Dirty little secrets of the MA

Inspired by Sallyg.
It has come to light that some MAtics have been keeping secrets. I am one too. We show off our yards, pretty flowers and neat beds. But inside our homes : O
We spend much to much time outside and just hit or miss the inside. I have clean clutter, where you ask. Well, on my computer desk, dinning room table, kitchen counter tops. I clean when I just can't stand it anymore, no schedule like my mom had, Monday washing, Tuesday ironing, Wednesday grocery shopping, and cleaning, Thursday more cleaning, Friday scrub the floors, and steps, even to the basement. Saturday morning a quik touch up and rest and enjoy an outing, till Monday when it starts all over again.
So bare your soul, you will feel better! And we also might find some tip to help us out. Besides that one where you have a mop and bucket ready just in case someone stops by so you can say "You just caught me right in the middle of cleaning this mess up"

Have mercy! as Chantell would say. What have I come to, that my lack of housecleaning inspires some one? ROFL!
This picture hints at my usual level of clutter. There are five people in this house all displaying their diverse interests on every horizontal surface. We're a whole group stricken with 'can't put things away ite-is'. Finally push will come to shove, and something falls off the end LOL and (usually me) sorts some stuff till its manageable again.
I'm on septic so that totally justifies my laundry style= a load a day of the worst/ fullest hamper. Then there's a perpetual basket of laundry to be sorted and put away, to catch up with during TV time, no prime garden time will be devoted (LOST) to that! (If some one really needs something they can get it from the basket) The only thing I mostly keep up with is the kitchen , having been a food inspector helps. I rarely ever have horrible wasted leftovers forgetten in the fridge or freezer. (waste of money!) and using a dishwashing machine makes it easy to clear the sink at least once a day (usually -LOL)
Ugh--I broke down and mopped to day. I HATE the black fuzz from the dog! I swept the floor first and then when mopping, these wads and minirolls of black fuzz appear--ughhhhh.
There was a pretty good thread going one time in Clean and Clutter Free--My contribution was, to periodically leave the cleaning supplies in the hallway or someplace to be noticed, to ensure that your housemate knows (or thinks) you cleaned

Sally, your desk doesn't look bad. Look at my dinning room table! But I have an excuse......see my next post.

.....it keeps Fred off the table.

Picture scanned from an older holiday photo, sorry for poor quality but you get the idea.

I see nothing at all odd about your dining room table !?!?! I have similar decor, except shoved to the end so four or five can eat...kitchen table same way. one corner is my 'desk'. more of it is snacks and fruit bowl, with daily transient items like pencils, toys, glasses, coupons, cereal boxes, used glasses or bowls (perhaps waiting for a second helping??)
and thats a great picture of Fred!

This message was edited Oct 28, 2009 2:09 PM

Oh, my God!!!!
I wouldn't DARE show you all my "horizontal surfaces"......OH NO!!!!

My biggest problem also is NOT putting anything back where it should go---just, like, half way TO where it should go....So there is junk on my steps--my kitchen table---THE WORST! At this time--my DR table is covered in seed containers and plates of more seeds to be bagged up--I ran out of the little baggies.....

I have overnight company coming Nov. 21. Deadline--Folks! it is just my niece and her daughter---but I need to clean up a bit and vacuum. I can write my name with my finger on every piece of furniture in my house.....shame on me!
The dust in this house is unbelievable!

stormy--IF you saw the inside of my house--you would never say again how organized i am!

No pics right now--maybe I'll get brave later on......

LOL You guys are so funny. Gita, I'll never believe that. I do not allow clutter of any kind in my dining room or my large living room. But sometimes my small den and definitely my bedroom get out of hand. My kitchen is small, so it has to be kept clear to be usable. You would not believe my garage mess. All of my messes get cleared out 3 or 4 times a year, but they always manage to go haywire again.

Would you believe that all my messes ARE organized?
Like--I know where everything is......but it is still way too much clutter!

I pity my daughter(s) who will have to go through my house and clear it out to be sold.....

Most of my clutter is craft-related. BUT--it is all in totes and plastic containers, and shelves....

See what I mean??? LOL

Okay, you got me, time to 'fess up! The clutter builds up around here too but it would scare me to actually take pictures of it! LOL My most recent "dirty little secret" was the laundry that had piled up :( It's easy to do because the laundry area is in the basement and no one sees it except me! When I returned from Maine in June!!!! I had tons of wash to do after spending a week landscaping with my daughter. Then I had so much to catch up on outside the laundry started piling up. Over the summer I only washed what I needed but kept ignoring the other piles :( Two weeks ago, yes three months later, I finally tackled the mess and it took me two days and 10-15??? loads to finally get it all done! It's a darn good thing I have plenty of "clean" grubby clothes to work in but I vowed to never let it get away from me again :( I hate laundry almost as much as I hate cleaning and cooking! LOL

Okay here's the corner of our desks, stuff I just need to sort thru, kids stuff(which they know is NOT supposed to be on our desks) I HATE clutter...things sure change when you have little kids.

RCN, and I get upset if I let the laundry pile up for more than 2 weeks. Oh well, we all have our things that we let go. One of mine is unread magazines. Since I started posting on DG, they have all piled up. There's only so much free time in a day, so I have cut back on the subscriptions, but won't toss the ones I haven't read.

My one sister is a hoarder and everytime I talk to her or to my brother or sister about it, its makes me go clean after I get off the phone. The paper issue is one of the biggest things. My sister will keep an old sale circular because she saw something she liked in it.
I only subsrcibe to one mag anymore because you can get any kind of info on line now. When I get the new one I take out any articles I'd like to review and put it in a plastic sleeve and sorted into various folders(home decor, gardening, crafts, etc) I do get a ton of catalogs though but as soon as I get the new one the old one goes into the recycling bin.

stormy--

One of the neatest features in my home is a laundry Chute. I don't know what I would do without it!

The opening is in my upstairs bathroom. A nice, white enameled square with a round flap door. I just shove everything down there and never have to look at it.

The retrieving place is just below it, next to the 4-steps stairs that lead from the 3rd level to the lowest (4th) level. It is down there that I have my laundry room...and the furnace ans W-Heater--which are nicely enclosed.
Anyway--there are 2 really small, louvered doors and behind them is all my dirty laundry.

I think the builders utilized this space for that as it is, really, one of the main heat ducts and quite large.
Maybe it was also meant to be????

Probably the most utilitarian feature in my house.

As for magazines---I have the same problem. Never get to read them. These are the major causes of my cluttered kitchen table. I am not going to continue the "TIME" magazine. get one every week--never ge to really look through it.
I WILL keep "Martha Stewart" and the "Geographic"...Probably haven' even opened the last 6 of those either.....

Gita

I have stopped all mag subscriptions, like Jen, there is so much info on the Internet and even some magazines post there articles on line.

I am trying to get better with tossing out junk mail, I get so much repeats of clothing catalogs, they just feature a different picture on the front. However seed catalogs I'll save for a while as some will have good growing information in them.

I set up a new file system where I am filing all my paid bills by month in individual expansion manila jile jackets, I will only keep these for one year, when I get to that month next year I'll shread the old ones. After all once you paid your utility bill it will say previous balance 0 on the next bill.

I have all winter to work on other areas of clutter, but at least I have a start.

OMG - finally a forum I feel comfortable it ! I have a 9 rm house with 4
closets. The largest is 1/3 the size of my bathroom which retro-fitted into this old house means it is functional rather than spacious.

3 yrs ago my daughter switched campus' so brought her stuff up from
her FL apt and dumped it on her way to RI. She found a furnished place
there and moved into another furnished apt after graduation. Two years ago my boyfriend sold his home & moved in w/me. 5 rms of furniture came with him. My mother passed away last year and I "inherited" another 5 rms of furniture plus storage contents.

Just to let you know my house was already stuffed to the gills with my
30 years of collecting & various hobbies. You gals want to talk clutter?
We had a yard sale, freecycled, craiglisted, ebay-ed you name it
and still have more than we could possibly store.

Did I mention we purchased a shed and an old mobile home to store
stuff in? When I retired early I thought to concentrate on my cake & craft
business - HAH I've had replacement chair cushions cut out for almost a
year and no idea when they'll get sewed as my family (12) is coming for an
early X-mas party 1st week of Dec. and I'm still painting & storing seeds !!

In my defense however, Monday is still wash day, there is no dust, the feral
colony and Nick are well-fed & I make everything from scratch. Other than that all bets are off.

Cris

LOL Cris, yes you probably do win the clutter award. When your daughter is home for Christmas, ask her do deal with the stuff she has stored at your home.

Yeah, once kids are out on their own, time to get their stuff out of their parents house, give them a deadline.

Hey Cris, do you have any furniture you're still looking to get rid of???

Very interesting reading, and boy do I identify. I am currently involved with a few women who post on a clean and clutter free thread. No one other than myself has had the nerve to post pictures. I just found this thread as I was getting ready to sign off, so will have to come back and finish reading later.

What a great group each of you are. I miss everyone and am hoping to begin posting and staying in touch a lot better than I have in the past year or so. Hubby John asks about several of you from time to time. I know he has been disappointed that I haven't been aroudn much lately. Just so many fun places to go on here and so little time, it seems.

Until I return, you folks all have a great day.

Ruby

This is hilarious. I guess I don't feel so guilty about all my clutter and sporatic house cleaning now. I find myself outside with any of the free time I have, even though in the back of my mind I'm thinking I'll go inside and attempt a tackle at the mess "in a few minutes" - almost never happens LOL. We Gardeners have our priorities - maybe the social norm is the one that is backwards, what is WRONG with all those people who have clean and organized houses, why aren't they ouside in their yard!!! Maybe now that it is dark when I get home from work and starting to get cold, I'll make a dent in the house cleaning and organization/purge of all that accumulated "stuff". If I get brave enough, I'll post a picture of my "bonus" (aka nightmare) room. Terri

Stormyla & Flowerjen,
I don't know what prayer you gals sent up to heavens but it Worked!
My daughter called me that very night saying she actively looking for an apartment, that the ones looked all were all Unfurnished ! I'm doing the happy dance here!
Thank you, thank you !!!

GRRRRRRRRRREat Cris! Now make good use of that space!!! Can some of your mom's stuff also go to her new apartment?

Oh how fun!!! I haven't read one post that I didn't see myself in. Yep, magazines are big bugga boo here too. I hate to throw them out and use all sorts of tricks to rid myself of them. I regularly take a stack to a nearby laundromat and leave them. I have also been know to take to doctor's offices and leave too. A few weeks ago someone posted an ad on Freecycle for magazines and I was able to get rid of dozens of them to this guy. Granted, I still have way too many and like Jen, Ladygardener and Gita, I don't seem to have the time to sit down with one and read it anyway.

De-cluttering has been the theme of this household for several months now. I was finally able to get my teenage son Tucker to move out in to a place of his own. That left me with a small spare bedroom. Aspen, I think you are the one who referred to one of your rooms as The Nightmare Room. Since August I have had two of those. Tucker's room is now officially a guest room. We haven't had extra sleeping room for almost five years. The other room is my houseplant room which is 95% complete. Dang that 5% though. Will I ever get it done?

Anyway, for several months now I have been gearing up to do a clean sweep. Today was supposed to be the day that I finally tackled my outside shed that doesn't even have a path to walk through. My cleaning lady who was coming to help do it called a bit ago and said her grandson who lives with her has swine flu and they have been at the hospital all night. I asked her to please stay at home and not come here. I can't get her to see that even if she isn't sick with it, she is carrying the germs around on her. She insisted on coming even after I kept saying that I cannot afford to be exposed to the germs. I had John call her back and she is now in a snit and hung the phone up on him. I can't get her to understand about the germs. I hope she is over the snit before she comes on her regular day next week.

So......those of you who know John, know that he is one laid back dude....usually. Even though we have just celebrated fourteen years married, and happily too, we do not do well working together. He has offered to go out to the shed with me, but I am going to say a prayer right now that we can work together easily on this and not get in to the usual spats.

I have Upward Bound Program people coming on Tuesday morning to pick up yard sale items. They too had run an ad on Freecycle and I responded that I could get them all the stuff that they wanted. I really like Freecycle and have both been able to get rid of things I no longer need, plus have gotten a few new pieces of nice clutter too. hahaha

Chris, thank you so much for starting this thread. De-cluttering is much needed at this house currently and always it seems. I think it was Stormy who said that she de-cluttered three or four times a year. I don't do it quite that often, but some how this clean sweep is definitely not the first one I have ever done. I am thinking that after we all have our little corners of the world straightened and organized, we can begin looking at why and how it seems a never ending job.

Jen mentioned hoarding. I have watched a few of the Hoarder shows on TV and I am no where near compared to some of their case studies, but am really interested in the mental aspect of in my case, collecting. hahaha

You ladies all take good care and stay well please.

Ruby

Good for you Ruby! Even though I toss stuff all of the time, there is still more junk around here than you could ever believe!!

Ruby glad to see you on the MA boards again. I have been thinking of D-mailing you but life keeps getting in the way, and you know what they say about good intentions.
"Nightmare Room", I have 3 of them. Thanks for the guilt trip guys. LOL but at least I can shut the doors to those rooms. Now>>>> where did I put the keys? LOL

Stormyla,

Aside from a kitchen table there isn't anything my daughter doesn't have to set up a house for herself. It will be a huge chunk of furniture out of here.

My parents stuff, what hasn't already found a home, is set aside for a nephew in Afghanistan when he gets out of the military. So everything is pretty much promised - just not going anywhere - yet.

Until posting my frustration here I hadn't ever expressed it except to Nick who lived in this mess with me. Perhaps that was what was needed to get the vibes into the universe to get it moved out lol.

Thanks for listening,
Cris

Good to hear from you Ruby--hi to John and your niece too.

Well Cris at least all your the furniture will be out of your house someday.

Ruby, you'll get it done, just keep at it and don't give up.

Cris, Hope your nephew stays safe and returns home soon to his waiting furnishings.

Hi to Everyone - Well, John and I made a good size dent in the shed. You can now walk in there and can see pretty much of what is actually in there. We too have inherited lots of things from the closing of both of our parent's estates in recent years. You take that and add it to it the fact that six years ago we moved in to a house that is half the size of our previous one. Things are tight here, that is for sure.

Thank each of you for the encouragement. I found it quite interesting that on my Facebook Account there are several of my cyber friends from still another web group, who are talking of the same thing....decluttering. I am much like Cris, the topic keeps popping up all around me.

I hope that everyone will have a good week coming up.

Ruby

I'm getting the hardwood floors refinished on half of the main floor this week. I had to move everything out of the family room, kitchen, and library. As I was moving things, I discovered that the dust, dog fur balls, cobwebs, and dead bugs were worse than I thought :(. Good news is that everything will get a real good cleaning when it is time to put it back :-)

I'm holed up in the bonus (aka nightmare) room during this process, and I've finished sorting the clutter into category piles. Still a nightmare, but at least like stuff is grouped together. Now I'm working on individual piles - starting with the photos. First, I'm organizing all the digital photos, and then I'll sort the physical pile of bins and old albums. My goal is to eventually scan all the pre-digital slides, negatives, and prints that are worth keeping, and then use Photoshop Elements to create albums. I read several threads on how to catalog the digital photos, and came up with something that seems to be working for me (general categories for main folders, then subcategories for subfolders, with the contents of the subfolders sorted by date). I've been working on it since Saturday night. I got carried away and before I knew it, it was 1:30 am. Then I was up and at it again by 5:30 am on Sunday morning and spent most of the day on it. I think I'll have the digital photo organization finished sometime today. Then on to the physical pile, or maybe I'll get distracted and head on to something else LOL... Terri

Have fun going thru your piles, Terri. I'm so glad I started organizing my photos when we first got married. Now I just have to remember to print the good ones from my digital photos and put them in an album

In order to post - I need: 1) wide angle lens and 2) a larger memory card...puhlez....no one has anything on my "slightly" cluttered areas....

Terry, Doesn't it seem that life has a way of forcing you to deal with your messes?? I know it does mine. You'll feel great when all of those photos are scanned and sorted. I've never even tried using my scanner.

Ruby, Glad you were able to make that shed usable again. I've been tackling my garage a little bit everyday.

Chantell, I'm not wasting any decluttering time taking photos of my messes!! LOL

Chantell, I hear you about the wide angle lens. I was going to take pictures of the nightmare room, but only a wide angle shot will capture it.

I wish I had kept up with the photos over the years. It is so hard putting the pre-digital age photos in some type of chronological order. The best I can do is guess-timate. The decluttering and organization of photos will take months. I'm just hoping to just get thru a general sort and reduce the size of the overall pile. The scanning and albums will be a good winter project... After the general photo sort, I'm moving on to the financial paperwork, or maybe the bin of old cars/letters, or maybe the wrapping paper and gift boxes/bags, or maybe the crafts, or maybe the stacks of plant labels and receipts, or maybe the extra linens and housewares, or maybe the magazines/catalogs/manuals, or maybe.... I'll just head outside :-) OH MY, the de-cluttering problem seems endless LOL. Good thing I can shut the door - unfortunately I KNOW it is still lurking there! Terri

Terry, We all have that Junk in our lives. My favorite trick is stuffing all of it in a cabinet somewhere as the holidays approach and I haven't finished sorting it. Then new items come into the house that should go into the pile and then I end up with a second pile of the stuff!!!!!

This message was edited Nov 10, 2009 10:18 PM

Why should one clean up or worse clean out? Remember in the final auction it is better to have ten thousand items worth an estimated three bucks than five hundred items at ten bucks. Example a fifteen item box of edge or shelf grabbers sent to a benefit auction to help a friend far away just brought five hundred bucks. A 1960 semi nude print of Jane Russell was the best single item. Combined gift items for auction from about three hundred folks added up to more than $15,000.00 in a one day auction in Texas.

Doc, one of the reasons I have so much clutter is my love of auctions. hahaha I haven't been in several years. Before moving to this house six years ago, I lived within about a mile of an Auction House that had two auctions a week. Big time trouble for me!!! I am a buyer who likes to take the dollar or two dollar boxes off the auctioneers hands. All sorts of goodies can be found this way. From all of the reading, I see that I am in good company. Thank you to those who are confessing to less than perfect homes.

The charity that I am dontaing the extra shed contents to came yesterday and filled up the back of their truck. There is still stuff on our porch waiting for them to return today. The items that we got together for the group who is holding a yard sale this weekend are from my attic Christmas things and about two thirds of the shed was decluttered. John wants to wait until spring to do the remaining third. I am wondering if while I seem to be on some sort of roll, shouldn't I go ahead and do the remaining third of shed? I will decide, not today because we are having rain, but maybe the next pretty day.

Now, if Christmas would hurry and get here, I can rid one of th bedroom closets of items which are mainly gifts. I buy throughout the year when I see good sales, so I could have Christmas tomorrow and everyone would get a gift, and then I will probably still have things left over.

Thank you to everyone who posted. I am enjoying hearing about other people's messes too. Take care and have a good day.

Ruby

Ruby, I would try to persuade John to help deal with the other part of the shed while you are in the mood. I have been honest with myself (rarely!) that there is nothing in my basement that I couldn't replace for maybe 100 dollars total ALL the junk IF I ever really needed some little item there!

Oh, I would also be sorely tempted by one dollar boxes!!!!!!

Now somebody remind me to Craiglist my reel type push mower next spring. I have used it once.

Tee hee look at the articles today--fellow packrats

This message was edited Nov 11, 2009 9:43 AM

What articles are you speaking of Sally?

I finally came to the point where I asked myself the question about whether it would be a hardship to replace any of the things that I am getting rid of too. My answer is very much like yours Sally and I have every faith that I will be able to replace any of the items I might need in the future.

It felt so good to have the charity people drive off with a truck load of things yesterday. We have another load too that they are supposed to pick up later this morning. It is raining so I don't know if they will still come or not.

Take good care and have a great day all.

Ruby