confessions of a lazy housekeeper

Just for Catherine, who asked if anyone else would admit to their laziness regarding housekeeping, or who was losing the battle of the mess and ready to surrender...

I don't know if I'm quite ready to wave a white flag, but I do realize that there's a time for everything and that having young kids is not the time for an always (or even often) tidy house.

(There's also a time for showering each day and changing out of your pjs on a daily basis, again, not always possible with kids.)

What I've found works for me is to either have a playdate each week or to invite another family over for supper. This forces gives me the motivation I need to tidy up.

Now for the photographic evidence...

(Truthfully, this is my house ON A GOOD DAY. A day when TWO families are expected for dinner.)

The kitchen counter

Besides being ridiculously small, it's also currently covered in last week nights dishes, a bowl full of carrot peels and celery tops, three leftover containers of icing (that I sent to school with Liam, along with a container of cookies to decorate for St Patrick's Day), a big bag of almonds, and -oh lookie here!- not only are there a pair of scissors right near the edge but also a ceramic knife that is so sharp that I still have all my ten finger but for the grace of God!

(I cropped out the chair that Simon had pushed up to the counter to look for anything that might be fun/breakable/dangerous like scissors, knives or butter.)

The bedroom

(sigh) Always the last room to be cleaned. Why is that?

The laundry hamper in the background is actually full of clean clothes (til Simon throws them all over the room and mixes them up with the dirty, thus forcing me to rewash everything). The one in the foreground is dirty. Oh, and there's a baby somewhere in that bed...


And finally, the playroom.

For those not familiar with the layout of our house, it used to be divided into up and down suites, so there's a full kitchen -minus appliances- in the basement. The extra sink and all the cupboards are really handy. I'm actually okay with this. More than okay. THIS is doable. It is a playroom after all, and I'm thankful to have a place where I don't have to worry about the mess.

However, this is how I like it.

But it rarely, if ever, looks like that.


I do feel slightly better after this little confession. That being said, we'll be having guests tonight, so I will be frantically cleaning everything this afternoon. I've already vacuumed the upper level, have ribs slow-cooking in the oven, fresh bread dough rising and a load of laundry in the wash.

And I'm wishing I could have a nap.

In all honesty, doing these big cleans makes me feel justified in letting things go (ie. totally slacking) during the rest of the week.

We used to try to do a big cleaning day on Saturdays, but I don't like to spend one of Peter's only days off bent over the edge of the tub or doing 10ish loads of laundry. Better to do it when I'm home with the two little boys sleeping so I can do it my way the right way myself.

Thanks, Catherine, for the confessional.

(Catherine is a super talented, honest and often hysterical blogger. AND SHE'S ALSO CANADIAN. Check out her post, Her Bad Mother: Good Housekeeping: Totally Slobtastic Slackermom Edition)