The House That Cleans Itself: Chapter 6

In chapter 6 of The House That Cleans Itself, Mindy asks us to document our mess. I'm bearing all here, ladies. But trust me; once you see my house, you'll feel much better about your own! (Disclaimer: Truly, our house wasn't this bad before I had two difficult pregnancies.) Let's begin with my desk. As a full time mom with a part time writing job, my desk should be functional and practical. And since my desk is in our living room (I lost my office to baby #2!), it needs to be...well, pretty much the opposite of what it is now. Notice my desk has also become a place to set toys I don't want the kids to have at the moment (like the plastic box filled with crayons in the upper left). We are bookish people, so I have bookshelves in every room. This photo shows you the worst of them. Even though I sort through the bookshelves several times a year, they far too quickly begin looking like this. I also place "don't use without Mommy" toys in these shelves. Frankly, I just don't have enough room for all the books )and toys?) we have. Maybe I could install bookshelves on the ceilings???

My entryway isn't nearly as bad as many areas of our house, but it still has problems. The area is cramped because there's no real entryway. The front door opens right into our kitchen (the only dining area in the house) and the room offers only a very small area for a kitchen table. There's also no place for shoes. (Also note the green bag on the wall. I bought that a few months back because my dear hubby kept leaving his mail piled on the kitchen table for...eons. I told him once the bag got full, he had to sort through everything and toss it or put it away. I wonder if he will?) On the other side of the front door is the working kitchen. On one corner is my hubby's coffee maker - and his "junk pile." When I spiffed up the kitchen as my home base zone in chapter 2, I moved all this stuff to the table, directly where my hubby sits. He pushed it aside for a few days, then it magically reappeared on the kitchen counter. It frustrates me no end because I don't have enough counter space as it is and if I move the stuff elsewhere, he will complain. And after all, I don't go in his shop and scatter my stuff around. (On the other hand, hubby says there are very few places in the house for his stuff...I disagree.) I wonder if The House That Cleans Itself will touch on the topic of disorganized spouses? What do you do when your hubby thwarts your organizing efforts? Here's another troublesome spot in the kitchen, right next to the fridge. Miscellaneous stuff seems to appear here by magic. The paper towels sit here (hubby hasn't installed the paper towel holder I bought months ago), my daughter's school papers landed here and never moved, my canning jar lifter is on the bread maker because my toddler kept stealing it from the drawer (he knows how to open child locks), and the basket - which is supposed to hold garlic and onions, has miscellaneous stuff in it. It multiples; it really does! Our living room looks like this most days. I do my best to tidy it up every evening - usually with help from the kids. On the couch, with a small table with books piled atop (can you even see the table through all the books?), is my devotional area. Not exactly a good place for quiet thought and prayer, is it? I've been trying to tidy up the counter in the bathroom every morning, but I obviously haven't done that in a while. Otherwise, the bathroom isn't a huge problem area. I won't share all our bedrooms with you, but here's our nearly 5 year old's room. She never picks up in here unless I help her. (She's so strong willed, it's a major battle to get her to clean even a little bit.) Truly, I want my children to have been organizational skills than I do - a major reason I'm hopeful The House That Cleans Itself can transform our home. The last part of chapter 5 asks us to think a little about why our house is a mess. In my house I most identify with tinies - and most of all - barnacling. What about you?
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5 comments

  1. Oh, Kristina, you're writing my story. We could write a book together about messy husbands!:) Your home sounds so similar to ours. It has improved since our girls have gotten older, but it's still not as clean as I'd like it to be.
    My husband keeps his med's on the kitchen counter. I put them away in the medicine cabinet where they belong, but they eventually find their way back to the kitchen. It's a losing battle. And by the weeks end, ALL of his shoes sit outside the closet door and his dirty clothes lie beside the dirty clothes basket! I don't leave his tools lying outside his barn. Grrrrr.

    I'm anxious to see your "after" pictures. :)

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  2. Loretta, I don't want to make it sound like it's all my hubby. It certainly isn't. But it can be discouraging to get something tidy, then have another person in the household come along and mess it up - as you know. (Yesterday, I tidied the toys throughout the house - but everywhere I cleaned, my toddler followed, creating chaos of the toys again.)

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  3. Loretta, I accidentally deleted your comment from the blog, but since I get emails of all comments, I'm copying and pasting it here:

    LORETTA said:

    I think understanding whose contributing to the clutter will help end a good bit of it. It's mostly disciplining ourselves and time management.
    Set aside a certain time during the day for house cleaning, involving the children. I can't count the times I had to sing the "Clean Up" song from Barney!

    I have a suggestion for the toys. (I had to do this when living space was limited and the family was large). Pack most of the toys in a large BLACK trash bag, keeping the more favored ones out. You may have to do this a little at a time to wean the children from them. The purpose for the BLACK trash bag is to keep it invisible. (Out of sight, out of mind). The same with clothes. It was difficult for me to part with toys and clothes because of the memories, but I had to do something!

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  4. Loretta, I've tried the black trash bag thing. In fact, it's worked well for "baby" toys that I want to get rid of but the kids cling to. I'm just about ready to put a bunch of toys up on Craigslist.

    Unfortunately, I really have no empty storage space for rotating toys - or for storing those black bags. So while they wait to go to charity or to be sold, they sit in my bedroom :(

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  5. I love this post.
    I have photos like this of our OLD house. I once dared my friend to take pics of her house to compare who's really was tidier. She wasn't game enough.
    I talked about the hubby not picking up thing here http://heart-of-wisdom.blogspot.com/2010/07/created-to-be-his-helper.html lol
    Since moving into our new house (9months ago) I have managed to get our house under control (tidy wise) by taking numerous trips to the local salvo's and to the tip. De-clutter was my major winning factor followed by a giant cupboard with most everything stashed away in storage. Love it but it sure took me a few weeks.

    All the best I look forward to an update :)

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