Domestic Criminal

I'm currently a domestic criminal.... :redface:

Living out of washing baskets (clothes haven't made it to the drawers)

There are mascara wands all over my bedroom floor

The beds only get made when i change the linen weekly

My lounge looks like some uni students had an end of semester **** up

A huge headband is hiding uncombed hair

Our sunday paper is still on the front porch rolled up

Life is so chaotic lately.... my baby is teething, my toddler is going through a developmentally challenging stage, I am exhausted and just can't get on top of things. I rue the day we thought a 2 year age gap would be tops, because at the moment it sucks.

Please tell me it won't always be like this??

I go through similar periods.
It does get better. I've only just put washing away that has been sitting in baskets for 2 and a half weeks!
xx

I'd love to but how you described your house is exactly how mine is right now. I had today off and couldn't be bothered cleaning it! It was beautiful on Friday but because I worked all weekend it's a disgrace now.

Half an hour ago I bribed the kids with chocolate frogs to put their pencils away so at least now the table is clear :rofl:

meh, sounds like my place. don't stress about it, it's not worth it.

and what is it with my 3 year old?? i explained to him i had an important phone call to take and promised him a reward if he was quiet as a mouse while i was on the phone, he said he would. So phone rings, within 30 seconds he grabs the dogs plastic bone and is banging it all around me on any hard surface he can find! I can't hear a thing and am slowly losing my sanity. Thank god my hubby will be home early tonight (which for him is 630pm). His first job apart from giving me a 5 minute breather will be to find the foxtel remote which has gone awol. *sigh*

I'm still in my pyjamas, I just threw some clothes on over top :rofl: (In my defense, I've been sick)

You can't walk two steps in my lounge without having to navigate something (to be fair, our lounge is only about 2 steps big anyway...).

My bedroom is something a teenager would be ashamed of.

I've got 2 little boys too, by the way, and I'm sure it won't always be like that - there will come a time where they can play with things for more than 5 minutes at a time, and can be bribed to pack up with pocket money or other things, and can be trusted to play outside on their own and play imagination games for ages. I don't know if that's true, but that's what I tell myself when I lie in bed and look at the filth in our room.
(In our case, I tell myself things will change when we move house too, we have one small linen closet for the whole house and no other storage, not even a pantry, no dishwasher, tiny lounge and laundry with no proper clothesline...it has to get better, cos I can't imagine things getting worse! :p)

can you start by cleaning or tidying one room at a time?

Nelle, LOL, i am only dressed because we had visitors today. Oh and it does get heaps easier when you have a dishwasher, we actually got one installed to make life easier and its a life saver.

TD, yep thats generally how i do it, but once you've cleaned one room, move on to the next they trash the first room... its like a cycle.

can you close the doors on the ones which you have cleaned so the boys don't go into them?

I love cleaning. I'd be there in a flash. If only they'd invented instantaneous travel by now....dumb scientists

dont worry...my house look like a bomb has hit it too...clean laundry everywhere, stuff all over the lounge and coffee table, floors havent been vaccuumed for over a week, hard floors havent been mopped and the bathroom hasn't been cleaned since DD was born!! Bathroom and vacuuming is on my "must do" list for this week!

Oh and I spent literally all day yesterday in my pyjamas! To be fair it was horrible weather...cloudy, rainy cold and miserable, the kind of day you want to spend in your pj's. Lol

DH calls the pile of clean washing in the laundry 'Mt Washmore'. It is literally about a weeks worth of washing that I am yet to get around to folding and putting away. The bathroom is gross, and somehow my 2 year old managed to get toothpaste all over the vanity and the shower screen *sigh* so I am going to have to clean it tomorrow. Would have done it today but a friend called and wanted to go out for coffee, which ended up lasting until pick up time lol. Much more fun than housework ;)

TD, you can always come to mine! I even promise to supply lunch lol.
Don't sweat it, I can't remember when I last saw the bottom of the washin hampers, and that's clean OR dirty.
Beyond sweeping once a day and trying to coax things into piles I've pretty much given up for the moment. Until we get more storage it's an uphill battle and even dp (the domesticated of the two of us) seems to have given up and become disheartened.
So it's not just you and I'm sure it will pass - that or they'll be at school eventually. I think part of the prob is that you make so much more mess when you spend so much time at home, and it's too cold to get out as much as you might otherwise.
Hth

Oh Tan- I think your loungeroom had some help from many little hands this morning ;)

I actualley only put away the my clean washing from the last couple of weeks this morning (we were running out of baskets) We had 2 days worth of dishes sitting on the sink, and I can't find my laundry because of the piles of dirty washing.

I think sometimes in life we just have to let go of what we think we should be doing and roll with the punches, somedays we have greasy hair, unironed clothes and messy houses- but at the end of the day so long as our kids are fed, and loved thats all that matters!

TD I love cleaning too! but i just don't have time to do it, between my 1 & 3 year old i am flat out all day... i usually clean late at night but lately have been too exhausted so its reached tip status ;)

I'm just wondering how others with 2 little ones find the time to clean when you are looking after your kids?? when my baby goes for a nap, my toddler wants to play games we can't play when the baby is up, and usually after that i sneak in some computer time.

DH has offered to get in a cleaner but i don't want it to have come to that. Just can't wait until my boys can play more independantly, and are not velcro baby & toddler.

You change the linen weekly???

You're one step ahead of me, LOL.

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I think part of the prob is that you make so much more mess when you spend so much time at home, and it's too cold to get out as much as you might otherwise.

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I think Lara's hit on it really. When it was just dh and I at work/uni, our house was significantly cleaner! But kids home during the day, are relentless. If you give my #2 a spare 5 minutes, he'll find a washing basket and take great delight in pulling things out and throwing them - and I sort of figure...well, that's a safe 10mins of entertainment for him, maybe that's 10min I can spend having a cuppa. :p

So I guess that's what we have to look forward to - warmer weather in the short term, and school in the longer term. :D

I have decided that my lounge room is now the designated toy/junk room....it is messy within 5 minutes of it being sparking clean, and it has double doors I can shut, problem solved!!!

My bedroom is like a tip because it is the room closet to the front door...so everything get dumped in there! lol. Sometimes I even find the bed:clap:

And because our house is new and has a fair bit of storage space, it is easy to put all the mess in the cupboards and it looks pretty neat.....until you open the cupboard and it all falls out on your head :lol::ROFL:

But then I have days like today where I actually managed to mop the floors (everything else is still messy, but the floors are sparkling!), and then I spent the rest of the day lying on the floor or the bed staring into the eyes of the most gorgeous little man in the whole world....he had me mesmerised, and his laugh and smile is infectious....he doesn't care if there are piles of washing to be folded or if the doona is on straight (or on the floor!). And this time next year he is probably not going to want to just lie next to me all day chatting and gooing and gaaaing, so I am going to enjoy it while I can!

See our house is largely open plan, the open plan area consists of what we use as a family room/lounge/ play area, kitchen, dining and display area (shelving etc). We also have a study, formal lounge and the boys 2 bedrooms.

We've been talking about having the boys share a room and make the other room a play room, but i'm not sure it would get used?

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You change the linen weekly???

You're one step ahead of me, LOL.

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and me !!

If your DH offers the cleaner again - bite your tongue and say YES!!!
Seriously - take the pressure off yourself for a bit. I had completely underestimated the energy and time it would take to entertain and feed my 9mo and 3yo. I like things to be clean and neat but was wasting way too much precious time trying to acheive it only for Miss 3 to completely trash things in about 2.5seconds.
I clean once a week and tidy at night. The place is reasonably clean but not like it used to be.......I clean the kitchen in the am, and keep dishes in DW too.
We have open plan too - so I have some big containers from Ikea that everything gets thrown in at night (not sorted or nicely - hidden). I figure it will be soon enough that they will want to hide in their rooms too.....
Even when it is cold we go out each day for a walk - if only to escape and get some fresh air when the walls close in!
It is still a work in progress for me....remember to be kind to yourself!!!!

I think sometimes we are all too hard on ourselves in terms of housework etc, We go and visit a friend and the house is tidy, the toys are put away, the kids are being good, and there are freshly baked cookies on the table etc- only what we don''t realise is that our friend has spent the last 2 hours before we arrive rushing around and hiding the mess under beds, in cupboards- anywhere it fits, the kids have be bribed to behave well, and they have been up since 5am baking.

Nothing comes without the cost of something else, so people with clean house, nicely ironed clothes, perfect hair etc have to find a pay off somewhere else, whether it be at the cost of spending time with their children or partners, whether it be at the cost of their sleep and their me time, or whether it be at the cost of their bank account, because they have a cleaner/ ironing lady etc. We all choose our happy medium, for me it is messy house so I can spend more time with my kids & husband, get a little bit of time for me to workout.

I guess at the end of the day you have to find a rountine that works for you, I do very little in terms of housework during the day- I put washing on peridodically throughout the day, cook/ prepare dinner in the middle of the day while Liam is asleep and Tori is having rest time while watching a movie, Pete does the dishes & sweeps the kitchen after dinner while I shower the kid and We vacuum the lounge a couple of times a week while the kids are in the shower. We usually spend an hour or 2 on a saturday morning mopping, cleaning the bathroom etc, I do my ironing on tuesday night while I watch packed to the rafters and All saints. And each night before bed I rush around and chuck the toys into plastic tubs. It works for us, I dont live in a palace, I might have weetbix stuck on the tiles, and a pile of dishes waiting to be washed, but all in good.

An iron......what is an iron???:ROFL::ROFL: Thats up there with changing the linen weekly! (I cheat and chuck my work pants and stuff in the dryer on hot for 5 mins before I wear them, they come out perfectly unwrinkled and fluff free :lol:).

Ali, I totally agree. I used to be that person that runs around like mad before someone comes to visit (I stayed up until 3am cleaning the night before my mums group came to visit for the first time when DD was a baby! I remember frantically ajaxing my benches!), turning the place into a show home, but now I don't bother....you take me and my house as I am....

I went to visit a new friend that other day for the first time at her house....and it was sooo messy, and she was not apologetic at all.....it was so refreshing, and I probably relaxed more while I was visiting too.

Ali, it sounds like you have a great system going :)