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There is a difference between dirt & mess/clutter. My house is has A LOT of clutter. We buy junk & sell antiques and they are ALL OVER THE PLACE. And some of our rooms are covered in dust-which is the extent of our dirt. But, we are in a position where we can hire someone who comes in every two weeks to CLEAN! Our bathrooms are scrubbed, the kitchen is scrubbed. The only reason why some rooms are covered in dust is because we don't feel the need to have our cleaning person do them. I have this issue about having people come into our bedroom so our bedroom doesn't get clean. So, when people come into our house, they see the clean part-not the messy part.
I've always wondered what the purpose of making one's bed is. It's not like leaving dirty dishes around: there's nothing inherently sanitary or unsanitary about leaving a bed unmade as long as the sheets are laundered regularly.
I USED TO feel the same way......what's the point? House Beautiful isn't coming to do a photo-shoot and it's all just going to get messed-up again that night anyway. Just seems like an unnecessary chore.
And THEN, we had kids.
and pets.
As much as I insist that my kids nor the pets are allowed in my room, I will still find dog fur, catnip leaves, cookie crumbs, pens and other evidence that they DO sneak in there, and ON MY BED, anyway
So I don't do the whole Bedspread/fancy pillows/bedskirt setup, but I have since learned why it's important to throw a huge blanket (that I don't sleep with) over my entire bed (to hold all the kid/pet residue) that will later get tossed off when I'm ready to go to bed in a CLEAN bed.
JUST last night, my daughter was getting ready to go to bed and all of a sudden she comes screaming from her room because the cat left a half-dead, pissed-off spider in the middle of her, um "unmade" bed. My guess is SHE will now be "setting her bed" as soon as she gets out of it in the morning from now on as well
I certainly don't peek in anyone's refrigerator but if for some reason I happen to see inside of it and find that it's dirty, I can certainly say I will not be accepting any food from that person. IMO there is a difference between a cluttered fridge and a dirty one. Clutter just means you have a lot of food, beverages, etc and not enough space. Dirty is just that...dirty. (i.e. dried up, stuck on food, spilled drinks that were never cleaned up and left there to dry up and become a sticky mess, food debri, moldy food, odor, etc.) Sometimes you don't even have to see the inside of a fridge to know it's dirty. If the outside is dirty you can pretty much guess what the inside looks like.
Uh, NO. I don't know how much clearer I have to be, but my gosh, I'll repeat myself again.
I have CLEARLY stated that this works for MY FAMILY. I went into great detail stating that out of my immediate family, six of the seven people who have lived under our roof are very neat, organized people - I even said that I think they were born with this element in their personalities. Clearly not everyone is born that way, or prefers living in a clean, orderly, aesthetically pleasing home - it's just not as important to them as it is to other people, and that's fine. That's their house and their life. That's not my business -my business is MY home and MY life.
And frankly, I think it's a little weird to project onto others the idea that you can't have BOTH a clean house AND a happy family.
As for ME PERSONALLY - no, I couldn't stand to live in a cluttered, messy house. For the record, I also couldn't stand to live in an ultra contemporary home that had little or no embellishments or knick knacks. My home and the environment of it is very important to me - how it looks, how it smells, how orderly it is - and my husband is on exactly the same page as I am, so it works well for us. (Our kids are grown but when they were growing up, four of the five were also very neat, so that was helpful.)
I am quite sure that there are plenty of healthy, happy people out there who would hate my decorating style. But one thing is certain - if they visit my home, they will find it clean. If they stay overnight, they will find that their host and hostess have made sure that they are housed very comfortably and have every necessary amenity at their fingertips. We enjoy entertaining and having overnight guests in fact. We really enjoy being good hosts.
We have one son who is VERY slovenly, and yes, it's a problem when he visits. I love my son dearly, and so I just close the door to the guestroom when he's there, but when he leaves the bathroom a mess, or when I can literally smell the funk coming from his dirty clothes, yes, we're going to have a talk, and I don't care if he's offended or not. He shouldn't come to my house and make a mess and not clean it up. That's rude. And when I go to his house, I shouldn't criticize the mess there either. And I don't.
Hey KathrynAragon, I know there's been some people here taking offense to what you've written in your postings, but want to let you know you've inspired me to keep my place neater & cleaner!
I'm single & live in a condo alone most of the time (I rent out the 2nd furnished bedroom for a few months at a time, about 2/3 of the year)-- no pets, no husband, no kids.... so I should be able to keep up with things, right? Well, I do make my bed every day (takes about 30 seconds), don't cook much & usually keep up w/ putting my dishes, etc. in the dishwasher. And my refrigerator (the original topic of this thread) is never that dirty or messy-- I keep up w/ throwing things out & when a roommate is here, keep my food products in just one-half of the fridge/freezer, it's divided up evenly so that keeps things neat. Plus I always make sure to get a roommate who doesn't cook much & rarely eats at home so they hardly ever even use the kitchen!
I'm also an organized person, everything has a place & everything is in its place (including in the closets.) I do love books & reading, so tend to have piles of books & magazines around, but that doesn't seem bad to me. Don't mind dusting & vacuuming, do that about every 10 days (hey, there's not that much mess to dust or vacuum-- no pets, no kids here!)
What I absolutely HATE doing is cleaning the kitchen & bathroom, scubbing & cleaning floors! The kitchen doesn't look too bad, but my private bathroom in my master bedroom?? It's horrible! Embarrassing how long I'll go without cleaning it, sometimes have nightmares about it! Luckily, I'm usually the only one using it! (no boyfriend and not too many visitors & they use the "guest" bathroom when no roommate here.)
I really have a strong resistance to cleaning the bathroom, but think part of the problem is it's so unpleasant because there's no windows in the bathrooms here (in the South, compared to where I lived in the Northeast, where there was always a window for ventilation in my bathrooms there.) And I find most cleaning products very irritating, their smell plus how irritating they are to my throat & skin. (There's been times I worried about passing out from the smells/fumes from certain cleansers!) OK, guess I should wear rubber gloves (and a face-mask?) when cleaning the bathroom plus find some non-irritating cleaning products? Or pay money for a cleaning service just for my bathrooms (and kitchen)??
Will have to think that over, but just wanted to say that I was inspired by KathrynAragon's postings here & this whole thread has been very thought-provoking!
Kathryn is a wonderful poster... and I agree with most of what she has to say on this topic.
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Embarrassing how long I'll go without cleaning it, sometimes have nightmares about it!
Luckily, I'm usually the only one using it!
