Who made this big mess?!? Oh

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CradleJourney

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(Note: Light-hearted thread, typed with a smile, hoping to break up the seriousness of so much we face as parents, spouses, etc.)

Looking around my home this morning, the first thing that popped into my head was the classic line of Loonette the Clown from the Big Comfy Couch.

Yep, there’s only one answer … me. (Well, me, myself, I, my hubby, my three sons and one daughter. I do hold our pet lizard entirely blameless. 😃 )

Dirty dishes, empty bottles, smelly shoes, dirty laundry, clean laundry, mail, magic cards, paper, trash, boxes, bags, books, backpacks, etc litter every surface. sigh

Hubby, oldest son, and I have all been working one and a half our normal work schedules. The other three all started back to high school / middle school - which also means they had multiple call-outs / try-outs for their extra curriculars. Toss in a couple health emergencies for our elderly moms, listing one mom’s house for sale, and, obviously, no one had time to do anything around here. shudder

Good news is with the exception of those shoes (teen boy’s cleats - ugh!), nothing is smelly or sticky. No bugs or vermin 🙂 Just mess, mess, mess. (As in I can no longer see the carpet in at least two rooms and the surface of my desk has risen by 4" :eek:)

Mainly posting simply to motivate myself to dig in and tackle the issue (thankfully have weekend off - yay!!!). But also curious - anyone else face house disasters during/after chaotic periods … and if so, what method do you use to restore order?

I’m planning on starting with laundry first (have approx. 15 loads to do) so I’ll keep that running all weekend. Then go by category - get the trash picked up, then dishes, and so forth.

I can’t help help but feel like St Anthony and St Jude are looking down and saying, yep - about time, young lady! 😃
 
I’m with you. I have to go back to work on Monday, and I want to trick our new nanny into thinking we keep the house clean. I’ve got my work cut out for me!
 
Allegra said:
I’m with you. I have to go back to work on Monday, and I want to trick our new nanny into thinking we keep the house clean. I’ve got my work cut out for me!
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Good luck! We can do it!

I got temporarily sidetracked when my sister showed up shortly after I posted with a moving van to pick up a cabinet from our mom’s old place (I have the keys). Seizing the opportunity of having a truck plus two young men (my son / her grandson) available, we not only loaded up her cabinet, but switched out a dresser in my house (she took my old one) and moved a large tool cabinet from there to here as well. Not exactly the plan for the day - but now youngest DS has the “right” dresser in his room (and no excuse not to get it reorganized and cleaned up since there won’t be a furniture change looming in his future anymore 👍).

So - progress. One step, one task at a time!
 
I think your method sounds great!

Whenever I need to catch up, I start on laundry and general pick up. I feel like I get the most result for not much effort, which motivates me to keep going on harder and potentially grosser tasks. 😛
 
Mainly posting simply to motivate myself to dig in and tackle the issue (thankfully have weekend off - yay!!!). But also curious - anyone else face house disasters during/after chaotic periods … and if so, what method do you use to restore order
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What method do I use to restore order? I go on Pinterest or CAF.

If its a day that Im ready to face the reality:D I grab a big laundry basket and shovel everything into it. And then a trash bag, and shovel everything trashy into it. But there’s no quick method for dishes and laundry… I have an older neighbor come by twice a week and do both of those for a couple hours. Its worth my peace of mind. Sounds like you could use a little help. ;D
 
I was planning on doing this the past few days, but my step-grandmother passed away and we’ve apparently only been home long enough to trash the house. My daughter’s room is literally the only clean room in the house. We put up new shelves in our family room, and they’re a big narrower than the old shelves. So we have stacks of CDs sitting out that we’re trying to organize in that room, as well as tools and little sawdust curlies all over the place. That’s downstairs where the kids don’t really go, so it’s the least urgent thing that needs to get done. Upstairs, we have a kitchen table we haven’t seen in two weeks, plus a lot of wiping down and a floor that needs mopping. We have a living area/dining room with the stickiest floor ever, under a layer of the remains after a Little People/ Duplo apocalypse, and a dining table caked with dried playdough and finger paint. Also, a pack n play that’s been used for stuffed animal/extra toy storage all summer, but needs to be cleaned out so the nanny’s daughter has a place to nap. We have an embarrassing bathroom that needs basically everything. We have a bedroom full of suitcases that haven’t been completely unpacked yet, and a baby’s room that is pretty okay except for the pile of old clothes that need to be gone through and sold or donated. Now guess which project my husband feels needs to be worked on when he gets home. :rolleyes:
 
I need to talk him into taking both kids to the grocery store. It’ll be hours before he gets back and I’ll have time to clean everything but the floors. Then he can do the floors while the kids nap.
 
Allegra said:
I was planning on doing this the past few days, but my step-grandmother passed away and we’ve apparently only been home long enough to trash the house. My daughter’s room is literally the only clean room in the house. We put up new shelves in our family room, and they’re a big narrower than the old shelves. So we have stacks of CDs sitting out that we’re trying to organize in that room, as well as tools and little sawdust curlies all over the place. That’s downstairs where the kids don’t really go, so it’s the least urgent thing that needs to get done. Upstairs, we have a kitchen table we haven’t seen in two weeks, plus a lot of wiping down and a floor that needs mopping. We have a living area/dining room with the stickiest floor ever, under a layer of the remains after a Little People/ Duplo apocalypse, and a dining table caked with dried playdough and finger paint. Also, a pack n play that’s been used for stuffed animal/extra toy storage all summer, but needs to be cleaned out so the nanny’s daughter has a place to nap. We have an embarrassing bathroom that needs basically everything. We have a bedroom full of suitcases that haven’t been completely unpacked yet, and a baby’s room that is pretty okay except for the pile of old clothes that need to be gone through and sold or donated. Now guess which project my husband feels needs to be worked on when he gets home. :rolleyes:
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:D:D nothing more depressing than organizing and emptying suitcases after a long trip.
Id like to patten a sloping cement floor with a drain at the bottom of it. That way you can just spray everything down with the hose, maybe sometimes even the kids.

patent, not petten. Patten was a general wasnt he.
Genius idea, right? 😃
 
CradleJourney said:
Good luck! We can do it!

I got temporarily sidetracked when my sister showed up shortly after I posted with a moving van to pick up a cabinet from our mom’s old place (I have the keys). Seizing the opportunity of having a truck plus two young men (my son / her grandson) available, we not only loaded up her cabinet, but switched out a dresser in my house (she took my old one) and moved a large tool cabinet from there to here as well. Not exactly the plan for the day - but now youngest DS has the “right” dresser in his room (and no excuse not to get it reorganized and cleaned up since there won’t be a furniture change looming in his future anymore 👍).

So - progress. One step, one task at a time!
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Nice!

We had a somewhat similar event recently. Two kids switched bedrooms, so almost every item they owned moved. Amazingly, the 12-year-old (an amazingly organized and tidy child) moved all of his stuff in a single day. We parents helped with moving furniture and odds and ends, but he did the bulk of it. Then I put Baby Girl’s room together. She has basically a mattress, blankets, toys and clothes, so not a big deal at this point.

In the process, literally everything in two rooms and a bathroom was reorganized and a lot of dusting and vacuuming of normally inaccessible areas happened.

It was all surprisingly painless…for me. The 12-year-old was wiped out.
 
CradleJourney, when I was raising my children and working, my experience was just like yours. Now my children are grown. The house is clean and organized. However, toys and children’s furniture are still evident in our house. When the grandchildren come to visit one or two at a time, I have activities and projects laid out for them in addition to the toys. After four to six hours their parents come to pick them up. They usually aren’t ready to go home. I am exhausted. If this is not heaven on Earth, I don’t know what would be.
 
HCTC said:
CradleJourney, when I was raising my children and working, my experience was just like yours. Now my children are grown. The house is clean and organized. However, toys and children’s furniture are still evident in our house. When the grandchildren come to visit one or two at a time, I have activities and projects laid out for them in addition to the toys. After four to six hours their parents come to pick them up. They usually aren’t ready to go home. I am exhausted. If this is not heaven on Earth, I don’t know what would be.
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Very nice!

Note to parents of teens: Don’t throw out all the toys!
 
I suggest looking at Fly Lady’s Sink Reflections book.

I don’t use her system (it would stress me out), but I really like her attitude:

–that anything you do is progress
–even cleaning “wrong” blesses your family (a lot of messy people are surprisingly perfectionistic)
–we do this not because of the abstract value of the platonic ideal of the clean house or to impress visitors, but because we deserve a nice place to live
–you’re not behind–start where you are

flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/decluttering-15-minutes/

When my big kids were little, I would periodically ask them to find 20 items that they don’t need anymore and either throw them away or give them to a sibling. There are always 20 unwanted items in a child’s room.
 
CradleJourney said:
(Note: Light-hearted thread, typed with a smile, hoping to break up the seriousness of so much we face as parents, spouses, etc.)

Looking around my home this morning, the first thing that popped into my head was the classic line of Loonette the Clown from the Big Comfy Couch.

Yep, there’s only one answer … me. (Well, me, myself, I, my hubby, my three sons and one daughter. I do hold our pet lizard entirely blameless. 😃 )

Dirty dishes, empty bottles, smelly shoes, dirty laundry, clean laundry, mail, magic cards, paper, trash, boxes, bags, books, backpacks, etc litter every surface. sigh

Hubby, oldest son, and I have all been working one and a half our normal work schedules. The other three all started back to high school / middle school - which also means they had multiple call-outs / try-outs for their extra curriculars. Toss in a couple health emergencies for our elderly moms, listing one mom’s house for sale, and, obviously, no one had time to do anything around here. shudder

Good news is with the exception of those shoes (teen boy’s cleats - ugh!), nothing is smelly or sticky. No bugs or vermin 🙂 Just mess, mess, mess. (As in I can no longer see the carpet in at least two rooms and the surface of my desk has risen by 4" :eek:)

Mainly posting simply to motivate myself to dig in and tackle the issue (thankfully have weekend off - yay!!!). But also curious - anyone else face house disasters during/after chaotic periods … and if so, what method do you use to restore order?

I’m planning on starting with laundry first (have approx. 15 loads to do) so I’ll keep that running all weekend. Then go by category - get the trash picked up, then dishes, and so forth.

I can’t help help but feel like St Anthony and St Jude are looking down and saying, yep - about time, young lady! 😃
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Your house sounds like mine!
 
Another philosophical point:

–The stuff exists to serve the people, not the people to serve the stuff.
 
Allegra said:
under a layer of the remains after a Little People/ Duplo apocalypse, and a dining table caked with dried playdough and finger paint.
Click to expand...
It’s been a bit, but I remember experiencing a few of those apocalyses myself. :sad_yes:

I want you to pat yourself on the back though, because you’re a better mother than I. I banned finger paint after child #2. I still remember the preschool / kindergarten questionnaire where they asked if “paint, scizzors, and glue” were easily accessible to the child (with the supposition that this was a GOOD thing). My “no way” answer immediately seemed to brand me as the worst mom of the year. My thought was that was WHY I was sending them there - to learn and use such things without the chance of injury or insult to younger sibs and/or my walls! 😃

I always figured crayons, paper, play-doh and building blocks were enough creative outlet for a kid. :rolleyes:

(Update - got some laundry done, the work there continues. Also got the kitchen table and counters all cleaned off and am diligently making the kids help reclaim the family room. Lots of protests and a long pause for a game of Stratego, but progress is being made!)
 
CradleJourney said:
It’s been a bit, but I remember experiencing a few of those apocalyses myself. :sad_yes:

I want you to pat yourself on the back though, because you’re a better mother than I. I banned finger paint after child #2. I still remember the preschool / kindergarten questionnaire where they asked if “paint, scizzors, and glue” were easily accessible to the child (with the supposition that this was a GOOD thing). My “no way” answer immediately seemed to brand me as the worst mom of the year. My thought was that was WHY I was sending them there - to learn and use such things without the chance of injury or insult to younger sibs and/or my walls! 😃

I always figured crayons, paper, play-doh and building blocks were enough creative outlet for a kid. :rolleyes:

(Update - got some laundry done, the work there continues. Also got the kitchen table and counters all cleaned off and am diligently making the kids help reclaim the family room. Lots of protests and a long pause for a game of Stratego, but progress is being made!)
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I also had a light bulb moment when my oldest kids were little when I realized that they can finger paint and clean up at **preschool **.

I’m OK with water colors for the 4-year-old, but she can do all her tempera paint projects at school. (She’s brought home dozens of the things.)
 
CradleJourney said:
It’s been a bit, but I remember experiencing a few of those apocalyses myself. :sad_yes:

I want you to pat yourself on the back though, because you’re a better mother than I. I banned finger paint after child #2. I still remember the preschool / kindergarten questionnaire where they asked if “paint, scizzors, and glue” were easily accessible to the child (with the supposition that this was a GOOD thing). My “no way” answer immediately seemed to brand me as the worst mom of the year. My thought was that was WHY I was sending them there - to learn and use such things without the chance of injury or insult to younger sibs and/or my walls! 😃

I always figured crayons, paper, play-doh and building blocks were enough creative outlet for a kid. :rolleyes:

(Update - got some laundry done, the work there continues. Also got the kitchen table and counters all cleaned off and am diligently making the kids help reclaim the family room. Lots of protests and a long pause for a game of Stratego, but progress is being made!)
Click to expand...
LOL. We usually put globs of finger paint in a gallon sized ziplock bag with a sheet of white paper. That way they don’t make much of a mess. We were legit using it to make handprints on a condolences card for my step-mom though. I wiped up the top of the table, but I didn’t realize that the kids had got some paint on the part of the vinyl table cloth that hangs off the side. It was completely dried on there. 😊

We’re sort of homeschooling for preschool, so I have to suck it up if I want her to learn to use art supplies before kindy.

Mr. Allegra took the kids to the grocery store. I made a list, but apparently he thought it was kind of hard. I got two hours to clean the living room/ dining room area and sort through/clean the toy box. I still need to do the bottom of the stairs where we dump off everything as we come in the house and find the kitchen table.
 
When everyone was home and I worked and then had to do overtime, etc. and the kids had practice every night and other activities, things would be pretty disorganized, but the worst was the laundry. At which point I would gather everything up, put it in the car, and take it all to the laundromat and do it all at once (using up some of my overtime pay in the process).

But it was worth it and I wasn’t spending all day into the next running up and down the stairs doing laundry and interrupting whatever I was doing in the process. The rest of the cleanup went much smoother for me.

I remember those days well. Now we are retired and not much mess is made. So just keep saying to yourself “This too, will pass.”
 
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