My house is a giant mess...always!!!
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My house is a giant mess...always!!!
| Thu, 01-10-2008 - 9:32pm |
Anyone one else have the house of permanent disaster ??? What I mean is the constant mess. We moved from a dcent sized house in md to a McMansion in suburban Atlanta and even allotted the kids an entire finished attic space,,,....guess what, the rest of the house (inc the master bedrom....yes, my room) is still a toy junkyard. I clean up and within minutes it's a disaster again. The boys do understand on Sundays it's clean their rooms day (and fair dues, Liam at least gets this), but the other 6 days of the week is a disaster. How can I reclaim my house again?????
Everytime I walk into another's house I'm reminded how disastrous mine is,....sigh






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My house is always a mess, too.
Messy. OK, LIVED-IN!!! Our house is well lived in and played in. We do work at cleaning, but there is never enough time and plus with home also being work place for both DH and I, and school for DS ... well, we are always in the middle of things, what's the point of cleaning it all away? We do have places (or piles) so we can tell the projects apart, though, otherwise ALL WOULD BE LOST!!!
Actually, I grew up in a home just like this and so I am fairly used to it. I do like when everything is picked up and neat and clean every once in a blue moon, but I certainly let the kids go to mess up again. And DH was raised to be super neat and tidy, to a fault, and when he moved in with me I was a little shocked by the cleaniness and neat laundry, etc. But all these years later --- he's now messier than I am! Turned out he grew up constantly being reprimanded if things weren't tidy enough, but the real him is out now ... and it ain't a tidy guy! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha. He says I have freed him up (hey! in more ways than 1 wink wink)
I am enjoying decorating some more, though, making it all look more interesting and attractive, that's real fun! I am just designing around the mess lol.
Sara
OMG I love you ladies.
OK, I figured it out. Here's how I was thwarted yesterday. After reading a bunch of these great posts I got up the gumption to actually tackle a room or two. After around 20 mins, I check on Cian who I notice is walking bow legged.....'cos he pooped through his pull up and all down his leg. It's so nasty I end up chucking out his brand new Jammie pants.
I clean him up and resume cleaning only to go back and find he has now pooped all over the den carpet nd the micro fibre sofa (it's less than a year old but already looks like it's been through three families as a hand me down)....I mean COME ON!!!!!!!!!
So now I end up scrubbing crap (literally) off the floor and also trying to stop Roan from playing in it. Then Roan pooed through her diaper. After that I made a cuppa tea and watch an old Law and Order....I was pooped (so to speak). So you see ladies I get it now.
Children+ special needs+NT baby+life=house will always be a disaster
Lol
Dee
Dee,
You know, I was going to post when I first saw this thread saying something along the lines of (but not as succinctly ): Children+ special needs+NT baby+life=house will always be a disaster
But I figured if you didn't know that already, you couldn't be told it at this late stage in your life.
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Take it easy on yourself particularly when they are little.
I did find a couple things that helped me a lot. If you have a larger house this will be possible.
1- A toy free zone, or in other words "MY space". We were lucky to have a formal living room in my first house. I baby gated it and the kids were only in there with me, otherwise it was my kid free zone. I could entertain in there or just go in there when the kids were napping and feel some peace. It was my time out space when I needed a break.
I still have the front rooms as the clutter free zone. The kids can attack their rooms, the play room, the office and the family room but don't you TOUCH the front rooms (living, dining and kitchen combo).
2- Fly Ladies 15 minute rule. I can't do all of her stuff but there is some things I do and this is one I found most helpful. I can do something for 15 minutes. She had this quick clean up thing where you set the timer for 15 mintues and work on it for that long. Then switch to something for 15 minutes. After 45 minutes you take a break.
With little kids that doesn't always work (poop and all) but I did find that setting a timer and focussing on ONE thing for 15 minutes kept me from doing the all over the house working and getting nothing done dance. You know the dance. So I start the kitchen and I focus on the kitchen for 15 minutes or until it is done. Then I make sure to attend to any of the kids needs. then the next thing. I make sure to take myself a break and a drink at least once an hour.
3- Prioritize. I figure if I can clean my kitchen dishes, make my bed and touch up the bathroom daily I am doing pretty good and things feel pretty good.
4- Organize for easy clean up. Toss things that aren't needed as you come to them. Have LOTS and LOTS of boxes to throw toys in for easy clean up.
5- Downsize. My kids have never had good play skills and too many toys makes it worse. When they were little we would store a good 1/2 of their toys regularly and rotate every so often so they only had a few at a time. it was easier. I still do this with my students. Currently my kids have few toys and it is fine. More just makes a disorganized mess and they can't play. We have a train table, legos, video games, stuffed animals, 1 american girl, lincoln logs (going soon), dollhouse, littlest pet shop (girls bought these or I wouldn't have them), light sabers, bikes and balls. We also have games and puzzles. They can do tons with just those actually.
And then there is just the fact that some things gotta give.
My philosophy is my kids are going to remember the time mom spent playing with them and not how clean the house was.
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