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July 27, 2005

Comments

Brain Ventris

The number of tasks that you do in life is somehow directly proportional to your age. Well, that's gonna change after you retire. But what's now is now. It seems kinda hard to look for the perfect time to clean everything, so there are times when you can just ask expert cleaners to do the job for you.

Melodie Turk

Nicola - Thanks for the post. My family drives me crazy with their "non-cleaning" attitude. I have 3 kids: 8,14, 17 and 1 husband and 2 cats. I don't think anyone actually "cleans". Maybe picks up a little, shoves things in a closet, etc. Anyway, I like the 30 minutes a night comment. I think I could swing this with the hubby and maybe even the teens. Thanks so much. Maybe there is a light at the end of the hallway. :)

Mel (Work full-time and then some)
Clean-Freak-With-Dirty-House

SugarBear7852

At least you have someone coming to your house to insite a cleaning whirlwind. I just moved to the boondocks and we got a dog (as a night guardsman). He spreads trash all over the yard. Also, the children have completely covered the floor of the "family" room and are not allowed in there except to clean up their mess. Guess what? They don't go in there. I have needlework projects piling up by my livingroom chair. We made a family project of digging out the girls' bedroom, but my son's bedroom isn't far behind his sisters'. My room is a vacuum occasionally and wash the sheets when I have time (yeah, right) zone too. I'm tired; I'm looking for something that works. I've used mymessyhouse.com successfully in the past, but that was with only two children. With the move, it's taking me much longer to come out of post-partum depression and get my housekeeping back on its feet than it did after the girls. :-(

landismom

I haven't had maggots (or should I say, yet?) but have a similar story involving a fruit fly infestation that occured after someone left a half-eaten peach in a bowl under some newspapers in our dining room for several weeks. I screamed like a girl when I finally found it and lifted off the newspapers, and a horrid swarm of fruit flies rose up out of the bowl. All I have to say is, I would have just taken that sippy cup out to the trash and not bothered cleaning it out.

kristin

did you ever hear "Housework" performed by Carol Channing on the Marlo Thomas "Free To Be You and Me" album? It's classic.

excerpt:

"Your mommy hates housework.
Your daddy hates housework.
I hate housework, too.
And when you grow up, so will you."

love it.........

Julie

I can relate to the sippee cup debacle. We had guests last weekend. One father went looking for a sippee cup for his son. He reached into the sippee cup cabinet and pulled out a cup that had warm milk in it. I was mortified, but at least he understood.

terrie

I have just stopped cring because the condition my house is in...I have 4 children ages 11yr-1yr.
My husband works full time, I run a business out of my home and I also attend school. All I can look forward to are the days my children are all grow and out.I am at the point of think if I just move, maybe it would be easier with a new start.Cluter=My Life

Gina

First of all, I can relate completely. You are not alone in this problem.

Second, if at all possible, you might want to have a cleaning person or service come in every other week and take some of the load off your shoulders. They can't be there every night to tidy up, but they can take over most of the routine cleaning so that you have less guilt and more time with those you love.

Tami

I can SO relate! Not to the maggots, thank goodnes, but, I did once have about a quarter inch of milk in a sippy cup that was so congealed it stuck through three dishwasher cycles! ICK. And the frantic cleaning for the babysitter? I work until 9:00 p.m and my husband plays volleyball on Thursdays, so we have a sitter each week for a few hours. Every Thursday a.m. I "suddenly" remember that someone else will be in the house when I get hame and I race around for half an hour trying to clean the bathroom, put away piles of mail, papers, art projects, sweep (Oh my god, you actually vacuum???)...all before heading out the door at 8:00 am. One of these weeks I'm going to remember to do this on Wednesday night. Tonight as I was getting my daughter ready for bed, she announcned that she and the baby sitter had been looking for something in "mommy and daddy's bedroom". Yikes - my one "Need not clean" zone had been ivaded and seen. Oh well. What does a nineteen year old care about the hygenic state of my house anyway? I enoyed your post - happy vacuuming!

LPF

Oh, yuck. I have a massive fear of maggots. When I was living in Toronto, our 3rd floor deck was being repaired, so we had to move our large trash can into the kitchen--also on the 3rd floor. A garbage bag got a rip in it and a pork chop bone fell out and sat in the can for a couple of weeks before it was noticed. This led to the "no, that's not rice" infestation of 91. Shudder.

a

ew! maggots. : )

that is really gross.

Nicola

Elizabeth, I know how you feel. I too work full time, parent the other half of my time, and have the unfortunate pleasure of being a born neat freak. I keep the house manageable in a few different ways.

Every night, *every single night*, after Kellan is asleep, I clean for 1/2 hour. Not all night, but just 30 minutes. In that time I can do the bathroom, or dust the house, or mop the floors. One job a night keeps the house clean all week, it really works. And I still have the rest of the evening for "me" time.

My husband and I share the duty each evening of putting away all of the toys and books. Everything has a place, a basket or a shelf, so the job takes about 5 minutes and we have an organised house again.

Each morning while Kellan finishes his last few mouthfuls of breakfast, I clean up the kitchen. Wipe everything down and make sure that all of the dishes are put away. If you do it every day, it only takes a couple of minutes.

And I save vacuuming for the weekend. Its the one job that can't be done when Kellan is in bed. Nic takes him for a walk or plays w/ him outside while I vacuum the house.

Anyway, that's how we do it. We both work full time and are home with Kellan full time on opposite shifts (in other words, we have a toddler in the house at all times!), but our house remains clean enough to satisfy this neat freak.

Lee

OK, Flylady may not save you from maggot-y milk (hey, it happens to the best of us) but she did save my sanity when I became a SAHM. 3 years later my home is livable, and can be revived in 15 minutes if needed. Plus I have way more time to check out cool blogs like DotCom Moms!

Jason Berggren

That's disgusting! My wife is a clean freak so I think that would have induced an immediate comma.

Christine Hohlbaum

FlyLady may be a bit drastic for your case, Elizabeth! Besides, what's it with the insect image? What you and I need is a good long weekend to soak in the tub that someone else has scrubbed, that's what! :)

Some days, when I'm sick of wearing shoes around the house because going barefoot could cause serious bodily harm, I turn to my husband and ask, "Where's Denise?"

"Denise?" he whispers, furrowing his brow in feigned wonder. We don't know anyone named Denise.

"You know," I say in a matter-of-fact tone. "Our housecleaner?"

Blair

Beware of flylady...
a whole bunch of emails that seem to fill up your inbox... I just found my FlyLady "notebook" which I don't think I have opened since I printed it all out and put it together. what a shame, I wish it had seemed more appealing, but those emails start to get so daunting.
sigh I so wish I could do it!

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