I’ve finally figured out what it is that I hate about housework. It’s not because I’m a slob; rather I’ve often referred to myself as a neat freak trapped inside a messy person’s body. I love when things are clean. I like when everything is sparkly and all the toys are picked up and put away and I can walk through the living room without tripping over the little Bert from the Sesame Street playset, stubbing my toe on the Fisher Price piano, or stepping on a rogue Cheerio.
Not only do I feel happy and relaxed when everything is straightened up, I also love – in theory at least – the look of rooms in the Ikea catalog that I stash in my desk drawer like it’s porn and if you asked what my favorite design style is, I love the whole Asian minimalist look tremendously. You would never guess though, because we have so much STUFF everywhere, so much clutter, that minimalist is definitely not the first thing that would come to mind. Our home decor is more like “comfort meets exploded toy store”.
However, clutter frustrations aside, there are two major reasons why I hate the efforts of housework.
One reason is the combined actions of my little cyclones, Hayley and Breanna. It’s almost futile to try to do actual full-blown housecleaning. The best I can usually hope for is to get things mostly under control. I can tidy up the entire living room and then while I’m in the kitchen trying to wash the dishes and wipe down the counters, the kids will pull out eight thousand toys and books and by the time I come back in the living room, you would never know that I had done a damn thing in there. While I’m in the bedroom changing sheets and folding clean laundry, Hayley’s room is being blown up. While I scrub the tub, the kids are pulling all the stuff out from under the bathroom sink. It never ends.
And speaking of never ending, that’s the other reason that I sometimes can’t embrace the whole zen of housework. It just never ends. You can get up at 5 am and do the laundry non-stop all day long, washing, drying, folding, and putting it all away, but unless your entire family spent the day naked you’re still going to have dirty laundry as soon as everyone undresses and gets ready for bed. You can wash every dish, glass, and utensil after a meal but as soon as you’re thirsty or hungry again, there are more dishes to do (and if you don’t have a dishwasher, which is my biggest complaint, you can’t even at least hide the dirty dishes away behind a closed door).
Dust? Just give it a day and it will be back; if you live on a busy street like we do, sometimes it doesn’t even take a full 24 hours for dust to re-settle. Vacuum? The cat will decide to drop ten pounds of fur immediately after. Speaking of the cat, clean the litter box and the cat will decide it’s the perfect time to take an enormous crap. Scrub the tub and that’s the day your kids will be filthy from the park and leave a big ring at bath time that same evening. Mop the floors and that’s when you’ll drop half a tomato cut-side down on to the tiles and your kids will spill everything they try to put in their mouth.
The best times for our home are when we have parties. For some inexplicable reason – and all our friends do the same thing – we will clean like crazy possessed people before we have people over for birthday parties or get-togethers. And then we wonder why we bothered because then all the kids pull out all the toys at once in Hayley’s room, people walk around the clean floors in their shoes, everyone is eating and drinking, and the next morning I have to clean it all back up again just to get it to look half as good as it did in the twenty minutes before our guests arrived.
Still, sometimes I feel like we should pretend that we’re having a party and send both kids over to their grandparents’ house for a few hours so we can do some serious cleaning. I always feel like if we just get it really perfect once, then the upkeep will be a little easier than it is when I’m constantly trying to catch up to and keep up with the ongoing disasters that sprout up in one room or another.
It’s Sunday today. I sometimes hear about people who have scheduled housework so under control that they can play God and have a day of rest where they don’t have to do anything beyond washing their dishes on Sunday. I don’t know who these people are or how they do it. On this day of rest, I have already cleaned the living room once and I can see that it has to be picked up again, the dining room table that I cleared off last night is covered in stuff again, the kitchen needs to be cleaned, the bed isn’t made, and Hayley’s room looks like a post-hurricane site.
If you’re one of those people that manages to keep the mess and clutter down to a dull roar, please share your secrets. If you’re not, please commiserate so I don’t feel like I’m the only one who can’t have more than one clean room per day. In the meantime I’m going to go pick up the toy food that is spread across the living room carpet like an obstacle course.
My secret? You really want to know?
I have a maid service. 🙂 It forces me to tidy up because they won’t move anything off the floors and once I have it in my hands, I might as well put it away properly :> And then someone else comes in and cleans.
And not to provide assvice – can Hayley help put away toys? Breanna too maybe since she’s walking now?
I actually use Sunday as the day to do most of my cleaning. My mom takes the oldest to church with her every Sunday and then keeps him all afternoon. After church, the other one goes out to her house for a couple of hours too. I do laundry and order my husband around about his chores all day. Plus I do my grocery shopping then too. Go figure!
Oh and I canceled my cleaning lady this week b/c she wouldn’t have known where to start with all the clutter living out of place. ack, I hate that!
This site has millions of folks who do things in 15 minute time periods.
http://www.flylady.net/
That, and not touching something unless you can finish it perfectly, works wonders.
Sounds like you have things pretty much under control though.
I goofed in the last comment. Some folks don’t touch a project unless they can do it to perfection. The mentioned web site says not to do that. Just do the 15 minutes and stop. I think some folks add multiple 15 minute segments to the same task though, but not before moving to another part of the house.
See, I see toys all over the place and I don’t think messy or durty – it’s the expected clutter of having kids. As long as they have a place to put it (which may be the real issue) then a quick toss and it should be clean (ish) again.
Barring that, eventually they move out. 😀 I’m not gonna say they get cleaner as they get older. They just strew different items. 🙂
I also try to really clean once or twice a week. Daily sutff is laundry, floors and clutter control.
While I am still struggling with scenarios much like yours, I have found some of these ideas to be helpful:
-Designate specific times for clean up and get each child to help out, even if they’re little. This helps them to be responsible and it lightens my load as they grow older.
-Keep the toy count low.
-Create specific containers or a system to how their toys and books are stored, and then help them learn it.
I would also suggest taking a look at the list of ideas at http://www.organizingmyhome.com. The company I work for has made this available for free. It was helpful for me in my quest to keep the clutter under control.
“I also love – in theory at least – the look of rooms in the Ikea catalog that I stash in my desk drawer like it’s porn” – OH MY STINKIN’ HECK … I soooo get this and it made me snort all at the same time. 🙂
I will commiserate b/c I cannot – absolutely cannot – EVER stay on top of the laundry. But I have determined that even though it is ever-going that I’m going to tackle a chart (yes, you read my anal retentive mind) – a chart of mine and the kids’ chores. And I’ll do the thing I have to do that day and rest in the fact that I did that thing (or those things) and not concern myself with what tomorrow’s chores are.
And Sundays – we all veg … except for when we don’t. Y’know, like today. hahahahaha
Oh, man. I have NO IDEA. We have an entire house worth of stuff crammed into a three room apartment with no storage (seriously, there is ONE cabinet in the kitchen and two small closets). We’ve been paring down for a YEAR and it still isn’t done. Never mind actually cleaning the dirt.
I’ll let you know if I figure anything out. I think flylady might be onto something with the 15 minute thing, but I hate her so much that I won’t try it. Shooting myself in the foot, maybe, but I am stubborn.
Nicole – Breanna’s actually surprisingly good at putting stuff away and throwing things in the garbage considering her age. I suspect a bit of mild OCD. 🙂 Hayley is a bit more challenging when it comes to cleaning up but we’re working on it!
Richard – I can’t stand FlyLady. Her methods aren’t all bad but her system with the eight billion emails drives me nuts.
Andrea – Clutter control is killing me! 🙂
Christina – That site has some beautiful stuff.
OMSH – So um, are you planning an entry soon about this chart of which you speak? *innocent blinking*
Annika – I hear you. I could easily fill a house with all the stuff we have crammed in this damn apartment.
[Richard – I can’t stand FlyLady. Her methods aren’t all bad but her system with the eight billion emails drives me nuts.]
I hear you. More often than not I don’t read them. I was after the concept of a “limited” clean-up tackling a piece of the pie at a time.
I’m right there with you – can never get it under control and we live in a nyc apartment, so not like I have so much to clean! I do a cleaning person every two weeks, which I do find helps me keep up, at least for a couple of days. But I do read lots of organizing sites (not that I EVER implement them, mind you) that I found through your site – and lots of people make cleaning schedules and give examples – mondays bathrooms, etc. That’s way too rigid for me, but maybe you could copy one and try it!
I also agree on the 15 minute increments – I do that during naptime when I’m tempted to read or watch TV or surf the net – 15 or 30 minutes of cleaning or picking up before I turn on the computer!
You put into words EXACTLY the feelings I have had for the last 12 years. EXACTLY. The. Words.
“So um, are you planning an entry soon about this chart of which you speak? *innocent blinking*”
oh heck yea, do I do anything without posting it?
Have you eve looked around here when you’ve come over with the kids? You were here on the weekend and today is Tuesday and I”m still finding things strewen(is that a word?) all over the place. Like my compass from my desk that wound up in the living room. Also the bigest culprit is Haley who seems to think that the more she can bring out and not put back is the way to go about it. The biggest thing would be to tell her that she puts back what she plays with before she starts on the next thing, assuming they are not related. Breanna is really good at picking up after herself. But all that aside I just love both oh your children.