Disclosure: Affiliate links included within post
The Messy House: Encouragement for Coming Clean
“My house is such a mess!”
“You can stop by, but I hope you don’t mind stepping over things.”
“I hope you can overlook the mess.”
“Do we even have ANY clean dishes?”
“Does anyone DO anything around here?”
Yes, those phrases are some that bring on a bunch of tension, but I’ve found myself saying them. It’s the realization that your house is a mess and you need it not to be.
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| Our 6 year old with her new (real) vacuum cleaner she got for Christmas. Being the deal seeker that I am, I figured I may as well get a new one for $9 (Black Friday) than a play one for $20! She was thrilled that it really works. |
We were in the middle of moving my girls to their new bedroom and had pulled out one of the mattresses into the living room in preparation for disassembling the bunk beds. I noticed that it seemed extra dusty underneath the bed, so I decided to have one of the kids vacuum the mattress. No, we didn’t use the wand or anything. We just laid that puppy down and drove the vacuum cleaner right over it. Right about that time, someone knocks at the door! Really? Right now? When we’re in the middle of a project where stuff is strewn all over the house?!
What do they see when the door is opened? The mattress with a vacuum cleaner on top of it and a little further beyond that, a table stacked high with things that are waiting to go down to the basement for storage. Yes, we’re organizing, cleaning, and changing things around. It does NOT look pretty! You know how it is, the mess always gets worse before it gets better, right?
Of course, this is not the first time I’ve had that panicked feeling of “oh no, not right now, my house is a disaster!”. When you have a big family and tend to collect clutter rather than …well um…. manage it well, your house can explode within an hour. Of course, it can also get better really fast, too, so long as you can encourage the ones who were mostly responsible for the disaster to help clean it up quickly! You can also run out of dishes really fast. I’m constantly amazed at how many dishes a family of 8 can go through!
I’ve always been one who has a hard time getting into a cleaning routine. When it gets bad enough and when I find enough time and energy, I get it cleaned up. If it’s out of sight, it’s often out of mind. If it’s in sight and there’s a lot to do, I tend to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. If you could see my mental list of everything I’d like to get done in this house, you’d get overwhelmed, too (or at least, I’d like to think you would)! The bad thing is, I know that if I would just do a little before it gets too bad, it’s not nearly as hard to get done. I tend to prolong things though and wait for the bigger mess that takes much longer to tackle.
I’ve recently been reading through the new E-book called 28 Days to Hope for Your Home written by Dana who blogs at A Slob Comes Clean. I’m reading the book with the hopes that she’ll give me some new ideas of what to try in order to keep myself on track. So far, I love her writing style and the ideas that accompany them. I had to laugh when I read this:
“Here’s the thing that the Rebellious Slob Brain doesn’t want to accept: Doing these things daily means you are doing them little by little. Doing them little by little saves time.”
I can totally relate to that statement. For now, I’m going to start with the Day One in Dana’s book and see what happens. Maybe you’d like to join me? Maybe we can spring clean together?!
I’d love to hear what motivates you to keep your home neat and tidy. Are you a slob? If so, what has been instrumental in helping you to de-slobify?
anonymous says
A friend's grandma used to schedule her cleaning throughout the calendar she would write clean the bathroom, sort cupboards, everything had a place and a schedule so some things would be every week but vacuuming would be once a week or whatever. Such a good idea i have yet to try it though lol
Sidetracked Sarah says
Thanks Jess. I don't have many tips right now….but hopefully I will soon. I had a hard time switching out clothes this year because baby made it nearly impossible to do it right. In fact, I still have a table in the basement (not living space) where I started sorting clothes and never finished. It's all a work in progress and can be such a mind boggler sometimes!
Sidetracked Sarah says
Yes, I've heard of Flylady and used to subscribe to her emails but then I found that I would ignore them. I do love her advice of dressing to the shoes. I always find that I feel like getting things done when my shoes are on, that's for sure. That doesn't work as good for me in the summer though cuz my feet are always so hot in the summer and I wear sandles and flip flops all summer long.
Jess C. says
Sarah, I could have written this very post! I do get FlyLady's emails, and do better when I follow her routines, however, I am far from clutter free! It's hard with 6 little ones and all of the toys/clothes, etc! If you have any good tips for decluttering all of that, I'd gladly take them:) Good luck!