I am not a Type A personality.
I am not super organized.
I do not have a special place in the cupboard for each grocery item.
I do not have a special place in my closet for every piece of clothing.
Let's not even talk about the shoes...suffice to say they "live" in the closet...but that's not where they spend the majority of their time.
My refrigerator is incredibly hard to find anything.
I do not load the dishwasher in a certain way.
It does not bother me that the bed is rarely made.
It takes a week for a mess to really bother me (exactly 3 days longer than it takes for it to bother my husband...or so he tells me)
I am not anal about any of these things.
And I'm just wondering, how the hell is everyone else so neat and tidy all the time?
I stop by people's houses unexpectedly and things are always put away, there are never messes lying all over the place.
THIS IS NOT THE CASE AT MY HOUSE.
If you popped by unexpectedly you would most surely find:
Breakfast dishes on the counter or the very least the pan I made breakfast in still sitting on the stove.
Coffee grounds on the coffee maker counter.
Shoes...everywhere.
Various jackets and sweaters draped over various surfaces, chairs, tables, couches.
The couch blanket in disarray.
An unmade bed.
Clothes lying on top of the dresser.
And clothes all over the bathroom floor.
I find the repetition of tidying these things up EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. just beyond me, so once every 2 weeks the night before the cleaning lady arrives everything gets put away, whole house, top to bottom.
And for me, this is enough. BUT, I wish it wasn't. I want a neat and tidy house ALL THE TIME.
So, neat freaks of the world, what's your secret? Do you pick up the house every day? Do you just tidy as you go, ie. never leave the clothes on the bathroom floor so there's never clothes to pick up?
And PS my husband is just as "untidy" as I am, so not only do I have my own messes to deal with but his as well. And I can't stand the thought of picking up after him more than once every 2 weeks and the rest of the time IT'S REALLY JUST NAGGING.
And no one really wants to be a nagging wife.
I feel like this is me. I have a cleaning schedule and do particular things on certain days. I do a quick pick up of everything at night just so the house is pretty much clutter free. I do major cleaning on Fridays and Mondays because I refuse to clean on the weekends besides a load of laundry or running the dishwasher. Just my preference!
ReplyDeleteoh you just wait until baby arrives- HA! stick to letting the cleaning lady do it all! ;) i SO need a cleaning lady.
ReplyDeleteas someone who would call herself somewhat tidy, my "trick" I guess is that I have a basket where I throw things that belong in other rooms, so it doesn't lay around in either the living room or upstairs, it's at least compact in a basket until I haul it to wherever it lives. But don't ask me about keeping a kitchen tidy. that just doesn't happen, there are always dishes all over the place because I LOATHE dishes!
ReplyDeleteYou and I are total opposited with this. And I'm okay with that. You probably have WAY more fun than I do. :) Everything in my house has a "home".
ReplyDeleteI'm a total neat freak. I do tidy as I go b/c it does make things easier (especially with a kid around.) It's easier for me right now b/c I've been a SAHM, but I don't know how I'll do it when I start working again. I've never worked and had a kid, too!
I do feel as if I'm constantly cleaning/tidying, but I like it that way. I think. I do wish I could be a little more laid back, but that's probably never gonna happen.
For example, when I take a shower, the PJs go straight into the laundry. As I get ready, I put everything back into its "home" as I go. Before I leave the house, I try to do as much as possible so that I have less to do later.
I think some people are born organized. The rest of us have to constantly fight against disorganization. It's exhausting!
ReplyDeleteI thought this book had some really useful and practical tips: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Organized-Homemaker-Secrets-Uncluttering/dp/1558703616/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1315599964&sr=8-2
i am mostly tidy, but also have tolerance for a little bit of mess - stacks of magazines, a dish in the sink or a cluttered vanity. my husband, on the other hand, is borderline-ocd. he is ALWAYS cleaning. that's been my secret to a success for a clean house - marry a neat freak :)
ReplyDeletei'm not pristine, but I try. You roomed with Davio, he's a shoes in the middle of the floor and clothes strewn about the house kinda guy. I'm working overtime to get Winston to put things away when's he's finished now, so I won't feel like the maid later on. Mostly I just clean up as I go. As soon as I put the food from the pan on the plates, I rinse the pan and put it in the dishwasher. Before putting the plates on the table. I throw clothes in a laundry basket, and have hanging hooks in the entry way for jackets/scarves/hats/bags/etc... I like bins on shelves, so even if it's disorganized within the bin, at a glance it looks tidy. games and movies are thrown in baskets and tucked away in the tv stand (outta sight!), Winston has toy bins he puts stuff in. One for wooden blocks, one for his mega leggo blocks, one for cars, and two all the other little toys. His clothes are in bins too, I try to keep them organized, but he digs through when picking clothes out, so sometimes they get messy, but no biggie, in a bin, bin looks neat and tidy on the shelf! :)
ReplyDeleteso to sum it up... if you want to be tidy and can't be OCD about it, invest in some bins and baskets, and stuff it away out of sight! ;-)