NQR Wishing all houses came with maid service!

[Sparkle]

It does feel good doesn't it Heidi. Sometimes I envy my quilting friend that has a housekeeper, other times I recognize that "cleaning " is probably the only exercise I get on a daily basis---so it's good for me in that sense.

I spend too much time sewing, and sitting here at this computer.

[ffq-lar]

Early in my marriage, My dear MIL volunteered that you could "wrap a dish towel on the end of the broom and you can get all those cobwebs down" from the corners. Dennis said "No way Mom--she's won awards with those."

Isn't he the best!

[DoryJM]

Linda, that is priceless!!!

[Boni]

This is so much where I belong. After the kids left today, I spent two hours cleaning my CAR! Just the inside!!! We had a change of plans and I had to drive my car, with three child seats in the back. After eating flat pretzels, goat cheese, and fresh avocado, my car was trashed. I love my kids and I loved feeding those little ones because my car needed cleaning anyway. Needless to say, my house will have to wait. I don't notice until the little ones come because I have to watch what they pick up and put in their mouths. They could graze for weeks on my floor--crumbs, spiders, dried worms, dust bunnies, thread and fabric scraps, eeeeeewwwwwww. Housekeeper???Does she do binding?

[Bonnie]

Originally posted by ffq-lar

Early in my marriage, My dear MIL volunteered that you could "wrap a dish towel on the end of the broom and you can get all those cobwebs down" from the corners. Dennis said "No way Mom--she's won awards with those."

Isn't he the best!

Are you sure our DH's aren't brothers.....Gene told his mother that the webs were a growing ground for his sandwich meat (the spider) and he was letting them grow a bit bigger so he wouldn't have so much cracker with each bite. I still go into a fit of giggles when I remember the look on her face.

[Quilting Heidi]

Bonnie & Linda what a hoot! My MIL probably wouldn't say anything, well maybe, but my mother sure would! She still sweeps the streets (yes I mean that literally) and wonders when I'll do mine! NEVER!!!! Now I do have to say that when I say I'm cleaning I get to it and get it done. Hubby came home last night and at first didn't say a word about the house. After about 30 minutes he came up to me and said, "wow you really worked your butt off today the house looks great." Glad he noticed!

[SandraC]

I've never been a good housekeeper and I wish I was.

You all must have missed the wonderful quilting lecture I heard a couple of years ago. The speaker explained that dust acts as a wonderful eco-friendly insulator for the house. Now I don't feel so bad!

As for the "string art" hanging from the ceiling...usually I don't notice it, then you get a particularly sunny day and they're all visible in all their glory and I wonder how they snuck up on me without noticing.

[QuiltFaerie]

I am so glad to come across this thread this morning. In the best of circumstances I am just not a neat and tidy person, a place for everything and everything in its place and I so wish I was. I think my clutter is breeding when I am not home (just like my scraps) because there always seems to be more of it when I get home.

Right now, my place is a disaster. I am going to hire someone to come in twice a month. Between working full time, quilting and taking care of the ever increasing issues of an 83 year old mother (on day 10 of being in the hospital), there just isn't enough of me to go around. Her place has also gotten away from her so I think that is where my time will go this weekend. Ugh. I hate cleaning.

On dust bunnies? I think I have some larger than my cats.

[peglu]

I feel so blessed to have my housekeeper. She comes every other week, and believe me, she earns her money! Gave DH an ultimatum. I cut my hours to part time, or we get a house keeper. I still work full time.

[CindyT]

As for windows, I don't do them anymore unless absolutely necessary. We live in the country with lots of birds outside, and when the windows are clean, the bird population goes down. Even with the windows dirty, we still end up losing some birds. Not a day goes by that I don't hear a loud THUD, and I know if I go look that some poor birdie is gasping for air on the ground. Maybe the birds are just trying to get in to play with the dust bunnies.

BTW, I'm watching the show Clean House: Messiest Home in the Country and I'm feeling much better about my house.

[Rae50]

On August 1 our DD, SIL, and almost 3 yr. old granddaughter arrived from western Illinois. I had spent most of the week cleaning and scrubbing and the house looked pretty good. DD and SIL took a 3 day, 2 night anniversary trip to the Pocono's while we babysat. They were back for a night and then left for the weekend to go to Buffalo to visit with SIL's sister's family and SIL's parents who drove in from SC. The house still looked pretty good. I did vacuum while they were gone. SIL took a train from Buffalo to get back home to go to work. DD and GD drove back here and stayed until August 18. During that time frame, we had frequent visits from local DS, DIL, 2 yr. old and 10 mo. old granddaughters. I left here on the 18th with DD and GD. The house was starting to need some clean up, but wasn't terrible. My DH drove to Illinois 10 days after I left. We stayed for another week and got home late last night. This house is a disaster! There's grass clipping strewn throughout the place. The kitchen counters, sink, and stovetop look like they haven't been wiped off since I left. There are newspapers and junk mail in piles. I couldn't even see the top of the kitchen table or one side countertop last night for the piles. I'm really glad that he told me on the phone that he needed to" straighten up the house " before he headed west. I would have hated to see what it looked like before!!!

I did some cleaning today and got rid of junk mail, papers, ads, etc. I also got the laundry caught up. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow. After being in a vehicle for about 13 hours yesterday and a total trip time of 15 hours and getting home around 11:30 pm, I just don't feel like vacuuming and scrubbing floors. I'm tempted to get someone to clean for me the next time I go out of town. Of course, they would have to come while he was away or I'm afraid it still would be a mess!

[mrsbishwit]

Early on in my marriage I tried to keep the house spotless, use to stay up late cleaning so I could go to bed in a clean house. Then came 5 kids...need I say more, lol anyways DH doesn't complain when the house gets a little messy from time to time, he knows if he complains I would lecture him about doing the cleaning himself. Plus he knows that if he waits long enough it will get to me and I end up cleaning the place top to bottom myself (usually every other week it gets a really big cleaning, but never on the weekends because it is useless with the kids under foot making more messes).

Usually I just concentrate on cleaning the main living areas and my quilting space every day since this is what the customer sees when dropping off or picking up their quilts.

[Rae50]

When we were first married, I did everything inside the house. All the cooking, cleaning, bill paying, etc. I had a full time job and still did it all. When we had our first child and I was still working full time, DH started to help some. When child # 2 came along, I stayed home for several years and then worked part time. I got to do everything again including some yard work when DH was traveling for work. When DH took early retirement 10 years ago, he would go golfing, fishing, or do volunteer work. I would be at home doing the inside chores. When I would get done, I would start to sew or plan to sew and then he would come home and want to go somewhere or do something together (which was nice after having him traveling for work for many years). However, I didn't get the time to do the things that I enjoyed doing. Things finally came to a head and I told him that I would never get to retire because my job was never done. We worked out a house cleaning schedule and he chose to clean the bathrooms (although as Heidi said, he ignores the floors). He does some of the cooking (all the grilling) and sometimes helps clean up the dishes. He does all the outside work and washes the vehicles. When we do major cleaning, he helps dust and will wash windows. The house isn't as clean as it used to be or as clean as I would like it, but I can live with it the way it is most of the time. It seems that about every 2 years I have to remind him of his house duties. He just starts to slack off. After this trip and the condition of the house, I'm sure that I need to remind him again. I'll just wait a couple of days until he's rested up from our trip!

[Liam]

I grew up with a father who was, I like to call “old World”. His belief was that men work and women stay home cleaning and taking care of the children. He never allowed my mother to work outside the home. My father did do the yard work when he was home (he did a lot of traveling in the military and later on business). So naturally when I grew up and got married (twice), I adopted those beliefs to a degree. I normally did all the yard work and would occasionally help out in the house when my wife complained. But otherwise I left the house work to her. When she got sick I took over the house work. It was an eye opener, I never realized house work was actually work. I think a lot of us men don’t think of house work as work. I learned appreciation of what my wife did everyday. Now that she is gone I regret not showing her the appreciation she deserved and not helping out more with the house work. So you men out there, take that chip off your shoulder and get in there and help out your woman (the one you love) with the house work.

[Susanne.Hughes]

Geoff was old World when I married him, but he learned fast!! After a few weeks of marriage, he mentioned that the house was dusty, so I threw the duster in his face and told him that he was welcome to use it! I have found after many years of research, that dust does not disappear. You do not have to worry, if you do not have the chance to dust today, it will still be there tomorrow.

Our priority has always been family........ as a friend put it so well: "You can have a clean house once the children leave!" Now that I have quilting, well.... we all know that takes priority over cleaning any day. Geoff just doesn't comment anymore!! (Not much anyway and I have developed selective hearing!)

He is still not great with indoor "stuff" but he will help. When we had to entertain a lot, he was the one to clean the dining room, set the table etc wile I organised the kids and did the cooking. I had a cleaner in the States because of the amount of visitors and parties we had. It was really great and I miss her. She wasn't keen on dusting but did a great job on the bathrooms. I knew that I could do my functions, come home and have a dinner party and not worry about toilets etc. I did have to remind my children a lot, that she was a cleaner, not a tidy-er!! And that it was not her job to pick up after them.

Nowadays, I have a 21 year old daughter who riles at any suggestion that her mother doesn't do enough around the house. (Geoff maintains I had a daughter just to tell him off!)

My two boys are out of the house and are great at looking after their own places. (I still don't understand how they turned into neat freaks after twenty odd years living at home and in rooms that you could not manouever through unless battle ready and dressed in fatigues!!) Excursions into their "land" could be really exciting!!

As many others I live in the country and there is always dust around, so why fight it!! I am a firm believer in peaceful co-existence!!

[Quilting Heidi]

LOL I love to hear all the stories. Liam you were raised much the same way as many of us from that era. My mother still thinks that I should come home and do everything...oh yeah she doesn't think I should work outside of the home either. She and I have had many arguements with her over that. She had a fit when I went back to college because girls didn't need to go through that stress! LOL She believes that when my husband comes home I should wait on him hand and foot and boy you should hear her when she finds out that he is the one that delivers me my coffee! You'd think that would make her happy that I found a husband that would do things for me but no it isn't so.

I know I'm the one that likes it cleaner but he does appreciate it. He was gone a lot while the kids were growing up so I did it all. After 22 years on active duty I figure that we still aren't even close to even.