OK, Apparently I'm in slight venting mode, so this is another post about my inadequacies as a mother and housekeeper. Haha.
Anyway, Do any of you have housekeeping blind spots? Things you just never notice, so they never get done/cleaned? Here are mine:
1) I never, ever make the bed in the morning. And I don't make my kids make theirs either. Rooms tidy, yes. Linens clean, well, tolerably clean. But the bed is always an explosion of pillows, comforter, twisted up sheets, until nighttime when it is quickly made so that all people involved can sleep comfortably.
2) The art area. There is a small corner of my laundry-den room thing that has my children's old art supplies in it. We don't even keep the new ones there anymore... and yet I cleaned it for the first time today in probably two years. It wasn't too bad... but there were some ooooold crayons on the floor and a corner that needed a little mopping.
3) Dusting. Only one area of my house gets dusty at all... the bookcase in the living room. So I forget to dust for a long time. The other day I looked at it, went "ew" and dusted it... probably for the first time in several months.
4) Under the stove top. I clean the burners, clean under the burners, clean the surface of the stove and the oven and... forget to lift the metal top to clean UNDER the surface of the oven. Last time was probably about six months ago. I'm kind of afraid to look.
5) Yes, Aunt Linda, I clean out the lint trap every time. Or at least, every other time. But I forget to wipe the tops of the washer-dryer and they collect awful hordes of lint before I notice them enough to give them a good cleaning... again, probably once every six months or so.
And the absolute worst offence:
6) I never scour my sink. I don't know why. I rinse it out, clean it out, scrub the counters around it, scrub under the dish drainer. My bathtub gets officially scoured every two weeks but I never scrub the sink... it gets gray. I've had two separate instances where my loved ones have felt it necessary to intervene... my mom scoured it once when she was staying with me, and my sister, once, when she was visiting. They wouldn't have said anything except I went to look at it and said, "Oh, look! It's so white! Wow!" And then they sort of ashamedly admitted to their little piece of charity.
Well, lately I've had an epiphany about cleaning. I'm organizing myself differently, and so far it seems to be working much better! I get much more done, and things stay clean longer... usually I'd go around madly scrambling to clean EVERYTHING everyday and now I'm doing it one-room at a time, with tidying overall for the rest of the house. It gives me the opportunity to pay attention to the little (OK, maybe not so little) details I usually miss. It's so much better! Today I even scoured my own sink. And as I said, this week I dusted the bookcase. And I finally exorcised our aged art-room demons.
But I still haven't made my bed.
16 comments:
I see once again that you and I are kindred spirits.
About making beds: I have never made my children make their beds, either. They are just going to get back into them in a few hours anyway. I only make mine because it seems to be important to my husband, so I generally get to it just before he comes home. Myself, I have thing for tousled quilts. I think that the bed looks better messed up.
I go for charm, not for perfection. I find life much more pleasant that way, don't you?
YES I DO DALLAN
yup. yup.
:) Unfortunately... my husband doesn't seem to care one way or another and so we sort of mutual feed each others' need for "charm" and sometimes it becomes not so charming... lol. Usually my house is "clean." meaning, no dirty yuck anywhere, no bugs being attracted, no illness-promoting bacteria. That's all I can promise at any one time.
I never ever vacuum.
Josh pretty much made me do it a couple of weeks ago, just to "try out our new vacuum." Likely story. I just never think of it, you know?
I'm way too embarrassed to mention any of the other ones. They are a lot worse than yours, believe me.
But I always make the bed :)
We are so much alike in this category! I too, never make the beds. And I rarely scrub my sink, although I'm trying to change that habit.
Found you on Mormon Blogosphere. Nice to meet you.
I notice lots of things in life. I just don't bring much up. :-) I try not to complain, or nit-pick, without great cause.
As for making beds, I always made my bed, starting as a teen. That's why I like deeply tucked sheets at the foot of the bed; the rest of the bedding stays orderly and is easy to make in the morning.
As a bachelor, I usually straightened my bed while in it, just before getting out carefully. That was easier than leaning over the bed, pulling and tucking.
I really don't care much about the bed though—except at night, when I don't have any covers!
To be frank, I notice dishes most of all. NoSurf works hard at them. I do what I can too. And we don't have any "slaves" old enough to help. But we did better when we had fewer dishes. For a time, I packed away everything but one set for each family member and that kept the perpetual pile smaller.
I just try to help out where I can and ignore the rest. "The rest" has lessened lately. Thanks!
aw... OK. Skywalker cares, he's just also "very charitable."
And wanted to say, Merrily... I've had worse things. Much, much worse. I pretty much think housekeeping shouldn't count against you 3 months on either side of a pregnancy, for instance. And during a very chaotic period of my life when I had absolutely no time or emotional stamina to clean, some VERY charitable people helped me clean my entire house before I moved. That was in a way a wonderful experience and a terrible experience... life had just taken over and I had no time for anything except figuring out about picking up the pieces. Just to give some examples, my daughter had a flu bug two weeks before the cleaning and I had not yet had time to do laundry. It was gross, and slightly mildewy. And the bathroom was an embarrassment. I remember being given a blessing one time in a kitchen so dirty I almost cried to let my home teachers into it... dishes piled on dishes piled on the counter with various encrustations...
we all have our times in life when we're learning and/or taxed, and I think all of us have them, so none of us will really judge each other for having them. ;)
oh, and not to mention the bunnies. sigh. Those bunnies.
Hahaha! This was awesome. I loved it. You really should do a column for a paper. You'd be so good at it. This totally made me think. I kinda have a phobia about keeping things clean, but now I am wondering what is under my stove :) As for the beds, I do make my kids make theirs every morning for stickers. ;)
Funny you should blog about this...I was washing dishes yesterday and the kids were trying to entertain themselves. They opened the bottom of the oven. You know the drawer underneath? Well...Let's just say it was definitely a "blind spot." And then they pulled the drawer out and that was even worse! Wow.
Heather... I'm going to look at my oven drawer now!
you FEmAlE S Are so funny....retire and everything becomes so much more simple....plus never ever have fiends over..yes i said fiends
My husband cleaned out the oven drawer on Thanksgiving morning. I love, love, love him. Every time I open that drawer I feel like a success.
Sometimes marrying well is the best you can hope for.
You sound like you clean better than I do. I need to get more organized or come up with some kind of method to this madness!
Ohhhhh, the bed is the one thing that I DO get done....To me, if the bed is made the room looks pretty clean.... I also have a friend that has an apartment that she rents out. She will go over the the persons previous residence to interview them about the lease and if they haven't made their bed she doesn't lease to them....I have always remembered that and I now make my bed as soon as I get up, so quick and easy.
My house is a bit cluttered but it is clean....When company comes over, I scrub the tile floors, put up papers and boxes and it will stay that way till I bring something else home and can't find a place for it... I guess we all have our messy spots...lol. Each to his own.
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