How Messy/dirty does your house get??

[ilovepcot]

::ushing angela out of the way to make friends with ilovepcot:::
hey there, i have a hot tub you can soak in when you're done making yourself feel better!

but seriously, my house can get downright NASTY between my daughter and I the hair is out of control, add in the cat hair and the dust bunnies suddenly start taking over! we finally caved in and have hired a cleaning lady twice a month, when she leaves it's like being in heaven!

Cat hair and dust bunnies????!!!!!

Pay that cleaning lady whatever she asks!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Seeing as it's just my husband and I, my house stays very clean.

 

[MareQ]

I'm like, Oh I will do it tomorrow, and the next thing you know, WOW, what happend a bomb exploded! No, the maid took off, and mom let the family get out of control!

I should send you pictres of my house to make you all feel better.

I mopped my kitchen floor today - for the first time in 2 months - We have 3 children - it won't take much imagination to guess how bad it was. I had to get on my hands and knees with brillo BEFORE I even mopped. The rest of my kitchen is ok since DH cleaned it and painted it while the kids and I were away last week. You can actually see that I have granite counter tops now - lol

My laundry I am "OK" on because I have spiffy new front loaders and I can shove as much as I can fit in there while still getting the door shut so it takes me less than half the time. I got them in Jan and the novelty still hasn't worn off. "Look honey I did ALL of our sheets and towels for the week and it STILL wasn't full"

There is NEVER a single room in my house at any given time that isn't completely trashed. The carpets are all shot (my house is only 4 years old) but it goes beyond that - toys everywhere, "stuff" everywhere - when we do "clean" we never quite get to actually cleaning because it's so bad all we ever get to is "tidying" (hence the unwashed floor for 2 months)

We really need to get a housekeeper - it's iMPOSSIBLE for me to keep up with thh house- I am home all day with the younger two (soon to only be the youngest as the next one goes to school soon) BUT I also work full time from my home. My day is #1 the children, #2 my job, #3 dinner #4 everything else - I never ever get to #4 during the day...

We pretty much live in a pig hole - it drives me CRAZY. Like I said above we really need a housekeeper - only problem is I can't find one. All the ones in the phonebook are quoting me $300 for weekly cleaning - HUH? I need a nice $75-$100 a week deal not $300 for a few women to spend 2 hours nin my house.

 

[maddiemouse]

OMG I love this thread! For the past two months I have been working three jobs...saving money for Disney.. I take every other Sunday off, but otherwise I'm at one job or another every day. You can't even begin to imagine what my house looks like. I want to hire a cleaning service to come in maybe twice a month to at least wash the floors and dust and stuff, but I have to clean the house first, before I'll let even the cleaning people see it Talk about dust bunnies and pet hair! Both my guys have black hair, and they shed copiously Truthfully, my goal is just to get it clean before I leave on my trip so at least I can come home to a clean house.

 

[MareQ]

I want to hire a cleaning service to come in maybe twice a month to at least wash the floors and dust and stuff, but I have to clean the house first, before I'll let even the cleaning people see it

We're like that as well. We are going on a cruise in Sept - MIL and FIL will be staying here to take care of the kids and get them to school(first time ever doing this - cruise is a 10th anniversary surprise from DH)

Anyway my MIL is freaking Martha Stewart. Everything is SPOTLESS - off white wall to wall carpet - SPOTLESS, laundry ALWAYS done, things NEVER dusty - her house is NEVER EVER anything but perfect. My house was perfect once - the day we moved in

So if I donlt find a reasonable cleaning lady DH and I are going to have to hire a silly $300/week crew for the few weeks before we leave so we have some hope of passing MIL's white glove test. Only probelm is that two weeks of a cleaning service will take 6 weeks of DH and I cleaning first so I'm not completely mortified when they get here

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Well, here's a thread for me!

Our house is always a complete disaster. Clutter, mostly, but also cat hair and dust. DH and I grew up with moms who cleaned up everything for us, so we sort of sit around staring at each other, wondering when SOMEBODY is going to come clean up this mess! DS is constantly dragging his stuff out of his room and leaving it all over the living room. Both DH & I work full time so on our off days we are feeling pretty proud if we get the laundry done!

We are leaving for WDW in 12 days, so I knew we were going to have to get things cleaned up since we are having a pet sitter. She phoned yesterday and asked if she could come by today to get all the info about the cats, see the house, etc. That gave us 24 hours to clean!

DH scrubbed DS's bathroom last night and I went around with the vacuum and cleaned the kitchen. Today DH scrubbed the kitchen floor, I did laundry and dusted and shredded a huge stack of credit card offers that were obscuring the surface of my desk. Now the house is all clean! The pet sitter came by this afternoon, so now we have tomorrow to relax! In a way I am glad we had a deadline because it forced us to clean. Most of the time our house looks like a crime scene.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I have two big issues--clutter and pet hair. Some of the clutter is mine, but other belongs to the kids and some to my DH, but he's not too bad (he has a home office that he can pile high). Stuff just seems to sit around and I'm amazed when the kids can walk over something of theirs instead of putting it away. The pet hair is a big thing with 4 cats and 2 dogs. One of our dogs is shedding a lot. The Roomba helps a lot with the pet hair, but it doesn't run itself.

When I'm being good, www.Flylady.net helps a lot with routines and motivation. I do not to everything the system recommends, but instead pick and choose what works for me. Using a timer is the #1 biggest hint that has helped me--just setting a timer and keeping at cleaning for 15 minutes has helped a lot in my clutter control and cleaning. Also, having daily and weekly routines for certain chores helps keep things under control. I am flexible somewhat, but in general I know that I do certain chores on certain days and I'm less likely to procrastinate that way.

The frustrating thing about cleaning is that it takes a lot longer to clean than it does to mess up again, especially with kids in the house.

 

[Holly]

Mine is clean, mostly because my greatest fear is that MIL will stop in and my house will be trashed.

 

[ocd4disney]

OK...i feel right at home on this thread. My house is always destroyed. We just moved in April to a newly built house so dirt isn't a big problem yet. But the clutter is everywhere. I said I wasn't going to let my new house get this way...that I was going to have a spot for everything.....and things that didn't fit would get tossed. But I am such a pack rat I am having a hard time parting with things. My ds2 and dd8 keep me hopping too. I want a cleaning lady to come clean once a week or so but I am afraid it would cut into my Disney fund ....I would rather do Disney than live in a perfectly clean house
Also, right now I am still using the " I just moved in and haven't finished unpacking" excuse.......How long will that work .....Of course my ds is now 2 and I am still carrying extra weight because 'I just had a baby"

 

[BeckyEsq]

I'm having a party tomorrow and I should be cleaning instead of DISing.

 

[ohiominnie]

Mine is alright. Too much clutter, but fairly clean. But never white glove and perfect. Ppl would not come in and think "oh my gosh, how does anyone LIVE here?!?!?!" So that's good.

Besides, I have a disclaimer near the front door that I cross stitched.....

 

[JoyG]

I love reading this thread.

I would describe what my house looks like, but then I'd have to create a new user name!

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Our home has been called a museum by some of our friends. But really it's not THAT pristine. We have some clutter. And I have to admit it's not thanks to me, DH does most of the cleaning.

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

Our home has been called a museum by some of our friends. But really it's not THAT pristine. We have some clutter. And I have to admit it's not thanks to me, DH does most of the cleaning.

Show off Send that man to NJ pronto!

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Show off Send that man to NJ pronto!

Sure, I'll send him right now.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

Here is my house right now:

Dirty laundry in piles - but these piles are in different rooms and have been there for about a week. I also have clean laundry folded and piled up in the laundry room and on top of dressers.

Toys litter the floor in almost every room in the house, and the stairs.

Floors need vacuumed and mopped. My kitchen table is diry and needs wiped down.

Bathrooms need cleaned.

My desk is a disaster.

My dining room table is covered in junk, and I don't even know what that junk is.

My front porch is a mess and needs hosed off. There's an ice chest sitting there that has been there for the past 3 weeks.

The boys room is a disaster - my dd's room is clean - I did that today.

Feel any better? I really wish I knew how people who have model-home perfect houses do it.

 

[kellyg403]

Glad to know that I am not alone! It seems when my kids were smaller my house stayed much cleaner. Now that they are older I can't keep things in any type of order especially since summer hit. I come home from work and they have eaten 15 bowls of cereal and left the bowls in the sink, all their friends have played football with them in the front yard and there are all these juice boxes just DROPPED wherever they felt like it...the list goes on. I often ask them if they are embarrased to have friends over with the house so messy because they never pick up after themselves. They look at me with blank stares because evidently all teenagers do this..! Calgon couldn't even take me away most days.

Kelly

 

[momrek06]

I (fortunately) have a home/office...so between work when things around the office are quiet (and that is almost never) I clean areas of the house. Both bathrooms I clean on a pretty regular basis. My DH and DS are out doing land surveying and they tend to get pretty dirty and I make them start stripping in the garage...(hahaha)! They don't care because especially after a morning of doing percs at lots, running back-hoes, climbing in and out of holes, wow, they are a mess. My youngest son is away in GREECE for the entire summer and it is his picture that is next to the word PIG in Webster's Dictionary . So with little piggy boy away, things aren't so bad. I do not have small children. So between that and one son away, the laundry gets done on a pretty regular basis. DH and DS put their own dishes in the dishwasher and put their own laundry away. Basically, we all work together both inside the house and outside as well with our business.

It does feel at times that it is a never ending task!!!

 

[snowwite]

I admit my house gets pretty bad too. Not so much dirty but cluttered. We just need a bigger box for our stuff or less stuff!
If I have some time off from work and have the option of cleaning or playing/spending time with the family I will always put off the housework. You just never know what could happen and I know my kids will look back someday and think wow, we had so many great times with Mom.I dont think anyone's kids are going to grow up and reminisce about Mom never having time for them but wow, you could eat off the floof and see yourself in the appliances!
My mom's saying was nobody ever died of dirt.

 

[Feralpeg]

DD says I am a neatnik. I can't stand clutter. When we are done using something, it goes back to its place. DD is not as good about this as I am, but she is pretty good about picking up.

My house is never what I'd call dirty. I dust and vacumn everything at least once a week. If it weren't for the animals, the house would be better. The animals shed, so I am forever cleaning up fur.