Well, that makes me feel a lot better about my untidy house!
“Sink pudding?” :eek:
My house has been messier than usual because it’s been so hot. The hot makes me tired and not particularly motivated to do anything but lie around in my underwear. I’ve been washing the dishes regularly and I got up the energy to sweep and swiffer the kitchen floor on Sunday, but that’s pretty much it. There are five pairs of shoes by the front door, always a great sign.
I have a real problem “getting around” to cleaning my home or doing my dishes. I eventually gave up trying to mentally beat myself into doing it and hired someone to come in once a week or so to do it for me. End result: clean and uncluttered home and a much less stressed me.
Once we can afford it, I have every intention of having a regular cleaning service. That is one luxury I won’t mind paying for. For now, I try to clean a little every day, but it is such a grind, and it never, ever ends.
I am sure that everyone’s house is tidier and cleaner than mine. Then I see things on the web like the Ebay Mum and Squalor Survivors and the like and know that it’s not so.
This thread also showed that my house certainly wasn’t the dirtiest or the most cluttered.
However, I live in fear that I will become one of Those People. My mother was. My mother was a compulsive shopper and a bit of a hoarder. She and my father ended up in separate bedrooms, and my mother’s was inaccessible. There was a narrow, dangerous path to the bed, but the bed itself had stuff on it. She panicked if she thought anyone ‘outside’ the family would see her room. She got sick and I spent a lot of time at my parent’s house, and when she ended up in the hospital dying, I cleaned out her room so that when she came home, it would be under control. The amount of stuff in there, and in the basement, was incredible. I found 26 boxes of Robin Hood bread machine bread mix in her bedroom. Twenty-six boxes. I found stuff from before my brother was born. It was an amazing process, cleaning out her room.
It was a little deranged (boxes and boxes of videocassettes because she was a news/info junkie and taped pretty much all news programs broadcast and then tried to ‘keep up’ with it. You can’t keep up with tapes upon tapes upon tapes… She went through a VCR a year, I swear to go. She wore them out). There was a definite case of compulsive buying/hoarding. Luckily, she never found eBay, but she did have a Costco membership, and never bought three of something on sale when you could get a case…
Mostly my mum kept the clutter confined to the basement and her bedroom, and the public parts of the house (living room, etc.) were fairly presentable. My mother did not enjoy or respect housework during her lifetime, believing there were more important and interesting things to do before dusting. And she was right.
However, I also believe that having a clean, well-ordered and pleasant home is worth spending some time on. The peace of mind is worth it. Those incredible cluttered places make me feel crazy, just looking at the pictures! It’s so far from serenity.
It’s Saturday, and I’d love to be doing nothing but writing or gardening. But today I cleaned the bathroom, did laundry, vacuumed the house, tidied everything up, folded and put away laundry, cleaned out the fridge, swept floors, and cleaned the kitchen. Because I don’t want to fall into the Squalor Hole.
And I worked on the back bedroom…
The back bedroom is our Room of Shame. Not only have I inherited the Keep It All gene, we have a spare bedroom in which to put it all. And because my parents have both died, I’ve got stuff of theirs that I want for sentimental reasons. Yes, that room slightly scary, and yes, it’s sort of like my mother’s, but…
I won’t let clutter or dirt take control. I’m in control. If we have a cluttered back bedroom that’s being used as storage, that’s okay. It’s under control, confined to that space alone, and I am gradually whittling away at it–there’s a box for Big Brothers to come pick up, and I actually enjoy making a bag of garbage. Keep, give away or toss!
My house is not perfect, but it’s not web-worthy by far!
My house is constant clutter. If it were left up to me I would throw 1/2 the crap away or have a huge yard sale. This website has some good ideas for clearing out clutter. Too bad I don’t use some of the good advice myself. 