My home is a mess

YORKSHIRELASS

I have discovered something amazing. If I sit staring at this screen and ignore the desk which is covered in bits of paper and if I dont look at the floor which is covered in "stuff" I can pretend my house is tidy. Result!

I have got a serious lack of motivation today. I really need to go and mop the kitchen floor and those Christmas presents still need wrapping. It doesnt help that football is cancelled because of the frost so everyone else is at home lounging about. I really should get them all working too but it just feels like too much hassle.

GreyQueen your post made me laugh. Just think how amazing you will feel when its done! I have to confess that there is a large rectangular patch in the middle of my kitchen/diner which is a different colour to the rest of the tiles. This is where the rug goes and I hardly ever move the rug when I clean the floor so over the years that part of the floor has become a different colour. I cant believe I just confessed that.

Slopes off to get the mop out ....

GreyQueen

helen_jelly wrote: »

GreyQueen - made me laugh - dare I ask . . . . . has your noisy neighbour vacated the premises yet - ignore me if you want, I won't be offended

Just cleaned most of the bathroom - DH was enjoying a peaceful bath until I burst in armed with bleach and other offensive cleaning stuff hehe

Off to hoover the stairs now and remove piles of gibble on there that are now becoming a tripping hazard

Helen x

Went to annoy somebody else several months ago, but that's all I can say.

I have now joined up another section of floor-al cleanliness and will have to wait for that to dry before moving some stuff, vac-ing and washing some more. It's a humungous room (not) but it is my biggest space and the floor tends to harbour things which people with more sensibly-sized homes would keep elsewhere; a set of handweights, a slow cooker and a breadmaker, plus several things which are waiting until Crimble to depart to other households.

Ohh, I dream of minimalistic spaces, huge windows spilling sunlight across my hardwood floors whilst I contort my lithe and lovely self into Downward Dog or summat yoga-ish.

Instead I'm scrabbling around knee-deep in carp and appliances, several stones overweight and decidedly creaky. Think even if I was thinner I'd be more carthorse than racehorse. I used to be thinner and wasn't noticably lithe. Trouble was, my sturdy peasant ancestors obviously chose their wimmin for good childbearing hips and the kinda physique which could wrestle recalcitrant cows into byres and build dry-stone walls without breaking sweat.

Ach well, I have brains and a sense of humour; wanting a fine figure, beauty, wealth and en extra cupboard or three is just wanton greediness...........:rotfl:

I'd give an arm for an understairs cupboard but I'm in a flat. Not my own arm, of course.;)

Helen, what's the funniest thing you've found in the gibble today? I've found half a pasta twist, cooked but dried up, on my sitting-room floor. Coulda been worse- it was nicely-dried out!

MessyMare

Well done GreyQueen my living room floor is a sight to behold, I can tell you - I will as well because I think it'll make you feel better! The cream carpet was hugely stained from the woman before and her six (!!) greyhounds/lurchers. It also has a dingy grey track through from the entrance hall to the kitchen. We found some carpet offcuts in the loft, some of which was the lovely thick pile carpet we have in our room, so OH put one of those down as a bit of a lovely fireside rug. Well. It was lovely. It currently has a dingy grey stain in the middle where I dropped a buttload of soot and ashes and for some reason, used a damp cloth instead of just hoovering repeatedly to try to get the last remnants out. Mistake! It's also now covered in loads of burn patches from where we're naughty and don't use the fireguard and the wood spits.

God it's a good job I don't get visitors! Any hints or shall we just rip the whole lot up and put something brown and stain hiding down!

GreyQueen

MessyMare wrote: »

Well done GreyQueen my living room floor is a sight to behold, I can tell you - I will as well because I think it'll make you feel better! The cream carpet was hugely stained from the woman before and her six (!!) greyhounds/lurchers. It also has a dingy grey track through from the entrance hall to the kitchen. We found some carpet offcuts in the loft, some of which was the lovely thick pile carpet we have in our room, so OH put one of those down as a bit of a lovely fireside rug. Well. It was lovely. It currently has a dingy grey stain in the middle where I dropped a buttload of soot and ashes and for some reason, used a damp cloth instead of just hoovering repeatedly to try to get the last remnants out. Mistake! It's also now covered in loads of burn patches from where we're naughty and don't use the fireguard and the wood spits.

God it's a good job I don't get visitors! Any hints or shall we just rip the whole lot up and put something brown and stain hiding down!

Thanks, hun, I do feel better now. I'm not a fan of carpet on general principles, the general principle being that I'm clumsy and tend to spill things on them.:)

If this is your issue, there are two ways forward, depending on wallet, temperament and temperature issues chez MM; washable floors or stain-coloured carpet.

By stain-coloured, I mean work out the predominant hue of the most frequently-spilled item (tea? coffee? curry?) and chosing a carpet in that shade. If a variety of things hit the deck and you can't decide, go to wherever pubs buy their busily-patterned carpets and get some of that. You can also get carpet with flecks in which is fantastic for hiding detritus when you've lost the vacuum or the will to [STRIKE]vacuum[/STRIKE] live.

Washable floors are a great easement on the troubled mind. I have the vinyl "Marley" tiles which come as standard in Council homes - those ones like very poor fake-marble IYSWIM. Mine are beige-ish with various streaks, some white and some troublingly-dark brown. There is one brown streak in particular which keeps catching my eye as I think it's something icky which needs to be dealt with.:o

Part of my sitting-room (trebles as dining-room and office) is a very high-traffic area as it is the route from the hall into the kitchen so I haven't bothered with floor-coverings, just have a coupla handmade (by moi) hooked rugs up one end. These can be washed in the bathtub if necessary, treadled down like grapes.

If your carpet were mine I'd be having it outta there so fast it got friction burns, sounds like a right PITA, but it's your home and your business.

My cousin's OH caused mass tooth-sucking and head-shaking among the older wimmin of the clan when she carpetted their lounge with WHITE CARPET. There were dark prophecies of; "She'll learn."

She learned PDQ when they had a bouncing baby boy.:rotfl:Wasn't white for long..........and is long gone.

Life's too short, IMO, to give houseroom to things you can't clean.

helen_jelly

GQ - I happened, per chance, to stumble across a Magnum in the freezer that needed to be degibbled so I willingly took part in degibbling it lol

MM - rip it up and get rid of it, as soon as our Dog passes we'll be doing the same - its only for his comfort that I keep the LR carper - hate carpet but he needs warmth under his old bones. I chose a mid brown carpet with flecks in it - hides alot of sins [imagine coffee, tea etc not what you were thinking - naughty!!] Underneath the carpet is laminate flooring - DH doesn't like it but as he doesn't clean it he doesn't get a say in it hehe. He'll come home from work one day and it'll be gone.

Stairs have been degibbled and hoovered - there were enough dog hairs on them to make a rug - smelly one though cos doggy is now of an age where all he does is smell hehe - bit like kiddies and DH :]

Back to reading my Knidle
See you later ladies

Helen

PS Glad to hear you have peace now GQ - often wondered what had happened

Helen x

jpscloud

Hello messies! My kitchen floor is a disgrace so I'm not doing any holier than thou acts either! I will have to do something about it before the vermin move in.

Well I have some news, I have decided to get myself a proper Christmas present this year with the money various relatives bestow on me for the purpose (usually it just gets frittered). I have bought a sewing machine! Da dah daaaah! I've been thinking of getting one for years (literally) because I have hoarded clothes, linen, curtains and all manner of fabric for donkeys years and have enough to make a charity shop volunteer's eyes water.

Being a complete (and I mean total, utter, no holds barred) novice I have yet to be initiated into the guild of Those Who Know How to Set the Damn Thing Up. However, I have joined the Sewing Annexe thread, and will furtle the manual out, and will be sewing away soon! I am letting myself use it before Christmas as I want to use the holidays to full advantage to get used to it.

And what does this have to do with mess? Well, just think of the messy potential of hauling bags and bags of fabric out of the loft and cutting it up... mwahahahaha!

In other news, I have de messied the smaller of the under stairs spaces and will start on the Big One tomorrow. Then the lawnmower can finally go away (did I not tell you all it's been sitting on top of the treadmill in my living room all this time? ) and Operation Christmas Tidy will be well underway. If I don't get too sidetracked by my new toy!

Emm-in-a-pickle

Hi all. Just had a quick read through last few pages. Sorry I`ve been MIA lately - work & keeping up a bit at home, doing silly shifts again so trying to cook ahead, etc. Longing to post properly - hugs to all especially anyone on a downer, and thanks to the folks sharing their floor horrors - we CAN do that here, & chuckle! I could write a book on that topic too! DGD is wanting to hog the pc now, & OH here so will soon be wanting to settle down & we`ll be using it as `telly`, then having early night. Have to dash off anyway, light fire & doing green thai curry for tonight plus lamb & veg for after tomorrow`s longday shift...God Bless Messiesxx

MessyMare

Thank you for all of your advice my lovelies! I would've had it up as soon as we moved but we got the dog, but he's (pretty much) house trained now. It's on the list of things to do after I've finished wrangling with the debts we built up buying the place (just over 5k to mum, and just under £500 on my credit card). Flecked carpet seems like a lurvely idea something nice and deep pile to keep my toes warm..oh yes. Grey - you did make me smile with the comment about the colour of the tiles!

JPS - let us know how you get on with the sewing machine, I'd love to be able to make, alter and mend things! I think I'd just end up stitching my fingers to things though!

laurel7172

Made it to the end of term...thud.

Really should have given in to my body and gone back to bed about 10am, but instead I've worked ineffectively. No Christmas tree, no decorations. My new second hand dining table arrived-a 1960's Ercol. I like it a lot Not entirely sure what else I have done, but it has definitely taken all day to do it....:o

Christmas dinner at my parents' tomorrow-they're spending Christmas at my brother's, so it will be just me, DD and DS on the day. :T So I will definitely have an easy Christmas...and I don't want to sound like a Grinch, but I don't think I can do a difficult one this year,

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello Messies!

I have to go out tonight but wanted to check in as I have big plans of the decluttering kind tomorrow! plus the posts here are just brilliant

see you tomorrow

xxxxx