I have no desire to clean my house!

Amy Carey

Amy Carey

New member
UGH. With having my kids home during the summer days, and my job being behind and me wanting to scrap after that instead of cleaning, dude my house is a PIT!! I don't know how to find a balance , seems like no matter what I'm doing I should be doing something else and no matter how I try I can't get motivated to clean because they'll just trash it again! How do you guys do it? How do you make yourself clean and do you have any tricks for making your kids help/keep things clean? I'm losing my mind here. I am one person with two hands and there is no way I can do it all myself, lol
 
LOL - Poor girl! I have no tricks. My oldest is still cleaning his room (3 weeks later) b/c he won't just get it done and then he trashes it again. My aunt passed in April and we've been cleaning her house out so I have boxes and boxes and more boxes in my house that I can't bring myself to unpack. I'm ready for school to start to just have my normal routine back. :(

Hope it gets better for both of us! :)
 
From one Amy to another....heeeheeee...love an excuse to say that....
I have no idea dearie. I haven't found the balance yet, and none of us ever get all things perfect. It's tough when you know it's just gonna get trashed again, and that bugs the mess out of me too. I got angry yesterday cleaning the floors and threatened anybody who dares to take food in my living room again.
My biggest peeve around the house is my daughter's closet. Her room is tiny so it must be organized or it turns into a total disaster area. I've re-done the thing 4 times in 2 months and asked her to help me keep it nice every time. Yesterday I told her tough luck. I'm not doing it again. Not anytime soon. Ask your daddy to help get it straight.
Let's all laugh together at the thought of a man actually organizing a closet full of toys :blink:
 
Do you have any desire to clean MY house?

Me either... and since I'm "off" during the summer, I think it should be in better shape. Oh well... I'll set my timer for 30 minutes twtwo or three time and ONLY clean until the timer goes off. Think small bites!
 
i am right there with you. Plus I don't like to clean anyway. and it is soooo discouraging to have everything messed up w/in 5 minutes.

but tis my plan to try to do some cleaning/tidying around here. we're reaching critical mess.
 
I'll come & clean for you! I'm a flybaby.;)

Flylady helped me alot. before i used to have no desire to clean , but now i feel like i need to clean everyday at least for an hr.
 
I feel the same way. My MIL is constantly on me cause my house isn't up to her standards. I know i need to improve. i am lazy, lol. but she's gone so far as to tell me that someone could turn me in to CPS because its messy. ITS NOT THAT BAD. It mostly toys, and this massive pile of laundry that never seems to diminish, as soon as i wash a load and put it away, there's another load of dirty clothes and towels ready to wash again. i can't seem to make it to the bottom of the pile, lol. I just got rid of our cats so i don't have that mess anymore. but i still have our golden retriever. and he is shedding. there's always dog hair on the wood floor in the living room. i sweep it a couple times a day. yuck. wish i didnt have any pets,lol. and the kids are little so they are not much help!
 
I clean really well when I'm stressed or angry..and I'm stressed a lot lately so my house is staying pretty clean haha

that said..my little ones are ONLY allowed to have toys in ONE room. I clean this one room EVERY day lol..but it's not too bad. Your kids are older so give them some responsibilites. My oldest two do dishes, laundry (just fold and put their away), help with floors, and keep their rooms cleaned. Even my 4yr old helps some and even makes her bed every AM! lol I don't worry too much about it though.

Try picking 1 project to clean up and concentrate on that then do something fun and go back to do something else after
 
I'm no help, I'm in the same boat Amy. Two weekends ago I actually cleaned the kids' room that I planned to clean our room last weekend, but that didn't work. I hate cleaning, no matter how much I do the house gets messy again in no time. We usually clean up when company's coming over, otherwise it's whenever I feel like it.
 
I really hate mess too and it totally aggravates me! I think I am coming to grips with just cleaning the common areas and letting the kids have messy rooms -- especially during the summer and weekends when they are around playing a lot. It's hard for me to let go of the idea that our whole house needs to be clean, but I don't want to constantly be battling with them either. I am a believer in picking your battles, and it's hard enough to get them to pick up the family room, let alone their own rooms.

During the school year, I can get in there and do some cleaning while they're gone and at least it stays clean for a few hours til they get home! Plus, then I can sneak a few toys out the door once in a while . . .
 
I certainly have no magic tricks!

My daughter is 13 and it just doesn't even pay to fight with her about cleaning. What has helped is that there seems to be something she'd like to do every day, whether it be going to a friend's house, swimming in our pool, etc., and when she asks to do it, I just say, "Of course you can, as soon as you ___________" (whatever she needs to do). Her drive to what she would like to do overtakes her will NOT to do what I say.

Another thing that has helped is her cell phone. As much as I HATE the fact that she has a cell phone, it's such a great bartering tool. She is not allowed to have her cell phone with her during the night because I know she wouldn't get any sleep. Anyways, she has to have it charging in our bedroom at night and she can't get it back in the morning until her room is picked up and her chores are done. I hate to play that game, but it works!
 
I clean constantly, pick up constantly. If the kids bring toys up here, I throw em back down the stairs LOL. I always feel like I'm picking up something!
 
Aww man, I feel your pain hon! My house (except the part that people see from the front door) is gross. I'm getting ready to spend a couple days gutting and cleaning so I can feel ready for school to start.

How old are you kiddos? I ask cuz here's what I'm going to do with mine...

Like I said, I'm going to spend a few days going through every room and getting the house spotless. Then, I'm going to use one of Darcy's cool new Mom's Helper templates and list the girls' chores like...

-Make bed
-Dirty clothes in hamper
-clean up before bed (bedrooms, livingroom, etc)
-Wipe down bathroom (my 8-year old can do it with Clorox Wipes)
-Feed dog
-etc

I'm hoping that if we start this list with the house completely perfect, it will be easier to keep it liveable.

Also, I'm not going to do rewards for completing their chores because it doesn't seem to work with my girls, so I'm actually going to do punishments if they DON'T do it. Maybe after they get use to doing it regularly they can start earning an allowance.

Hope this helps. Good luck girl.
 
i don't know what my trick is other than not allowing a mess! i simply say we aren't going to make a mess today and it is so. honestly, my kids are 10, 7 and 5 and they ALWAYS pick up after themselves, it is something that i built into them. and let me tell you the respect they have for their own things, as well as our home and other peoples things is amazing! you just have to start now by setting your expectations and following through. that is the only advice i can give you, expect much and don't back down. :)
 
newfiemountiewife said:
I clean constantly, pick up constantly. If the kids bring toys up here, I throw em back down the stairs LOL. I always feel like I'm picking up something!
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yep, same here and make the kids take care of their own stuff too. i'm always delegating. take this up. grab this. etc. the kids like pitching in and love our clean, enjoyable, cozy home. they just love it.
 
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Laura_A said:
Hey Lizzy... can you come to my house for a week and whip my kids into shape?
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i sure can. i've been told many a times that i need to write a book on how to bring up children. you may just see me on t.v. as the next "super nanny". ;)
 
Just make us your 1st mission. ROFL

Actually, my girls are very well-behaved, but I fear it's my own fault that they don't pick up after themselves or appreciate what they have. I've just always done everything for them... and they've wanted for anything. So now, at 8 and 6, they don't even know where to start when I tell them to clean their playroom. sigh
 
I am a CLEAN freak. Seriously. In college I used to warn my roommates not to be home on Saturday mornings unless they wanted to wake up to the smell of bleach! :) Having kids has calmed me down quite a bit. But I still hate messes. So, every morning while the kids are playing in the bathtub, I scrub the sink & toilet and wipe down the floors. Then once the kids are out of the tub & dressed and eating their breakfast, I wipe down the tub & start on the kitchen. I do the dishes from overnight and the morning. Then we relax and do whatever needs to be done that day. Then, after lunch, Ainsley goes down for a nap and Hannah & I clean up. About half an hour before my husband comes home from work, we clean up the toys and vacuum the floor. Then I make dinner. Right after dinner, we clean the kitchen. And I do dishes again right before bed. The toys get put away again right before bedtime. Hannah has chores. She is three and she has to make her bed, help clean up toys and keep her room picked up. She also has to help with the after dinner dishes. She puts away the silverware except for knives. And all the plastic dishes. Ainsley is 15 months old and she has to help clean up the toys. She is actually much better at cleaning than Hannah is. If i give her a wet washcloth in her highchair, she scrubs the top of the tray for me. It's so cute! I disinfect it after she is done, of course. I do laundry twice a week. It all gets washed and brought back upstairs. My biggest struggle is putting it away. Our house is the size of a tincan so I hate fighting it to get it in my closet. So, we always have a pile of laundry on the bedroom floor, but hey! it's clean!
 
I feel the same way.... pick up one mess to come back to another.... grrrrrrr.

I wish I had been better about making Derrick pick up after himself. Now that he's six it's almost impossible to get him to do it. However, if he doesn't pick his stuff up after the second time I have reminded him then I have a bag of stuff in the closet and his crap goes in there never to be seen again.... so far he hasn't missed anything.

I will do better with Rhett....

And I LOVE IT when my house is clean. It just feels good.
 
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