House Cleaning

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Okay, I can't say I would love if my only job was writing, as before Catelynn I was just a writer and stay at home wife. I am terrible at cleaning. Not like I let it get disgusting, too often, but there is a general state of clutter in our house. It does grate on my nerves, but I never really knew what to DO about it. I had tried Flylady in the past, but my perfectionism always kicked my butt and I would almost quit as soon as I started. I picked up a new book the other day for $5 at my local Christian book store because of the title alone: "The House That Cleans Itself." Yeah, that's me all over.

I was surprised once I was reading it I was underlining things, writing in margins. It does respectfully mention programs like Flylady, but talks about how they are just too specific sometimes for people with a perfection streak. I.e. flylady has you shine your sink every night. That's great, unless you don't care what you sink looks like (<—— me). Instead, I had to problem solve and decide what is my home base, an area I can't stand to be dirty. That's easy, that's my bathroom. My entire house can be filthy, but my sink, toilet, bathtub, and shower will be clean. But that's because I LOVE my bathroom. So that's where my Flow Plan starts.

It is a Christian based cleaning program. She directs you to pray before cleaning (which has helped me Miss Distraction Queen) and offers scriptural encouragement. Today, I managed to completely clean off the top of my cabinets (stuff that has sat there unused for 2 years) and get everything off my counters. Since our kitchen table is a catch all, I problem solved and realized we never eat there so we don't care about stuff "barnacling" (what the author calls things that find a horizontal surface and squat), and while I don't have any desire to eat there on a regular basis right now, I set the table like it's about time to eat, and now we don't put anything on the table. But I was able to stay focused, and items that went to the donation pile, I didn't stop to clean them or anything. I just focused on finding everything a place. Had to fight a kitchen shelf to get the plastic thingies to release, in the end it took a spoon, a hammer, and a flat head screw driver. But I won. I removed a shelf in a cabinet and my coffee pot now fits into it. I cleaned my Lazy Susan and arranged the spices by use, nothing crazy, just general groupings based on how they are used. Like my salts and meat seasonings I use often when cooking dinner, all together right in front in the direction I naturally turn the thing. My baking spices (rarely used because I stink at baking) are all together on the end where I don't naturally turn the Lazy Susan. I also never mop my floor, though we own one of those big white stringy mop things. It's too much of a pain, get the mop, get the bucket, fill the bucket, mop, then set the mop outside to dry and remember to get it before some animal takes up residence. So I bought a swiffer, and found generic wet wipes that fit the swiffer at the Dollar Tree. 20 count for $1, that's $.05 a mopping, but worth it because it's easy to do and throw the stupid thing in the trash.

I know many of us who write from home are also responsible for keeping it clean. Just thought I would share, and hopefully in time, my house too will clean itself!

[Debbi]

I hear ya, sister. Housecleaning is my biggest foe and I can easily let it go for ages. The other day I emerged from my office (a mess as well) where my whole world devolves into a coccon of keyborad and monitor and saw my living room like I was a visitor. Dog toys everywhere...bulk PT and TP from Costco on the table for a month...jackets and shoes and purses and mail on every chair...dishes in every nook and cranny...dog-ripped napkins festooning the floors...Wo lives in this junkyard!!! I took 15 mintes right then and there and picked up and put away and could not believe how it lifted my spirits. I really hate dirt and clutter but somehow I manage to slip pinto a state of denial, developing tunnel vision that excludes all the mess.

I hate mopping too but vacuuming more. Of course it would help if I had a better vacuum cleaner. I pray for a Dyson to show up at my front door someday. But then, it would probably sit in the corner mocking me.

[Celeste Stewart]

Amen sisters! I hate cleaning. Plus the kids scatter stuff everywhere. However, because I do have a little one, I also have a miracle product: baby wipes! They're awesome for wiping counters, tables, spills, fingerprints, leather couches, car parts, yucky areas of the toilet that you'd never want to use a reusable sponge or cloth on, you name it!

[CRDonovan]

LOL! Debbi, I can really relate to the dog toys everywhere! And the ripped up napkins festooning the floor! We live in the wild kingdom evidently, where animals rule! I also live in a state of clutter, but I am extremely attached to my clutter. Stacks of books on every surface. Piles of CD's and tapes on the kitchen counter. My kid's guitars, skateboard and snowboard gear pretty much everywhere. Animals underfoot always. I haven't been alone in the bathroom for decades. Any time I go to use the sink or tub, a cat has got to race me there and jump in. And word has gotten around evidently because the neighbor's dog was just standing on a snowbank peering hopefully into my kitchen. And deer friends come around the bird feeders and gaze through the window to see what life is like on the inside. And I think some critter lives in my attic - I'll hear some godawful thumping around upstairs, and I look around and see us all accounted for downstairs. Hmmm... I ask the cats: don't you people wonder who that is? My son and I extend our tolerance to mice. One cat is an excellent mouser. We distract him and advise the mice: "run away!" We rescue spiders and don't knock down webs this time of year because - well it's somebody's pantry. Hopeless.

[Marika]

Lol! Hey, my place is a wreck, too, so don't beat yourself up!

I joined a group called Stepping Out of Squalor, and even though my place isn't quite THAT bad (it can get that way fast, though...), SOS is awesome for motivation. Flylady just grated on my nerves-"What's this? Dressed to shoes? Makeup? Shine my sink? Are you kidding me?!" Really, most days, I'm lucky to get half my work finished; shining my sink is out of the question, and I wear makeup about as often as I wear heels. There's a reason I started working from home, lol.

SOS is cool, though, because you can go in the chat room and get "challenged" to get off your butt to do something, including writing. My usual "schedule" is to clean one room on one challenge, then write an article on the next. It's not perfect, but it keeps the house kinda under control...most days, anyway...

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Debbi, have you ever used a Dyson? My friend has one, and after trying to use hers, I have no doubt I never want a Dyson

The House That Cleans Itself suggests a vaccuum on each floor of the house. We don't do that, but I do have 2. I have a super dustbuster I call it, it has a telescoping handle and I use it for quick messes (about 4 times a day with a 9 month old under foot). Then, we bought a $40 vacuum from Walmart and that thing works great. I wish it had better attachments, but now that I have the super dustbuster, I don't use the one with rollers to vacuum the stairs anymore.

[Debbi]

Never used a Dyson. What are some problems with it?

[BarryDavidson]

I would recommend, if anyone can fit it onto their budget, buying a Rainbow vacuum. Also, see if you can get a decent older model with the shampooing attachment (which can be used to mop floors as well), and the larger basin. A Rainbow will do a lot. They work as a wet vac, air cleaner, and even pick up dirt under the carpet. If I'm remembering correctly, there is even a window washing attachment. You can even use it as a blower, and with the coil cleaning attachment you can blow the dust out of refrigerator coils and even the inside of your computer. (No bags to buy ever!)

Just be sure to buy from a licensed dealer, and make sue there's a warranty on any used model you buy.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

The problems I had, she has the gray and purple model, the detachment tool hose was the most retarded thing I've ever used. It's inverted if that makes sense, so I had to keep unkinking the hose. They designed it to come out of the handle, but there was no extension to make using it on the floor easy. Now if I was using it above my head, it would have been perfect, but how often do you vacuum above your head?

And then trying to move the selector to floor, everything had to be perfectly secure, or it wouldn't move over. And given she has 4 kids, it took quite a bit of jostling and pleading with the detachment hose to be happy so the sensors would let me switch to the floor mode.

[Debbi]

Well, at the moment I have NO vacuum. I am using a broom to sweep what I can off the carpets. It feels like the Dark Ages over here. If I didn't have wall-to-wall carpeting I could hang the rugs out on the porch railing and beat them with a tennis racket!

[Antonia]

When I'm living in Nepal I use a locally-made twig broom to sweep my floor. It costs about 10 cents and believe it or not, does a better job than a vacuum cleaner!

I hate clutter & mess too...but am not good at banishing it on a daily basis....I don't even notice it until it becomes so bad that it makes me grouchy!

[JoHunley]

I approach housecleaning in the same manner as writing (and usually at the same time). If I waited around for inspiration, or to "feel like it", then I'd never get anything done. So... BIC - Butt In Chair. Sit and write, whether I'm inspire, whether I feel like it or not, just sit and start typing. See what comes up. Most days it's just a matter of getting into the flow of it. The first 500 words are complete junk, but then I'm warmed up and it starts to get good. So when I pause to do some brainstorming, I do the housework while mulling over some writing.

Work out a paragraph in my head while doing the dishes. Go write out the paragraph.

Vacuum while mentally editing an outline. Then go sit down and write out the outline.

Etc, etc. It means I spend a good part of my day jumping back and forth between chores and the computer, ut I g a lot more done this way.

[SuzanneBosworth]

Oh YUK. I hate house cleaning. YUK YUK YUK. I'm about to move (I don't have a huge amount of "stuff" but I've been going through some bags of squirreled stuff and getting rid of most of it into the recycling and the charity shops), and I got to the stage where I lost energy and the remains of the task are spread out on the rug. I'm looking at it now, thinking "if you did that, it would be one less thing to do, get off your backside and do it" but of course it sits there sticking out its tongue and making rude noises.

CRD your post made me honk laughing!! I'm with you on the spiders. Maybe they go through crises as well: "I must tidy up this web. There's bits of fly and bug everywhere and there's nowhere to sit, for Pete's sake."

The one place that has to be clear and tidy, though, is my desk. I cannot write in a clutter on my desk. I used to get into trouble at day jobs because I always had a clear desk policy for myself, and so people thought I had nothing to do when in fact I was working like a demon - I just didn't have my desk strewn with papers. Try and explain to some people how you work, and they've never heard of a clear desk policy and they're up to their necks in paper at their own desks .. lol. Ah well. I can operate one at home with no one to stand behind me breathing loudly, offended by the bare wood of my work area .. hehe

[CRDonovan]

[quote] I'm with you on the spiders. Maybe they go through crises as well: "I must tidy up this web. There's bits of fly and bug everywhere and there's nowhere to sit, for Pete's sake."[/quote]

Suzanne: LOL, I hadn't thought of that.

[rcolby7400]

I too have been living in clutter, that is, until about a month ago. A girlfriend of mine comes to my house once a week and helps me for about five hours cleaning out cabinets, closets or what other chaos I may have. Then later in the week, I go to her home and do the same thing. We have really been knocking out some big projects, and my frame of mind is feeling much better. Also when cleaning by yourself, start at the door and work your way around the room from top to bottom. Once you get back to the door your room will be clean. I use this technique because if I just walk into a messy room, I feel overwhelmed, and don't know where to start.