Friday, October 28, 2011

The Negligent Housewife

Negligent with household chores? Yep, that's me!


I'll be honest: once a week I do the very minimum. I sweep the floors and wipe down the kitchen. Bathrooms and laundry every other week.

The other stuff? Forget it! And the other stuff (like the awful piles of dust on the ceiling fan blades) is easy to ignore.... UNTIL. Until my parents and my sister come for a week long stay. And then I'm all: We need to scrub the cat snot off of that wall! Quick! Put away the camping gear we set out to dry on the back porch two months ago! And the windows! Scrub them so we can see through them again!


Please tell me I'm not the only one like this.

Anyway. My family is coming for a week during my Thanksgiving break. Why am I freaking out about it now? Because if they want to unpack their suitcase, we'll have to reorganize all the closets. Plus all that other stuff in italics up there.

I would very much like to stay on top of this cleaning business. I found some organizational tools that might be useful via this lovely site.


And then there's the Fly Lady who walks you through to a clean house in manageable baby steps. (I've heard good things!).

What about you? How do you manage the mess of daily living?

11 comments:

  1. I still struggle with this but am getting better. I try to make sure that dishes are done at least once a day (we don't have a dishwasher). Usually I have more than one load of dishes to do though. I force myself to put away my craft projects every night (even if I'm not done working on them). I pick up the house every night, that way I'm not overwhelmed later.

    Those are some of the ways God is helping me to become a better housewife. I still have ways to go (I hate to clean still) but it's getting better. And right now I don't clean the bathroom, hubby is doing that because I'm terrified of all the chemicals around baby.

    I try to do as much as I can and if I start to get sore, I take a break, then go back to it.

    Oh, and I turn on the TobyMac Pandora station which for me does wonders!

    Hope that helps!

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  2. i kinda do like you... I do the minimum until we have something that we have to get down to business with. Then I go crazy trying to make sure there are no dust bunnies anywhere. :)

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  3. You could have been writing about me, so I'm no help! I've also heard great things about Fly Lady and even signed up but I haven't done anything with it!

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  4. This post made me laugh out loud- mostly because of the cat snot and then because this is exactly how I feel. It's a constant battle for me to keep my house clean- glad to know I'm not the only one!

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  5. Lol...I think we've all been there. I'm pretty good on staying on top of it. With a family if you let it go, it "explodes" in no time. I have a routine that I pretty much stick to. It's if I end up working more hours at work or I'm sick or something...then I fall behind.

    Kitchen-daily - multiple times!
    Laundry-2-3 times a week
    Bathrooms-as needed - prob 2x a week
    Floors-almost every day - kids and dogs give me no choice in that area!!

    The floors are my pet peeve...labs and dark hardwood don't mix!!!

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  6. Rock solid! & no, you're not the only one! :)

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  7. haha! We are the same way over here!
    We do the laundry + dishes + vacuum every week.
    But dusting, cleaning surfaces, cleaning out closets, washing windows etc?
    Only when we know company is coming over. Or around holidays (hello Christmas!!) when people are always dropping by!

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  8. Too funny! I'm constantly cleaning. The only thing I don't do as often is vacuum.

    http://mandycrandell.blogspot.com/
    http://twitter.com/#!/MandyCrandell

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  9. I don't think I've QUITE got the grip on tackling my to-do list. Right now I'm evening starring at my to-do list while I continually check on my favorite blogs (like yours!) hahaha My room is CONSTANTLY a mess, but I use the excuse that I'm still in college...so...its normal...hahahaha

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  10. I'm exactly the same way! I've recently started using a cleaning calendar that allows me to clean the whole house over the course of a month. But... that still doesn't mean that touch every surface in a room.

    I used to feel guilty because was house wasn't clean ALL the time like my parent's house has always been. Then I would remember that my mom was a "Professional Housekeeper" as she says (or stay-at-home mom), and I work all day. I can't expect my house to be spotless like hers!

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  11. I'm lucky to get peanut butter off of the chairs after my boys eat! You're ahead of me!!

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