Saturday, September 21, 2013

Confessions of a Slob



 I am a slob.
My older sister used to tell me that all the time when we shared a room.

My husband, after 25+ years of marriage, declared it at the dinner table one day.

I laughed.
Hysterically.  
Not because it wasn’t true, but because he had kept that thought in for so long.  Thinking about it still amuses me.

I loved when I had a new baby because my mother would come help.  She was perpetual motion. (I did not inherit that.)  Laundry barely hit the floor and she was washing it.  The more children I birthed, the longer she would stay - up to 2 weeks.  
Hmmm.
Maybe I should have another baby.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like things to be clean and tidy.  I just have a hard time keeping them that way.  It’s just not a priority, I suppose.

Don’t be alarmed.  We don’t live in an environment that would warrant anyone calling the CDC.

There is a lot of help available on the internet. You can download cleaning schedules and chore charts galore.  One encouraging site is www.flylady.net.  I tried following the Fly Lady for awhile.  I even downloaded her daily to-do lists.  How hard can 15 minutes a day be?  

I think what tripped me up with the Fly Lady is her morning routine.
For starters, I am not much of a morning person.
Second, she says to get dressed, all the way down to your shoes, as soon as you get out of bed.
I don’t like to wear shoes around the house. (Which is why pairs of my shoes can be found in various places around the house; that used to drive my husband crazy in our early years of marriage.)

Then, she says that no matter what, make sure your kitchen sink is clean and shiny.  I’m just gonna say the Fly Lady did not have seven children.  I could get my sink clean and shiny; I just couldn’t keep it that way unless I wanted to nag at my kids all day - which I did plenty of without adding the sink cleaning nag.

I did incorporate the 15 minute pick up around the house before dinner when all the kids were home.  That helped.  I will sometimes do a 15 minute cleaning of a closet or shelf.  Sometimes, we would take an afternoon and just clean the house (according to Speed Cleaning)  - unfortunately not every week.  The children did have a chore chart that more or less got accomplished.

But overall, I failed the Fly Lady course.
I am still a slob.  

My husband, on the other hand, would make a wonderful house husband.  He has said I could go to work and he would stay home IF I could find a job with a comparable salary to his.  

So, anybody know of somebody who would pay me an engineer’s salary for my skills?

  I am a great project manager with strategic thinking skills.   I can see what needs done and tell people what to do all day long!  (Just ask my kids.)

No?  Well, I will just keep working on overcoming my slob nature.

Is there anyone else out there who doesn’t make their bed every day, or is it just me?


16 comments:

Tea Caroline said...

The bed making is just about the only task I actually do manage to complete each day:)

Misja Tanner said...

I probably make my bed 80% of the time. The rest of the house is a sad, sad story. I do okay when we aren't doing school, but if we are doing school everything goes by the wayside.

Anonymous said...

Clean up that desk! haha

KarenTrina said...

Gotta start somewhere! Good for you.

KarenTrina said...

We (homeschoolers) do live in our house pretty much 24/7 which might make it slightly more difficult to keep up with everything. My house will never look like a magazine picture, but that is ok with me..

KarenTrina said...

Isn't a messy desk a sign of a creative mind, Becky? On the bright side, that was the messiest spot I could find for a picture for this post. haha

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing, Karen! I loved reading about your Fly Lady adventure. I incorporate lots of her ideas into my routine and I LOVE the Speed Cleaning book! Of course, I only have 1 grown child! ha! Good luck with finding that job!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I resemble this blog post!:-)

Anonymous said...

I'm laughing with you, Karen - definitely not at you!

Anonymous said...

creative mind? cluttered mind? who's to say? LOL

Jo said...

I was an extremely organized and neat person, and then I had kids... I think a lot of my sentences end in "and then I had kids" or "and then I got married". I'm not super messy, but I have 3 young sons and a husband who "forgets" to pick things up... and as a result I have gotten worse... It's not terrible, but honestly when we clean up the house or toys etc... if it stays that nice for an hour, maybe two that's an accomplishment... and I don't empty the dishwasher right away 'cause something else distracts me and I forget.... it does eventually get done.... trying to get on more of a routine but life happens quickly and somew things just end up at the bottom of the never-ending "to do" list. Found you on weekend, blog hop!

KarenTrina said...

Thanks or stopping by, Jo. I know what you mean about things not staying picked up. When my kids were younger, I could clean a room, walk out, walk back in there would be a Lego or Lincoln Log or something on the floor that hadn't been there when I left the room and nobody was playing with them either. I don't know where those random toys came from. I think a child probably had it in their hand, walked through the room, dropped the toy and kept on walking! A routine is helpful and the to-do list will never end. But, remember, your children will grow up and leave home and they won't remember (hopefully) how clean your house was, but rather,if you spent time with them.

9peasMom said...

I think blogger ate my comment - just something was said along the lines of what a great post!

LOVE MELISSA:) said...

I never make my bed-like ever! I am pretty sure you wrote this post about me, right!??

Karen said...

Haha, Melissa! Maybe we are similar, if you relate so well to this post. :-)

Ann said...

Oh wow, your husband sounds just like mine! Every time I'm sick or away, he does a better job of keeping house than I do. It's really rather humiliating… This was such a fun post to read! :-)

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