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I've been hearing this adage for a long time and reading it in all the "how to" clean up and organize your nest articles and books. If you bring a "new" (even if it's used) into your home, you should remove one item (as in, throw it away if it's broke and unfixable, and if not, give it to a cause). It's supposed to keep your nest from getting too crowded. I just wish I had a big chunk of time to start at a manageable level. This one 'catch all' closet that is just begging for me to tear into it. The picture doesn't do the mess justice.
Oh, and thanks for this forum. . .looking forward to hearing some great ideas. Maybe it will spur me on to early Spring cleaning.
LOL Your closet looks very organized to me. No impending avalanches and the door opened all the way! I'm with you, though - hope this forum helps me get motivated to get organized.
Sharon
I've tried the "bring something in, take something out", but unfortunately the "take something out" seems to only make it to another floor/area - lol!!
Everything that moves in my house seems to head downward. Cleaning the basement is always a big chore! Letting go of anything with potential has always been difficult. In some cases, that's good, example: My hubby.
In some cases, it's bad, example: 20 glass gallon jugs, three boxes of old wrapping paper, a garbage sack of bubble wrap, and every Christmas card we've received in the last 10 years.
I wish I had closets. I have 1 small one in each of the 2 bedrooms. The linen closet is the endcap on the wall that divided the livingroom from the kitchen. Floor to ceiling and about 1 ft wide. Has 4 shelves. You can imagine what fits in that one!
Jan...
I'm gonna hush up right now. Because I've moaned and groaned for five-plus years about the paucity of closet space in this house (whine, whine, wahhh, wahhhh) compared to the brand-new home we left when we moved.
Okay, so this 70s house doesn't have the roomiest of closets, but each bedroom has at least one closet (master has two) - none are walk-in, mind you; the hall bath has a strangely large closet, plus there's a so-so sized linen closet and a good-sized hall-closet.
So compared to what some of you are describing, I feel very grateful. Of course, tomorrow morning when I wake up it'll be a new world, and I can forget how blessed I am to have all this closet space, and I can grumble some more as I try to tuck everything away (*grin*)
LOL, Terry! Yes, I feel very blessed now too with the space that I have. Our house is tiny...maybe 750 sq. ft. We have a closet in both bedrooms and a small hallway closet...it's at least big enough to hold our coats, board games, vacuum, and dog and cat food...but that's about it. Then there is the tiny linen closet I told you about. But at least I have SOME closet space. Our catch-all space is the single car garage. Some days it's a miracle if I can get out there to do the laundry.
For YEARS, some friends didn't even know we HAD a formal dining room. Since we used it so seldom, it became the black hole of the house. About twice a year, I would tear into it and clean it up, and then everyone kept throwing stuff in there. It would get so bad that you could barely walk into it.
Then I got tired of my nosy neighbor, who would walk up to the window on the other side of the house where my computer was and start talking to me through the window while I was sitting at the computer. Drove me NUTS! I felt like my privacy was being invaded, and I'm not the most private of people in the first place. So, my computer got moved to the other side of the house, into the dining room. Well, I hate clutter, and couldn't stand being in here with all that carp around me.
I got busy and got things organized and cleaned out. It's starting to get bad again and I need to be ruthless in getting rid of magazines and newspapers and I need to get the piles of things for eBay listed and out of here! This is just one area of my house that I can't keep control of! (But it's better than it used to be.)
Papers, paper work, and mail--junk and other--are the hardest things to sort and keep under control. I know I should deal with papers immediately, but I just put it aside for later and then end up with piles to have to sort, toss, and file. Sometimes I lose track of the bills. When visitors come, I pile it all into a box and shove it into a closet. I think I have two boxes right now. I probably need some sort of mail center.
Fireant, that is exactly what we do too! I think we have at least two boxes of "stuff" in the garage that has come from the computer desk and the coffee table! Uuuuuuhhhhgggg...the going through it all is what I dread. My kids bring home from school at least 2 papers every day. I am now getting buried in there school work!
I've lived in a house that had no closets either, which I suppose is why people used to use armoires to store their clothes in, before they became bedroom entertainment centers, etc. The closet in the picture is the largest one in the house, and also serves as an entryway coat closet, extra clothes closet, games, cleaning stuff, cooking utensils, exercise equipment, extra seating and tables, linens, you name it, it's in there. But it's a shambles, can't get to what I need. I think there's also an adage that goes something like "if it's stored and you haven't used it in 1 year??, then you likely will never use it," or something to that effect. Well, I've got boxes of stuff that I packed two moves ago (my DH is a gypsy) and haven't seen the need to unpack yet. My DH jokes about how he used to move to new digs in college if he could save $5 on the rent. Myself, I lived all my childhood on the same ranch my folks still farm and would have been content to move 1 time when I got married, but NOOOOO!, we've moved 5 times in 25 years. So I guess it's time to get rid of some of that stuff, but so much of it has sentimental value. . .like your kids school papers mgh. I lugged crates of that stuff around for years and finally had to sort through it all and pick the best from each year. Ooooh, was that hard. Enough rambling, I guess I'm closet-blessed, but I think it might be a curse. LOL
I have a 4 bedroom house with huge closets with only 2 people living here,,,Not a good thing for a pack rat,,,LOL I Really Need to get to them,,,grrrrrr
Yes, I agree, it could be a curse. The more space you have to put stuff, the more stuff you have!
It has been hard throwing away my kids school papers. I try to keep a paper bag for each kid (I have 2) in my bedroom and then put all their papers in it. At the end of the year I go through the bags and keep the best stuff...just 2 or 3 things. Well, right now I have bags from last year and the year before in my closet and bags from this year on the floor in front of my closet. In a perfect world, my system would work! LOL
I have had to really have a long talk with myself about the stuff I save. We had an entire 12'x12' shed crammed full, as well as a garage. Eventually, we've cleared out the cabin and it's all gone into the garage, into the log house, or off to the Salvation Army or one of my grown sons. I really got rid of a lot of stuff, but there is much more to eliminate. Cleaning and simplifying my life has become my New Years resolution for the last two years. One thing I've found. If paperwork sits in a pile long enough, 90% can be thrown in the garbage!
I am a TERRIBLE packrat. Can almost never bring myself to throw anything out.
Just 2 examples: my husband was going thru some things I had in the back of my truck & found an old newspaper which he held up & brightly announced, "Oh look, Lucky Lindy made it". Another time I asked him to get something out of my bag & he refused, saying that he was sure the body of Jimmy Hoffa was in there somewhere. Funny guy. . .
I'm going to let the DH read this. This is toooo funny. My problem is ... cards. I just can't seem to throw them away. I have a box full of them. Some 30 years old. Don't know why I save them. Never go back and read them, but I do treasure them. :)
Oh, and did I mention, I also have a two-car garage. Several years ago, Lumberjack went out of business and I picked up those huge heavy duty iron shelves they stocked, for a song. So one whole wall the length of my garage is set up with shelves 4 shelves high and FULL OF STUFF! I will say though, that's the best $60 I ever spent to get my garage somewhat organized. At least it was couple of years ago. Now, I need to get in and clean out stuff again. Spring is just around the corner!
IO1. . .I also have a rattan cedar chest type storage unit at the foot of my bed that I have about 45 years of accumulated correspondence, cards, etc. I'm saving for posterity. I guess it's a madness. . LOL
I've found that with children's papers, you just have to hurry up and throw it away or you never will. My daughter keeps some of the important things in a photo binder. One problem I have is just shuffling it all from one spot to another and not really dealing with it.
Boy, do I shuffle things around. I have an extra office chair by my computer, and if someone else wants to sit up here, I have to shuffle the stack of papers on the chair onto one of the desktops. When I want to cut some paper, I need to move the stack of papers to the bed. When it is time to go to bed, I shuffle that stack of papers to the cedar chest at the foot of the bed. When I need to get sheets out of the cedar chest, I shuffle the papers onto a bare spot on the floor. When I trip over a the stack of papers, I set them on the extra office chair. Just another example of the inevitable cycle of life!
LOL. I know exactly what you are talking about. As for that 90%, I once almost threw out my teaching certificate, thinking a stack was so old nothing could matter. I don't know why I had suddenly decided to check it first.
I always check, but still, 90% is no longer relevant to the world as I know it at the time. Worse than just shuffling the stack, every week or two, I use my bed to sort papers, stacking paid bills in one pile, garden info in another, then banking, tax papers, business invoices, etc. Of course, I always get interrupted, so I forget all about the stacks of papers on my bed until it is bedtime. So... (you guessed it), I pile all those piles on top of each other and place them on the cedar chest at the end of the bed! By the time any of my papers reach the filing cabinet, half the ink is warn off just getting them there!
I love watching the organization shows on HGTV. And from time to time I attack a closet or area of the house or garage.
Last July when it was 100 degrees plus I coerced DH into helping me assemble some storage units for the garage. Lowe's had them on sale. I stocked up on containers from the Dollar Store -- half cup, pint, up to milk crates. I spent a couple of weeks sorting, tossing, and storing stuff -- greasy stuff, some of which I did not know what was. He looked through the trash and salvaged some.
But now I know where it is and sort of what it is, and last night when the greenhouse heater's pilot light would not stay on, I KNEW where to find the can of compressed air with the tiny little hose to clean out whatever had it clogged. DH had forgotten he had it. Good feeling and my plants did not freeze!
As I have just re-retired, I hope to do more organizing. Now the stacks of gardening magazines are a different matter. I think they look really good there in the corner of the extra bedroom. And don't look in my clothes closet!! Not yet.
Good start, Patricia! I have spells of organizational skill. There are days when I seem to make all the right decisions in organizing our 'stuff'. On those days, I just want the world to let me alone so I can get things done. Of course, the world just keeps calling and knocking, and by the time I get back to my projects, my organizational zeel has vanished.
I work on the sedimentary layer system. If I have a pile of papers sitting around and I am looking for something specific, I ask myself when I threw it in the pile. If it's recent, I look toward the top of the pile. If it was months ago, I start looking toward the bottom. This only works if I have never tried sorting the pile and restacked it!
I had to laugh when patrob wrote: "He looked through the trash and salvaged some."
I always had to do cleaning when I was the only one at home, as my kids would drag half the stuff out of the dumpster before it could be picked up by the truck. They seemed to have a second sense about Mom confiscating some of their 'treasure', even if I tried to leave it looking messy, they figured it out and took reclamation action. DH never bothers me about my organizing tirades, only complains if I toss out clothes that are now 'air conditioned', as in holes, claiming that he just bought them. . . LOL
I think you have the right idea about cleaning when the family is gone. I can recall cleaning the garage years ago, & my husband of tha era was picking bolts out of the dustpan as I swept them in!
I agree too about cleaning when you are alone. My kids hate it when it's time to deep-clean their room...this means throwing away the toys they get from fast food meals and all the paper scraps they think they HAVE to keep. And of course it means taking some old toys to Goodwill. My DH is a bit of a packrat, but he has gotten a lot better over the years.
I have to say I'm proud of myself today. I cleaned out a craft container that I haven't even looked in for about 10 years! I threw away a big bag of stuff and took the rest to my son's preschool teacher...she was thrilled to get the stuff! Now I have a container to store my acrylic paints and all my painting projects in. Yea!!
My daughter is a pack rat. I painted her room during her sophomore year of college, but it took me more time to move her stuff than it did to paint. I moved it all to the "third bedroom." When she returned, I told her she had to do something about it. She got her friend who is a neat freak to come help her sort and make decisions. They did a good job. Everything is organized. We also put in wire shelving at different hanging levels in her closet to maximize space. She sold things at a garage sale and made a little money, too.
Now I have the organizational problem. It must be a flu. I am very organized on my job, but I don't know why it all breaks down when I get home.
Wheezy, how much space do you have. You said you only have
one closet. Sounds like our little cabin/house.
We have almost 950 sq. ft. total, but only one closet. We moved
from a 3 bdrm., 2 car garage house of approx 2,000 sq. ft. Now
we have 950 sq. ft and no garage. Finding a place for everything
seems to be an accomplishment.
Wow, I would say so! That would be quite a feat for me to go from 2000 sq. ft. to 950 sq. ft. I'm hoping that someday soon we can go the other way! LOL It will be nice to have some breathing room. ;-)
Our house is two and a half story (basement, main floor and half loft). The exterior dimensions of our house are 36'x24', which is 936 SF, with the basement, that makes 1,872 SF, and if you add on the loft, that's 2,340 SF. Of course, the interior dimensions are 24'x34' because our house logs are 12" thick, and we lose some living space in the loft because of the barn style roof.
At any rate, we really do have more storage area with the basement, and it gives us a place for our freezer, washer, and dryer. It also allows me to start seeds down there in the spring. Without the basement, we'd have to utilize more of our living space for storage closets. I like the open look we have, but it does make for more clutter.
A log house sounds great and so does the open floor plan. I can identify with the small spaces. My house is 1100 square feet, but 1750 "under roof" including the garage, screened porch, and front entry. There's no basement and only crawl space above. The bedrooms are small, but the closets are decent, especially mine. I bought a bedroom set ten years ago when I moved in, but now I realize I just needed the bed and the night stands. I could have used one of those elaborate closet systems (like Easy Closet) more effectively. As it is, my dresser takes up space I would like to have and doesn't help me stay organized because there's always stuff stacked on the surface.
Yes, sometimes the traditional 'dresser set' is not very workable. We lose a bit of space up in the loft because the roof starts on the second level. That means the wall slopes in and furniture can only be pushed up flush to the way where the dormers are. I requires re-thinking much of our furniture and storage space.
jcangemi, I understand the gypsy thing! Dave and I have moved 11 times in 9 years! My friends would tease me that it was just because I didn't want to spring clean- it.
Maintaince is sooooo much easier than the clean-out!
Now, I have a closet that I still have to do here. When we moved, I had 4 days to unpack, and get ready for Dave's Dad to come visit us over Thanksgiving weekend. As the countdown approached (as in, DFIL was due to pull into the drive at any second), I crammed unpacked boxes, and all of the "what do I do with THIS stuff" stuff into one closet, and haven't attempted to straighten it out yet :)
this forum is wonderful. Believe me, the more space you have, the more clutter you acclumate. I have two extra bedrooms, now that my sons are gone. I often wonder, where did I put my stuff, when they lived at home. I can relate to the dresser top. If I can't find what I am looking for, I have to clean off the dresser and it will be under a stack of papers. I probably have a hundred cook books that I need to get rid of. When I want a new recipe, I just go to cooks.com! I might be able to part with some cook books, but not the gardening books!
When my daughter gets married and takes all her stuff with her, I am hoping my things are organized enough that the two bedrooms don't become dumping grounds. Right now both hold her things. Her room will become a guest bedroom and the other probably will too because it's easier for my family to spend the night when they visit.
I finally pulled all work related papers out and have them in the tote bag I take back and forth to work. I too some back to work to keep there. That helps a lot; plus I don't feel working pressing on me seeing papers around.
Beware, fireant... kids move out, but they don't take everything with them! At least that has been my experience. Her room may look very much like it did before she moved out, if you don't pack it up for her. I think our kids are as clueless as we are when it comes to sorting and eliminating our precious possessions. Besides, leaving is less painful when you still have one foot at 'home'.
Not a chance,,,LOL,,,I was born and raised in a 3 bedroom house on a slab,,,we had NO extra room. I now have a 4 bedroom house that I Thought I needed to fill up when I moved in. I am by nature a pack rat,,,I am trying to get over that. All 3 spare rooms are filled. I started last year going through room by room and Finally getting rid of *stuff* that I hadn't used for awhile. It felt great,,,now, if I could only get in that frame of mind again.
kids move out, but they don't take everything with them!
Amen! My (24 yr old) son is coming up tomorrow with his truck. He is finally going to toss the mountain of cardboard in my garage he has been saving for a project (for two years.) I'll get to actually move around and do some woodwork stuff in my garage again!
It's funny, he's been after me to toss my junk, but it's been a struggle convincing him that a lot of what he has left behind (still have a stuffed closet and boxes in the attic) may also be junk. :-)
mm. . .funny how that works, huh? Had the same experience with all my sons. They took the stuff important at the time for school, sports equipment, clothes they were 'currently' into, and the rest of the stuff filled their rooms. Much later we finally got them to come and take what they wanted and had them toss out in the dumpster all the junk they didn't want and that I didn't want to keep for posterity (they had no concept about that, wan't in their mindset yet). One of my sons kept saying he'd be back to get several years worth of Sports Illustrated and all other magazines that featured Michael Jordon, who he adamantly followed from the time his name started to surface in the basketball world. After several years, I loaded them all into my car and took them to him, as I knew they were important to him, but he just couldn't find the time to deal with them.
I hope your son makes it today to give you back some garage space. But, as you well know, it will probably quickly be filled with more 'stuff', or even a car for heaven's sake. 8-)
It's rainy today (rain! yay!!!), so I asked Adam if he is still bringing his truck for the cardboard. He said yes, and is on the way. Crossing my fingers.
:-)
Just as I thought my daughter's belongings were going to be out, I am now I am gathering more "stuff" on her behalf. She's getting married in August. To start, I now have several boxes of votive candle holders. I am getting some containers, ones marked "reception" and others marked "church" so that I can collect what we need in a somewhat organized fashion and get it to the right places.
No sons here! Two daughters, ages 25 and 23. Neither at home. Well, the oldest is, sort of. She just kind of sleeps here. LOL. She's getting married in August, too! (5th) My mom is doing the flowers and decorating, so all that stuff is at her house. Yay!
Oh what fun. . .weddings. I have a 3 sons and 1 daugher, my baby, who it 27. I almost gave up getting my girl. My daughter was more organized than her brothers though, but was the ultimate packrat.
Fireant, make sure you are not the last one to leave the wedding reception, or you will end up taking all the extra stuff home with you... and if you do go home early, lock the garage!
I don't know if boys are any better or worse than girls when it comes to leaving their belongings behind. I think it's just different stuff. I have two sons, one in his mid-30's and one almost 40, and I still have some of their stuff around here. My DH hired a U-haul and took my youngest son's stuff 200 miles to his place... but somehow there is still more here. Sigh!
kbaumle, it's good that your mom is helping you. We've designated the third bedroom for wedding, along with my daughter's things. She organized it over the holiday, so it's not too bad--yet.
I think my daughter's going to need a U-Haul, too. I don't know about her fiance. He comes from a family of eight children in Michigan. I can't imagine all the things a large family like that would pile up.
"One in, one out" as Janet mentioned is something I should have been doing all along. Currently I am working on a modified plan: "one out - nothing in"! I have enough stuff for a yard sale, but the HOA regs for this subdivision make that idea tough to do, and the time/effort needed to organize/conduct a sale would be too much for me to handle. Room by room, I'm listing a few items at a time online with freecycle. Works great. Interested parties respond and the takers come to pick up the items. If I were better organized I could ask Salvation Army to come pick it all up at once. Yuska
My son did make it up here that Sunday, it was amazing how much room was cleared out when all the cardboard was gone. I was really proud of him, he looked at all his other things as we had to move them to get to the cardboard, and just recognized that it was all just "stuff", and it's too much trouble to just keep moving out of the way. He took a few things home with him, but the rest was tossed. Yea!!! I now have a table to work on my mosaic birdbath, and some room to move around!
Now to get him started on the closet in his old room.
I think those remnants in a grown child's old room are a way of keeping one foot in the nest. Even though they know intellectually they have flown away into adulthood, emotionally, they know they still have a spot in the nest.
Maybe that's also the reason we parents allow it... to let them know the nest is there if they truly, truly need it. I always felt welcome to go back home to my parents, but I never considered it. It was just nice to know it was there.
I know when we eventually redecorated our oldest daughter's room (two years after she graduated from college and had left home), she was a little upset. I consulted with her on the decorating though, and took her shopping for accessories so she could help pick them out. That made it all better, and she just recently moved back in until she gets married in August, and it truly IS her room again. :-)
That sounds like a great way to handle it. I think our young folks sometimes venture out, but fly back to the nest from time to time. I have to smile when someone tells me their teens will soon be grown and gone!
I think when I moved out of my Mon's I took Everything with me,,,oh,,,except my Cuddly Dudley dog,,,(It's a Chicago thing,,,Cuddly Dudley was a stuffed dog on a children's morning show called Ray Raynor (sp?)),,,um,,,and my big Easter Bunny.
When my brother went home for a visit a few years ago,,,my Mom told him while you're here,,,you are going through this stuff and taking it with you or throwing it out! He went through it. I told him to get up in the attic and get my dog and my bunny,,,he said they weren't there,,,waaaaaaa
Oh, my! I remember Ray Raynor on WGN television! We lived about 30 miles west of Gary, Indiana, and about a 120 miles from Chicago. I'd forgotten all about Ray Raynor! I appears he died in 2004: [HYPERLINK@peterthink.blogs.com] I'd forgotten about his craft mishaps on live TV!
I can't believe you remember him!!!! I don't think I have met anyone up here that knows the show,,,along with Bozo,,,LOL and Captian Kangaroo,,,how cool ohhhhh, and Romper Room,,,ROFLOL
I redid my daughter's room during her sophomore year at college. Her room was purple with purple comforter and gray accents. It was dark. I ended up changing her room to other small bedroom, which is a little brighter and has slightly more floor space. I put in new carpet in both the rooms and painted them the same color. (If she wanted to return to the original room, it would have been easier.) Then I got her a comforter ensemble that was more grown up. It was on sale, so she didn't get a say in it, but the colors suited her, and it came with a complimentary quilt, which she loves. Now the room is softer and more adult looking. She enjoys it. We put the closet shelving in and really expanded her closet use greatly. She'll be back in May and staying until her wedding, which is also in August. When she marries, she will take the desk and chair, the small entertainment module, two tall bookcases in the spare room, and a filing cabinet. She'll leave the bed, dresser, and night table. The cross stitch wall accessories I made for her will probably go with her, too, so the room should still be much the same when she and her "husband" come to visit.
That's a nice way to do it, fireant. Years ago I was talking to a man who had about six kids. He told me he was going to add 'wings' onto his house for each kids bedroom. Each room would come with axels, tires, and a trailer hitch. He said he was going to buy each kid a used car for graduation and send them on their way, room and all! LOL!
Gardengeek, yes, I remember them all! I used to get so mad at my older brother who wanted to watch the Arthur Godfrey show when I wanted to watch Romper Room with Arlene Francis. Remember the weather board she had. There were paper dolls on it that she dressed with the appropriate outer wear.
I was surprised to read that Ray Raynor was one of the clowns (Oliver O. Oliver) on Bozo's Circus. Another bit of trivia: Clara Bell, the clown on Howdy Doody, later became Captain Kangaroo! How funny... all our old friends wearing different faces!
Weez,
That's so funny to finally meet someone who remembers those shows.
I used to sit in front of the TV during Romper Room,,,and just pray that she would say my name,,,at the end of the show when she'd get that mirror with no glass out and say,,,I see Ann,,,I see Johnny, I see Mary,,,I see Suzie,,,I Always waited for her to say,,,I see Kelly,,,couldn't understand why she never saw me,,,I was sitting right there,,,roflol
I do "one in one out". Especially since discovering Ebay and Freecylce.org. I hate clutter and am very organized. I also hate cleaning. It's much easier to clean if you have less to sweep and dust around. So I've cleared out anything I didn't think was necessary to my life. I've given a lot away on freecycle, and I donate to fire, tornado and hurricane victims anytime there's a drive anywhere. I even pack up canned foods and other foods and donate them.
I've donated 100's of books to the library. Having an English degree, I thought I must keep every book I've ever read, til there was no room for anything else! Not anymore. I have a couple of shelves of garden and art books and a few books from the 1930's. All others were sold or donated.
I hate paper clutter too. So I open my mail near the trash can and immediately toss junk mail in the trash. Bills are put in the bill file, and anything that needs to be filed away is filed immediately.
I also do not "store" stuff. If I'm going to own it, it must fit in my house--not in an attic, a basement, or a storage building. My storage building is for tools and equipment only. Anything I own must serve a purpose other than taking up space. It must be useful or contribute to the decor. I no longer impulsively buy some cutesy thing that really doesn't fit.
If you haven't discovered Freecycle yet, check them out. They have small groups in so many cities and probably one near you or even in your city. If not, you can start your own. It's completely free--you give away items for free or accept items for free--no trading or selling allowed. You wouldn't believe the "junk" people will take off your hands for you--saving you trips to goodwill or to the dump. And of course you can get great stuff too. I got a nice composter for free!! Our group has two meetings a month in a park where everyone can bring all their "junk" and allow everyone else to go thru it and take what they want. Or you can post an Offer and wait for emails and select who you want to come to your home or meet you somewhere to get it. It's a great way to end the clutter!
Does it count if I vaguely remember Capt. Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans? LOL I have a very faint memory of watching them once or twice...I think I was too young. (ducking and running for cover!) ;-)
ButterflyChaser, I used to be just like that...then I had kids. LOL
Hi MGH, you can be like that even with kids. We had a rule that all toys remained in my son's room, not scattered about the house. His shoes and clothes also belonged in his room. The living room and dining room were always clean and ready for use anytime unexpected company dropped by. I started teaching him that from the time he was big enough to walk. He had to put all his toys away. And it's a rule that continued until he moved out 3 years ago.
My son TRIED to drag all his music equipment out thru the house though. I ended up giving him two bedrooms just to contain all his crap. Now he is completely different from me. His place is always a mess, trash everywhere, clothes and paper carpeting the floors, nothing ever in its place. It's a chaotic disaster of laziness. Of course he wastes a lot of time looking for things he knows he has...somewhere...under all that paper, those clothes, books, mail, paper plates with dried food in them, etc. Not to mention the smell!!! (eeeee--eeeewwww, that smell!) I just CANNOT live that way! I've got things to do! LOL
I'm very Type A personality. I think that has a lot to do with it. I can't stand cabinet doors or drawers that are left open either. Drives me nuts. LOL
I grew up in Klamath Falls, OR...lived there for 21 years and never looked back when I left! LOL No, I did go back for my 10 year highschool reunion...and I've visited family and friends a few times, but not much.
Well, we have always had the same rule about picking things up every night before bed, but I don't mind if they (2 boys) have stuff in the living room during the day. They have a very small bedroom that they share, so there's not much room in there to play. I usually try to go through all their toys with them 2 or 3 times every year to get rid of the junk they don't play with anymore...but it still piles up sometimes. What really gets to me is all their school papers...drives me nuts!!
Your son's house sounds like mine...especially today! I was searching for our last checkbook register today. My desk is about 6 inches deep with papers and junk. I did take a big load to the recycle bin though when I was looking for the register. Finally found the register on another table in the living room...right where I left it last month when I got it filled up! LOL Now the dirty dishes in the living room I won't stand for. My mom and dad always left dirty dishes in the living room when I was growing up and I was the one who had to pick them up. I have kept my kitchen clean for the last month now. I started working on making that a habit again about a month ago and then DH and installed a new over-the-range microwave a few weeks ago. Ever since then I can't stand to see dirty dishes on all my new found counter space! (since the old micro is no longer on the counter.) And I will admit that it does smell in my house today, but not because of dirty dishes. It's because the dog has had a really bad case of gas ALL DAY today!!! Peeeeeeewwwwwweeeee!!!!! Poor dog...poor me!! LOL
Oh and the kitchen cabinets? ROTFLOL!! Open cabinets drive me nuts too! My mom is the queen of leaving the cabinet doors open! Any time I go into her kitchen I can guarantee you that I would be able to close at least 3 cabinets!! I can always tell when she has visited my house too. ;-)
Oooooooh, don't get me started on dirty dishes! I hate dirty dishes. But what I hate more is cleaning them or loading and unloading the dishwasher. I almost always have dirty dishes in the sink. It would drive me nuts if I spent much time in the kitchen, but since I don't like to cook, I'm not in there long for the dirty dishes to get under my skin. I eat on styrofoam and paper plates to limit cleanup. The kitchen is probably the least used room in my house and the dirtiest. And that smell? Well, that could probably be the pot in the sink that once had mac and cheese in it. (Maybe I get that from my son? LOL)
What about laundry? Do y'all wash, dry and fold immediately? Or do you pile the clean clothes up somewhere and dig thru them until it's time to wash them all again? I dry and fold and hang immediately. AND I close the washer lid and the dryer door too. LOL
I'm pretty good about laundry. I don't like to iron and I don't like wrinkly clothes. My DH will do laundry, but he often takes clothes out of the dryer and stuffs them into a basket, then leaves them in the basement! That drives me nuts. If he'd bring them upstairs, I'd gladly fold them and avoid looking like a refugee every day.
DH and I both don't mind doing dishes, although he is more likely to leave them if he has just eaten. I like to clean up as much as I can before I sit down to eat, so that there is less to do when I am less motivated! We don't own a dishwasher, and neither of us have ever wanted one. I tend to leave dishes in the drying rack, but DH likes to put them away. We never dry dishes... if feel drying dishes deprives them of their own personal skill... air drying.
Quite true. Around here, the dish towel seems to see more hand drying action than dishes, so if we have to dry dishes, we get a new one out of the drawer.
I'm try not to think too hard of all the little dirt critters living in my kitchen. It would certainly ruin supper! With just the two of us here, we are less likely to pick up a bug, but I still like the idea of letting the dishes dry themselves!
Weezin, I love how you phrased it: deprives them of their own personal skill. LOL Believe it or not, I use my dishwasher more as a "drying rack" than a dishwasher. I have little counter space and hate counter clutter, so often I wash the dishes and put them in the dishwasher to air dry. It gets them off the counter and out of sight. I use the dishwasher mostly to sterilize my dishes.
That's about the only reason I can think of to have a dish washer. To store the dirty or clean dishes in. I've noticed that people with dish washers seldom get the dishes back in the cupboard. Everybody just opens the dishwasher to get their plates and flatware!
My mother used to rinse and stack her dirty dishes in a dishpan under the sink until she was ready to wash them. It was a neater method, but easier to forget! As the story goes, her father, when having supper at her house, would offer to do the dishes. When he reached under the sink for the dishpan, it was full of other dirty dishes... more than the few he had planned on!
That's a great idea, ButterflyChaser! In a one-person household, a full load takes some time to accumulate so I've been mostly hand-washing and air-drying. Using the d/w that way will clear the small counter for me. Thanks!
Storage,,,that's a great idea. I have a dishwasher but don't use it,,,it's so old and it leaves a sandy filmy substance on the bottoms of the glasses and any bowls that are on the top shelf. But storage would be great.
I had a dishwasher similar to yours in our last house. I never used it as I always ended up washing the dishes again. So, I used it for storage. One of the things I kept in it was our wok. I liked to tell people I was one of the very few who had a wok in dishwasher.
Ya know, I never wanted a dishwasher either. Then I started canning tomatoes and making pepper relish and after the first season of washing jars I got a dishwasher. Best investment I ever made. But I can understand folks who don't want one. :)
When I did use mine I HATED to empty it,,,so if Bill didn't empty it we would just use the dishes out of it until it got to where it was almost empty, I'd put the rest away and then put the dirty ones in,,,I don't miss using it at all,,,wish he'd take it out so I could do something else with that space.
When we built our new house I got a great dishwasher. I love it. Everything comes out clean although I only run it 2 times a week. I use Cascade Complete which in my opinion is the best dishwasher detergent out there. I don't rinse anything and I still get very nice, sparkly clean dishes. I've even started putting pots and pans in the dishwasher with good results. You just need a good dishwasher with good detergent. I think I was turned off by dishwashers by just having cheap ones that didn't do a good job. I really think when you have a good one and don't have to rinse and wash everything before putting them in they really are a water saver.
The wok now has it's own space in a cupboard and that's where it belongs.
Nannybee, I agree that Cascade Complete is the best stuff. Regarding the type of diswasher? Well, since I have an antiquated kitchen we had to go with a portable dishwasher and we went with good ole Sears. It works like a charm. My best friend got a Bosch installed in her new house and she still pre-washed things before she puts them in the dishwasher (a lot of that comes from habit). Her's was a really expensive machine and it doesn't do as well as my Kenmore. The Bosch is a really quiet machine, tho. I don't prewash, most of the time I don't even have to scrape the plates because of the built in garbage disposal. Someday when we re-do the kitchen and I get a built in dishwasher, I'll still probably go with Sears...
I ditto the above on canning jars. . .it's the best. Just fill those racks with all your clean jars (which you've naturally stored so they'd be clean. . LOL) and run it even on just the rinse cycle and they come out hot and ready to go. Another plus for dishwashers I find. . .that sticky residue that gets on tupperware after a few years of use. . .comes off in the dishwasher, or never has a chance to acculate if you regularly run them through a cycle. Must be that Cascade. I put all those so-called disposable GLAD plastic wares they sell now in the top rack of my dishwasher too. After it's done, they tend to have a lot of water clinging to them, since I don't use the dry cycle. I just tap them on the sink a couple of times and it gets the water off and they dry clean as a whistle, no spots. I've had it both ways, no dishwasher for years when I really needed one with 4 little ones and having one. . .I definitely vote for having one. . .even if you use it for storage. It's there if you need it.
I went with a Kitchen Aid with our new house. Not because I thought it cleaned better but because all the control buttons are on the top on the door on the inside so food and stuff can't get in between the buttons on the outside. They are are enclosed and clean up is so much easier. The only thing on the outside door is a handle which also works as a towel rack.
We lived in a house temporarily while our house was being built and had a Kenmore and I'll have to agree they work great. We didn't go with all our appliances being made by the same company when we had the house built and I think we ended up with five different manufacturers but we're happy with everything but our cook-top. Went with a GE cook top for propane. It works great but the grates are bisque. The reason grates are made of black is because heat makes things turn black. I can boil water and my grates look dirty. They looked so pretty next to the tiles but I've learned my lesson. I ordered a second set that we use for company and DH and I live with dirty grates. We've got a whole lot more stuff in the house that isn't that clean so it doesn't bother us that much.
I second that weez. . .I bought my KA stand mixer almost 30 years ago when I was in the wedding cake business. It runs just as good as the day I bought it and it has mixed tons of cake mix, icing, divinity, etc. My DH bought me the extra kit that had the grinder, sausage stuffer, etc. in it and we've put them through their paces too. Can't go wrong with Kitchen Aid. (Bought my daughter one too after she got married. She loved making cookies at home and couldn't bear the idea of a handheld mixer. . LOL. Spoiled, but why not!)
