Old style housekeeping question?

PasturesNew

Cookie_monster wrote: »

I live near 2 elderly ladies, one has terrible arthritis and has had cancer the other has had a mild stroke, but their homes are always immaculate and when I ocaasionally pop into see them, they are not rushing round trying to keep the place clean, they are sitting reading, knitting etc. How do that generation do it? I am married with one child and I am a SAHM but I always feel like I am chasing my tail, the house never stays clean and tidy for long, I am very embarrassed if anyone pops round unannounced and things always seem to pile up (dishes, ironing...) despite my best efforts to follow flylady :rotfl:

What did they know then that we don't know now?

The simple fact is, if you just sit and knit you're not creating a mess.

Also, quite often these older generation will get up at about 6am in order to have all their work done before 8-9am.

Cookie_monster_7

Your house sounds so lovely and welcoming JackieO - can I come round for a coffee?;)

Wickedkitten

I'm pretty sure it's just cleaning as you go rather than saving it all up. I have the same thing happen as thiftlady really. In the past I have actually just let it lapse to see if the OH would notice and it eventually got to the point where I gave up and started tidying again.

ubamother

my mother's house is like this - spotless without being scarily show-houseish and was the same when she had three growing noisy kids in it. Weirdly, I've never actually caught her cleaning!! When I first noticed that she never seem to clean I very carefully watched her for a whole day to see how her house cleaned itself!

She made a cup of tea for everyone - she'd make it, sit and drink it with us and then do something else. No clearing away seen, but no mess apparently created. I realised that she was doing tiny bits of clearing and cleaning while chatting away or whatever so deftly that I'd never noticed. While the kettle was boiling she'd wipe the side down, when she got the cups out she'd move a few things in the same cupboard that were not the way she wanted them. etc. etc. etc. The same thing when brushing her teeth for example, she'd give the taps a quick rub, straighten towels etc. This way she never needs to have the great big tidyups that blight my life! Biggest of all - she's spent 50 years subconciously training my dad so he does the same!

Cookie_monster_7

ubamother wrote: »

She made a cup of tea for everyone - she'd make it, sit and drink it with us and then do something else. No clearing away seen, but no mess apparently created. I realised that she was doing tiny bits of clearing and cleaning while chatting away or whatever so deftly that I'd never noticed. While the kettle was boiling she'd wipe the side down, when she got the cups out she'd move a few things in the same cupboard that were not the way she wanted them. etc. etc. etc. The same thing when brushing her teeth for example, she'd give the taps a quick rub, straighten towels etc. This way she never needs to have the great big tidyups that blight my life! Biggest of all - she's spent 50 years subconciously training my dad so he does the same!

Ooooooooh! This is the stuff I want to know.... what else did she do?

Hawthorn

My mum could not abide clutter, of any sort. She didn't buy fruit often, because she can't stand the peel/cores. It literally makes her vomit.
All of my dads clutter (he is a hoarder) got relegated to the shed or the attic.
We had no such thing as play clothes. Our clothes were kept immaculate, and once past it, were thrown away and replaced.
We had enough to use, and not much else really. Everything had it's place, and if it was left out, chances are it would 'disappear'.
That said, she also had us well trained LOL. My sister and I would wash and dry the pots after a meal. Every day we hoovered, polished, wiped the bathroom down. every other day upstairs and stairs were hoovered too. Our bedrooms were our own responsibility, and if we didn't keep everything spotless, what wasn't spotless would be thrown in a heap on the floor, and so on, until we got it right.
We did our own ironing from age 10 or so.

A lot of it is to do with training the kids I think. Apparently my mum got in trouble once, because at nursery (I would have been about 3) they'd asked me to take my shoes and socks off to do 'footprint painting'. Well, I refused, on the grounds that my mummy wouldn't be happy if I got my feet all dirty. The nursery were not impressed, because I gather it turned into a me versus them battle. I knew who was scarier.....my mother!!! LOL.
Also, we kids weren't allowed downstairs, without my parents. On a Sunday, they would sleep in, and we had to stay in bed until they got up, which more often than not was lunchtime. Then, we were allowed to read, until they had blitzed the bottom of the house...what?? it was already immaculate LOL.
Then, we got up, got washed and dressed and waited for instructions.
The only time this differed was if we had a paper round. Then we got up and did it, but had to go back to bed when we got home.
My mum also tidies as she goes.

Cookie_monster_7

:grouphug: hugs Hawthorn, your mum doesn't sound like much fun!

Hawthorn

I love her to bits, and she is a good woman. She just has some eccentricities, but don't we all LOL?
She grafted hard for us kids. It's not the way I do things, but it doesn't make it wrong, though it took me a lot of years to see that. You should SEE what we used to get for christmas :P. I was so spoiled in that way.
She's calmed down a lot in recent years to what she used to be like, and she cringes when we talk about things like that now.
She finds it hard to believe that she was that strung out all of the time.

thriftmonster

I think it's a bit of both - kids don't help - you should have seen my parents house at Christmas with them, me and dh, my sister and BIL, 4 kids from 13 to 2 and 3 dogs.

But I also find that doing the Flylady thread here on OS makes a big difference to our house - little and often.

But I do notice that if I ever go to an immaculate house - they have no books. Every single time. We have books overflowing in every room - so it never looks completely decluttered - but I'd rather have my books.

Cookie_monster_7

I have compliled a list of the tips so far ....

Don't be distracted, especially by the internet :rolleyes:
Don't have kids in the house:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Have fewer clothes (less laundry) one on, one in the wash, one in the drawer
Get up at 6am so the housework can be done by 9am!
Clean as you go along
Clean while your are waiting for something else....wipe the counter while the kettle is boiling, wipe the bathroom sink while brushing teeth etc
Take out one thing at a time then put it away
Don't have any clutter
Don't have any books
Wash up/dry up straight after a meal

Remember that life is too short to worry about dust

Any more????