Check with a used office furniture store. I got really nice file cabinets there for less than half the price the office supply big boxes were charging for crappy ones. (IMO, it’s well worth buying the ones that have ball bearings in the drawer mechanisms. They are about a thousand times easier to use. Check them out at the store and you’ll be amazed at the difference.)
Thanks. I’ll definitely look into places like that.
Well, this weekend was both busy and above freezing, so there was more socializing and running than de-slobbing going on. But I did manage to open a huge pile of mail while watching TV on Saturday, so at least there was some progress made.
Inspired by pepperlandgirl, I think tonight’s task will be folding. I have a big comfy chair in the corner of my room that serves as a holding station for clean clothes that need to be put away, and I don’t think the lowest strata have been moved in a few weeks. I’m not letting myself do more laundry until I’ve put that batch away, so hopefully the lack of clean socks will be a motivator.
Well, I didn’t do much this weekend. I had to do the grocery shopping and such. I did, however, take down the outside Christmas decorations and put them away. Also, I had bought a charger valet that has spaces for 4 electronic items to be stored/charged, plus it has three drawers and an open compartment in front, and two nice slots in back. It’s now on my nightstand. I’ve got my cell phone, camera, pda, mp3 player chargers set up in it, and one of the slots is holding a small flashlight and the tv remote. The drawers have various things that are handy to have on the bedside table, and the open compartment holds my glasses! No more chaos!
Today is our first day back at school, and I’m hoping I’m ready. I don’t feel very ready. I’ll try to get my chores done too.
I’m starting to seriously consider getting outside help with the house. By next fall I’ll be teaching a 3rd grader and a kindergartener. Something has got to give. I’m hiring a nice neighbor kid to do some of the yard work I haven’t done any of this fall, which is a huge relief, and I’m starting to think that paying a housecleaner might be good too. We can’t afford it just yet though; it will be a few months. Does anyone have thoughts on the morality of getting a housecleaner? I have all kinds of moral hangups about it and I suspect that they are a bit silly. Or maybe not.
I don’t think they are at all silly - and I know quite a few people on average incomes who use a maid service - not every day, but once a month or before special events or for a big seasonal clean - they can be pretty reasonable.
Most people have certain cleaning jobs that they find easy or even somewhat soothing, and ones that they find really onerous: Vacuuming vs. folding laundry vs cleaning bathroooms. If you can outsource the stuff you really hate doing, you can use your time to do the housekeeping you don’t mind and still feel like you participated.
Plus, if someone’s coming over to dust and vacuum, you have to have the surfaces clear, so you have motivation (and a deadline) to tidy up.
I spent most of the weekend in bed sick, so not much got done around here. 
But before I got sick, I found a dustmop that can reach into the corner behind my husband’s desk to clear out the dust and dog hair that collects in there; it’s one of the spots where the dog hair drifts thanks to the air circulation, so it’s nice to finally have something that can reach in there and clear it out. I also did a lot of dusting, especially in the areas where my hubby spends most of his time, and his head cleared up noticeably. So hopefully keeping up on that will help him.
Today, since I’m still feeling seriously blah, I’m going to spend my time puttering here in my office. I’ve got a bunch of knitting stuff piled around that needs to be sorted and organized – it doesn’t do me much good to have lovely yarn if it gets buried and I forget I have it. I also really, really need to clean off my supply shelves next to my desk; I have a tendency to just shove stuff in there willy-nilly to get it out from underfoot, and it ends up in a total cluttered mess.
I’d hire a maid service in a heartbeat if I could talk Papa Tiger into it. He’s never had one, so he doesn’t know how wonderful it can be. Even once a month, to do the floors, which is where we fail so miserably at keeping up. I had a cleaner in once a week for several years when I lived in Los Angeles (and she was even legal; a delightful young woman from Belize) who kept my house spotless. I really miss that! I like living in a clean house, I just have trouble putting forth the effort to get it that way myself!
How much work are that third grader and kindergartener doing around the house? By kindergarten, I was doing laundry (Mom sorted) and making salads and Crock-Pot dinners, and I dusted the house once a week. By third grade, I ran the vacuum in at least two rooms a day, did the laundry totally on my own, and learned to sweep and mop well, and I was responsible for dinner thrice a week, and dishes on the other nights. That and a 20 minute tidy time each night before dinner takes only about an hour out of everyone’s day.
My almost three year old loves to feed the cats, and she’s better at loading the dishwasher than her father, so those are her jobs. She’s also the most limber, so it’s her job to wipe the baseboards with a diaper wipe while I mop - which saves me, seriously, half an hour of back-breaking work. She helps her brother gather the bags out of the wastebaskets, and tucks new ones in their place. She’s also Queen of the kitty fountain - she pours one cup of water in there every morning, and more as needed. Her brother cleans it out when it gets gunky, but she may take over that job soon as he hates it.
Third grade is…what, 9 years old? 9 year olds used to spin and weave and sew and plant fields and help slaughter and dress the pigs and goats. They were about 4 years away from moving away and joining another household. They can run the Swiffer without bruising their little childhoods.
If, after making sure that everyone who’s home all day is pitching in, you still need help, go ahead and hire it! You’re not just a mom, you’re a schoolteacher, right? In your home, sure, but it’s still a part time, if not full time, job. The reason I learned so much housework so young was because my mom was a teacher, and a single mom. I had to pitch in to keep the house sane.
The thing to remember is that, historically, having NO help around the house is weird. We used to have parlor maids and ladies maids and butlers and cooks - and if you were a parlor maid, you weren’t making your own meals. Dividing the labor up among several people is just the best way of doing things. The fact that we don’t do that anymore is NOT outweighed by our labor saving devices. Yes, we might have anti-bacterial sponges now, but it takes just as long to wipe a table as it ever did with a dirty old rag! Laundry might be the exception - it’s a LOT easier and quicker to do each garment by machine than washing by hand. But - you probably have 50 times the garments your great-great-great grandmother did. She had 3 complete outfits, you’ve got more pairs of jeans than that!
I should clarify. I think my moral hangups might be a bit silly.
They’re my mother’s fault. 
She has all sorts of rules about things being decadent and thus not allowed, and so on.
I do think that people should clean up their own messes and take care of their things. But now I’m running up against the limits of what I can accomplish, and I’m finding that I have some priorities of what I can do vs. what I can outsource…
Floors are my downfall also - I don’t mind cleaning when I can see results, so bathrooms and kitchens are usually immediate gratification (oooh, shiny!). But vacuuming doesn’t make the floor look any different, so I tend to wait until I can actually see the dust to tackle the floors, which then means moving all the furniture and chasing dust bunnies and coughing a lot. I know I’d be better off if I just swiffered the high-traffic areas every few days, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.
Hey, that’s a great theory! Except that you’re cleaning up after the messes of four people, not one, right? Ergo, in accordance with your mother’s wishes, you should hire THREE maids. Simple!
Bwahaha, WhyNot! OK, here’s what my kids do. (And 3rd grade will be 8 years old–my oldest will be 8 in the summer.)
The oldest is getting pretty helpful. The younger one is still not very. They:
tidy up their room every evening
dust everything they can reach, including baseboards (that’s what short people are for!)
keep my closet (shoes) and the shoes in the entry organized
pick up most of their own toys all over
put away silverware and hand me clean dishes
and help clean the bathrooms.
Oh, and they sort socks and things, but I mostly fold laundry when they’re not around.
The older one likes to vacuum but I think it might weigh more than she does, so she’s still a bit clumsy with it. I should have her sweep more–we have half a house of wood floor, and I usually have her do the dining area when I think of it. She would love to do dishes and I haven’t let her yet, so maybe I should.
If I do hire someone I think it would probably be every two weeks, and we’d still have plenty to do.
My mother has a moral hangup with housecleaning help concept, too. First, she has no outside job, so she feels like the housecleaning should be her responsibility. But she doesn’t like cleaning, so she doesn’t do it, so it doesn’t get done. I’d like to convince her to get a part-time job that she likes better than cleaning and use the money to hire someone to clean. But:
Second, she’s a perfectionist about it. The bathroom is either eat-off-the-floor clean or disgusting, because when it takes 3 hours to get it “really clean,” she just doesn’t have the energy to clean it every day. Same with the kitchen. So I’m worried about any cleaner she hires meeting her standards - and I don’t think she’ll agree that it’s better to have the place 95% clean most of the time, rather than 100% clean for two days a year.
I’ve inherited both the guilt trip and the perfectionism, but like you I’m starting to prioritize.
Dangermom, it’s really okay to hire someone to come in and clean. The only way it’s not is if you are taking advantage of someone in someway, and I’ve seen enough of your posts to know you’re a moral person who wouldn’t do that.
When I first moved in here, my roommate and I talked about the fact that she hired someone to come in and clean once a week. Cleaning is hard, and for a lot of us it isn’t satisfying, so we don’t do it. Then it piles up, and we have a hard time inviting people over or what have you. Or we invite people over and spend hours or even days cleaning for a dinner. It’s not worth it.
I think my roommate got it 100% right when she said, “You get your life back.” Yes, you have to tidy to a degree for a cleaning person, but it’s just not that bad. And in return you stay cleaner, you have sparkling floors and tubs and such, someone else is paid (well) for this job and you live in a happier space. And, if you’re me, you help the cleaning lady figure out what questions to ask her veterinarian about her dog’s care, so she’s not left frustrated and feeling ripped off and the vet isn’t accused of being a con artist…
I’ve recently realized a few things about myself and messiness.
I recently moved, and got rid of a bunch of stuff. But in between my two most recent moves, I acquired a new boyfriend. He’s a neat freak. He swears he was once a slob, but I don’t believe it.
Before this move, I spent a lot of time at his house. And because he’s a neat freak, I went through pains to not mess the place up. Putting dishes away as soon as I was done with them or the dishwasher was finished running. And he’d be very much a neat freak at my place too, prompting me to put clothing in the hamper and make the bed so cat fur couldn’t get in it (much) and all that crap.
Holy shit, all that stuck! I’m not a neat freak now (you all saw my bedroom), but I’m working toward it. And it freaks me the hell out. But I like it. I find I can’t cook in messy kitchen, and I can’t think in a disaster of a room. I’m nowhere near my new boyfriend’s standards, but it’s light years ahead of me.
So here’s the problem.
I have a great roommate, who pays for a cleaning lady and is a really sweet person. But she’s also a bit of a slob. And I don’t want to revert back to those habits. So far (a month or so), no problem. But I feel like I’m cleaning up after her sometimes. It’s never too onerous, just things like grabbing cups from the living room if I’m loading the dishwasher. I don’t care about that, but I don’t want to make her feel like she’s moved in with a psycho neat-nik.
Especially since I’m about to ask if we can do a few things to neaten the place up overall. This is mostly because I’m feeling insane about not having a place to hang up coats (the front closet is used by both of us for storage of things that can’t go in the garage), and things like that.
How do I handle this? I can probably deal with not asking about the neatening up stuff, but I really, really don’t want to regress.
I have the same issues. I feel like if I hired someone to clean, it means I’ve failed. And that it’s a waste of money. Which is kinda weird because we did have a housecleaner when I was growing up.
I’m slowly backsliding. Haven’t done much since the holidays and it’s starting to show. But I have been a little better about putting things away as I go along rather than letting them pile up.
Too late to edit. I did want to mention that I had this big plastic garbage bag with an old cheap sleeping bag, some old towels and pillows that I moved from my apartment. I didn’t need any of it but I kept telling myself that sleeping bags are always useful and so are old towels and gee, if I just washed them they’d be fine. Anyway, I moved the bag (to shift it out of the way to take a picture for my blog, I was that embarassed by it) and found a roach! :eek: The first roach I’ve ever seen in my house. It was dying so I was able to swiftly seep it out the door but I tookt he whoel bag straight to the trash and it feels freaking great. I am so relieved I don’t need to deal with it anymore.
I got a free file cabinet! I went to a freecycle free for all (it was listed as being there), and my roommate drove us there. Now I got exactly what I wanted for no money and no hardship getting it home. And it’s light, so it’s easy for me to carry and move.
My roommate got a bunch of books, so we’re both happy.
I tackled SO’s laundry room today (again). This time I was prepared with HAMPERS!
3 hampers (it was cheaper than getting one of those 3-4 sectional laundry room organizers) - one for whites, one for colors, and one for darks. Need to go back and get one more for towels (I like to keep my towels seperate). Went through the floor-covered pile of dirty clothes and seperated. I found the floor! You can walk in the room now without worrying about tripping over something and breaking your neck. Wait… probably wouldnt break anything since the floor was pretty much cushioned & as long as you didnt hit the washer or dryer.
Oh, I would’ve taken pics & posted but I dont think my SO wouldve appreciated it. I still have more work to do tomorrow… will also tackle the kitchen - again! This time it’s getting mopped and scrubbed.
I didn’t do ANYTHING today except that Elaine came and fixed my garage, yay! And the neighbor boy came over and we arranged about yardwork, yay! But otherwise, the day was a total loss house-wise. (Actually it was a setback, what with the ant invasion and the broken picture/glass in the carpet.) We’re getting back into school after Christmas break and suddenly I have way less time. And I’m supposed to speak in church on Sunday (eep) and I have to write the talk. I’m going to go do that now. I’d better do some laundry tomorrow!
Hiring someone is sounding better and better. I think if I didn’t spend all my limited cleaning time mopping or cleaning the bathrooms, I might do better with the stuff that piles up on the counters. I’d have to take care of those piles so as not to annoy the cleaning person…