A Neat and Clean House vs Children

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2007
A Neat and Clean House vs Children
2597
Tue, 07-27-2010 - 8:35am

For those of you who like a neat and clean house, how do you keep it that way with children?

I find that if I am tied to goal of having a neat and clean house, I become a raging shrew against my children as they proceed to undo all the neatness I have worked so hard to attain. If I made a "neat and clean house" my goal, my children would not have their messy projects that take days/weeks to complete. My children would not pick up a book (casually left out)as they walk through the family room and browse through- discovering once again the mother actually knows about a few good books. I would let them watch more tv/computer time, as they don't make things as messy when they do. I would squash their ideas if I thought it would make too much of a mess. I wouldn't let them cook/experiment in the kitchen- as it is usually more work for me to clean up after they have "cleaned up". So, how do you inspire creativity and imagination in a neat and clean house? Are you on top of them to put things away as soon as they are done even if it is temporary? Where do you put the legos?....... Have you ever allowed them to take over the living room with all of their toys arranged in a city complex (thomas the train things were the Metro, legos and blocks were the buildings....)? How long would it stay up? Would let it be up for the summer so they could add to and change tings around as they got new ideas? Or allowed them to take over half of the family room for a month+ while they build and live in a beaver lodge (using all the empty shoe and other boxes and some that weren't empty)? Even if you have to walk around it everyday to get to the kitchen? Or do you require that all toys be put away everyday?

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Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 6:41am
"Soviet Safeway" Bwa! We have a similar market nearby, so I may have to steal your nick name. Except ours is a branch of a German chain, so maybe a riff on the DDR would be more fitting.

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Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
– George Orwell
Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 6:42am
Now there is an idea!

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Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
– George Orwell
Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 6:52am

Nah, not a thing specific to the city itself IME, at least not the pricier areas like Manhattan and the nicer bits in Brooklyn etc. Everybody pays a fortune for housing there, so there is no shame in eating rice and beans. Besides being chic is at a premium, and ethnic food is chic.

But the general area is, of course, home to millions of immigrants and their descendants. Many of those people were really poor, both in the old country and the first generation or two in the US. So it would make sense that many people in the general area would have those kinds of hang-ups.


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Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
– George Orwell
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:10am
Okay, now *I'm* jealous!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:11am
My grandma made the best applesauce. It's the only kind of applesauce I've ever really liked.
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-04-2009
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:17am
I live in the Magic Circle of Grocery Stores™. In a 5 mile radius from my home, I have 2 different Giants (including the famous Rest Stop Giant, where Lauren1963 has peed), a Food Lion, 2 Safeways (where no one I know from iVillage has peed--to my knowledge), Trader Joe's, and a Costco. Go 7 miles out and you can add a BJ's, and the future home of a Wegmans. I never go to the Safeways anymore, since they stopped selling their house brand Orange Spice tea--a business decision about which I am still quite bitter! LOL

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Kitty

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"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-07-2003
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:18am
I haven't bought new clothes for my kids in a pretty long while now. We have people that hand down clothes to us (DH's cousin and my sister) that have been barely worn. And my MIL loves buying DD new pink dresses occasionally-- especially when she has a $10 off coupon for JCPenney's. I think this fall will be the first time we've had to do major clothes shopping for both of the kids in about a year.
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-24-2008
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:25am
What is amazing about having 4 grocery stores so close? I have 3 chain grocery stores within about 15 minutes from me, one Walmart with a grocery store, two local grocers, and one farmers market, and live in a fairly rural area. I just so happened to be in a rural area sandwiched in between 3 towns.

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Avatar for rollmops2009
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-24-2009
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:44am
Aha! So your MIL "coupons."

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Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
– George Orwell
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-22-2000
Tue, 08-03-2010 - 7:52am

Hey, I must live in it, too! Within 5 miles I have 4 Krogers, 7 Martin's (although we hate them and will not shop there, EVER ... You are, however, welcome to pee there at any time);-), 10 Food Lions, a Trader Joe's, a Whole Foods, a Fresh Market, 3 WalMarts and several locally-owned markets of various ethnicities.

There's also 2 Sam's, a Costco and 2 BJ's, if you count those. (I don't...I don't trust their fresh foods.)


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