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Lots of people have said that their houses look "lived in".
Just curious what your definition of lived in means?
Especially you large families with pets. Does your carpet and/or rugs look furry because they are in fact covered in dog hair?
Are laundry baskets laying around with dirty or clean clothes?
Does your living room typically contain more toys than floor space?
All of you cannot possibly have a huge home. We have a small 3 bedroom duplex.
I know we've done a confessions thread on the "bad" stuff we do but honestly what does your house NORMALLY look like? Do you change it when a cw is coming over? How about for visitors? Give me the low down!
Individual bedrooms, including mine, might have dirty clothing or unmade beds.
The main living room will have cords and game controllers, etc scattered. The play room might be a disaster if we have littles, with toys scattered everywhere.
The office will be perfectly organized to the standards of M, no guarantee an adult will be able to make sense of her system but it's there because she can always find what she needs in seconds.
The kitchen SHOULD be neat with no surface clutter (i have a thing about kitchens and bathrooms) but there might be spills or dishes that didn't get in the dishwasher since the last time i was in there if there are kids big enough to help themselves.
Bathroom will have been cleaned within 48 hours.
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At almost any time, I would be fine with the CW coming by our house. Though I'd never want them in the back unused bedroom, now dumping ground, for stuff. It needs purged - badly! I keep the floor cleaned, counters cleaned up, wipe down the bathroom daily, and try to keep the living/dining room (which is small!) free of toys and stuff. Our laptops are on the table and all our i-Products...which kinda is annoying but have no other home. The boys room has way too much stuff in it, but not dirty. My daughter's room - usually messy but she keeps the door shut so her 2 year old brother wont mess with her stuff - so its really out of sight out of mind. Laundry usually gets stashed in our tiny computer room but its ususally not out of control but you will find a clean load and a bunch of unmatched socks any day. Dirty laundry goes down the laundry chute. Our upstairs bedroom is usually decent. The other spare bedroom/sitting room isnt used much and is clean.
Good question! We do have pets but I can't STAND IT if pet hair gets on the baby. I vacuum everyday. HOWEVER... with how much I vacuum, there are plenty of other issues with my house. At any given time, you will find clean clothes stacked on the guest bed. You will find dirty dishes & bottles in the sink. Not overflowing or anything. You will find a piece or two of food the baby threw that I hadn't found yet. You will see a random baby sock, box of wipes in the most odd places.
When first entering my house, we have an entry way dresser for keys, purses, diaper bag, mail and it adds up :)
My definition of lived in has changed drastically from April to now :)
Okay, so I guess I'm about "normal" then. I have a routine that I try to stick to, but the last week I've been pretty overwhelmed with stuff going on for MB so my house has kind of fallen to the wayside and on here people said that it's okay for your house to look lived in and dh said I was freaking out for no reason because the house "wasn't that bad". (It was....trust me...it was!)
My "must do" every day is normally dishes, picking up any stray trash, I do a clutter walk through 3x every day because my house is small and toys can overrun you easily! I also wipe all surfaces in the kitchen and the kitchen table. Then I vacuum every 2-3 days and do a deep dust on the alternating days. That's my "typical routine". It is not uncommon to see some laundry, since the "laundry room" is a shared space with my neighbor in the basement and I keep a laundry basket by the back door so if the kids mess up their clothes or I have a kitchen towel that needs to be washed I just toss all of that stuff in there until I have a load. It may not be the prettiest thing but it helps my house function.
I'm trying to learn balance. Being able to let things go (like the clean clothes sitting in a basket in my room that still haven't been put away) while still keeping my house neat.
"Cooking and cleaning can wait until tomorrow,
because babies grow up much to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
because I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."
I'm ok with saving some of the cleaning until the kids are grown. JK. Right now, that saying sign is buried behind some clutter. I'm with the PP who said that she'd rather knit and spend time with the kids than clean. The living room isn't bad but the kitchen and eating area needs help. No visits this week though :)
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My house looks lived in b/c there are signs of life, LOL. I'm a SAHM so when the CW/therapists come over I have time to clean or go after my kids cleaning attempts lol. The house in their[workers] words is always spic'n'span. I've told my kids we could have visitors, ''surprise'' check ups at any time so it's important to pick up after yourself. To be honest I was this way before FC. I ease back on the wknds. I'm not OCD about cleanliness, I just function better when my house is clean...and no my kids aren't pushed to the way side b/c I choose to stay on top of things,lol.
AMom2011
(my house is never COVERED in toys, because my kids only get a small amount of toys/day, otherwise they just throw them around, and don't play.. the less they have, the more they play)
I noticed this too. I rotate toys in and out. If there are too many he gets overwhelmed and starts flitting back and forth without settling in to play.
Video games, controllers in the living room; sneakers in the living room. dishes in the sink. In the bedrooms, unmade beds and clothes on the floor.
NSB: we're twins!!! I would rather knit, play games and spend time with the kids than clean. that's why I have a cleaning woman 3 times a week.
That's not counting repairs!!
To me "lived in" means a house that is overall clean, but not everything is in it's place.
The floor is vacuumed, but there are legos laying around or maybe a dirty, inside out sock under the couch. The kitchen floor was recently scrubbed, but there's a few cheerios floating around under the kickboards. The bedding is clean, but the beds aren't made.
When I come home from work early and nobody is home but the dog I look around and say to myself "boy, does our house look lived in". It's clean but a bit messy.
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Downstairs is pretty clean all the time. There aren't any toys other than one or two the boys brought down from their room but once they're done with them they take them back upstairs. I pick up as I do things so I never feel like I'm ever actually "cleaning"
Family & Living Rooms
-BS vacuums every other day
-The kids clean up before nap & before bedtime
-there's usually a load of laundry needing to be folded on the family room couch
Kitchen
-dishes are immediately put in dishwasher, I do a load right before bed & while the kids are eating breakfast I put them up
-if spills occur, cleaned up before I leave the kitchen
-we eat at the table 90% of the time so it stays clean
-I have to sweep after every meal or food will be everywhere
-I mop once a week...
-take trash out every other night
Laundry room
-clothes go directly in washer (no time to sort) once it's full I do a load
Upstairs
-Kids rooms are cluttered but organized because of toys & books (I just took 3 trashbags of toys to the shelter, my husband didn't notice)
-FC room stays pretty clean but toys are usually not picked up as much, beds are never made
-BS's room they like to keep it clean....I think eldest has a little of my ocd tendencies.
-Master is clean, we are hardly ever in there so its easy to keep up. I make the bed when I wake up (as long as dh isn't working night's, if he is it never gets made)
-Master closet whole other story! Messy is an understatement! I try to keep sw away from there!
-loft is picked up but does have organized clutter. Mail is usually piled on the desk.
-bathrooms gets cleaned when i have time. Dh deals with those. We have boys...enough said.
-garage is organized (we park our car in there so it has to be if we didn't things would be everywhere)
-yards start to get over grown before we mow.
If the sw came right now she'd walk into pillows on the living room floor, she'd have to watch her step the boys are playing with matchbox cars, riding toy blocking the family room, family room has laundry that needs folded on the couch, kitchen needs to be swept, bathroom & laundry room clean but also needs a sweep. Upstairs all bedrooms & loft are clean. Kids bathroom needs to be picked up.
My house sounds like it is a little larger: 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, also a loft, recreation room, office, living room, family room, kitchen with a dining room but then also having a more formal dining area....
I am a single mom, work full time, but have a house full of animals- 3 cats, 3 dogs, 2 bunnies, and a turtle..plus 3 kiddos right now (2, 4, and 12). I have a robot vacuum that vacuums the floors so I dont have too, then clean up as we go.. need to start cleaning bathrooms more but overall fairly clean. There are also the rooms though that are "pretty rooms", and not made for the kids with nice furniture so those areas stay pretty spotless and that is right when you walk into the home. So I never get nervous about anyone coming over.
I also make sure the back yard stays clean- has a trampoline, swing set, hammock, hot tub- so make sure that the toys stay organized as well so the dogs dont try to get them as well. Kids are required to keep their own rooms clean...but more lenient if beds are made.
My house is lived in. My husband and I both work full time. We have 4 kids living in the house, then grown kids, my mom, and grandkids stopping by through the week. The grandkids are small, so they get stuff out and don't always put it away. There's no way to keep the house the way I'd like with all the people & schedules we've got going on.
I dust once per week. By the time I dust I know the tv has a thin layer. Our current house builds up dust faster than anywhere else I've lived. It has to be done weekly.
I have carpet only in the bedrooms. I sweep all of the hardwood floors once or twice a week. It's kind of an as-needed thing. I do it every weekend without fail, but in-between it depends on what happens and what's needed.
The bedrooms are vacuumed as needed. Our bedroom doesn't need it nearly as often as the kids rooms.
I do a "deep clean" before home visits, but really that only takes an hour or two to sweep all the corners, mop all the floors, and put away the laundry.
Laundry is ALWAYS in progress in my house. It's never-ending. There is something done each and every day. So, yeah, there's always a basket. Sometimes I have a load to fold on my dining room table. I think I could easily do 2-3 loads daily with these kids. We have a bed wetter who pees all the way through night jams or pull ups.
I do dishes once daily. If you come at the wrong time it may look messy, KWIM?
We have a large home also. With that said, I'm a neat freak. So we compromise. The master bedroom is down stairs, and the 5 other bedrooms / 2.5baths, with rec room are upstairs. The upstairs is generally fair game, DH and I do not travel up there with out an escort. ;) We generally do an upstairs cleaning/ purging about every 3 months. The kids have come to understand, that I do't hunt down dirty laundry. If it doesn't make it into the basket, then your on your own...There is absolutely no eating or drinking upstairs, These two "rules" make it much easier.
However downstairs is neat and tidy, hardwoods swept and steamed, kitchen cleaned; with counters etc.. I do have a "hidden space/ cubby that is the dumping ground for ppwk, bills, misc stuff, but it's small enough that I can tackle it once every couple of days...I have had more than one person enter my house and say "wow" it doesn't look like you have 9 kids... But then again they are never allowed to roam freely upstairs:)
Because our kids are older, we have a chore chart, and menu plan. I don't do it all alone. But I can say the Laundry Fairy has skipped my house lately....
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I have dog hair in spots (wood floors), toys on the floor. I think our house is messy but not dirty. I really stopped cleaning for CW's. I tell them that because I KNOW they see much worse houses. They always laugh that our house is one the cleanest they see.
I do keep the boys room spotless because it can get out of hand with the amounts of clothes they have. My mom has a shopping problem for clothes for them.
The only room I keep closed off to anyone is our Master bedroom. I joke with DH that we are going to set it on fire. We have clutter in there that makes us both nuts but no time or energy to take care of it.
Normal for me (I am a SAHM with an almost 3 year old, a 4 year old, and an almost 5 year old), we have 1 dog, and 1 cat:
- Some dishes are usually in the sink during the day (not a ton, though, but usually a bowl or a few plates from the latest meal). Dishwasher gets run at night, so that is when I clean everything up for real.
-Toys are out in the living room, kids clean up once a day, and that's at night.
-There is never dog/cat hair on the floor or couches. We have hardwood floors that I sweep daily, and our couches are leather.
-Laundry is always either dirty in hampers, in the washer, on the line, or clean in a basket in someone's room, waiting to be put away. My pet peeve is laundry out in common areas, so it doesn't happen in my house.
When a caseworker is going to come over, I typically will put the dishes from the latest meal into the dishwasher rather than waiting until night time to do it. I may or may not have the kids do a quick pick up in the living room (depends on how trashed it is, lol). But other than that, nothing else really happens. Oh, I do make sure the toilets have been flushed-- b/c I have 2 who only flush about half the time. :rolleyes:
There is not typically clutter hanging around unless it is in my pack-rat daughter's room, but we've been trying to keep that under control.