Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A Wasted Life?

Do you agree?
My house could not be any filthier. In the past few weeks I feel as though it is gone over the tipping point into the land of totally out of control. I can't get a handle on it. Evan is in the habit of disrobing in multiple parts of the house, leaving a pair of underwear here, a sock there, a dirty t-shirt under the sofa. He also needs to remove every item of neatly folded clothing from his drawer in order to find just what he would like to wear.

The toy situation is also a disaster. I don't know why children seem to have such an inability to keep track of their play things. Pieces are scattered everywhere and nothing has all of it's original parts. A spiderman motorcycle might be found near the refridgerator, while Spidy himself has been hidden in the sofa cushions.

Food crumbs can be found in any room of the house. It appears that the boys enjoy eating crumbly crackers best in the living room, and mushy bananas in their bedroom.  Somehow my children are also are unable to eat a bowl of cereal without scattering bits all over the kitchen.

And the bathrooms? Oh don't get me started. Two little boys with no sense of direction. It feels as though I'm wiping piss off the floor two times a day and barely scratching the surface.

Finally the filthy animals that I willingly adopted so many years ago aren't helping the cleanliness factor one bit. A thin layer of black dog fur needs to be swept constantly. Dirty paw marks adorn the kitchen floor, Flander's puke stains are on our carpets and cat litter  is sprinkled throughout our home.

I can't bare it anymore. Yes I have help, as much as I can afford. One time every other week I have two lovely hard working women come to clean up after us. Other than that it is mostly me, (although yes, honey you are excellent at the dishes! Kisses!)  as I am the only one who truly cares about the state of our residence.

So what is a girl to do? I have become embarrassed about having anyone over, and I long for a clean home I can be proud of. Is it just one of those things a mother of three boys must come to terms with? Should I just expect that the house will be a pig-stye and move on? How can I let go?

Advice please.

6 comments:

  1. I have no advice, but I do have sympathies. My house is also in a constant state of WTF. Even with Hubby deployed, it's still a mess (though, less of a mess... why are grown men just as messy as preschoolers?). I decided to commit a half hour each day to cleaning, and that's all. Whatever gets done, gets done. Whatever doesn't will have to wait. It's so HARD being the only person who cares about having a clean house! It's not so much the chores themselves, but the lack of responsibility of the other people living in this house and the lack of understanding how important it is to me. When you find an answer to letting go, let me know, because I'm dying to find out!

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  2. I can relate- Here is my two cents. Invite friends over the day after your cleaning ladies come. Throw out lots and lots of toys (donate whatever)- All the boys need are books, train tracks and lego. Make a closet with puzzles, board games, craft supplies that is an 'ask permission' place. MAKE THEM CLEAN UP THEIR OWN PEE- trust me. My boys do this EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! and I wish I started them doing it sooner. I taught them each once, it involves a chemical free spray bottle, a stack of terry cloth rags and two (recycled ice cream buckets)- They fill one up with a few inches of water- spray (starting with the sink) wipe, rinse, repeat. The used cloth goes into the other bucket and I wash the used ones when I need to. They take turns but it is done everyday.
    And finally NO food ANYWHERE except for the kitchen- bananas up in their rooms- no frikin way.

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  3. Oh my god - you've read my mind. I was just going on about how I live in a pigsty. I leave for work before they get up, doing my dishes. Hoping the empty sink, awaiting dishwasher will be a call for others to do the same. No. I get home, after getting the girls from camp and there are breakfast dishes in the sink, dried milk/yoghurt crap on the table....open cracker boxes from making lunches. I feeling like screaming. You are right - no one else cares. I would die if some of my friends saw this place. This is not me. I do my best to clean up a minimum. But I am freaking exhausted. By the time I get them in bed, it is 9:00. Then I get to clean up, fold laundry, etc. etc. Did I mention that my husband works from home? I feel ungrateful that he gets them up and out of the house, to camp, etc. But would it kill him to wipe the table down and do a dish during the day. My god. Thank you for posting this. I have no answers, but I think you have prevented me from going ballistic.

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  4. I constantly go back and forth between "I don't care about the mess- it's normal with a baby" and "Aaaah! I can't take it anymore!" And I only have one! Then when I finally do get everything cleaned up, I enjoy it for two seconds and then realize I totally wasted my time because, next thing I know, it's a disaster again. Sigh.

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  5. Oh lord thank you. Do you know where I can buy a poster-sized version of that??

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  6. I know this is an older post, but today is my cleaning day. You should come to my four-boy house where the teenagers babysit during my school hours and I have been working full time at night....GROSS! Once you visit our pigsty, yours will feel a little better:). Now if my boss wou just quit over scheduling me I might stand a chance.

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