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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 7:55:54 GMT -5
Our house looks magazine ready any time we have a party. Other than that it is definitely "lived in". I have never been a neatnick, but DH is. So how a room looks depends on which one of us is cleaning it! I think neat piles are acceptable, he tosses everything. So when he's done it looks showroom ready. When I am "done" you'll find me catching up on one of the magazines I just stacked.
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imawino
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Post by imawino on Oct 24, 2013 8:51:08 GMT -5
Ours does in the sense that the common areas are free of clutter. Painted walls, some art, matching furniture, bare floors. No shelves of knick knacks, no unkempt book cases, no stuff on the end tables or coffee table, no family pictures or portraits anywhere. Well, a globe on one end table, but that's like decorative. However, we don't scrub the baseboards often, and only vacuum/dust once in a while so on any given day there will be dog hair on the wood floors, and dust bunnies or spider webs in the corners and crevices. Our bedrooms are another matter entirely. Ours and the kids. This is mostly like my house. Clutter gives me stress, but we do have some built in shelves in the family room that have books and photos. When the kids are there, they tend to throw all their crap (shoes and backpacks and such) on the living room floor until I make them take it to their rooms. I try to keep my bedroom fairly tidy, so that I can feel relaxed in there, but I don't really care what the kids rooms look like. The guest room is always lovely, but that's because it is hardly ever used! It's a little sanctuary. But we have a dog that sheds like a mofo, and a whole passel of cats, so there is hair everywhere.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Oct 24, 2013 8:54:38 GMT -5
If that magazine is "Hoarders"...lol. Seriously, not very far off. I don't know how anyone does it. It's just not in my DNA. I am so damn exhausted just going to work each day that I come home, make something quick to eat and fall on the couch. I'm in bed at 9:30-10, up at 7. I do almost nothing cleaning wise during the week and end up spending a couple hours on a Sat or Sun picking up a bit, but, my house is in a constant state of disorder. I hate it but am just too tired and overwhelmed to deal with it. I "inherited" a house with a lot of other people's crap so I started out already way behind the 8 ball here. I have hypothyroidism. Sometimes I think I should not be working anymore but I plan to work at least 5 more years. I try to go to bed by 9-9:30. DD had to be at school by 6 today so I set my Alarm for 4:50 am. I pretty much got up, did a load of laundry, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, and did my dishes before I got ready for work. I was pretty drowsy on the way to work. I often am drowsy on my way home. My car is 10 months old and I have almost 20,000 miles on it. I am on the road a lot. I don't get home until 6:30 pm from work. Last night I got home at 6:25 or so and had an appt at 6:30 and DD told me she needed business clothes for a field trip to Chicago. So I got back home at 7pm and ran her to the mall so we could find her something professional to wear on her field trip. My dining room table has paperwork on it from a project I did earlier this month. I hope to deal with it this weekend, but I aslo have a vet appt, and timewarner cable and my DN is moving and he needs to move some stuff to one of our rental properties so I have to make sure he has keys. We also have trick or treat for the neighborhood Sat and for the city on Sunday. Some elitist idiot in the neighborhood decided the neighborhood kids should have their own trick or treat seperate from the rest of the city. Oh yea. ETA, my Kitchen and my Dining Room look pretty good if they are clean. They usually are not spotless unless we are having company. My Living room furniture is on its last legs, but I don't plan to replace it for at least a year. There is a hall between my Kids bedroms that only has primer on it, and the two bathrooms on the 1st floor were painted but DH never finished cutting in around the vanities and doorways. He is ready to re-paint. My basement looks pretty good, but DH was fooling around trying to fit the dishwasher in the space in the kitchen. It sticks out about 2". I noticed this am that the one here in the office looks the same. The bathroom in the basement needs a shower door and shelves in the linen closets. There is trim on the floor in the family room area that needs to go in another room that has stuff in it. To put the trim in, I have to empty the room. Ditto with the utility room - to close the permits DH needs to drywall the walls - but we need to move stuff out temporarily to accomplish that. On top of everything else, now that the walls are closed we seem to have some issues with the cable wiring. I have someone coming Sun, hopefully they can resolve it. I swear it was working in the office. I remember DH tuning in the Cable on the TV! I don't always like the way they decorate in magazines anyways. Who wants to leave the talbe set, and imho, they mix too many different patterns and often use painted furniture - yuk.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Oct 24, 2013 8:58:40 GMT -5
You don't have to participate..............
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Oct 24, 2013 9:12:15 GMT -5
You don't have to participate.............. Well see, I love trick or treat, and the kids are going to want to trick or treat. They don't have an underlying agenda and I like my neighbors. Whoever rings my doorbell on Saturday or Sunday will get candy...but I really feel someone was trying to cut out certain groups from trick or treating in our neighborhood. To what end - baffles me, because we have a good 15-20% minorities in the neighborhood and they are pretty well off. Every city in our metropolitan area publishes their trick or treat times in the local paper. I have over purchased candy for trick or treat every year I have lived in this house. The neighborhood trick or treat is from 5-8 Saturday and the City Trick or treat is from 4-6 on Sunday. If you give candy out on Saturday you are supposed to put a sign on your door that says "Sorry we participated in trick or treat yesterday" That just strikes me as rude, so I won't be doing it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 9:15:38 GMT -5
We won't be home during ToT this year so we'll be doing an honor bowl. I don't care if the first kid takes it all -- I just want evidence that we tried so we don't get TP'd while we're gone!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 9:21:11 GMT -5
We can have the house dinner party ready in less than 2 hours. I have a couple of shelves and closets that need a spring cleaning and the house looks lived in when you drop in unexpectedly with the girls homework on the kitchen table, a pile of shoes by the door and my laptop and magazines on the coffee table. But it's not bad enough for me to be embarrassed. It used to be. I worked hard to change those habits.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Oct 24, 2013 10:50:57 GMT -5
Yes, definitely yes and it is a major PITA but it makes my wife happy so I play alone. It also helps that we are 3 adults, 2 with OCD/cleaning tendencies. The only thing my wife and I have in common when it comes to design/decorating is we hate clutter and favor clean lines, open space. My wife tends to pack things away neatly while I just want to throw them away if we are not using them, we tend to compromise and moving often helps with purging. I dread owning a home for that purpose, seems things just tend to multiply when you own a home and you get ride of less and less stuff if any. 90% of those shows where the owners state:we've outgrown this house and they show you around; it is mostly crap that they have gathered and never bothered to organize or get ride off. Carl, a few years after you guys move into your own house you will find that tskeeter's garage multiplier actually does have a practical application. To use tskeeter's garage multiplier, take the number of cars you own and multiple by 2. That's how many garage spaces you will need. The basis for this highly scientific algorithm is a metric based on the principles of family economics. If your income allows you to own two cars, your income also allows you to own enough stuff (lawn mowers, wheel barrows, edgers, rakes, shovels, hoes, motor cycles, quads, boats, jet skis, etc.) that it will take a two car garage to store your stuff. When you and DW have kids, and those kids reach driving age, and you add to your automotive fleet to keep the kids from tearing up your car, the kids will also have stuff. For every kid car, there will be another garage stall of kid stuff to be stored. Note that many homes do not acually have four, six, and eight car garages. In the event that the number of square feet of garage space you have available does not exceed the number of square feet of house space you have, any variety of garden sheds can be used as a suitable substitute. This has been done with great success at the tskeeter house. A two car garage that houses cars. A two car garage that houses an unused collection of wood working equiment. (A grossly inefficient method of storing stuff, which necessitates the application of the garden shed variation.) A garden shed that contains a built in dog house and houses the lawn mower, weed whacker, wheel barrow, leaf blower, and a variety of building project left overs. A garden shed that houses the outdoor cooking equipment, such as the smoker, the turkey fryer, the three burner stove, the griddle for the three burner stove, spare propane tanks, and a variety of outdoor cooking acessories. There isn't enough room for the grill, so that has to sit outside, next to the outdoor cooking equipment shed, under a cover. And a garden shed that contains gardening supplies, such as part bags of fertilizer, mulch, potting soil, decorative rock, and grass seed, as well as a collection of unused decorative pots. You will also notice that in less affluent parts of town, where residents are unaware of tskeeter's garage multiplier, or where limited financial resources prevents construction of multiple garden sheds, stuff may be stored about the yard. It may be stored in piles by type of stuff. But, often it is stored at the location where it was last used, so that future users can begin their use where the prior user left off. I assume that you, your DW, and your MIL each have a car. So, tskeeter's garage multiplier recommends that you limit your house hunting to homes with a six car garage, or the equivalent space in garden sheds, in order to avoid storing your stuff in the yard surrounding the house.
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Abby Normal
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Post by Abby Normal on Oct 24, 2013 11:04:08 GMT -5
Does your house look like a magazine's house? Yes- unfortunately, it looks like the BEFORE picture.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Oct 24, 2013 11:06:28 GMT -5
I agree about the garage multiplier.
We have a 3 stall garage. We could easily use 6. Van, Truck, Tractor, Single jet ski trailer, Double jet ski trailer, kid crap.
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amishgal
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Post by amishgal on Oct 24, 2013 11:07:13 GMT -5
Only the 2 front rooms, the formal living and dining room, neither of which get much use. There is no tv in the living room, so it's mostly used by me to read. I hate clutter, hate it but somehow it manages to pile up, mostly on the kitchen counters and table. I swear, DD's school sends home a tree's worth of paper every week! Plus, DH recently changed careers and he works from home so he gets boxes of magazines and fliers all the time. Sigh...
The bedrooms always feel cluttered because the closets are so small that we always have baskets/totes of clothes everywhere. It's an older house with big rooms but very little storage space.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Oct 24, 2013 11:09:37 GMT -5
Only if it's a cover for Hoards the Magazine....
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Oct 24, 2013 13:34:44 GMT -5
Only if it's a cover for Hoards the Magazine.... Mine's perfect for Better Homes In Other Neighborhoods. Seriously, it's not that bad. I'd called it collected clutter, with lots of things we have picked up over the years from our travels. I believe in the one-thing-in-two-things-out rule. DH, not so much.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Oct 24, 2013 14:21:05 GMT -5
Only if it's a cover for Hoards the Magazine....
Life isn't complete till you've nearly broken your neck while skidding across the floor on a Little People Disney Princess.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Oct 24, 2013 14:25:34 GMT -5
Only if it's a cover for Hoards the Magazine....
Life isn't complete till you've nearly broken your neck while skidding across the floor on a Little People Disney Princess. After all the trouble you had finding the princesses I'd think you would be nice to them and not step on them My house will never be magazine ready. The living room/office that rarely gets used is fairly clean. Desk is full of papers though. The rest of the house? Forget it! We do keep the 3.5 bathrooms and the kitchen clean. The rooms my friends moved out of this summer look clean because they are mostly empty.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Oct 24, 2013 14:29:12 GMT -5
After all the trouble you had finding the princesses I'd think you would be nice to them and not step on them
If they'd stop running around the house and stay in their darn castle I wouldn't step on them!
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greeniis10
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Post by greeniis10 on Oct 24, 2013 14:37:44 GMT -5
Only if it's a cover for Hoards the Magazine....
Life isn't complete till you've nearly broken your neck while skidding across the floor on a Little People Disney Princess. Or Legos and Hot Wheels! Oh, I equally miss those days and are glad they are over! The once disaster area bedrooms that belonged to the kids with so much clutter we could barely close the doors and where the walls had morphed to various shades of gray (where they weren't covered with pieces of torn posters, scotch tape and holes from metal tacks) are now unrecognizable guest rooms, an office, and a workout room. They make me happy and sad at the same time...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 14:48:02 GMT -5
Only if it's a cover for Hoards the Magazine....
Life isn't complete till you've nearly broken your neck while skidding across the floor on a Little People Disney Princess. Or Legos and Hot Wheels! Oh, I equally miss those days and are glad they are over! The once disaster area bedrooms that belonged to the kids with so much clutter we could barely close the doors and where the walls had morphed to various shades of gray (where they weren't covered with pieces of torn posters, scotch tape and holes from metal tacks) are now unrecognizable guest rooms, an office, and a workout room. They make me happy and sad at the same time... I have my sons hotwheels and Legos in a low flat box with wheels that rolls out and then rolls back into his room when he is done playing. I think the boxes may have been designed to store sweaters or other clothing under the bed.
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greeniis10
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Post by greeniis10 on Oct 24, 2013 14:52:45 GMT -5
APPLE1 that's a great idea! Unfortunately, either I didn't have that kind of brain power when my kids were young or I knew they'd never really get put away so scattered all over the place was where they stayed.
Ironically, I did save some of the Lego sets and almost all of the Hot Wheels and they are now stored very nicely in rubbermaid containers in an unused closet.
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Oct 24, 2013 17:25:34 GMT -5
Actually, my daughter's room is beautiful (I think) except for the nasty carpet that came with the house. I finally got it painted the color I like and I think it's starting to really be cozy. I'd love to rip up the carpet and put down a nice rug, but other than that... it's 90% there.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 18:26:48 GMT -5
LOL, tskeeter! We don't even have kids and I see the garage multiplier effect! I've posted in the past that things were pretty good when I had the equilibrium rule in place; something new comes in then something old must go out. But that all fell apart when our parents started to pass, we started moving around (on the company's dime so no incentive to downsize ) and we started collecting properties. Now we have multiple tools, outdoor furniture, and even pots and dishes and can never remember where stuff is. I'm hopeful that once we're through this upcoming bath and upstairs remodeling project we will tackle the garage. We made a lot of progress last summer on the cabin's garage aka Bonny's mini-storage unit.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Oct 24, 2013 18:31:51 GMT -5
LOL, tskeeter! We don't even have kids and I see the garage multiplier effect! I've posted in the past that things were pretty good when I had the equilibrium rule in place; something new comes in then something old must go out. But that all fell apart when our parents started to pass, we started moving around (on the company's dime so no incentive to downsize ) and we started collecting properties. Now we have multiple tools, outdoor furniture, and even pots and dishes and can never remember where stuff is. I'm hopeful that once we're through this upcoming bath and upstairs remodeling project we will tackle the garage. We made a lot of progress last summer on the cabin's garage aka Bonny's mini-storage unit. Ya know, once the remodeling projects are done, you'll have time to build another garden shed or two.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2013 18:37:24 GMT -5
No sheds! No cars rotting in the salt air! I have rules ya know!
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Oct 24, 2013 19:46:02 GMT -5
...:::"Keeping things tidy seems a lot easier to me when you live by yourself.":::...
I think its more that "your mess seems OK to you". I feel like DW has gotten on my case about things of mine that clutter the house. However her equivalent or greater clutter is invisible to her. The reverse is true too.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Oct 24, 2013 19:47:54 GMT -5
...:::"Keeping things tidy seems a lot easier to me when you live by yourself.":::... I think its more that "your mess seems OK to you". I feel like DW has gotten on my case about things of mine that clutter the house. However her equivalent or greater clutter is invisible to her. The reverse is true too. Exactly. DH's Star Trek crap is just clutter. My stuff is worth displaying.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Oct 24, 2013 19:52:42 GMT -5
...:::"Exactly. DH's Star Trek crap is just clutter. My stuff is worth displaying.":::...
Is your stuff also Star Trek stuff?
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Oct 24, 2013 19:56:13 GMT -5
...:::"Exactly. DH's Star Trek crap is just clutter. My stuff is worth displaying.":::... Is your stuff also Star Trek stuff? Um, no.
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Peace Of Mind
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Post by Peace Of Mind on Oct 24, 2013 20:17:59 GMT -5
...:::"Exactly. DH's Star Trek crap is just clutter. My stuff is worth displaying.":::... Is your stuff also Star Trek stuff? LMAO!!!!
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Oct 25, 2013 10:04:44 GMT -5
When we were house hunting, one of my absolute must-haves was a mud room. I needed a place for the hundreds of pairs of ocean-going-ship-sized shoes (running shoes, cleats, basketball shoes, indoor soccer shoes, cleats, Sperrys, Tims, cross-trainers...), all of the sports gear, all of the balls, all of the baseball hats, all of the back packs and back sacks, etc. I didn't get my mud room. And, the most used entry to the house is the back door in the kitchen so ANYONE who comes to my door sees all of that stuff. I do try to hang it, pile it, stick it under a bench or in a basket or in a trunk or down in the basement. But to no avail. So one's first impression is that we hijacked a Dick's Sporting Goods tractor trailer or two. The rest of the house can be either spotless and well-organized or a shambles, depending upon whether we are mid-sports-season or between seasons. I simply can't spend hours at games/fundraisers/team dinners/sports carpools AND keep the house picked up and clean. The most I can promise is that the Board of Health won't need to stop by. As if they could even get in the door. And like Malarky, there will come a day when I will have all the time in the world to clean and organize and straighten and make it picture perfect. But, doing so will be bittersweet. I am hoping I can find ways to stay too busy then, too.
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motherto2
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Post by motherto2 on Oct 27, 2013 6:04:05 GMT -5
I would rate my house as decent most days and usually pretty good since the kids aren't home. But, having said that, I have puppy toys and puppy pads and puppy food and puppy clean up stuff sitting around right now. I have temporary custody of DD's puppy til her deployment is over, but they will both be living with me for a while once she gets back, and that will be hairy. She moved all her "stuff" home after she graduated in December, and took a lot of her military "stuff" with her when she left, but a lot of it didn't need to go, so it's still here. Her room is pretty small, so we have to be very creative with storing things. I have been sleeping in her room since her puppy got here so she'd be used to sleeping in DD's room, but then I decided she needed (I) needed a bigger bed, so I'm in the process of getting her a double. Well, while doing that, I need to keep her twin bed and frame for when I stage my house in a couple of years to sell, so I've been getting very creative on where to store it. I still have to move the box spring out of the hallway, but I need to clear out a part of my closet to put it in there. All three bedrooms are torn up right now, but the top mattress should be here Monday evening, so I should have her room and my room put back together once that gets here. DS came home two weekends in a row, the last one was for a visitation and funeral for a family member, so he currently has all kinds of stuff strewn about in his room, plus I was storing some of the stuff that used to reside under DD's bed in his room til I had time to figure out where it would all go. The top mattress is under her bed right now, so I lost a whole lot of storage . I have a bunch of dress clothes of his that no longer fit, so I will be sorting through all that stuff to give to a friend that has a younger son and can use the clothes. She is my kid recipient as I've gotten rid of stuff through the years. DS also has his military, civil war reenactment and other "stuff" to contend with. DD will be back in a few months bringing all her military stuff back, and DS will be graduating in May, brining back all his college and military stuff, so once again my house will be brimming to the gills. I have absolutely no idea where it's all going to go. I think I might need to consider asking their father or other grandmother to help store some stuff. Oh brother, now I'm depressed. I have really been going through a lot of stuff to declutter this last year or so (mostly the things that I have tucked away) but I think I need to get more serious about it in the next few months. DS has promised me a couple of hours over Thanksgiving break to go through his room and get rid of a lot of clothes and other stuff, but I might need to take a swipe at it before he comes home. He has no idea what all he has up there. I guess I need to go start putting things away.....
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