Chaos reigns in every room of my house right now. In the laundry room, I can’t open the door all the way because there is a laundry basket on the floor. The basket is on the floor because there is so much stuff stacked on the dryer, stuff that we stacked there because we can close the door to the laundry room and no one can see it. The junk drawer (come on, you know you have one!) is over flowing with pencils the kids have earned for being respectful, responsible and safe at school. The kitchen is over flowing with the dishes used to bake muffins over the weekend and the mess made from breakfast. In the TV room there is evidence that kids play with the blocks just long enough to dump them out. In the front room, the books and magazines are scattered all across the coffee table. In the bathroom the sink is in desperate need of cleaning and then there is the upstairs – with it’s closets that need cleaning out and beds that need making.
I read an article once about the best things you can give your kids and one was a clean house. If the house is clean, then kids aren’t embarrassed to have their friends over. If the house is clean, kids feel secure, safe and happy.
I want to have a clean house.
My problem is that I can’t find a routine that works for more than a week or two. I tried fly-lady, and it worked for a month or so and then I got sick of all the emails. We try chore charts and they work for a week or two and then I get tired of bugging the kids to do their chores or the kids aren’t around when I need something done. For example, if the dishwasher needs to be unloaded,but it’s someone’s chore for the day, I can’t unload it for him/her and then make the other child do his/her chore. So before long, I am doing all the housework again, the kids are running from room to room making messes and I am overwhelmed so I sit down on the couch, most likely with a bag of Baked Doritos, and don’t clean anything. Then I come in the house from the next errand that takes me out and I am embarrassed, frustrated and annoyed by the chaos ~ really my house isn’t dirty, just cluttered and messy or chaotic.
Denae posted recently about the chore chart that she uses with her kids, and we’ve been trying something like hers for a few weeks now. Janelle posted about a chart she has made for herself, so I made a similar one for myself and then never printed it. I’ve got to do something though, so I’m making another attempt. Sort of a cross between what Denae and Janelle did, but for me. A list of chores to do each day of the week, a list of things to do each day, each week, etc. Perhaps though, I should take Julie P’s example and do some serious spring cleaning…
What do you do at your house? Does it work well? Do you feel like your house is under control?
11 comments:
This post just pains me because it is all so close to home. What to do?!
I'm done with lists, I know exactly what needs to be done every day, I can see it in front of my face! Coming home tired in the afternoon to the mess is the ultimate downer. At least your chips are baked, I usually comfort myself with Ben and Jerry's.
My current solution is to a case of cheap cardboard boxes from the office supply store. Every once in a while I swoosh through the downstairs filling a box with all the kids litter. Then I ditch it in the playroom closet upstairs. Occasionally I make the kids put the boxes of crap away as punishment.
My heart goes out to you, because I'm living it! It does get a little easier as they get older. Big boy toys are smaller, only clutter up their rooms, or go in the garage. :)
I have low expectations for my kids and end up doing everything but their rooms. They have to do or help me with those.
Good luck and let us all know if you find a system that works.
I don't use flylady now either because I've found what works and that is a little deep cleaning each day.
What would really help me is if I did choose to do 1 load of laundry a day instead of letting it all pile up for a week.
Also, I noticed that when I used to have closet organizers, my house was a lot easier to clean.
I can so relate to your post. We are in the middle of moving from one house to another so you can imagine how caotic both the houses are!
I too, love anything to organize things and I try to make it a priority to dejunk my whole house at least once a year.
Hope all is well! :)
Don't follow my example! I set the plan and then just ditched it. Last week the weather was SO pretty I couldn't stay indoors. And now my house is a disaster area. The kind of disaster area that makes me want to cry and freak out. I had a chart I did for myself some time ago - one room a day, basically. I decided this morning that if I try to clean my whole house and catch up on all the laundry in this one day, I'll no doubt fail and go to be crying, disappointed in myself - the house will still be a mess and I'll have ignored the kids all day trying to un-mess it. So I'm doing one day at a time. My house won't be clean until Friday, but I know I have to have low expectations for myself! That, or hire a cleaning service. I wish it was in the budget, because man am I tempted. Wow, this is a really long comment. (sorry)
The best advice I ever received was from a mother of 13. I had told her how much I could get done while my kids watch tv (this is when they were really little). She said "They won't remember if their house was clean, but they'll remember that you played with them"
Hey girl, i've missed reading your blog on my little hiatus. This hits very close to home for me. What are you doing wednesday at 10:30? Wanna come over for some break baking? I know you have skills in this area. And I also know this has nothing to do with your post but maybe I'm just trying to point out that although household organization isn't your forte, baking bread is. Everytime you post about that bread you are baking my mouth starts watering. So if you can, come to my house at 10:30 on Wednesday to bake some bread. Two of the members of your PTC team will be there.
That was bread baking, I'm not sure what break baking is but that's not what we are doing.
Oh, honey...you KNOW I can't give you advice on this one. Good luck my friend. And pass on any great ideas you get!
Some days I feel like my whole house is the junk drawer.
What works best for me is to invite people over. I don't like to have people be a witness to my slobbery, so I clean for them. Unfortunately, I'm just not up for entertaining every day.
Good luck.
We have problems kids not wanting to do their chores (and having a messy house because of it). We found a system that works for right now: I give them 2 warnings to get the chores done and then on the 3rd warning...I do the chore for them...and I deduct that "amount" out of their allowance. If it happens 2 times in a row, then they get grounded.
I feel the frustration though. Totally.
I had a good routine until I got pregnant. Then that sort of went out the window with the queasies. One thing I can say that DOES work for us is to get the laundry caught up and then run a load every single day. Wash, dry and put away, no leaving it lying around. That doesn't always keep us totally caught up, (we create a whole load every time we hit the pool for example) but it does seem to help prevent the mountains that you describe. Another thing I did when the kids were little was to make them put away one thing before they could bring out another. If child A brings out the blocks, and child B brings out crayons and child C brings out cars, then each kid has to pick up what they brought out before they can get something else OR start a new activity. I had to be kind of militant about it at first, but they eventually caught on. Also, a quick clean before bedtime helps too. I don't by any means do all of this all the time, but when I manage to it does help! Hang in there, you're not alone!
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