As most of you know, I don't work during the summers which I love! Recently, I have discovered that I am not a good stay at home mom. I don't think of great projects or fun things to do with Andrew each day, I don't have dinner waiting on the table when Jason gets home, some days I don't wash my hair, I never put on make up- unless I'm seeing friends or going to church, and my house never stays clean for more than an hour. I'll even admit that somedays Andrew and I stay in our pajamas until after naptime and somedays we sleep through breakfast. Why am I admiting this dark little secret? Because, I would like to do a better job when we are at home. Now, let me just say, Andrew has learned a lot over the last month that I've been home with him- and not just good summer sleeping habits! He can say tons of words, he helps do the laundry and vacuum, he picks up his toys (sometimes) and makes lots of new animal sounds! So, I'm not totally failing as a mom, just as a housekeeper!
My biggest question is how do you keep your house in order? I'm not asking for perfection, but I just feel like my house never looks quite presentable for the outside world. I clean it a lot, but it never stays that way for long and I just can't figure out what is causing it. Andrew only creates so much mess and the dog and cats, although they shed, they don't drag anything out. The biggest mess is my kitchen. I don't understand how a freshly mopped floor can go from sparkling to sticky in a matter of minutes, but this is what happens at our house. I don't leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight, we always run the dishwasher before we go to bed, but yet it's still a dirty kitchen. It's little things too, like a load of laundry that didn't get folded so a cat decided to sleep in it and then it needs to be washed again or Andrew decided that it would be really fun to climb up on the bed and throw the laundry all over the bedroom. Then, it's all the little things that he's not supposed to have out, but he somehow manages to get and I just set them on the cabinet or somewhere up high to be put up later, but later never comes and I've got random items throughout my house. Or, like right now Andrew just emptied the upstairs bathroom cabinet and unfolded about 10 towels and threw them all over the floor.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how you keep your house together and does anyone feel the same way that I do? Also, any fun ideas that you do with your kids? We pretty much stay inside all day because it's so hot and do our outside playing after dinner. I'm hoping to get better at this staying home thing, because I'll be home this fall and winter as well- and I'll have two kids to clean up after!
5 comments:
I really wish I had some suggestions for you, but I am in the same boat! I simply can't keep the house picked up. I think the biggest reason is just that Noah & I are HERE all day! Stuff just gets everywhere. And you're right, the kitchen is the WORST. Our kitchen is right outside of Noah's room, which means I can't really clean it at naptime or after he's in bed for the night because it might wake him up. I've just accepted that the house is going to be messy 90% of the time. I'd rather be playing with Noah than cleaning anyway!
Sometimes you just have to let LIFE flow over you
You're doing way more than most people, and when you get to heaven, God is probably NOT going to ask you if your floor was sticky, but He'll probably want to hear all about the animal sounds Andrew makes.
You are one of the most "together" people I know - RELAX and enjoy the summer. I love you, LeAnne
I am in the same way. On work days I manage to have dinner on the table and laundry caught up. Tonight we had hot dogs in the microwave and we are all on our last pairs of underware. All I did today was go swimming. I guess teachers enjoy being lazy.
Christy
Amy,
I always limited what the boys brought out of their rooms to play with...they put that back before getting something else out. I always had a "Saturday Box" in the garage...if I had to pick up anything...this was even in elementary/jr.high..including NIKES, ball caps, etc. ... they did not get it out of the Saturday box until Saturday....no matter what day of the week it was. They still fuss about that! I only did sheets and deep cleaned my house on Mondays. But the most important thing is...Paul was a wonderful husband that was much cleaner and neater that I ever was, he kept everything just perfect! So....put the man in charge of helping maintain clutter free space!
I could have sworn I posted this EXACT subject on my blog, lol. It's a common problem here.
I had a housecleaner for 2 months but I hated writing that check so I've put her on pause for a while, maybe permanently. I did REALLY enjoy having a very clean house every other Tuesday when she came and it really inspired me to keep things picked up better in between. So, this has inspired me to keep a schedule. There is NO WAY I can clean my house in one day. I will do clean sheets every other Sunday. The rest of the house: I've decided to give it two days, every other week (Tues and Weds). Today was my cleaning day. I did my bathroom and dusted my bedroom and vacuumed this part of the house. Tomorrow I will do the front part which is not much cleaning, just 1 little bathroom and the boys bedrooms. I do laundry all the time, never ending chore. I can't decide what to do about mopping. I need to mop every day but when will I actually do it??? It might have to wait for Will's day off and I'll do it that day...I sweep 10 times a day. Jaxon is SOOOOO messy. I can't keep up with his messes.
I think you def need a schedule of some kind. Just like you do at your "for pay" job. This is a new revelation for me and you can check back in a couple weeks to see if I'm as inspired.
I like LeAnne's advice though!!!
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