# Keeping up with the Whole House??



## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

After reading Ninn's post about Spring Cleaning, I was motivated to start on my kitchen, the room EVERYONE sees when they walk in. I realize I am not decluttered so I won't be able to do this well. But anything is better than nothing, right?

Sunday I spent over 3 hours cleaning the walls, floors, countertops and above the cabinets in my eat-in kitchen. No one will probably notice it all but I sure do! :sing: So much, in fact that what dishes have not been done in the evenings the last 2 days I have done in the morning before leaving for work because I don't like them dirtying up my nice clean counters. LOL!
I even found myself spot-mopping last night!!! 

Then I found myself wiping down the mirror and counter in the bathroom this morning (something I normally only do on weekends) AND this got me thinking... It was fairly easy to maintain what little I've done in the kitchen so far. Probably wouldn't take much to keep the bathroom too. But how does one keep up the whole house??? I can see all these "little things" in every room adding up to the entire evening!!! This is fine now, but guaranteed if the weather ever lets up, I will be outside a LOT more, and the inside always suffers. I won't have entire evenings to dedicate to housekeeping. 

How do you stay on top of it all?


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## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

lickcreek said:


> How do you stay on top of it all?


Sad to say, I don't.


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## ailsaek (Feb 7, 2007)

Me neither. I go to houses where people do, and I find out they have cleaners in once a week.


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## mamahen (May 11, 2002)

My friend has a spotless house. Has a DH & DS. There are always people in & out of her house, kids, adults, etc. Plus she has a new puppy.

They're house is spotless! AND she works 2 jobs! One is cleaning houses:stars:.

Anyway - The house is smallish - but you can see most of it when you go to visit, the way it's set up.

I've noticed the difference between her house & mine (other than mine is messy -) They have no clutter. Yes, I know simple answer. But she keeps nothing. When ds has outgrown clothes or toys, they quickly leave the house. Nothing extra setting around.

And their garage is just as neat!:help:

I just wish I could be like that - just a little:bash:


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

This is where flylady comes in. You can opt out of the daily email reminders, but the scheduling helps and the household notebook and stuff are great helps. She breaks the house down into zones, with one zone being the main focus every week until the house is all organized. It WILL happen, but it will not be overnight. The mess didnt get there overnight and it won't get cleaned up overnight. Check out her site and let me know what you think. Plus, for little ones, look into housefairy. We use a modified version of this to keep our grankids involved and organized at home and it works wonderfully. Good Luck!


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## ailsaek (Feb 7, 2007)

I have to check out the housefairy. Last time I tried FlyLady, they hadn't come up with that, I think.


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## Murron (Oct 17, 2007)

Lickcreek - What Rose said! Decluttering was also our savior here. And yes, the process is difficult, and sometimes emotionally painful. We have a comfortable "homey" place, but it is simple as well. It makes it easier to keep up with the day to day stuff. Don't get me wrong - I'm a "trail of disaster girl", and I can really pile up the dishes and all that in a hurry.  (Especially when DH is at work!) I *still* have at least one day a week that's dedicated to regular housecleaning - sort of like a weekly "reset" button for me.

Remember how confident you felt about the filing work last week? You've already done a lot as far as decluttering there! :sing: 

Be patient, and go easy on yourself.


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Yes, I checked out FlyLady some time back. The e-mails were overwhelming, and didn't fit my schedule (work away from home) so I couldn't "reboot the laundry", for example. It seemed like too much work to modify her plan to fit my schedule.

I know the real answer is to get decluttered. I mean, REALLY decluttered!!! This is something I aspire to, but not sure DH is really on board. He is a real saver!! The best I can do is declutter myself, and hope the rest of the family follows suit. Our living arrangements right now aren't ideal, since both DKids have "moved home" for the time being, and after being on their own for some time, they came back with a lot more than they left home with, to say the least. DD is a "saver" liker her Dad, DS not so much. But he is the one stuck on the couch, living out of a laundry basket in the utility room, since DD moved home first after a divorce and got the available storage (his old room) first.

So I'm probably way ahead of myself here. For now I am just going to focus on the areas of the house I DO have some control over (yeah, right!) such as the kitchen, bath, mudroom and porch, possibly the utility room, and my bedroom. This I plan to do little by little, cleaning and decluttering as I go. Major decluttering!! 

I'm hoping once I get more than the kitchen counters and floors cleared, I will be able to come up with a plan to keep it that way. Maybe at that point FlyLady wouldn't be so overwhelming. I think I'll check out her website again. It's been a while.


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## RusticOkie (Feb 26, 2008)

Hope you don't mind me popping in. Decluttering is a huge factor in how easy your household is to maintain. Since haveing my dd my house has gotten so cluttered, not just with her things but with things I keep putting off. Its so much harder to keep things clean. I am going to be doing my spring cleaning next month and will be doing some major decluttering to get back on track.

Once the clutter is gone just spending 5 minutes in each room in the evenings will keep things under control. Its a wonderful feeling.


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

RusticOkie - thanks for popping in! I need all the advice I can get! That's exactly what I'm looking for, that wonderful feeling of being in control of my own home. I'm sure it's the clutter that is getting me down. 25 years of it!

It seems the only way this dream can come true is to ruthlessly declutter the entire house. I would LOVE to be able to maintain it in about 5 minutes per room each day! This is what I aspire to, but I am a very long way from it! Murron's right, I need to be patient. I know this didn't all get here over night, but I hope it won't take another 25 years to correct!


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

Nope. It will take about 6 months. That's how long it takes to learn and maintain all these new little habits until they become routine. Most of it is really simple stuff. Handle things ONE TIME. Mail, laundry, etc. Put it where it belongs right now instead of right here for now, ya know? It makes a huge difference. You CAN be ruthless about clutter without losing things you love. If you have it because you love it, incorporate it into your decorating scheme. If you have it because someone you love gave it to you, get rid of it and keep the loving thoughts that came with it. I know how hard this can be. Yesterday, I finally got rid of the ceramic booties planter my daddy gave my momma when I was born. Im 39 years old. Ive never used it for anything. Now, it's gone. I feel lighter everytime I get rid of something that doesn't serve at least one useful purpose in my home. Most furniture is required to meet at least 2 needs before it can even be considered in my house. (trunks as coffee tables, etc) Even my filing cabinet serves several functions. The drawers are divided for my school work, my research for the store, my household stuff and my genealogy project. (which is outgrowing its drawer, so scans are in need of being done.) 

What works quickest for me when I'm feeling overwhelmed by the "stuff" in a room is to do a walkthru with a large basket. Everything that doesn't belong in that room goes into it. Owners have until bedtime to remove what they own and put it away. Over coffee, the bills I almost threw out are retrieved and filed. EVERYTHING else in the basket goes in the trash. Doesn't matter who it belongs to, how much it costs, etc. My kids only let this happen about 3 times when they were young before they learned to check the basket at night. Saturdays were the worst, because if it's on the floor when I get up, it must be trash. If not, you would have put it away last night. 

As for your adult children, make them responsible for their own messes. If they lose what they own because they left it lying around, they will get the message and one of two things will happen. Either they will clean up their act or they will move out. Either will be a blessing for you. You're the mom, not the maid.


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Ninn, I am a bit torn right now about the DKids being home. They both need to be home, and DH and I have no problem with that, as long as we can see they are working towards solving thier problems. (Which they are)

There is not really enough room for ALL their stuff to have homes. So I don't feel I can nag them about everything the gets left out. 

But, after reading your post, I did realize that they could still do a better job of picking up after themselves. DD will sometimes take over the livingroom with her projects and purchases that she doesn't put away right away. And they both are guilty of dirty dishes left lying around. I really should get them to pitch in more by just picking up after themselves. I can live with their extra stuff temporarily. But the everyday stuff they can pitch in more. I think this weekend I will have to talk with them.

Thanks!


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## Christine in OK (May 10, 2002)

Hey - if they are living there too, and you are working fulltime, and they aren't paying rent - see where I'm going with this one? I think they can each give you 30 minutes an evening and an hour on Saturdays and you won't have to do much except the decluttering!!*

*_disclaimer: While I say that, I realize it is not always possible - but surely they could shake free at least 15 minutes an evening - in that time you can clean a bathroom, clear up dinner, dust a room, vacuum, fold a load of clothes, etc. Plus, if they put in a little extra on Saturday you could all have a nice day off on Sundays..._


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## Christine in OK (May 10, 2002)

Ugh - to my own mess, I spent a good part of the afternoon online with HP online help trying to figure out why the heck my wireless printer wasn't cooperating. So I didn't get anything I wanted done finished. And had to run out of here without the stupid thing actually working yet, because it was time to pick up two kids and drop a third off at swimming.

But lo and behold, when I got home the printer was showing "ready" under status instead of that nasty "offline". So I finally printed out the world's best (and most fattening) banana pudding recipe! 

Now if I can just tear myself away from you guys and go get that dinner started...


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Christine, you are probably right. 15 minutes a day is not too much to ask in place of rent. Right? They both work evenings, and DH & I work days. So I really don't see them much. 

DD gets home about 3 AM, and is sound asleep when I get up at 5:30. She is one of those who won't get up til about 1-2:00 in the afternoon (just enough time to get to work the next day). I tried getting her to clean the dish drainer out daily for me, but that only managed to happen about 1-2 times a week. I will talk to her and try to get a little more out of her!

DS stays in town ad DH's aunt's house during the week, so he is really only here Sat, Sun and Mon. (he works til Midnight Fri night.) And not really then, either, as a 20 year old, hangin' at the parent's house is not his idea of a weekend! But he can definitely make his presense known when he is here. Dishes/laundry etc. But it wouldn't kill him to put in 15 minutes when he is here! Lord knows it has taken me at least that long to pick up after him on occasion!

How'd htat banana pudding turn out? I think I added 5 pounds just by you mentioning it!


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## Christine in OK (May 10, 2002)

Mmmm. 

cream cheese, vanilla pudding, milk, vanilla, whipped topping, bananas, nilla wafers....maybe not the healthiest thing, but man was it tasty!


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