My home is a mess

jpscloud

alec_eiffel wrote: »

Just to clarify, in terms of child unfriendly I meant we have glass tables, sharp edges and a concrete floor, I haven't intentionally booby trapped the place or anything!

:rotfl:

I don't keep rabbits, but if I did they would not be toys for children either. I cringe when I see animals treated like that. My cat is very timid (she was a stray who adopted me) and does one whenever kids come here, so no worries there :cool:

Hope the neck stretching goes ok Emm!

I haven't done any painting yet today, as I've been out doing daughterly duties - same again tomorrow. I am just having some coffee and a late lunch, then I'll be off to start on the painting again.

Oh the weight loss hasn't been happening this week either... took my focus off it and put a pound on

Have a good afternoon/evening, everyone!

bearcub

Afternoon Messies.

Emms, you've always wanted a long, elegant neck, right? I hope it's starting to feel better by now. I'm sure the house is getting you down a bit, but no one person can do everything. What I know of you, though, you'll probably try. <hugs> As for the 'snake and pigmy', did you read about the man in Nepal (or wherever) who got bitten by a cobra. He wasn't impressed, and bit the cobra back! :eek:

BB, well done. And I now make a point of clearing away after I've done something, unless something is wanted in the next couple of hours, even if it's just the hairdrier. Do it NOW! has become my saying - in my head, anyway.

alec_eiffel wrote: »

Just to clarify, in terms of child unfriendly I meant we have glass tables, sharp edges and a concrete floor, I haven't intentionally booby trapped the place or anything!

Alec, in my DD2's book, she would think the last is fair game! As for the rabbits, DD1 always had a pet rabbit when she was old enough to cope. The first was a female from the RSPCA, and she was a ferocious bun - definitely NOT child-friendly - but it did teach DD very quickly how to deal with rabbits, even though others she had were a lot more biddable. DD2 wisely chose guinea pigs instead.

Shame about the weihgt, jps, but there's always next week.

Can't see much de-messying being done here today. I have done one WM load, but it's now tipping down, so the towels are hanging in the conservatory. Anytime soon, a lady's coming to fit blinds in Mum's conservatory, and a small one in our bathroom, so I can't do a lot. That's my excuse! :rotfl:

alec_eiffel

I have to say it's so refreshing to come across people who have such a great attitude towards their pets. So often I get "our rabbit doesn't hope about and jump and stuff likes yours". Well they won't if you stick it at the bottom of the garden in a 3ft hutch and never let it out to play.

sonastin

Alec - perhaps a quiet word to your friend before they arrive would help. If you warn her that one of them is a biter, she has time to prompt her daughter that the bunnies are nice to look at but not something to play with. And if the mother doesn't get the hint and the child loses a finger, well, you did try to tell them :rotfl:

I think OH has deliberately booby trapped the place. Against kids. The elderly. Me. :eek: We have holes in the floorboards, no floorboards in the attic rooms, acro-props [STRIKE]blocking the stairs[/STRIKE] holding the ceiling up. Thankfully all that is on the "building site" side of the house. But outise we have an unlit, uneven rubble path between the garage and the house which is the only access to the back door and entry to the house right now. And a security light which comes on to let you see your way to the washing line and stays on long enough to hang the washing out/bring it back in, but then goes off as soon as you turn round to come back in!

I think his intended target was children but they seem to bounce. Fortunately so do I at the moment :rotfl:

bearcub

Personally, alec e, I'd much rather have pets around the house than kids, even though I had two myself. I've always had problems dealing with other people's children, even when our two had friends home for tea. DD2 used to say in her Goth days, "I quite like children, but I couldn't eat more than one at a time"! :rotfl:

Woodyrocks

I am here to confess guys - my home is currently a disgusting mess. I am not proud nor am I ashamed. I think I am close to despair though.

Let's just say my life has changed drastically over the past year, as has my life-style for want of a better word. I have way too much stuff for the place we are in, work too many days so that on those rare days off I just want to do nothing. I think a part of me also hates this house and I am just biding my time until I leave it but that is not going to be anytime soon.

It is so bad now that I can't even get a cleaning team in without cleaning it first. And then lying about why it is so bad. Yes, maybe I am a little bit ashamed. It is just that I find so many things pointless at the best of times nowadays and cleaning the house is not important to me. But I must try and keep a sense of normalcy for one huge reason - I have a child that has to live here too. Can I just state that I make sure her room is kept clean and tidy, and will not have any excuse from her about maintaining it that way. And the bathroom is also one I stay on top of. But downstairs is a horror, and my bedroom is exactly the way it was when the horror happened last year...

Can anyone help me get a grip on my house? Or what to do going forward?

jpscloud

Welcome Woody, pull up a dust bunny (there are always plenty around here!) and settle in with us. Half the battle is psychological right? I think of this thread as my spiritual home, as I find an enormous amount of reassurance, encouragement and friendliness here. I hope you'll feel the same!

So, what we do is say mess is okay, we know we'd love to cope better but sometimes that's just not going to happen. We celebrate all the little triumphs - take a baby step (maybe wash a few pots up, or do the first small job that comes into your head), post to let us know and we'll big you up proper!

We also totally get it about Can't Be Arrised days, fatigue, carp that the world has thrown at us, etc. so this is a good place to come to just share your downs as well as ups.

One thing I think I would say I found most important - don't try to plan demessying if that's not your style. When I tried to make a plan, I just felt overwhelmed because I couldn't find a place to start, so I didn't start at all.

Now I'm making some progress by just doing something, regardless of whether it fits into some master plan of Grand Tidyness. I am not an organised person at all, so it suits me to randomly do things - that makes me feel better and so I do a bit more and then eventually things start looking a lot better!

You could make a list of things you would like to do (maybe start small, like clean the bath or wash a pair of curtains), choose one and do it. That might give you a bit of confidence and it shows that once you start things aren't as daunting as you were thinking.

If you aren't ready to start, just put your feet up and join in here anyway! I don't get any demessying done at all in term time, (although I'm hoping to change that this year) but I love hanging out here and sharing with the messies.

jpscloud

Ooh forgot to post what I came over to post about!

I just had some corned beef hash made with... ta daaaa! My very first home grown potatoes! Now I know how easy it is, I shall be planting spuds as early as possible (I think February, using garden fleece) and try to have them cropping almost all year!

I have got more painting done and will just go and put another coat on quickly before passing out for the night.

Thanks for being here messies (I'm feeling all sentimental tonight!) I couldn't have coped without you this past year.

bearcub

Welcome,Woody!

And well said, jps! You are a lov, too.

Woody, <hugs> Some of us on here are messier than others, but we ALL understand just what it is to feel overwhelmed with life, and a big part of that is feeling overwhelmed with the resulting mess. Sometimes, (no, change that to very often) life is 'orrible for various reasons, and clearing up the house becomes irrelevant until, one day, it hits you that it isn't irrelevant anymore, BUT you can't make the effort to do anything about it. It's great that you make sure that your DD's room and the bathroom are clean. The favourite saying on here is 'baby steps' so what's your first baby step going to be, do you think? What area is it that bothers you the most? And what in that area needs, in your view, to be sorted first? As jps says, concentrate on one small task, and do that. And, when you've done it, come and tell us. Look forward to getting to know you and your mess better.

Baileys_Babe

Emm, I hope neck is feeling the benifit of this mornings physio & wih I could of joined you for the steak & kidney casserole yummy

JPS, well done on the painting, you seem to be going great guns

bearcub, I agree about putting things away when you've finished with and I try very hard to do this myself and to encourage the children, but OH is useless at this, he just leaves things where he stops using them or lets go of them. He is very good in other ways but he is terrible at putting anything away.

sonastin, our house was a building site for 2 years and when the work started our 2 were 1 years old & 4 years old they coped brilliantly with the dangers and never had an accident as the result of living on a building site, often without floors or walls etc but I would not let any families visit where the parents were not already fully aware of the situation and only then if I felt they had proper control of their children, partly so their were no accidents but mainly so they didn't cause a distruption to the house renovation :rotfl:

Woody, welcome. Feeling despair about the state of your house is something I can relate to, you have come to the right place to vent, companionship & support, ours is in an appalling state most of the time it is so bad I have no idea how to dig us out of it. Sometimes I just come and lurk, others I post but have done nothing that day/week and other (rare) occasions I have made some progress. Soworried recently started doing one small thing every hour and posting here what she had done that hour. On Tuesday I set the timer for 15 minutes and did as much as I could, it highlighted to things to me firstly how much I can achieve and secondly how many interputions I have. I didn't make a plan of what I intended to accomplish that day but I did think about key areas I should tackle as a priority, on Tuesday the dishes & laundry.

Sorry this is turning into a post of epic proportions.

OH came back from work tonight and one of the first things he said was "wow the hall looks good, you've done a good job" :jI pleased it still looked good on Friday and that I haven't filled it with mess again since Tuesday when it had its major declutter. I'm please that OH noticed and ashamed that we had let it get so bad that it was noticeable. OH was cleared all but one of his bags away and he will be dealing with that in the morning, I will be doing my upmost that the hall doesn't slip back to its old ways.

Today more progress was made:
4 hours admin including making some phonecalls that I had been putting off
DW dealt with & set to run over night
Kitcken floor swept (badly needed doing)
Ate cake made by children and OH, delicious, we can't have cake cluttering up the place now can we
I'm sure I did some other stuff today but I have no idea what

I'm itching to go down stairs and do a bit more cleaning and tidying, which is very unlike me, but think I would be best of going to bed and getting some sleep and starting again tomorrow