Neat Garden...Nasty House

My gardens are absolutely gorgeous, but my house is on the brink of pure filth! Thanks to all the time I've spent outdoors and virtually none on housekeeping this summer.

Anyone else in the same predicament?

I am turning a new leaf today. Today I promise not to spend even one second out doors. I am finally cleaning up my indoor mess!

Hi daffydill sorry 'bout your mess,lol'
I have a home business and had to set
some priorities for myself,not easy'
The hardest of all was getting my
friends used to my schedule(no calls,
visits unless emergencies) I get my
chores done after work hrs. Sometimes
it gets deep but business comes first'
Try not to get "overwhelmed" by as you
say the filth,takes time'' Good Luck'Sis'

I can totally relate to this!! My house is disgustingly dirty too.I'll give you an example.I have 3 house cats who sleep on the sofas.If we have an unexpected visitor who is wearing dark clothes, and he/she sits down.....well they leave the house covered in cat fur !!I say nothing.My biggest mistake is just going for a little look outside.I come back a few hours later, look at the time, and then have to dash to the store to get something for the evening meal.I hate it when anyone asks me 'what have you been doing today?'
Marigold.

Daffydill,
I am with you. I have a kitchen table that never has food on it. All it has is dirt, plants, fertilizer and seeds on it.

Relax, ladies.....winter's coming and you can do your "spring cleaning" a little early or late or whatever......

"eyes"

A friend asked me recently when I was going to have another dinner party and I told her when I finished cleaning the house. "Next week," she asked. No, I said when I get the house clean. "OH, she said (grinning at me) You mean after the rains start and the frost kills the garden!" Yep, I will have plenty of time this winter! :}

Hi! I'm Wrenie. I'm new & boy can I relate to this thread!! Housework is not a priority for me either. There's the garden & pond & fish in warm weather.In winter, it doesn't get much better cause then there is the added mess of the woodstove & my interest in quilting.I keep promising myself to do better,but then I go outside & it's forgotten.My hb doesn't mind,but it bothers me to be so slobby.

Having been an partner in a dairy farm for 29 years and lived in a trailer with 2 daughters in one room for 21 of those years let me tell you about mess!! We now live in a house with 4 big bedrooms, large living room, dining room big kitchen, back room, full basement, walk-in attic. We have 7 desks (one in a closet, don't ask!) 5 closets lots of cupboards and I've moved most of the seed stuff out to my studio. Friday, my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter looked at me and said, "Grama, I think you should change the kitchen." I asked her what she meant by change and she said, "That counter there needs to be cleaned off. I've never seen it!" And I'm afraid she might be right! Like Eyes said, winter is coming...

My dining room table is covered with seeds and seed paraphernalia. My husband and I noticed some cat vomit under the table last night. Oops! How long has that been there? You are not alone!

my house is a mess BUT my gardens look great. LOL.
farmgirl21

My garden looks good. The house lots pretty bad. I have seeds all over the place and one entire shelf in the fridge is full of seed's I am stratifying for next year. Have gardening stuff everwhere in the house. I even have ~150 tree seedlings on my deck.

wait!!! we're supposed to CLEAN this house???? uh oh

This is me to a TEE! My house is always a disaster. I'm thankful I spend so much time outside because I usually intercept unexpected visitors and keep them out in the yard - not inviting them in. RUDE? maybe ... but oh well.

I'm with "eyes" - winter is coming. I must admit I have a "seed area" but the house is full of catalogs, journals, and the current seeds I'm harvesting. I keep them in a huge tinfoil type roasting pan while I harvest and IF I sit in front of the tv at night, I work on seeds. I still think cleaning is highly over-rated :-) vic

I feel I am making a little bit of progress..
1-One of my old cats died and I DID NOT go and get a cute irresistable new little kitten.
2-And when my remaining cat dies I am NOT going to get a darling little new kitty either.
3-I AM going to cut down on the number of fish tanks I have all over the house. I have allowed all my new hobbies to take over my whole life since I retired.
I felt, what the heck, I might as well do everything I could not do while I have some life left in me.
But when I look at the disaster I created, I see it was worth it for awhile, but time to get back to reality. This is not healthy!
But I AM going to keep all the beautiful flowers. I have a lot of time to smell the roses before I go. And I don't even have one rose bush in my garden...YET!

A dear sweet man I work with was commenting on the yards and gardens in the area. "you can tell by looking at someones yard how good a housekeeper they are" he said. I smiled and he said "It's true, if they care enough to make the outside look good you know the inside is clean too!" That is when I broke out in laughter. He reeally doesn't have a clue!

Some one will clean up the house when you die, But no one but you can grow your garden.
Lindag

Removed by member request

Both garden and house are a mess! Will I really clean the house this winter? Probably not, I'll be busy with the seed catalogs, Davesgarden and wishing for spring!

I am in TOTAL agreement... WINTER will come, and some of the mess in the house will get cleaned up... save the areas of seeds drying, garden catalogs, and then flats of seeds in late winter, LOL. I used to think I should only have other gardener's as friends, because they would understand... but lately, I have been educating other friends that the inside mess is seasonal!

Like today with 100% rain, there is sometimes a bit of time to do inside chores... and here I am at DG!

My house a mess...... never!!!!!:) Its really bad when your son comes in from college looks around and wants to know what all the junk (seeds and stuff) is laying everywhere. Then the next words out of his month was when was the last time you cleaned? He really doesn't know how lucky he was that those weren't his last words...lol My house gets a quick run through on the weekends and I do mean quick heck who has time to mess with the house when the great outdoors is calling.And of course DH don't help matters any coming if from the farm and tracking stuff all the way through the house.Winter is coming yeah thats true and I can clean then but hey then it will be time to clean my seeds and pack them and trade well maybe I still won't get any cleaning done..... lol

I have yet to see a tombstone with the the phrase he/she kept a clean house. Or any books written about someone whose greatest achievement in life was a clean house. However I have seen a number about the various kinds of "plant people".
I like to think about the subject like this... My garden is just so beautiful that everything else just looks nasty. That's my story and I'm stick'n to it! :~) Anyone buy'n it???

Ima a disaster recovery specialist-cant start with my house. Like one of the previous posters I gathered everything I wanted for retirement-music-books etc and now Im on the road all the time and dont get to use them. Bust I am working at my gardening-still a long way to go. With Erin out there in the Atlantic it may have to wait till next year. I always joked with my kids-with ten of them and not ever being well to do I tell them the only fight they will have when I die is who is going to pay the junkman to take it all away.

I did clean my kitchen today!

I am making a little progress..But there is still a big gob of dried mud still under my table.

I might get to it tonight..Wish me luck!!

I hate to admit it, but I also have a horrible house inside. I cant seem to get to it all. I used to have an immaculate house. That is before computers, gardening, and kids. Now I have clutter piles threatening to take over my house. I have gardening books, seeds, catalogs too...just everywhere. I have vegtable garden, flower and herb gardens, and a small pond. I also have 5 dogs, 3 cats, and 6 birds, plus two kids to take care of. Time sure flies by nowadays.
Im glad Im not the only one with a bad house, and fairly nice garden....LOL. Now I feel at home here. The cat is outta the bag.

Oh my! I can totally relate. While i do not have a garden as of yet. I deal with houseplants. And that too can make a house look like hell in a handbasket!!!! I have pots everywhere, soil, sand, everything everywhere. My porch has soil on it, from the cat attacking one of my plants and knocking it over, it's been there for about a week now!! Plus with all the plants taking up space on my porch it looks totally messy. I have to set up something with lights so I can bring them all in. I now have to rearrange my house so that my plants can fit in it!
I do think kids are what makes a house messy...lol I have 3 of them all boys, and man they can trash a house in less than 5 secs. Though I have been trying to do a little here and a little there lately. Otherwise I fear my husband is going to walk out the door soon...lol
Holly

Tiredwabbit...tried to send you an email...wouldnt work for some reason...strange...I know how boys are....yes, my son thinks Im his maid or something...so do his sister though...Ive been divorced for years...looking for a gardener, carpenter kinda guy...that is Christian....still looking...lol...
I used to keep moving into bigger places....been in this house for 10 years. Cant move....so gonna have to somehow cull down....but, Im a pack rat....so that makes it difficult....Im a master gardener, native gardener, and ponder.....not to mention birder...I even bought a great bat house at Canton...for five bucks....what a deal that was...seriously...it was! The mosquitoes here are horrible...I dont like bats....but guess I dislike mosquitoes more....had purple martins...those stinking house sparrows fought them off...I bravely defended the "martins"...I shot with an air rifle at the sparrows...put numerous "air holes" in the houses they tried to locate in...finally I had to take the whole thing down...hope the bats do a better job!

Clean? Why? Wait until winter, throw out all the stuff that piled up, steam clean the carpets and re-paint! It is sort of like spring in the garden-it has looked like [deleted] for months on end, then you get to 'sow new seeds'! LOL Of course, I love to paint and hate to clean and I get to try a new color every year. LOL I do pity the next owners, that will have to sand through two inches of paint to get the previous room dimensions back though. LMBO
The sun is shining, so why am I still sitting here? :)

I too thought the kids made the house messy. But they all moved out years ago and now it is just DH and I....the house is still messy! I came to the conclusion that I am just a slob!

I'm just glad Dave's Garden didn't exist until after we had done the bulk of our remodeling. Now we're down to the piddly little jobs (read: MY jobs - filling nail holes, painting, staining trim, etc.) and I was doing great until I discovered DG last winter.

Between DAVE's garden and MY garden, my house is never going to be finished, LOL!

There is something that just isnt fun about getting your fingers all clean and wrinkly...dirt underneath the fingernails is so much more fun and mud between the toes!! I too will be repainting this fall. Got rid of the carpet last year in two of our main rooms where we live mainly...the hall way is next(one of our 'winter projects'). I hate carpet! Children, gardening and carpet just do not go well together. I love our Pergo, swqeep it and mop it and it is cleaner than it would have been if I had vaccumed it!! What I dont understand is if I clean it it is trashed within seconds...but if I dont...it really doesnt get any dirtier(clutter), the kids just move everything around.

Well, I just have to step in and say " Don't throw out those carpets"...if they are like mine full of dirt and seeds...why not lay them outside and water them and they will certainly grow flowers!

He-He!

It could be worse- you could, as I do, have an obsessive/compulsive neat freak for an ex sister-in-law who loves to give my home the white glove treatment! UGH!!

anybody really in need of help in setting up routines should give flylady a shot. She's tough, but her program works, clean house, and more time. www.flylady.net

's truth. Housework is for winter!
The cleanest part of my house is my indoor plants, and this time of year they're getting awfully dusty!
I'm reclusive, have few visitors, and live outside pretty much. (except here at the 'puter and work...)

I found another reason to clean my house:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010710/0035.html

Has anyone tried this, or is it just a big come-on?

These test kits are sold at Lowes, Home Depot and Ace hardware.

I finally quit beating myself up for not being "Mrs. Clean" like my Mom was. Her house was always neatnik ready and I don't truly know how she did it. She had a HUGE herb and everlastings garden and she helped tend 40 acres, of which my parents were caretakers, plus handing my sister and me.
She sewed, and decorated, did crafts, NEVER had a sink full of dirty dishes despite her lack of a dishwasher...

However, I can't keep house like she did and not sure if I want to spend every waking hour keeping up with it. I let down my hair and decided "who cares!" as long as hubby and I are OK.

One thing Mom did was "fall cleaning" instead of spring cleaning. She wanted to be in the garden in the spring. She would do her deep cleaning in the fall and it worked great! Then the house, once you shut it up for winter, is a clean house! Nice.

This was a great thread and I can totally relate.

Thanks!!

Mold spores are indeed deadly. A few years ago I was laid up for 3 months and nearly died when they could not find the cause of my respitory trouble. When it was finally diagnosed we moved and the problems subsided. I still have trouble occasionally but not as severe. I do believe that some areas are mor prone to this problem than others. And that sealed homes and offices are the worst offenders as air is recirculated and no fresh air comes in. Now we live in a drafty house that is difficult to heat but there is always fresh air to breath.

This type of mold is not a sign of poor housekeeping but can be inside the walls and airducts where it leeches into the air you breathe. Some of the best housekeepers in the world can have it! And some of the worlds worst can be without it!

Janiejoy, I totally agree with you.We lost our
mother at a very young age,cancer but what
I remember was she always had time for "fun"
with us,no matter what the house looked like'We
didn't have what the "Jones'" had but we
seldom got sick and didn't go without a
good meal,on clean dishes'She always said,"I
Love God and Life and don't ever want to be
remembered by anyone saying,"she swung a mean
dishcloth,Lol."If folks would just stop pol-
luting their homes with all these "sprays to
make it smell clean," we'd be a lot healthier'
I use vineagar,water,baking soda,ammonia,salt,
that's it'I won't be tied to housework either,
and have a neighbor that lives in"Tidyville" Her
family is totally miserable too,can't do any-
thing in their home,"Ya just makes Messes,for
me to clean,she always says." She definately
needs a 12 step something,lol'''

I have been doing my first mailing of plant trades...stressed... want to get it right! It didn't dawn on me it might be a good idea to pack and wrap outside...no I dug the seedlings carried them in the house...dropping dirt all the way to the kitchen where I sat them on the counter while I gathered supplies. Watered them then moved them again dripping mud across the kitchen....you get the picture...it was a real mess. I got everything to the post office and picked my granddaughter up for our weekly slumber party on the way home. When we got inside her eyes got real big and she said..."Oh No Grandma, don't tell me you're gonna start gardening inside too!" But she is a great cleaner (4yrs old...at that I don't need any help stage)and we had it tidied up in time to start dinner!