hsbaby Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I am getting ready to host about 10 moms and their kids for a group in my home this afternoon. As I was cleaning I realized that, though my house seems clean to visitors, i'm a "closeted" messy housekeeper. Meaning that any area not in obvious view of guests is a disaster so no one knows about this "problem" but me:( The garage, the closets, the cabinets, the laundry room, everywhere! I guess I am noticing it more now that we have people coming over. I am silently praying they don't open certain cabinets, drawers, doors. I find myself running around thinking "How do we live like this?!?!?". Am I alone? Does anyone else put on a good front for guests, but your house isn't really as clean as it looks? Please tell me i'm not the only one and, that when I go to my friends pristine homes, that it is just a facade! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golfcartmama Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I am TOTALLY like this. Please, if anyone has a reasonable solution, I'd love to hear it! :bigear: My room, the garage, laundry room and master clost and bath are THE worst places...and the office area of the playroom too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5KidzRUs Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Flylady :) She can square ya away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairytalemama Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 You are not alone! We just switched Internet providers. When I had to bring the technician into our home office to hook up the new modem, I said, "You know those people that have a room that they throw stuff into when people come over? We're those people. I'm sorry." Then the poor guy had to wade through the mess in there. He did laugh though. On a good note, it motivated me to clean it up. Unfortunately since that day the mess has been creeping back in. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lincap Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I am the same. When I know I am having guests, I put any clutter in boxes and shove it in the closets, bedrooms, anywhere except the first floor. Then I forget about it.. instead of going through the boxes to see what is in them, I do it again the next time someone comes over.. vicious cycle. I have recently had a mother's helper come over every other week for 4 hours and I have been chipping away at my areas that I stuff things... She is the only person who has seen my true disaster!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secular_mom Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 This is me. I worry that someone will ask to use our master bath, because my room has ALWAYS been a disaster- I don't let the kids in there so that's where I end up dumping all the stuff I want to keep out of their sight or out of their reach. That's where I sort laundry too, so it ends up spread out all over the floor. I don't really keep that bathroom clean either, it gets SO dusty and dusting causes me to have asthma attacks which just aren't pleasant. We have a locking doorknob on our door so I keep it locked if we're having guests. Our garage is a dump, it's the other place we throw stuff that's in the way/etc. We are working on getting it ALL sorted though so that when we move it's not a nightmare. We don't allow visitors to go in our garage either, LOL. My SIL was shocked when I stopped her from going out there to grab a drink. I just told her it's a mess and I don't want anyone seeing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I could have written your post, so yes, you have company! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I once went to someone's home and somehow one of their closets came open. It was crazy piled high with stuff. It was comical! Honestly I found it a relief because it made me realize that the seemingly neat freak hostess was in fact a pretty regular person who did have messes. ;) It's just stuff. Your time is limited. And you'd rather spend it doing other things. At least that is me. Not a big deal at all. Yep. I try so hard to keep my house halfway decent. The only thing that saves me is that we don't have guests too often. I have friends with pristine homes and I wonder how they do it. Most of them have their kids in school I so there's no one there during the day to mess it up. I do breathe a sigh of relief when I go to someone's house that is messy. Sometimes it makes me think "at least my house isn't that bad!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Flylady :) She can square ya away! I'm starting FlyLady again, but what's also helping is getting ready to sell our house. I'm "prepacking," sorting, organizing, throwing away, giving away, etc. I'm picking (seemingly) random parts of the house to work on. In the last few days I cleaned the closet by the front door, sorted/organized my and dh's shoes in our closets (because I had to deal with shoes in the front closet), the top shelf of my spice/oil/etc kitchen cabinet, packed/sorted stuffed animals & dolls, several boxes of books, videos/DVDs, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarcyB Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Oh - I came out of the closet years ago..I'm just a messy housekeeper and have admitted it and am dealing with it. I can no longer say that it's just in places where people can't see behind a door..it's pretty much all over :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sun Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Yes. Our problem area is the basement (unfinished). Living spaces are pretty clean and organized, generally. Closets and cupboards are usually reasonable; when they get too bad, I go through and reorganize them. I have a friend whose house always looks immaculate - like Better Homes and Gardens level of immaculate. But her basement is a disaster, to the point where you can't even get off the stairway. She stands at the top of the basement stairs and just throws stuff down for her husband to deal with later. He doesn't deal with it very often, so usually you can't get down there at all! You'd never, ever know this if you just visited her house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 I'm right there with ya! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 YES YES YES!!!! Oh my word! we need to start a club! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenpatty Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 That's me! You are not alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 It's just stuff. Your time is limited. And you'd rather spend it doing other things. At least that is me. Not a big deal at all. This is me totally. I would rather be doing other things. I have no dirty dishes, no trash, and laundry is done. Then, I say to myself ... TIME TO PLAY! :lol::lol::lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Years of getting back on the Flylady wagon (after falling off over and over again) has resulted in finally not being like that...but I cant speak for dh! So some areas of our house are quite ordered- I regularly order the cupbaords, the office, cull books etc. However dh on the other hand regularly finds fantastic furniture on the side of the road that he just cant let pass, and various other things, so there are parts of the house that look like they could be on a hoarders show. The more he hoards, the more I cull, but its a big house, so we each have sections we consider "ours". So yes, our house does look like that in some parts- the parts I am not allowed to touch :) You know....I am 43 and I discovered Flylady back in 2003. I was disgusting- really. I was so messy. I didnt have a clue. And now I am quite organised and tidy- not in a born organised kind of way...my sheets dont get changed more than once a month, my floors are not washed as often as they should be...but I have come such a long way and really the main thing I work with is..you can't organise clutter. So, I just keep getting rid of stuff. I think its addictive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 ME!!! If I didn't have people over occasionally, my house would be a disaster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbaby Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 It's so comforting to know I'm not alone:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 :seeya: Hi! Me too. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariannNOVA Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I'm starting FlyLady again, but what's also helping is getting ready to sell our house. I'm "prepacking," sorting, organizing, throwing away, giving away, etc. I'm picking (seemingly) random parts of the house to work on. In the last few days I cleaned the closet by the front door, sorted/organized my and dh's shoes in our closets (because I had to deal with shoes in the front closet), the top shelf of my spice/oil/etc kitchen cabinet, packed/sorted stuffed animals & dolls, several boxes of books, videos/DVDs, etc. In red -- that's what I am doing. today: two of the bedrooms = two hefty trash bags waiting to go to the curb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen in PA Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 This is our den. It was actually only used for storing items belonging to members of DH's family for the first few years we lived here (we moved in when FIL passed away). When we finally got around to dealing with getting all of the stuff out of there, the room just seemed to fill up instantly with all of our stuff. I try to keep it primarily as a playroom for the kids with an art table, old computer, and a small reading couch..... but it is also the place where extra coats get tossed, plus bags of hand-me-downs the neighbors bring over, large packages of water and tp that don't fit well anywhere else, etc. Add the kids' art projects to the chaos, and the room never stays decent-looking for more than a week unless I devote serious time to it very evening, and it's just easier to shut the door when company comes over and tackle it when I have the energy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I am a little different in that while my house looks pretty neat, clean and uncluttered if you start paying close attention to details you will notice that a lot of things aren't as clean as they could be. For example, just today I noticed that the outsides of my kitchen cabinets were dirty. Sometimes I find cobwebs near the ceiling and have no idea how long they have been there. My children have left dated notes in the dust that are old when I find them. There are dust bunnies hiding under bookshelves. The door jams and around the handles get dirty. Small details that aren't on my regular cleaning list and that I never seem to notice until they are really dirty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celia Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 A friend of mine came over recently, and commented about how I keep my house so clean. I had a GREAT TIME showing her how superficial it all was!!! Opened some closets, showed her the horrid state of my ensuite bathroom, let her into my laundry room. It was fun coming out of the proverbial closet! Now, once a person has become a comfortable-shoes friend, they do see me for who I am because I stop panic-cleaning before they come over! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykdsmomy Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 I do the same thing. If someone is coming over, we all do the cleaning shuffle and put all the dirty hampers in my room, close all bedroom doors and spray some air freshener so no one smells the dogs! I am working on all of that right now because we are re-certifying to be fost-adopt parents again so my house HAS to be clean. It's so hard because it's not something that comes natural to me. I've decided that I'm not the type of person to have a house full of stuff. I don't take care of my stuff very well so I'm becoming a minimalist :) The less stuff I have, the easier it is to keep clean! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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