My home is a mess

sonastin

:T Came home from a meeting this evening to find OH sorting out the basket of laundry that's been sitting in the hall for the last couple of weeks :T And he followed that up with vacuuming the bedroom and hallway once the washing was put away. :TWe can finally see the top of the chest of drawers in the bedroom :T.

Now if I can just train him that the dirty dishes need to go inside the dishwasher and not just on the kitchen worktop, I think we'll have cracked it :rotfl:

Might have something to do with a visit from MIL at the end of July. He doesn't care what his mother has to say but she's bringing her sister with her. By all accounts, Aunty is a formidable lady :eek: I'm sure she's lovely really but I guess we'll find out in 5 weeks time

Cat501

sonastin wrote: »

:T Came home from a meeting this evening to find OH sorting out the basket of laundry that's been sitting in the hall for the last couple of weeks :T And he followed that up with vacuuming the bedroom and hallway once the washing was put away. :TWe can finally see the top of the chest of drawers in the bedroom :T.

Now if I can just train him that the dirty dishes need to go inside the dishwasher and not just on the kitchen worktop, I think we'll have cracked it :rotfl:

Might have something to do with a visit from MIL at the end of July. He doesn't care what his mother has to say but she's bringing her sister with her. By all accounts, Aunty is a formidable lady :eek: I'm sure she's lovely really but I guess we'll find out in 5 weeks time

Well done Mr Sonastin!!:T:T Must have been a nice surprise for you!:)

snookey

Faith Im glad your cats doing well. All my animals are my babies and its horrible when they are ill.
I took the dog out to the park for a run in an encloused part as he is mad. He loves children and when we got to the childrens bit he started showing off to dd and her freinds. For some reason he stood up on his back legs ,put his paws round my arm and started to jump up and down. It was like zebedee.
We then got near a group of people with all well behaved dogs off leads who came running to my dog who was still on the lead. He then tried jumping on their heads trying to play.
Im hoping one day that he will calm down and be a nice normal collie.
See everyones been busy. Well done. Iv not done any housework today but did go food shopping.

machairs

Hello all

Been skimming through this thread for a day or so now and can empathise with many of the posts.

Our house has got completely out of hand gradually over the last 5 years. In those years, I have have had 4 pregnancies, one of which ended in a pretty horrific miscarriage, meningicocal meningitis and also suffered from depression.

However, that is all now behind me. I now have 4 lovely children, a very supportive dh and a wonderful job. But I can't get our house back to normal!

I work full-time as does dh. We don't have a social life as such but spend lots of time and money staying out of the house avoiding the issue of just how awful it is. Over the years we have spent a horrendous amount of money, gotten fat, brought more clutter into the house and probably given many wrong ideas to our children - if mum can't find the kitchen worktops, let's eat out - if dad can't find the tools he needs to fix something, let's buy a new one - if mum can't find the new curtains for the spare room, let's buy new ones........

I have taken a week off work and nothing happens. I sit on my backside and just watch tv/read/sleep telling myself I am a busy working mum and need to recharge/treat myself etc.

I'm hopeful someone will be along soon to give me a virtual kick up the back side. I need to get something done about this soon.

Oh, I've also found a cleaner but I can't let her into the house until it is tidy! At the moment we don't let visitors in it's so bad.

Faith177

Bearcub you're never to old to rock out to Ozzy lol

With the animals they are very switched on. Had to take my oldest Hades (black female) over to my nans last night so she can take her to the V-E-T-S today (we're not allowed to say the word in the house at the moment as Sophie runs and hides!) She has never left the home over night before and I missed her loads. When I left Lucy-Fur (our other black female) who is Hades little double followed me down the street screaming at me to bring her back.

When I got home none of them would come near me cause I had taken the "mum" of the group away so I guess I must look like Judas to them at the minute

The dogs are just as switched on if I'm having a bad day Molly just comes and put her head on my knee and looks at me like come on mum tell me all about it

However when she know i'm mad at her she hides down the bottom of the garden where I can't get to her lol :rotfl:

Snookey you dog sounds a right character how old is he?

Machairs hi hun welcome! :T

You'll get there we have all been where you are best advice I can probably give and I have learnt it from the lovely ladies on here is a little bit at a time. Choose one job do that properly and it makes you feel so pleased you'll be ready for the next job

bearcub

Brilliant news about Mr Sonastin - hope it lasts! :T

Snookey, your dog sounds a typical BC to me. I have a close friend who, until last year, had 4 of them. She now just has the two, one who is the perfect dog in many ways - quiet most of the time, never goes outside of the open front gate, and very obedient. The other is very, very bright, and a total nightmare. She's 4, and an escapologist. If she wants to be away, she'll go, no matter how you fence her in. She'd have to be caged to keep her under control, and even then she'd probably learn how to pick the lock! :rotfl: She is, though, the most affectionate dog you'd ever come across.

Machairs, welcome. Sorry to hear you've had such a rough time, but it's time now, maybe, to show that you've made a new start. You have messy overload, by the sound of it. Ideas - look around and try to divide the mess into areas. That may be 'geographical', like the corner of the lounge, or a kitchen worktop, OR it could be 'subject' like clothing or crockery. Don't, whatever you do, take in the whole lot at once, or you'll not get any further than you have now. Concentrate on that ONE area, and make up your mind to clear/clean that one bit. For example, 'corner of the lounge' may involve sorting papers and magazines, and putting those you don't want into recycling; polishing the top of the coffee table or dusting the books on the bookcase. 'Clothing' may be sorting items into those that need washing and those that just need putting away. It sounds, though, that your priority needs to be the kitchen, if only that you're worried about the effect on the children. Give it a try and, when you're really struggling, come back in here, and we'll give you a shove!

Faith, didn't mean I was too old to rock with Ozzy (or anyone else come to that - did so to the Foos last year), but too old to go to a festival like Download. It's just too big, and I've never done camping. I feel as if I missed out big time when I was younger, but that's the way it was. Can't change it now, so I've been making up for it a bit in the last 7 years!

Faith177

Ahhh ok I get what you mean Bearcub I'm only 26 and I'm beginning to feel it now. I think we're looking to stay in a hotel for next years one (it'll be our mini honeymoon :T) I'm trying to get OH to treat me to the top package deal but he isn't convinced :mad: lol

Cat501

Morning messies

hi machairs - what a tough few years you've had!! I'm glad things are going so well for you now though

I'll admit, I can't understand how anyone who has 4 kids and works full time can find the time and energy to do any housework! But if it's getting you down, this is the best place to come for support As you both work full time, is your DH willing to make sorting things out a joint and equal effort?

Up late last night and therefore this morning, no de-messying to report, and tennis just about to start - can't choose which match to watch first, but I think I'll settle for Laura Robson - go Laura! I'm disappointed that there only seem to be 4 matches under the red button this year instead of the usual 6 and have emailed to complain - I am becoming a grumpy old woman!:p

Faith, doing Download in a hotel - yep, definitely sounds more my style:rotfl: What do you reckon bearcub? I think we should do it:D To be honest though it's just too expensive for me, and I rarely go to gigs because I have nobody to go with

DS on school holidays now - well, they break up tomorrow lunchtime really but ....so I'm going to assign him a couple of jobs to do over the summer. Not too much, and nice weather is so flipping rare here that getting out on those days takes priority - but he can take the rubbish down for me on his way out, that sort of thing:D

PRINCESSX87

Hey follow messies!

Been a long while since i've last posted, But i have managed to keep up the the thread - Had a couple of hard months & everything has fallen apart, Hence, Why im back more for support then anything else!

Today, I've managed to do:

Dishes,
Washing & drying, Just got to iron.
Made dinner for tonight! Just got to heat later.

Just a few of 2 pages worth of chores done, It truly feels never ending. :mad:

I've decided to start my afternoon off, With clearing the bedroom out, getting rid of any old, broken, never used bits & bobs.

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

sonastin

Hello machairs! The mantra on here is "baby steps". As others have said, don't try to tackle everything at once. Break it down into little chunks and get yourself into the habit of keeping on top of one little chunk before you move onto the next.

As an example, I started with just the bathroom - its a place where visitors often end up and there's no way to distract them from noticing how filthy it is. And when a bathroom is filthy, it is truly minging! So I try to make sure that the bathroom is cleaned once per fortnight at least - aim for once a week if possible. Sometimes I miss the 2nd weekend because we're away and so it rolls into a 3rd week but I try to stay on top of it. Bathroom is easy in our house because it is basically shower, toilet, teeny wash-hand-basin and no room to swing cats!

Once OH had put me in a loverly new kitchen, I added that to my "must keep on top of list". The old kitchen was miniscule so there was no possibility of letting that build up too much - couldn't even resort to takeaways because there was nowhere to dish them up! Now I have a nice big kitchen, I'm trying to train OH to put pots in the dishwasher. I also try to make sure that DW gets emptied and reloaded promptly. And I try to keep the surfaces clear and wiped down. OH isn't quite getting that yet - luckily the worktops don't stain or they'd be tea-coloured by now! Floor desperately needs mopping at the moment but I usually do that at the same time as I'm cleaning the bathroom.

Bedroom, living room, hall - not even on my radar yet! Figure they are as much OH's problem as mine (even if he doesn't see it that way!) Every once in a while they'll get tidied and possibly even dusted. OH sometimes gets the hoover out - usually when he's supposed to be going in the shower and I'm desperately trying not to let dinner spoil because I had it ready for when he came in from working but he decided he wanted a shower first. Timing is not his strong point - never does it when dinner is something that can easily wait!

Laundry in our house happens when we run out of clothes and/or when the weather is looking like we have a good chance to get stuff dry. I'd like it to be a regular task but mother nature is kinda getting in the way at the moment. We haven't got much space for drying inside and since we got to "summer", the space we did have has been filled with other stuff. Ironing is done if there is something which is about to be worn which is offensively creased. Other than that, ironed clothes are in the "wishful thinking" category.


See - it doesn't all need doing all at once. But you should really make a bit of a start on a small corner somewhere, if only to remind your kids that it is something that ought to be done once in a while. Start 'em helping out as well as soon as you can - even at a young age, there are small chores that they can be given. Makes 'em feel grown up and gets it off your plate. And as they get older they can take on bigger tasks until between the lot of you, it all gets done. (See, I also look at mastering housework as a long term plan - measure in years not weeks!)