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Hello all. I recently moved and hope, once I am settled, to be a bit more clean/tidy than I was in my old place.
Any idea why we are messy and what to do about it? Ive always leaned on the messy side and for the most part my own mess doesn't bother me. I wish I cared more but I don't.
I understand I could modify my behavior and try to be cleaner but that has not worked in the past. I'm too much into doing things when i'm "in the mood" and scrubbing the bathroom is not a mood I get frequently.
I was hoping I could understand how we get to be tidy/messy people and how to combat if we wish to. I have super neat friends who need to relax - they are a different spectrum. Just pointing out you can be too much of a good thing too.
Some bad habits are showing themselves already (like company is coming over - just shove stuff into a closet instead of actually dealing with it).
I am good about keeping up with the laundry and cat box though, I'm not a total loss, and I do the dishes regularly (no dishwasher). I just wish I could change this core behavior of mine, the desire to be tidy just in me (but the desire to have company and to able to find stuff without the contstant searching is a factor).
My place is tiny, add that to the mix. And hoarding jokes are fine
Few people on this planet are ever in the mood to clean the bathroom, but we do it because it needs to be done.
There's probably science out there aimed at justifying lazy peoples' laziness without hurting their feelings by calling them lazy, but I honestly just equate messiness and disorganization with laziness.
It's not a bad thing unless it starts to negatively affect your life. So unless you're a total slob I wouldn't really worry about it.
I am messy. I am pretty much Oscar Madison to my husband's Felix Unger. However, I think my husband has pick up my bad habits. I am not talking about dirty. I hate nasty stuff that stinks up the place-garbage and such like that. I'm talking about papers, and just stuff.
I, too just moved (well, a year ago). I really don't want my house to look anything like the old house. The old house was pretty close to looking like a hoarder's house. The main reason for that is because of our "business." We buy junk & sell antiques. So, the house gets overwhelmed with the junk we buy. We pretty much buy more than we sell. I am determined that that will change.
Unlike the old house, we now have a two bay garage. At the moment, it is full of the junk that was all over the old house. Now, that we are somewhat settled, I am going through all the boxes in the garage and putting them into categories: eBay, Craigslist, our booth at an antique mall, and stuff for our garage sale. I am finding boxes that shouldn't have been out there-some of my stuff.
That is the business side of things-the personal side? Well, that is a bit harder. I am trying to address that. I still have bags & boxes to go through. I have gotten rid of a bunch of stuff and I should get rid of more but it is not easy for me. (Yeah, I do have the hoarder gene. ) The other problem I have is that I am lazy. I also suffer from low energy. (Actually, I think my laziness is really from my low energy.)
We now live in a beautiful house that I want to make a show piece and do a lot of entertaining. The best way for me to keep it looking great is to have guests over. With each set of guests we have, a little bit more gets done to the house. For the past year, everyone understood that we just moved so having boxes around was understandable. We have been here for over a year now and it is not quite as understanding. But, it is coming. The more guests we have, the less time for things to accumulate. At least that is what I tell myself.
I posted a similar post here the other day and no one answered me.
Glad ya keep up with cat box!
oh I'm sorry hon. Where did you post it? I had no idea where to put it. It is too misc of a topic IMO.
So I choose psych because I think there must be some psychology behind it and why are we messy? I want to be less so in theory I just can't get there.
I was better when I had a husband and roommates, since it effects other ppl. Kitty is not a roommate but she does deserve a clean box
and when I do clean it takes FOREVER. I'm slow and dumb. I'm smart and fast in other places so I am clueless.
Dishes clean mostly I do becaue I will want to cook and I hate not having my proper equipment clean. And laundry same, we all have to leave the house at some point right? Clean clothes are necessary.
and maybe I am lazy. When I have more energy I tend to be cleaner though. I just dont have much in the last few years. And if I'm lazy I don tknow what to do about that? I'm not being daft, I just really don't know. And can we be lazy in one arena and not others? I could clean more but I have only 1.5 hours or so before bed most weeknights after work and activities and I'd rather do my down time than clean. I set up the coffee, deal with kitty, and either wash dishes or make my lunch for the next day and pack bags for the next day's activities. Then of course i have to brush and floss, wash and moistgurize, etc etc...never ending bleh.
Americans have too much stuff. Once you slip on keeping tidy, it snowballs and becomes a massive project to get back on track. Nobody wants to spend their whole day cleaning up, so they do what they can in 30 minutes and live with the rest of the mess.
My enemies are clothing and paper. And I don't think I can eliminate either of them... My husband and I have this discussion frequently and luckily we're similar. We are wonderful at tidying up before guests come over, and one way we've kept it up, is to deliberately have people over, regularly.
We've tried to live our lives like Better Homes and Gardens people... picking up after ourselves and never leaving a coffee cup on the counter. But we end up getting so busy and absorbed in the parts of life we love, that eventually things get left. Right now there is an electric frying pan and an air fryer sitting next to the grand piano in the living room - ostensibly on its way down to the basement. They've been there for a week now, and we've been down to the basement several times this week. I could go and move them now but I can't be bothered and they're not hurting anything.
As long as I can keep the kitchen and bathroom tidy and clean, daily, I can function. The bedroom (my side of the bed) would need about 15 mins of time to put it in order, and the desk I work at in my home office is quite terrible. It's a large desk and is strewn with things that just don't belong. A roll of tape, a camera lens, 2 hair clips, 6 recipe cards I picked up from the grocery store, a blood pressure machine, and omg there they are!! TWO eyeglass containers that I looked for endlessly yesterday. That is great.
We are messy and we also lose things a lot. Keys, cheque books, important pieces of paper. People tell us, "well, if you don't want to keep losing things, then you shouldn't be so messy." It hasn't changed yet. lol. I suppose one could say that we're willing to pay the price of being untidy. Yes, to an extent. I have never lost my passport or an airline ticket (at least not on the day of needing it!) We have been badly inconvenienced by our scatter-brainedness. I remember a drive back from the beach with someone else's keys, which then had to be placed on a greyhound bus and sent back to them so they could get home... but that's really digressing from the original messy theme.
I'm heading out right now to take the trash cans back inside. That's a record for me - the trash was picked up about 5 hours ago.
For some, organization is hard. Sometimes, it's a matter of more stuff than you can neatly store/insufficient storage. For some, it's jealously guarding your time, and being willing to put off unappealing tasks because you'd rather spend the time doing something appealing. Sometimes (for my husband), it's a matter of wanting things conveniently within an arm's reach instead of having to go and get the from wherever their storage place is. Some people are willing to live with messiness if there is some tradeoff that is more important to them.
When I was young and married with kids, my house was pretty clean because I was a stay at home Mom, so that was my job.
Now that I'm older, I don't really care about it so much until I'm having company. My kitchen and bathroom is always clean though.
My sisters and I joke that we don't like to clean because we were forced to do it as kids...lol and that is meant to be a joke!
I am trying to de-clutter my house slowly and get somewhat organized. I'm not a hoarder by any means, but someone with OCD about organization would go bizirk in a couple of rooms in my house.
I wish I would have started de-cluttering when I was young. I have bags and boxes to go to Goodwill with things that are brand new that I bought and never used. We just accumulate so much "stuff" over the years that we really don't need.
I bought a book several years ago with a title something to the effect of De-Clutter Your Mind, De-Clutter Your Life. Well.... I didn't finish the book because I obviously had too many cob webs in my mind! hahaha
I blame my messiness on my irregular work and sleep hours through the week.
Too much junk mail arrives and doesn't get tossed out.
Have one too many bicycles sitting in various states of disrepair due to lack of proper parts to get them rideable.
Then of course there's the overuse of packaging when ordering certain things.
However, I do have some spontaneous "trash dumping" days where if it's a piece of paper, or some item that serves no obvious purpose any more, it's getting chucked.
Some say "shred your documents, protect your identity".
If I want to get the place clean and traversable, sales receipts and old bills become less of a concern to me.
Pick your consequences.
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) The other problem I have is that I am lazy. I also suffer from low energy. (Actually, I think my laziness is really from my low energy.) 
