The cleaner my house is the cleaner my house is

Parent Cafe
1

As a reformed slob, I have found certain truths to be overwhelmingly helpful

  1. The thread title sounds like a tautology, but it's not. What I mean is that I found when I'm keeping my house clean I'm much more likely to keep it that way because any mess stands out. When the counters were a mess, one more thing would hardly be noticed. When they are clear of stuff anything out of place stands out and there's more motivation to clean it. I also call it " clean begets clean"
  2. Paper is the enemy of clean. The less paper I allow in my house the cleaner it is. I don't get paoer bank statements anymore. I deal with all my mail immediately and recycle everything possible. I read the news online only.
  3. A place for everything and everyyin it's place. I of course had heard of this phrase but I never really understood it. Now I do. When you know where something goes you are much more likely to put it away.
  4. The container is the limit ( this is from A slob comes clean...a favorite blog). The idea is this. If you have a container for say, toys and it's full, it's time to get rid of some toys. If your container is really too small you can adjust but once you have a reasonably sized one that's it.
  5. Your closet is a container. See above.
  6. Do your dishes ( either by hand or dishwasher ) every day. This more than anything else will help keep a neat kitchen. ( again via A slob comes clean).

So how about you. Neat freak or slob. If neat is this how you’ve always been? What are your best ’ neat" tips (. Oh I also believe you have to want to be neat. Until you’re ready its almost impossible)

2

Oh, I couldn’t agree more with these tips!! For most of my life, I worked full-time and raised my kids. I remember noticing messy areas in my house and thinking, Oh, someone should do something about that . . . but I never had the time and it all seemed too overwhelming. Now that I’m retired and those kids are gone (and we moved), I am soooooo happy to keep my house neat and tidy. I love cleaning the kitchen island; I love folding laundry; I love putting the old newspapers in their proper place; I love taking the recyclables to their bin. I recently cleaned out the garage so we can park cars in it and I get a happy rush everytime I open the garage door.

And I agree with “the container is the limit.”

3

@VeryHappy Yes it’s much easier to keep a neat house when the nest is empty. Though I started when my kids were home but older ( middle school).And if you’re like me you find people will look at you like you’re crazy when you tell them how much you like cleaning but yeah I really do.

4

Truth be told, I like organizing. I’m not crazy about cleaning.

5

Yep, I try and take care of all paper when it comes in the door. However, my dh is another story. Right now, the kitchen is clean and tidy but the kitchen table is covered in computer components which will stay there for a few days until I get real irritated. Love the man, but he is trying to live up to his college title holder of messiest room on the floor.

6

I was a slob as a child and teenager, but became neat when living in the dorm at college. There simply was no space for clutter. Now making my bed every morning is part of my routine (while I wait for the water to get hot in the shower) and I deal with mail immediately. Agree that ‘neat’ and ‘clean’ are two different things. There is usually dust on my neatness.

7

I am more a clutterless freak than a clean freak. It’s very important to my sense of well being that things are put away and that there is a place for everything. I cannot leave house with bed unmade or dishes/stuff on the counter. I do need to vacuum /swiffer constantly because of dog hair. I am also constantly straightening up. Why is it so difficult for H to fold the throw when he’s done with it or put the toothpaste back in the cup???

I never want to apologize to anyone who drops by about house being messy.

But the big stuff - like windows, baseboards, cleaning hardwoods, etc., I do let go sometimes for longer than I should. I just hired a cleaning person to come in once a month to do that kind of cleaning (plus regular stuff on that day).

8

I grew up in a fairly untidy household. My Dad considered cleaning inside my Mom’s job (he was in charge of outside chores), but my Mom was (and still is) a “slob” who never learned how to clean in her own childhood. So by the time I got married to an excessive compulsive cleaner, I had a lot of learning to do. But now our roles are somewhat reversed. While my wife does her share and cares very much about cleanliness, I find myself generally cleaning the kitchen at the end of the day, putting dishes away, folding laundry while my wife may be relaxing. After staring at a computer screen and reading all day, I find it relaxing to accomplish small cleaning chores about the house. Then on the weekends, I get a real sense of accomplishment by tackling a larger chore.

9

Like @vistajay I find small chores (especially folding laundry) somewhat relaxing.

I am fairly neat but don’t like to clean. I also work full time so I have a cleaning service 2x/month. H is somewhat of a reformed slob, but by the time he reformed S was becoming a full blown slob. I love S dearly, but when he is home there is “stuff” everywhere. D is naturally very neat.clean and organized.

10

I absolutely can’t stand clutter. I could (and probably do) throw things out that are still in use. It’s totally true that it’s easier with the empty nest, and now that my husband has a very light schedule, he does the vast majority of the cleaning - and he’s very good at it. I find it very peaceful and comforting to have a clean and organized home. We raised three kids and always had a dog - I am loving that at this point in life we have white couches that look wonderful with our paint colors.

11

“Lived-in” house here. Losing battle with clutter. I will always apologize for my house–even after I spend 3 days deep cleaning for visitors. If you visit without notice, it won’t be pretty. (OTOH, it will make you feel really good about your house.)
I grew up with 6 sibs and have 7 kids of my own, so I’m tolerant of a certain level of disorder. In the old days, my sibs and I did all the cleaning. Mom cooked and washed the clothes. (We ironed, folded, put away). But mom yelled a lot. I didn’t want to be that yelling mom, so my kids are not as well-trained in cleaning as we were. H comes from a family that didn’t care about anything-- he doesn’t even rinse his spit out of the sink. Two of our kids are neat and organized, but two are “Pigpens”–clouds of chaos and disorder surround them wherever they go. The other 3 are in-between–kinda sloppy, but can clean up when needed. The main rule that I try to enforce is keeping food and drinks in the kitchen.
There is a lot of stuff in our house–papers, thousands of books and periodicals, kids’ art projects, toys/games, tons of clothes/shoes (4 daughters), etc. etc. I do bills online/paperless, but still, there is so much mail–mostly for H who is involved in a lot of organizations.

I’m not a clean freak, but “dirty” bothers me more than “cluttery.” I have a “thing” about floors and enjoy sweeping/scrubbing/vacuuming. And I like washing windows, mirrors, door handles, and light switches. But counters, tables and shelves get horribly cluttery. We’ve moved many times over 30+ years of marriage, and that was always the time for a major purge. But now we’ve been in this house longer than any other (9 years), so things have built up again. (It is not THAT bad–we can fit 2 cars in our 2 car garage, plenty of unused storage in the basement–which we are NOT trying to fill up.)
It is hard for me to go through old stuff that has piled up–so many memories attached to things. I find this sorting and tossing incredibly depressing. So I let it sit. If someone else just “disappeared” this stuff, I wouldn’t miss 99% of it. But there are a few things with sentimental value. (I am not a collecter/saver/hoarder–nor overly sentimental, but still, this “memory” thing is a huge roadblock for me.)

My sense of organization is general, not specific. Like, kitchen utensils are in one of three drawers (not certain utensils always in the same drawer). Pots and pans in one of three bottom cabinets. I could really use a professional organizer to help me get rid of stuff and be more efficient–have toyed with the idea of hiring someone, but it seems like it would be too shameful and intrusive.
It is hard to get rid of stuff that “might be useful later.” Yesterday H was laughing at me when he saw our old “Happy Baby Food Grinder” in the top of a cabinet. Our “baby” is 13–but I’m saving it for grandchildren!

12

My life is in piles. Every single room, there’s at least one pile staring at me, waiting to get dealt with. I figure if I wait long enough, I can just throw them all away because they won’t be relevant any more.

It is a small stress every time I walk past one.

13

If you came into my house, you’d think it was staged to sell. I’m that organized. But if you went in the basement or garage, you’d assume a hoarder lived here. That’s my DH’s space. Sigh. I do love him, though!

14

atomom, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Just tackle those three drawers with kitchen utensils and you’ll feel a lot better.

15

I am neat. The other morning I left two dishes in the sink while I had an extra cup of coffee and it felt like a walk on the wild side. When I was a small child, I couldn’t sleep with toys on the floor instead of in the toy box where they belonged.

One of my sisters is the polar opposite. She can never find anything because nothing has a place it belongs. It costs her a lot of time, looking for things, and money, replacing things she just can’t locate. Both of us were just born this way.

Another sister says if she leaves a cup on a table at my house and walks out of the room, for just a minute, it disappears. That is true. You have to tell me you are coming back for it. I don’t leave cups in a room when I leave the room. Either I’m drinking out of that cup or it goes in the dishwaser.

In the parlor, there are current issues of magazines on tables. Nothing else. Unless you have a cup or glass in there that you are holding onto. And if I know company is coming over, I put those magazines in a drawer in the parlor secretary dedicated to that purpose. I would keep them there all the time, except for the one you are reading, but there were too many family complaints about that.

There are no papers on any counters or flat surfaces. There are very few papers in drawers or files and they are organized.

The one exception is my husband’s home office. He is cluttery. It’s his space. I just shut the door.

But I seem not to be too difficult to live with. All my sisters, two sisters-in-law and a friend have told me, at various times, if they are widowed, they are coming to live with me. Since this may not come to pass, I haven’t broken it to them, but I’m not going to let the messy ones live in my house. We will find something close by for them.

atomom: I don’t think keeping house for a large family is comparable to what most of experience. My friends with large families tended to be either extrememly regimented or extrememly lax. All the kids turned out just fine.

16

I fall in the camp of liking things uncluttered and like organizing . Deep cleaning could use some work. My mental state literally can be measured by clutter. And the fact that when my husband decided to see things on eBay when he retired nearly a year ago is not helping my mental state . The goal was to sell to get rid of things - so, less clutter. Instead he is not going to garage/estate sales galore and filling out home even more. It’s truly not a good thing . I have offered suggestions to try and control the areas where his stuff is so I can deal with it but he is not cooperating!

I find myself less attached to “things” then I used to be. Collections are a thing of the past.

17

Update–So, I just spent 2 hours washing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. Now my “Pigpen” D has returned from school, with a friend, and they are cooking. Oh, well. I like her friend and they are having fun, so…
Yes, I am one of those really lax moms.

18

I am a clutter freak. I have been known to point at the “drop zone” by the back door and announce that everyone has 10 minutes to claim their stuff or it’s getting thrown away. My H and D hate that I throw everything away and always claim that I accidentally threw something important away, but they eventually find it.

However, deep cleaning is an issue for me. I just noticed some window sheers in the bathroom that are filthy from dust coming in the window. And, admit that I have a cleaning lady because my work environment requires me to clean a lot and I’m just ‘over it’ when I get home.

19

That’s never worked for me. Any surface in the house that is not already covered with stuff, paper, or clutter is simply an available surface on which to put whatever it is needes to be placed somewhere. Yes it is very nice when such surface has been cleaned and cleared… but it never lasts long.

20

Some of these super organizers web sites claim that making your bed is next to Godiness. You should immediately close all the sweaty sheets and pillowcases under your bedspread. Eeeew. Fluff and air.