cycworker
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,387
Jun 26, 2014 0:42:38 GMT
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Post by cycworker on May 31, 2015 22:49:02 GMT
I'm sitting with GrinningCat, Ashley & Spongemom on this one.
The people who really care about me don't get worked about how tidy my apartment is. If you're the type to be that way, I'm generally not interested in hanging out with you anyway.
That said - My mom & I have an agreement. She gets REALLY tetchy about clutter. HATES it. Because she finally explained to me why it bothers her so much, I've agreed to make sure she doesn't have to see it when she comes over, as long as she gives me 24 hours notice, and she's agreed that she just won't look if she has to drop something off in a hurry.
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rickmer
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,137
Jul 1, 2014 20:20:18 GMT
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Post by rickmer on May 31, 2015 22:51:20 GMT
most certainly not. barely company ready even when having company, certainly not when unexpected guests show up. my gf came over friday evening as she parked her and her kids bikes in my backyard for a school event across the street. she came over to grab the sweaters for her girls she left in her bike carrier. she said her hands were sticky and she needed to go in and wash them. i told her she can't come in, been a long week and my kitchen is a disaster. she just looked at me. so i let her in. ya, i am embarrassed. of course she is my ocd neat freak friend!
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peaname
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,390
Aug 16, 2014 23:15:53 GMT
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Post by peaname on May 31, 2015 22:52:57 GMT
No but it's never so messy that I would be humiliated if someone dropped in. Dishes in the sink, in need of a vacuum/scrub? Sure. But no piles of dirty clothes on the couch or seven years' worth of mail on the dining table like I've seen at friends' houses.
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Post by myboysnme on May 31, 2015 23:08:32 GMT
My house has not been company ready for 20 years. Before that, it was always company ready. But at one point when my kids were young I decided to get into animal rescue. Big mistake. The 5 years I did that everything else went by the way side. I could not keep up with my home, kids, job and the animals.
When I finally got out of that, the damage was done. The animals had been destructive, things piled up, I had bought things for my kids to assuage my working mother guilt and it almost became a hoarder house of toys and it was also the neighborhood hang out. My dogs destroyed the back yard.
Then the house got old and started showing alot of wear and tear. I tried doing updates on some things while other things just got ignored. Plus I was lazy. When I was at home the last thing I wanted to do was clean. I have hobbies that I pursued avidly, and did the minimum at home - clean clothes, food, utilities paid, and not much else.
Now I have 2 boys in college, but one is at home and one is coming home for a semester. I know that someday in the not so distant future it will be just me and DH and kids will hopefully take some stuff with them. Then I can start actively getting rid of stuff. I know there will be many many days that I will have a company ready house and no company.
As for a neighbor noticing my garage, that is so far off my radar.
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uksue
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,531
Location: London
Jun 25, 2014 22:33:20 GMT
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Post by uksue on May 31, 2015 23:09:20 GMT
No my house is usually as the fly lady says in CHAOS ( can't have anyone over syndrome.) I am constantly decluttering tidying and cleaning, but I never seem to have every room in the house tidy at the same time!
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uksue
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,531
Location: London
Jun 25, 2014 22:33:20 GMT
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Post by uksue on May 31, 2015 23:16:39 GMT
Beachgurl, I promise I don't have piles of clothes or anything else on my floor to wade through -guess my definition of chaos is actually not that bad!
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 7, 2024 5:17:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2015 23:31:38 GMT
I don't understand the idea that if you don't spend part time hours deep cleaning your house each week, then your house is bordering on a Hoarders episode.
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Post by Native New Yorker on May 31, 2015 23:32:08 GMT
My place is company ready 90% of the time. Even the other 10% would make people question why I say that. Cleaning destresses me. Now my car is a completely different story...
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Post by disneypal on Jun 1, 2015 0:05:21 GMT
Not ALL the time but I would say about 95% of the time it is "company ready" - However, once and a while, I will have one of those super busy weeks and may miss dusting that week or have some mail laying out on the counter top but most the time, it is ready for anyone to pop in.
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Post by nyxish on Jun 1, 2015 0:07:53 GMT
My house company ready? HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAHHHAHAHHA no. Now granted, most of the people who come to visit me are used to the fact it's not company ready and don't care... which is why they are invited. And specially now just after my guy moved out and i am just managing the basics... so yeah. In answer to your question? No. Lordie no. maybe after i work thru this year of purging the stuff left here for me to deal with that isn't mine i will get closer to that. Maybe.
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Post by chaosisapony on Jun 1, 2015 0:28:35 GMT
My house is company ready about 10 minutes before I expect company.
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Post by txdancermom on Jun 1, 2015 0:44:21 GMT
sort of these days....if I were to find out today that someone was coming to stay, I could get the stuff off the bed in the guest room and get the towels out. the bed is made, would just need to remove the decorative shams/quilt, and it is ready to go.
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Post by foolana on Jun 1, 2015 0:48:25 GMT
Yes, mine always is. It's because I'm a psychotic clean freak. Luckily my husband is too (not as bad as me) so it's not very messy at all.
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eleezybeth
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,784
Jun 28, 2014 20:42:01 GMT
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Post by eleezybeth on Jun 1, 2015 0:55:15 GMT
My place is company ready 90% of the time. Even the other 10% would make people question why I say that. Cleaning destresses me. Now my car is a completely different story... ^^ This is me too. I work full time and have a house keeper twice a month. The kids toys are in the play room and the ones that aren't are easily contained. If my company can't get over a couple of books/toys laying on the floor they need not come. But, my car... yep, totally different. I'm sure if I drove off into a snow bank we could live off the spilled goldfish crackers for at least a week. And if we were really desperate I could dig out the gross sippy cup that I'm sure is under at least one seat.
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Post by smokeynspike on Jun 1, 2015 0:57:47 GMT
Nope, not even close.
Melissa
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Post by mari on Jun 1, 2015 0:59:11 GMT
Keeping my home neat/company-ready is a goal of mine. I like to feel comfortable when for friends want to come over and it's also nice for me to come home to a neat place. I live alone (well...with my dog) so it's easier to accomplish. I can't say my home neat 100% of the time, but I clean a bit each day to keep things in order.
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Post by alittleintrepid on Jun 1, 2015 2:50:45 GMT
My grandmother taught me that there is a difference between "clean mess" and "dirt". My bathrooms and kitchen are kept at a hygienic level but the kids often have toys, projects, or books in the living room. This is fine with me and most people know better than to complain if they are company.
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Post by AussieMeg on Jun 1, 2015 3:46:31 GMT
My house is rarely what people would consider "company ready". I wish it was, but the truth is, I am just too lazy. Luckily most of my friends are the same so it's no big deal.
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YooHoot
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,432
Jun 26, 2014 3:11:50 GMT
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Post by YooHoot on Jun 1, 2015 4:01:45 GMT
Yes. Company ready is how I like it. I'm calmer and more relaxed when my house is clean/tidy. As long as the company stays out of the closets...
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jun 1, 2015 4:12:19 GMT
I will get up and start moving around soon. I can have the house good friend company in a jiffy, neighbor ready a while, but it would take all day to be ready for my mom. Isn't it funny, no matter how old you are, when you know mom is coming, you can get an amazing amount of cleaning done in a short time? I KNOW my mom does not care, but she feels she needs to help me with something when she visits. I don't want her to do anything (because she's my mom!), so that's when my house is most company ready. Oh, the irony. My mom is gone now, but she wouldn't have given a rip if my house was spotless or looked like a hurricane went through. She taught all of us kids HOW to clean a house, so she knew we were capable. While she was alive, we lived in a teeny little house that was impossible to keep picked up all the time because there was no where at all to stash anything. Our current house has a ton more storage and that makes ALL the difference when it comes to having a neat and picked up home. It's way easier to do when you can just shove everything in a closet! My MIL, bless her heart. She is gone now too. I don't think she ever learned how to properly clean a house, so coming to mine even tiny and cluttered, was an improvement. I tried not to go all Judgy McJudgerson at her house, but when there would be spaghetti sauce or something visibly splattered and crusted on the side of the fridge? Um NO. Or cooking grease that was baked on the backsplash area of the stove. I didn't know if it would offend her if I stepped up and cleaned it myself, so I never knew quite what to do with that. I have a friend that I get really, really crazy over getting stuff detail cleaned for if I know she's coming over because I KNOW she will notice if there is dust on the ceiling fan blades or on the glass lamp shades. She would never ever SAY anything, but I would still know that she KNOWS if things weren't perfectly clean. It's way worse than my mom would ever be.
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Post by reedina on Jun 1, 2015 4:21:36 GMT
I'm a reformed messy person.
Well, sort of.
My natural inclination is to be messy. I am terrible at organizing stuff and have a hard time putting stuff away where it goes. When my kids were small, it was particularly bad. We lived in a sort of chaos (not dirty, just messy. I cleaned my kitchen every day, did bathrooms a few times a week). If someone was coming to stay, it would take us a hours of picking up to get things in order. The downstairs was usually presentable or at least we could power-team it and make it presentable in short amount of time. Upstairs was definitely messier.
As my kids got older, it got easier because they were better at being responsible for their own messes. Last year we put our house up for sale. We decluttered and fixed it up (it looked a.maz.ing when we were done). Half of our stuff got either tossed or put in storage. That's when I realized that part of my messy problem was that I had too much stuff. I'm not a hoarder, I'm not attached to my stuff. I am just not good at managing it. So with half of it gone, I found it much easier to be in my home and to keep it picked up.
Now we're in our new house and I've been doing so much better about putting away stuff and handling clutter immediately. It really is easier to keep up with a tidy house than tidy up a messy house (if that makes sense).
My art studio is still a freakin' mess. I am not sure that will change. But I've been putting away my laundry (woo hoo) and keeping on top of the clutter. And, full confession, it helps I pay a house cleaner to do the deep cleaning every other week. We have to keep it picked up for her to clean.
My closets are still booby-trapped though. Open at your own risk. There's a limit to my skills, ha.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jun 1, 2015 4:31:56 GMT
My house is acceptable but rarely company ready. My kitchen may not always be spotless thanks to not enough cupboards and counter space. The animals shed and I may have not swept yet that day. My sewing table is in the living room and is the first thing you see when you step in my house. That is rarely clean as I'm always working on something. I always have a knitting project or two laying around. But you can walk into my house without gagging or stepping on something. The trash is not overflowing. The floors are clean despite some animal hair that haven't gotten swept up that day. Depending on when you come over, the dishes are done or at least stacked up, ready to be washed. The bathroom is wiped down daily. It will always pass an inspection by CPS. If we're expecting company, the dishes are done, the floor is swept, the couch is vacuumed, and my crafting stuff is put away. Ha ha, yes. We would definitely pass a CPS inspection here too. The place is clean enough, it's just not always tidy and there is a difference. It's the lack of tidy that sets my own radar off because I dislike having all of the constant clutter that always seems to be around. For example, we just had a bunch of people (with kids) over today and I went through and put away 99.5% of DD's toys and "stuff" before they got here. Not just picked it up, but literally packed it all away in an upstairs hall closet! I didn't want to have to deal with the aftermath of a bunch of wily kids pulling out every stinking thing she owns and scattering it everywhere in the house and the yard, and then having her get upset because something got lost or destroyed.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jun 1, 2015 4:43:40 GMT
I'm always a little stunned when I see TV shows like Love It or List It with clothes and stuff piled high everywhere and over everything and assume those scenes are staged for dramatic contrast to the reveal at the end. I think that many times that is EXACTLY how those people are living and that's why they hate their house. When I watch those shows I must sound like a broken record to DH because I'm always saying, "They either need MUCH better storage or they need to get rid of half of their crap if they're going to stay there!" A lot of times, that's what the show's experts do too, find ways to incorporate storage solutions so people don't have to always be looking at all their piles of junk. (And I would imagine they usually have to get rid of a decent amount of stuff too, because you can't fit 20 pounds of junk in a five pound sack.) As a general rule, I don't think very many people are naturally really good at knowing how to sort, containerize and store their stuff so that it's accessible and yet doesn't look like a total eyesore. It's hard! I'm in the process of doing this with my scrap stuff and just getting it all gone through and deciding what to do with it is a bit overwhelming.
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Post by peasapie on Jun 1, 2015 4:47:58 GMT
Yes, for the most part. Not perfect, but I wouldn't be ashamed if company dropped by unexpectedly. I usually tidy up after I do each thing. When my kids lived home, my answer would have been quite different...
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Post by polz on Jun 1, 2015 4:55:11 GMT
I havnt read the whole thread. My house is ready for people to come at all times. I know some people like guests to phone ahead. I don't mind someone just popping in. Sometimes, the laundry might be on the couch ready to be folded but I assume people what to see us, not to inspect and judge our home.
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Post by Flowergirl on Jun 1, 2015 5:21:56 GMT
Yes. I'm neat and organized by nature and am fortunate to have the space to keep things organized. Clutter in my own home makes me uncomfortable. DH and our two teens also are pretty good about putting things away and keeping the public areas of our house tidy. Everybody pitches in here.
The kids are free to keep their rooms any way they want as long as it's sanitary. I'll close their doors if it bothers me. Company seldom goes upstairs to the private areas of our home, but if they did, it would still be presentable (except maybe son's room--college stuff hasnt been completely dealt with). Our home office looks like people are working on getting things done. DD likes studying in our dining room, so there may be school work and a laptop on the table, but I consider that company ready. If we were entertaining, that would be put away to set the table for a meal. There is evidence all over the house that people are enjoying a life in our home. We just live neatly because that's what makes us happy.
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mallie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,253
Jul 3, 2014 18:13:13 GMT
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Post by mallie on Jun 1, 2015 5:32:41 GMT
I'm always a little stunned when I see TV shows like Love It or List It with clothes and stuff piled high everywhere and over everything and assume those scenes are staged for dramatic contrast to the reveal at the end. I think that many times that is EXACTLY how those people are living and that's why they hate their house. When I watch those shows I must sound like a broken record to DH because I'm always saying, "They either need MUCH better storage or they need to get rid of half of their crap if they're going to stay there!" A lot of times, that's what the show's experts do too, find ways to incorporate storage solutions so people don't have to always be looking at all their piles of junk. (And I would imagine they usually have to get rid of a decent amount of stuff too, because you can't fit 20 pounds of junk in a five pound sack.) As a general rule, I don't think very many people are naturally really good at knowing how to sort, containerize and store their stuff so that it's accessible and yet doesn't look like a total eyesore. It's hard! I'm in the process of doing this with my scrap stuff and just getting it all gone through and deciding what to do with it is a bit overwhelming. I know a lot of people who live like that. As an example: My former assistant was always neat, well-groomed, nicely dressed and her office was hyper organized and immaculate. But her house? I was shocked after seeing her in action at work where she is OCD organized and clean. High piles of laundry covering the dining room table...for days. So they had to eat on tv trays in the living room. The tv trays stayed in the middle of the floor. A roll of vinyl flooring against the wall in the kitchen for months waiting for them to get around to installing it. Bags of hand me down clothes in the foyer for weeks and weeks. Non-perishable food in grocery bags sitting on the kitchen floor because her (large) kitchen didn't have enough cabinet space. And so on and on and on. She kept saying they needed a bigger house. She needs more cabinet space. She needs more Rubbermaid storage tubs. No. they needed less stuff and more focus on completing tasks.
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eastcoastpea
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,252
Jun 27, 2014 13:05:28 GMT
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Post by eastcoastpea on Jun 1, 2015 11:28:05 GMT
NO
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Jun 1, 2015 11:29:06 GMT
Haven't read the whole thread.. but my response to the OP...
OH HELL NO!!!
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grinningcat
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,663
Jun 26, 2014 13:06:35 GMT
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Post by grinningcat on Jun 1, 2015 12:16:05 GMT
I don't understand the idea that if you don't spend part time hours deep cleaning your house each week, then your house is bordering on a Hoarders episode. Exactly.
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