Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine How Clean Is Your House?

Mine is clean. It's not that big a deal or that hard to do. Why do so many people procrastinate? My partner and I take two to three hours each weekend to double team the place. I clean two bathrooms, kitchen surfaces, do laundry and vacuum. He cleans one bathroom, mops the tile floors, dusts, cleans the porches, and gets the dog hair off the couches and chairs. I love Scrubbing Bubbles. Once a week on the tub and the build up just doesn't build up. It's so easy if you stay on top of it.

During the week, there isn't that much to do. Beds get made first thing in the morning, dishes go in the dishwasher after dinner, we pick up after ourselves, and put our clothes in the hamper as soon as we undress.

I try not to judge, but really have a hard time understanding how things get so out of hand in some of my friends homes. Fess up, Legion Worldies. Are you obsessively clean or does your pad look like a tornado just went through?

I have a four year old. Take a wild guess.

Tornado here.

I plead the fifth.

my apartment is so filthy it has gained sentience.

depends on the day

If you remember Fibber McGee's closet, just imagine that spread all over an 860' one-story house.

Then imagine how happy I'd be if my house were actually as organized as that.

I should probably add that dirt rarely bothers me, while clutter drives me absolutely bonkers.

Hmm. Nobody wants to admit to being obsessive? My mother was truly obsessive. When you walked across her floor she would sometimes follow behind you with a dust mop to clean whatever came off your feet. She and my sister once had a hilarious fight, when mom wanted her to clean the leaves of the house plants with a spray bottle of water and light rag. My sister totally rebelled and is not a good housekeeper.

Regarding clutter - I read an interesting article recently. It said one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to try to organize it by buying plastic tubs. This just leads to clutter inside plastic tubs piled all over the house. If you really want to get organized, you have to reduce. Throw things away, recycle, or donate. I totally agree. Regarding clothes, I try to follow the rule that if I haven't worn it in over a year it's time for it to go.

[snip]

Oh, Jerry...

Not to flaunt my straight lifestyle in everyone's face, but you don't even wanna' know how many times I've had this discussion with my husband. After awhile, it becomes healthier to replace obsession with obsessive denial. Because who wants to have the same damn conversation over and over again for ten-plus years?

Clean enough to be healthy and cluttered enough to be confortable

Clean, yet charmingly lived in. My socks on the floor lend a certain touch of comme ci, comme ca. While the overflowing hamper clearly states, "Behold my unwashed bounty!"

Upon further reflection, I admit that there are certain things I'm very fussy about in terms of cleanliness. I've been known to re-wash glasses and cookware when they don't feel clean enough, for instance. I'm compulsive about keeping copperwear spotless, too; despite the fact that our kitchen is the size of a broom closet and thus even the shiniest dish in history is never going to be sitting out to impress guests.

Me and my wife are generally disorganized...you know, a book over there, a couple of magazines lying around etc, etc.

However, lately we have been obsessively neat and tidy (we are trying to sell the house)
I'm sure once this place sells and we move into the new place it'll be back to the status quo for us.

Update!

Current Empty Beer Boxes Filled With Junk And Sent On To A New Life At Megalo-Thrift Co. (As of the last week in December: )

Eight or Nine, with more in the works.

I made myself get to work on the cleaning today by putting on the butt rock radio station. I don't like butt rock, but since I associate it with being stuck at work, I figured it would get me out of "holiday" mode. (A misnomer, since I don't get paid to take the day off anyway. This tends to harsh one's festive mood, I'm afraid.)

Onward!

Okay, I give up, Clee--what's "butt rock"?

My wife and I put away all the kids toys every night after they go to bed...sometimes it takes 15 minutes. Even though I know we'll do it again the next day, we need that sense of organization and reclaiming our condo. My eldest is finally starting to learn 'clean up time', so maybe this responsibility will shift soon...

"Classic" rock, LL. You know... Zep and Def and Bob Seger and the rest. Usually about 35-40 songs played over and over and over all day/week/month long. 95.5% White dudes. Once or twice in an eight-hour day you'll get Joan Jett and/or Hendrix, if you're lucky.

I don't wanna talk about it.

I took advantage of the extra day off to get some extra cleaning and straightening done. I took down all the light fixtures and cleaned all the dead bug pieces out (gross). Then I got all the CD's in alphabetical order (finally). Listened to the Chili Peppers. Does that count as "butt rock"?

I thought the Chili Peppers were sock rock.

Pretty cluttered. We moved end of April, and some stuff still isn't unpacked. Which goes to show something about the amount of stuff we had: a lot of it was rarely used.

Speaking of moving, it's weird how a new house can be both larger and smaller than the old one. Larger in terms of stated square footage, but the old one had an unfinished basement, thus not counted, while the new one has... I'm not sure if you call it a finished basement when it's entirely above ground on one side. So some of the stuff from the old (rarely entered by me) basement has to go in more lived-in areas. Even after that, we have more room, but sometimes inconveniently. Some functions that were in the same room in the old house are now in different rooms, requiring duplicate furniture.

[snip]

The cats think the "baked" moths that I shake out of the fixtures are wasted unless they're pounced on and eaten immediately.

Cats are so much fun!

The big foe right now is paperwork. There's a logjam at home, because I have to shred and/or file the old tax crap to make room for 2011's filing.

So... most of 2003 has been shredded and discarded. Part of 2004 can go as well. (Stubs and timecards and other things covered by bank statements.) But 2011 still needs to be sorted/stapled/readied for the closet before 2012's stuff can be properly placed in the file. (I use one of those carry-handle accordion files for everything that shows up in whatever the current year is.)