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I'm so confused. Guests aren't allowed in the house, but you deep clean the whole house after you have them over (presumably you expect them to be standing out in the yard) because you assume they tramped through every room?
my question is where do they go to the bathroom ? outside like dogs ? I could never visit someone or be friends with someone where I am not welcome inside their home .
I do alphabetize my pantry and my cabinets drives my other half nutz to the max .LOL
Wow. Now that the kids are more or less up and out, we are working on getting things off the pantry floor and onto the shelves. That is a start. Alphabetizing is still 19 years off for us, but by then we will probably be living in an RV and just buying a couple of days worth of food at a time.
I like a clean house everything in its place. If I need to do something I leave reminders on my computer. I like organization it makes it easier for me to find things. We have a coat each hung near the garage door where we leave or enter. If we want another coat we switch them out. Same with shoes. We don't have magazines so there is no mess there. Books are kept in our dens in the closet, neatly organized. I keep few books my husband has about 2 shelves of books. We have Irobot Vacs which we use daily along with Irobot mops. We do have dogs but they dont play with toys. They do chew bones, but once they are done they are thrown away. They only chew the tiny bones one time. They are bathed weekly and Yorkies don't shed so there is no hair there. Our dog dishes are in a spare bathroom that only they go in so its easy to keep them clean and have them look good. Their bed is under my desk so you don't see it.
We have a four bedroom house for two people. We also have a big walk up attic that is nearly empty. So are all of the closets. There is one closet for coats. I'm not a pack rat and I despise clutter. I can't function in chaos. We clean the house together once a week. We have a swiffer for the pet hair that needs to be removed more than twice a week. Being retired makes it easier to keep up. I just love a clean and tidy environment. I always hve, which meant I had to work a little harder to keep it that way when we were both working.
My late Mother in law God rest her soul . She used to say how do you do it ? keep all of this so clean and If I would dust something off she would always respond "I came to see you , not your house . I dearly miss her .
I am an admitted clean freak myself. I blame my military-based upbringing a bit (father USAF) and a mother who was an interior decorator. But that being said, I'm not over the top by any means. Kids are messy, and we have to hurricanes of destruction ourselves. Everyone who comes over to our house comments on how clean and fresh it is. I learned to lean on technology to help us, with my primary weapon of choice being the Bissell Crosswave floor cleaner (we've had lots of hardwood and tile in our current and past houses). I learned that if you can figure out how to get it truly clean the first time, it tends to stay clean for longer. These floor cleaners, be it the Bissell or the Hoover Floormate (which I had for 5 years), are absolutely essential in my book to having a clean and fresh house. We don't have to clean our floors for like 6 weeks after using either one. Before, we'd be lucky at 2 weeks before I'd start grumbling and chanting at the villagers under my roof.
Also decided to buy the best air filters for our hvac units to capture the dust. Trust me, that is not a waste of money by any means! Add a Honeywell UV light into the system (Amazon, $100), and our hvac operates like an air scrubber. throughout the entire house for dust, odor, allergies, and viruses.
Toilets - every bathroom has it's own toilet bowl scrubber, paper towels, 409, and diluted bleach under each sink. With having that stuff there, it takes 5 minutes to clean up. It's like an after-thought.
Our 10 year old has chores for his weekly allowance. Twice a week - trash collection.
Windows? easy as pie via a Mr. Clean Magic Erasure bar, a $2 squeegee, and a paper towel. Can clean a window to sparkling/spotless in 10 seconds with no real effort.
Basically, I decided years ago that in order for me to not be a pain in the arse to live with, I had to figure out how to really get it clean the first time. Once I figured that out, it's been pretty easy to keep it up, and for all of us to tolerate me.
Its a preference, like many other things in life...
My home I grew up in was "home-ey." Mom had her planner out and bills and permission slips on the cabinet. Shoes were in the entryway, coats in the mudroom, lots of stuff on the fridge, Dad always had a big stack of books on the coffee table from the library, and magazines and a trade journal or two.
My wife and her home is/was different. It isn't to the point that dogs dare not shed in the house, but it is a much more ordered house than mine growing up.
So this is what I'll say...When we have company over, do a big cleaning, or if (I suppose) she were to take pictures, some stuff goes into the laundry closet temporarily, notably the coat rack and a lot of the shoes in the shoe basket, but also the couch cover, the dog toys, etc...Even the chickens get a brand new fresh layer of pine shavings that is fragrant and bright looking, the yard gets combed for dog dirt, etc. But, she does go up into the attic and take stuff down and put stuff up on a monthly basis; I doubt my parents went into the attic once a year, and if a bill or permission slip needs paid or signed it goes to my desk where I take care of it in due time. My desk is not as neat and organized. We also vacuum more than I'm used to, but we have an easy battery powered vacuum that makes it quick and easy.
To me, kind of a waste of time. But, it makes her happy so I deal with it and help and she doesn't complain when I put a ziploc bag full of quail or doves in the fridge to clean later in the week. And, we have had arguments about it; she doesn't want to sit and eat til the kitchen is clean. I am not letting my food get cold. That kind of thing.
Oddly enough, there were/are things that I (the generally messy one) get on her about...The bathroom sink and the bathroom in general, also the sink.
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