anyone using the CIO method actively at the time they are visiting. (Yes, it's happened. SMILs relative expected me to listen to her tiny infant scream herself to sleep in a dark room, replete with puking." ) That's unacceptable!

[Linda on the move]

The way my house looks really varies during the course of the day/week. For example, the kitchen gets totally cleaned before bedtime. The dishwasher gets loaded and started, anything that needs to be washed by hand gets washed, the counter tops all get wiped down, and the trash is taken out. But at any given moment during the day it could be totally trashed in there!! I try to keep it up, but...........

As far a friend's house, I'm pretty mellow. I think it should be uncluttered enough that the kids have space to play and clean enough so that I don't feel like my kids are at risk from eating a snack or needing to use the bathroom. I've only ever walked into one home and felt that it was "too bad." There wasn't any place to sit and it smelled wierd (like a lot of bad smells had merged together).

But a little laundry on the couch wouldn't upset me, even though I NEVER leave laundry on the couch. I have 2 dogs and a cat -- it would get covered with pet hair!

[lach]

Laundry? Leaving clean laundry on the couch for days seems really weird for me. Maybe because I either sort it as I take it out of the dryer, or do it on my bed. Sometimes it spends a few days on the armchair in my bedroom before it all makes its way again (particularly if I'm sorting during naptime and don't want to go into my kids rooms, and then forget until I go to bed, when again I don't want to go into their rooms, and sometimes it takes a day or two until I remember at a time when everyone is awake!). But why on earth would you have piles of laundry on your couch? Maybe I just have a small couch, but couches are for sitting on, not for laundry hampers.
Floors? No animal feces or dead animals, please. I live in an old house with wood floors and dust bunnies are a way of life. I think it would have to be a tumbleweed-bunny before I raised an eyebrow at someone else's house.
Dishes? In the sink. If they're overflowing onto the counters, it's time to do the dishes. Or at least stack them more efficiently in the sink. Dirty dishes should be out of sight out of mind imo
closets? I'm not sure it's ever even occured to me to poke into someone else's closets to see what they look like.
Bathrooms? No visible green mold, please.
General clutter? I like seeing clutter in other people's houses, because it makes me feel better about my own That said, I'd like there to be a place on the table or counter for me to put my drink. And I'd like to not have to worry about walking through a room without knocking over your piles.
windows, baseboards etc? I'm not sure I understand the question. "Clean" "windows"? What is this of which you speak?

[JayGee]

We're selling our house right now, so I keep up with it a little better than usual .

Laundry ~ I hate to fold, so there are usually unfolded baskets on the floor in the laundry room. When we show the house, I put them in the trunk of the car . But once they are folded (every 3 days or so), I put them right away.

Floors ~ swept daily, mopped/vacuumed 1x a week at least

Dishes ~ always done. I HATE having dirty dishes in the sink. DH is totally compulsive about this too. He likes the sink sparkling white and does a better job on it than I ever could

Closets ~ organized, clean. But I have a huge storage unit rented right now to store all the crap that used to fall out of them before we put the house on the market! Buyers DO look in closets (and medicine cabinets, and refrigerators, and in under sink cabinets).

Bathrooms ~ wiped down every day, cleaned 1x a week

Clutter ~ I have a large wheeled rubbermaid thing with 4 drawers. ALL paper goes in there, so I have no clutter. Just don't look in the white thing .

Windows/baseboards ~ I vacuum baseboards when I vacuum floors. Windows get cleaned when my Mom visits, because I don't do windows and she loves to! Actually, I do clean the sliding door windows daily because they get really fingerprinty and cat-nosey.

[kanga1622]

As long as it isn't filthy, I'm okay. My house is cluttered and could use a good sweep in the kitchen but DS is high needs and I've yet to figure out how to sweep while holding him (must learn new carries for my wrap).

We often fold laundry in the living room now so that DS can "help" while he plays so it seems totally normal to me to see baskets of clean clothes waiting to be folded or put away.

Pretty much everything you described seems normal to me except dirty bathrooms - that's my main issue.

We have one family member that I hate to visit because it's gone beyond clutter to hoarder-like status, they have 2 cats that leave hair everywhere so I don't feel like I can ever put DS down as there are visible furballs all over the floor, and the bathtub always looks dirty to me which makes me wonder how often they clean the toilet.

[purslaine]

The only situation that would cause me to call CPS would be something out of Hoarders - seriously.

That does not mean it is the standard I keep my house to, but I acknowledge different people have different standards, and that a snapshot of someones house at any given moment is not necessarily how it is always kept.

[Adaline'sMama]

Originally Posted by texmati

I guess I'm not worried about cps exactly, thank god, but I think my idea of what is normal I think is very skewed.

Our floor and counters have food crumbs or spots on them. They do not get wiped/swept/vacuumed everyday. Our bedrooms/bathrooms have clothes on the floor. about half the closets are not usable. (for example, you can't walk into our walk in master closet.). At least one seat on my sofa has stuff on it at any given time. Our clean clothes are in baskets in the master bedroom. I've always been messy, but things have gotten much worse since I went back to work after DS (maybe around 4 months, and then again when I got pregnant around 7-8 mos).

I just didn't realize that everyone with kids didn't live this way.

Well, I have to say, we go through 2 or three days at a time like this, and then 2-3 days of the house being super clean. It starts to pile up , and I get busy. Then I spend about 4 hours to clean it all up. My lifestyle is just not set up to be able to clean as I go. If Im washing the dishes, and the baby starts crying, I take a break. Alot of times when my break is over, my husbnd is getting home, or its time for me to go to my neighboors house (I personal chef for my neighboor who is 95), or the goats need to be fed, ect. There are only so many hours in a day and Im not going to organize my day just so I can clean up after myself constantly. Id rather let it pile up and spend a few hours at once to get it clean again.

I put things in huge piles instead of on the furniture though. I cant stand not having a place to sit down. But Im right there with you on the clean clothes thing. I can never seem to put them away.

[GardenStream]

Apparently CPS can't come here either.

Laundry? if it's dirty it's in the hamper or thrown at the bottom of the basement stairs, clean is always put away

Floors? 2 dogs and 2 kids so there are probably crumbs somewhere, but I sweep when I see them. There are toys on the floor of the play area, but that's in the great room so it's very walkable and not cluttered. The floor is entirely picked up and swept once or twice a week.

Dishes?dishes go directly into the dishwasher, hand wash items might sit in the sink for up to 12 hours. I do the dishes when I'm fixing meals.

closets? I don't mind a little clutter, but not packed full to the point that anything would fall out.

Bathrooms? No stains or spills. I don't care about a little dust, but no toothpaste gunk or hair.

General clutter? clutter that belongs in the room is OK as long as there is still usable space.

windows, baseboards etc? yeah, I don't do those. They get dusted when I notice they're starting to look a little fuzzy. I'm guessing twice a year they get dusted.

Other people's homes - Clutter is fine as long as it doesn't look like a safety hazard. I'm pretty lenient about how clean a house is kept. Food and dirty plates strewn around would be OK once, but if I noticed it repeatedly, I would be a little concerned. Smell matters most. If I walk into a house that smells musty, like animals or funky, then I'm much more concerned.

[Youngfrankenstein]

Originally Posted by Adaline'sMama

Well, I have to say, we go through 2 or three days at a time like this, and then 2-3 days of the house being super clean. It starts to pile up , and I get busy. Then I spend about 4 hours to clean it all up. My lifestyle is just not set up to be able to clean as I go. If Im washing the dishes, and the baby starts crying, I take a break.

I hear you on this! Having a baby is a huge deterrent to having the house as clean as I want on a regular basis. You can't just dive in and do stuff all the time. You have to work with baby!

I have a routine of doing the upstairs cleaning on Mondays, downstairs on Tuesdays, Kitchen on Wednesdays and Thursday to get "projects" done (clean out a closet, detail clean the sliding doors and tracks, etc) Friday is desk day and grocery day.

It sounds lofty and I try to stick to it but most nights I don't get the kitchen cleaned up after dinner. No matter how happy the baby is to play during the day, she just needs me all evening. I really try to start dinner early so clean up will be easier but I don't ever feel like I keep up the way I want.

As she gets older, I will be able to stick to my routine better.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by limabean

Same here. There's a lot of room between my personal standards and what I would find "unacceptable" for a friend's house. As long as it's a friendly, loving home and there aren't feces or vermin around, I'm cool with my kids playing at a messy house.

I agree.

My house varies day to day in cleanliness. I've been so swollen and miserable lately that it's a lot messier than usual and drives me insane. But when your feet are swollen like balloons the risks outweigh the benefits of picking up after the kids for the 700th time that day. My kids have also gotten substantially more messy as they get older. The oldest kid helps out a lot but for some reason the whole "pick up after yourself" thing is completely unknown to them. My son's room is frankly a pig sty. No food or gross stuff-just stuffed animals and legos EVERYWHERE that is probably a danger to walk through. And they act like I beat them when I ask them to at least make a path-we have to get through his room for one of our bathrooms, our closet, and our attic.

I will tell you what, though. I will never live in a house without carpeting again. I used to love hardwood floors but our soft 100 year old pine floors show every speck of dirt and every tiny little scratch and make it look like crap. Carpet is a thousand times easier and our next house *will* have it even though I specified wood floors this time. Clean up is a lot easier with carpet.

Laundry? I do a load every day at least, but if it's been a long week or I've been miserable, you'll find a couple loads on my bed folded waiting for kids to put away-it's always put away that day, though. I do have to sleep.

Floors? Like I said above-I try to keep the floors clear, but with 5 cats, a dog, and 4 kids, it's usually impossible. There's always a few toys somewhere or math manipulatives or something. I vacuum about every other day for the pet hair and crumbs but within 10 minutes of vacuuming, there's already dust bunnies.

Dishes? Dh is supposed to deal with dishes. But he never, ever, ever cleans the ones that don't go in the dishwasher and usually doesn't get around to doing the dishes until night time, so there are often dishes on the counter. I do them when I have time or energy, but I can barely reach the sink over my belly and my feet swell like clown shoes when I try, so this is painful for me. I have had to start dealing with the pain to finish getting them clean at night and cleaning the sink and counters since nobody else will do it.

Bathrooms Clean enough. Our hall bathroom that most visitors use is usually the cleanest, though my toddler often leaves random clothes in there and a toy occasionally. It's wiped down when it looks dirty or every day if I have energy. The big bathroom has the cat litter box that I clean every time I get a chance but we can't figure out how to keep cat litter off the tile floors that gets tracked through. We've tried about everything. The bathtub walls are continuously written on with bath crayons so look dirty, but are not. This room is trouble for me since the kids go through there all the time leaving toys (it's in between their rooms) and never clean up after themselves.

General clutter? I try to declutter every night from homeschool stuff left everywhere-we do schoolwork through the day so there are always some sort of books, dry erase markers, or manipulatives out somewhere. But we clean the table every night for dinner and pick up before bedtime. Right now my dresser is cluttered because there are 3 belly casts on it awaiting reinforcement and we have only 2 closets in the entire house, so storage is severely lacking. I hate it. We do have a laundry closet in our room, but it's not big enough or anything for our clothes, so we also use ds's small/medium closet for our clothes. We have a ton of birth and baby stuff out everywhere right now, too, that will go away after the birth (obviously). My girls usually do a decent job decluttering their dressers and such, but my son's...the child needs to get rid of half of his stuff. Baseboards are cleaned when I vacuum and washed a couple of times a year-they are almost entirely radiators, though. The kids closets are cluttered but I go through them every week. They have yet to figure out the whole "dirty laundry in the basket and pick up clean clothes that fall off hangers" thing and it drives me insane. Especially since we have to share. I really am pretty OCD and hate messes and clutter, but this pregnancy has slowed me down a lot!

Now my yard is a different matter-I do not have the energy to clean it up atm so there are toys everywhere and my porch is covered in outdoor toys and leaves.

[Aeress]

CPS- they will find something if they want to find something, in general they are looking for fairly decluttered and clear pathways. When they showed up at my house ( thanks annoyed plumber who was having a bad day and took it out on us) they initial workers mentioned "clear pathways" as a big one. The day they showed up my kids and mil had just returned from vacation and we had a leak we were dealing with. So we cleaned and decluttered big time. I did have a backlog of dishes due to the leak, (see above) and were slowly unpacking. By the time the caseworker returned on Monday, the house was spotless.
The caseworker mentioned she expected the house to look "lived in", which was normal.

In general, I don't mind having laundry hanging around since I have 4 people I doing laundry for. I don't mind dishes in the sink and some clutter. Life happens.

For others- As long as it is fairly safe and generally clean enough, I don't mind my kids playing there.

[rhiOrion]

I'm a WOHM, so my answers will likely seem gross to many of you. But, keep in mind that we're not home all day, so things don't get dirty as fast. Plus by the time I get home I don't feel like cleaning.

Laundry? Is never done. Currently on the futon in the basement next to the dryer there is a load of lights, a load of darks, and a load of diapers. There is probably something in the dryer, too. It completely appalls me that CPS would care about laundry IN THE DRYER. I seriously think that CPS workers should have to carry around pictures of their own houses to remind them of what normal people do.

Floors? I have a dog, so not too many crumbs. But, because we have a dog and cat there are usually some fur bunnies hiding in corners and under things. DH does the vacuuming, because I'm allergic. I'd say we vacuum once a week, and maybe run the dust buster over the fur bunnies one other time.


Dishes? I have been making an effort to get the kitchen clean as soon as I get home from work. If I start dinner in a clean kitchen I'm more likely to clean as I go and end up with a clean kitchen. Sometimes it does get away from us and we might have the counter right above the dishwasher covered in dishes. We both hate emptying the dishwasher!


closets? They're closets. I don't give them too much though. Slightly cluttered, but usable.


Bathrooms? The main bathroom gets wiped down when I think about it. That's probably usually twice a week. Now that my post partum hair loss is waning it's not nearly as bad between wipe downs. The tub gets wiped out when I think of it, but I don't really really clean it very often. It needs it now, though, for sure. The toilets are usually something DH does. They don't get cleaned nearly as often as most of you guys seem to- but we're home much less and really, they're toilets. I poop in them. As long as there's nothing obviously growing in there I don't care too much. I do wipe the back of the toilet whenever I wipe the bathroom counters (counters first, then toilets, of course!). The basement bathroom- I have no idea. I rarely go in there. It always has a bit of cat litter on the floor.


General clutter? We have a bit of a paper problem. I hate junk mail- it's the source of most of our issues. I need to shred a bunch of stuff. But, I do try to keep it in one of two places- the dining room table next to my computer or over by the front door next to the shredder.

windows, baseboards etc?, Do what now? I'm not sure I've ever cleaned a baseboard. The windows desperately need cleaning of cobwebs on the outside. But, I haven't lived anywhere longer than a year since I moved out of my parents' house. So, I'm going to say they get cleaned once a year! I would wipe up obvious spills on them, though.

My biggest battle is dog hair! ARGH! The dog thinks the couch is the best bed, and it makes me crazy. Sometimes I don't want to sit on the couch because there is dog hair on it. But then I realized that I'm not sitting on the couch so that the dog can, and damn it, she didn't pay for the couch! So, we've instituted a doggy couch ban- we'll see how it works.

Also, I hate to dust because it makes me not be able to breathe.

As far as what I would allow DD to play in once she's older- I agree with many of the PPs- mess I'm okay with, filth I'm not. Obvious feces, urine, etc is bad. A slight cat box smell is okay, but an overwhelming ammonia smell is not. A few crumbs here or there I don't mind, but a floor covered in sticky spots and crumbs that appear to have been there a long time I'm less okay with. It would also depend on what rooms were dirty compared to what rooms were going to be used for play.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

Bathrooms? The main bathroom gets wiped down when I think about it. That's probably usually twice a week. Now that my post partum hair loss is waning it's not nearly as bad between wipe downs. The tub gets wiped out when I think of it, but I don't really really clean it very often. It needs it now, though, for sure. The toilets are usually something DH does. They don't get cleaned nearly as often as most of you guys seem to- but we're home much less and really, they're toilets. I poop in them. As long as there's nothing obviously growing in there I don't care too much.

windows, baseboards etc?, Do what now? I'm not sure I've ever cleaned a baseboard. The windows desperately need cleaning of cobwebs on the outside. But, I haven't lived anywhere longer than a year since I moved out of my parents' house. So, I'm going to say they get cleaned once a year! I would wipe up obvious spills on them, though.

My biggest battle is dog hair! ARGH! The dog thinks the couch is the best bed, and it makes me crazy. Sometimes I don't want to sit on the couch because there is dog hair on it. But then I realized that I'm not sitting on the couch so that the dog can, and damn it, she didn't pay for the couch! So, we've instituted a doggy couch ban- we'll see how it works.

OMG I love you.

I agree on the cleaning windows outside thing. I know they might need done and I do the porch windows, but honestly? I don't have some spiffy huge ladder to clean the outsides of my windows and I know I don't care that much at all!

And the dog hair. o.m.g. We have a lab/bc mix and she sheds more than all 5 of my cats combined-no joke. I hate it. I wish my yard were fenced so I could keep her outside all the time. She drives me nuts and the hair everywhere makes me want to vomit. It's on everything and impossible to clean up. Why did I not know this about lab/bc dogs before they let us get one? That surely would have changed my mind (no offense, dog). Because no matter how clean my house is, it's always filthy to me having this much hair around.

[mountainfeather]

The other thread made me really nervous too.

I vacuum or sweep almost every day and mop often but we have a dog who sheds terribly (Great Pyrenees) and long haired cats. So overnight shedding and playing can make the floor look awful by the time you wake up. The cats have a tiff and suddenly there's cat hair all over the place.

Also, anyone who has had pets knows that sometimes they get sick or have accidents and you may not find it for a few hours depending on where in the house it is. It doesn't happen often at all (maybe once every couple of months with 2 dogs and 3 cats, if that), but what if that was the time CPS came?

Laundry is done but we live on a farm so sometimes I'll stockpile clean laundry on a nice day to fold when the weather is less ideal.

My husband can make a bear of a mess processing the garden produce in the kitchen. I mean tomato splattered everywhere, on the floor, pots and pans everywhere, processing equipment... it's cleaned up the same day but what if CPS came in the midst of it and said that the kitchen was unclean?

I do dishes and clean the kitchen constantly, I mean for probably two hours a day, but that is the room the messes get made in (cooking, garden produce etc., so it's a constant battle). How clean it is literally depends on the hour of the day. It's very clean just before I go to bed. Dishes always washed but maybe drying in the rack and not put away.

And we live in a huge old farmhouse so I have been childproofing gradually as DD becomes more mobile. I am with her 100% of the time and use gates and play yards and the lawn... So would CPS get me because the entire house isn't childproofed??? I've been spending about $50-200/month to gradually build up childproofing in the house, gating off pellet stoves, cushioning furniture, buying safer alternatives to things, but CPS would say that's not good enough I suppose?

These threads make CPS sound like a horrible bogeyman who will come and take your child if you so much as dare to live in your house.