Bee. Management by piles, though I can get my hands on anything within a couple moments. I like to see my stuff, esp in the sewing room. All the sewing gear is part of the decor.
Cricket thanks to OCD luckily I can laugh at myself
Bee here. And I have a few piles that need attention…
The quiz said ladybug, but I think that some of the bee and butterfly tendencies ring true for me as well. I’ve long told myself that I want to be a cricket, but need to accept that will never happen.
There are times when I’ve thought about bagging up everything in our closets to donate and starting over with the least possible purchases, just out of frustration. Better yet, hiring someone to clear it all out so I won’t be tempted to keep most of it at the end.
If you go on the “odd jobs after retirement thread” someone will come do those closets for you!!!
Thanks for sharing that! Me too! I’m great at organizing trips and schedules. I’m ALWAYS on time unless there’s a huge emergency. But I’m messy. I just don’t care if not everything in my house is perfectly arranged.
Except how your bed is made, right?
Butterfly here - I seem to be in the minority among this group…
…have a greater emotional attachment to their belongings than the average person. - definitely - we moved to 4 different countries when I was growing up (entrepreneur, not military) and I wasn’t allowed to keep anything that didn’t fit into a steamer trunk, so now that I’m more settled in I really don’t “like” getting rid of things…that said, I’ve been know to do major purges, and love every second of them!
I’m a mix of all of these. I can drive myself crazy. I love the calm of minimalism and also richly layered rooms (though, not too many patterns and things out at once). I love light, spare, bare, modern spaces (as long as there is plenty of wood, stone, plaster and other warm and worn materials) and quirky, colorful old-world places with just touch of bohemianism and charming clutter (Cotswolds, Provence, Morocco anyone?) I can also swoon over a disciplined New England cottage. My housekeeping is equally mixed. I feel SOOO great after a purge but I have a lifetime of sentimental stuff. I think I have a touch of undiagnosed ADD so I function best when things are ordered. But, the order itself inspires a creative burst that…well, loosens the daily discipline to keep the order. I’m determined to get it right! I figure, simplifying everything while keeping the most beloved and useful objects will make it easier to find the sweet spot. Maybe one day when I do I’ll send the photos. But, like @MaineLonghorn i know I will never, never be a person who will have a continually spotless house. If it’s a beautiful morning I will choose a walk or a spontaneous adventure over sorting the mail or cleaning the closet anytime.
Butterfly. And definitely prefer hooks to hangers.
That’s me! I’m gonna name it “dragon fly” and claim it!
@justamom, Whoa, I can relate. I was an Army brat and have virtually nothing from my childhood. Everytime we moved overseas in domestically, things got tossed. When I went off to college I took every single thing I owned (my poor roommate…) because I knew it would be gone the next time I came home. I was right.
OTOH, I have been doing a bag a week religiously for several years now…
We were at open houses for condos this weekend with friends. They have a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house and said they’d never be able to fit all their stuff into the nice 3 bedroom 2 bath condos we saw and would have to get rid of lots of stuff.
I can’t imagine having such a huge house and having to clean it. There’s only 2 of them!
It seems a condo might be a nice place to live so someone else has to deal the much of the upkeep—roof, screens, exterior painting, etc. Obe if the places had lovely grounds and 24/7 security on golf carts. The community is gated. One downside is no place to plug in hybrid vehicles in your own garage, but can pay to charge in big lot.
I live in a six bedroom (2 used for offices) 4.5 bath house and honesty its not hard to clean because two of the bedroom only get used when our kids are in town and one as a very organized storage area for out of season clothes, and household supplies…I don’t like being down to my last container of paper towels, garbage bags, storage bags, dish or laundry soap. I would imagine at a smaller place it would be harder to be as organized as we are in our place.
So you weren’t adversely affected by TP shortage during Covid I take it.
I was solidly supplied during COVID’s first two months in TP and PT, but now I’m even more prepared. PTSD of sorts not to run out of those items, or laundry detergent and dish soap.
So, if you don’t mind my asking, how often do you go in and clean the two unused bedrooms? And bathroom(s)?
I’m trying to figure this out. We’ve, “upsized,” to a 1,900 sq ft. townhouse. We use one spare bedroom as an office, but the true guest bedroom and its bath will not be used very often. I think I got a bit OCD about cleaning when our FL condo was listed and being shown all the time. And, it was 300 sq ft smaller and all on one level so any visitors walked past all the rooms to get to the living room. I cleaned all of it every single week. Now, in our new place, all the bedrooms are up, and I’m trying to scale back on my cleaning to something less intense.
I have the same PTSD. I keep a ridiculous amount of TP on hand now.
Maybe once a month and just a very quick dusting/vacuuming and running the water. Maybe takes 5 min per room
lol. No my husband said I could have made a fortune selling TP, Purell and Bleach based cleaning stuff.
It certainly has been harder for us. We had a very large house. The closet space was wonderful. We now have one quarter as many closets and after two years have yet to adjust. We also had four garages vs. two now.
I’ve yet to figure out how to store some things and am slowly realizing it just can’t be done. This is after we gave away pickup truck loads, literally, of bed, bath, and table linens; cookware and bakeware; dinnerware and glassware; decor items and furniture. We kept most of the household supplies, although we left some for the new owners, and a few have yet to run out.
In some ways, the bigger house was easier to maintain. The excess bathrooms were dusted once a month and water was run in the drains twice a month. They only required actual cleaning about two or three times a year. Dusting and vacuuming the house was easy because there was no clutter. Things that had dedicated places to store now end up on the laundry room counter, which was supposed to be for my sewing machine.
I’m still trying to deal with efficiently organizing cleaning supplies, trash bags, paper towels and toilet paper. We have to keep some things out of reach from our grandchildren which is not easy as I didn’t design many upper cabinets due to being short. We keep adding more magnetic locks to lower cabinets to foil the GDs and keep them safe.