Someone please remind me

[GirlsMama]

-there are more important things than having a clean organized house. I am fighting myself, I'm having one of those days where my house is overwhelming me. Aughhhhhhh.

[Sputterduck]

There are more important things! ((hugs))

[Earthmama]

:hug:

I am so there with you. But I have a theory I want to try out.

If it's overwhelming & taking away from your kids, why not just do one small thing in each room that the kids can participate in.

For me that would be:
Kitchen: Take trash out
Bedroom: Make the bed
Bathroom: put laundry into hamper
Living room: pick up the floor (even if the surfaces become more cluttered, now)
Office: take dishes to kitchen

And then turn on some music and dance silly after each thing. Stuff will get done, but you will spend time with the girls and have fun, too - so it's not so overwhelming, but you don't feel guilty at the end of the day.

I did something similar the other day - but the dancing wasn't consistently after each thing, it was at the beginning, some during, and some at the end - so I will improve as time goes on.

If all else fails, get out of the house. Go to the library or the indoor playground at the mall. Hit Sonic for Coffee & Hot Chocolates (Or bring your own from home) & go watch the rain fall on a lake (from the car) and talk to the girls and nurse the baby.

Or make decorations for halloween - it's house oriented AND quality time.

The kids won't look back and remember how clean the house was - the only times I look back & remember the status of the home's cleanliness was when Mom was yelling at us to clean it - or when we just had.

[Amy_G_]

I do the get up and clean one thing in each room as a motivator a lot of days.
some days I do 3-5 things in each room, forcing myself to move to the next room when those 3-5 things are done so every room gets "touched."

Or I have this other thing,
which is all dishes in the sink (dh strews them all over the house)
all laundry in the laundry room (dh strews laundry all over the house)
all garbage in one garbage can
then go thru the house and collect everything that goes in one room into a laundry basket.
so pick up everything that goes in my bedroom and put it there
everything that goes in my bathroom/closet
everything that goes in the kid's room (this is usually a biggie)
going thru the house and forcing myself just to go thru and put things back into the room they belong in.

I mix it up depending on what seems to be mentally appealing for the day.
housework sucks and nobody wants to do it, and even when you do it, it needs to be done again.
Just think that your kids will notice and remember if they grew up i a pig sty. but they probably aren't going to notice a little clutter.

[Amy_G_]

oh sometimes I write out 10 things that need to be done and put them in a hat and draw them out one at a time.
sometimes writing a list of 3 things in each room with the worst thing circled helps, cause at the end of the day I can look back at the list that has some things checked off.
heck sometimes I put "take a shower" on my list so I'll have more things checked off at the end of the day. ;)

[nicurn]

I don't know. I spend Tuesdays from waking until picking the boys up cleaning (Lydia "helps" or plays by herself), and then compulsively pick up and wipe off until I have to go to work on Fridays.

My house looks nice, but I think I may need meds.

[frannie]

I love all the clean up ideas.
I realized last week, the day after spendin alot of time getting the house together, that if my kitchen and living room wore name tags they would read..
*Hi my name is Kitchen and I like being dirty*
*Hi my name is Living Room and I like toys alllll over*

[GirlsMama]

I wish I'd read this earlier. I currently have a dresser drawer on my bed half cleaned out, a box from the closet half emptied, a bag of garbage and a bag for good will, and now just started on a cabinet in the living room. Lots of good tips everyone! Back to the mess.