You are not alone! I had two teenagers call yesterday morning needing access to my daughter's room to decorate for 'asking her to Prom.' It's a huge THING out here. The kids go to such elaborate trouble with decorations, balloons, posters, roses- it's just as amazing as the prom itself.
I was horrified to even let kids into our dirt laden, chaotic house as my attention has been (and usually is) focused outdoors if it's not raining. I have three pathetic pairs of footwear in the entry: garden clogs, garden tennies, 'new garden tennies' that could still present in public without too much ridicule LOL. There is a dirt trail through the kitchen everyday.
What must change in the next 30 days is that we have graduation parties HERE in mid June, so that being the case, I'm praying for rain in the next couple weeks so I can clean, attempt to organize stacked up stuff and hope no one opens closet doors!

HA! I Just ran off for a weekend to a family party and left my "home from college" daughter to clean house at $15/ hr. I haven't done housework in MONTHS. I figure it is well worth the money, and I can certainly use that time and energy better outside. THe great part is I can also hire her to weed. She has a class she wants to take this summer and needs money for it. I would rather pay her for work then give her money that is so hard to come by. THis way we are both happy....and no, she doesn't have time to work for any of you, LOL...We have work lined up for her until they day she goes back!

I Actually walked into a house with clean counters and floors tonight...how lovely!

Can we get a group rate?

Oh thank God -- some one else is talking my language! I try really hard to keep things neat -- if not clean! My kitchen floor is a disaster and 3 house cats don't help the situation!!

Put me in the group rate!!!

Cathy

About 3 months ago I finally forked over hard earned money to a couple who cleans houses together.

AH-MAZE-ENG!

Clean Living Areas, Floors, and Counters!

Since they only come 2 hours at a time, (for a while it was every week, now it's every 2 weeks), we haven't yet tackled the laundry room, which is piled higher than me! It's become the extra closet for 3 of us, most is clean, but will the clothes ever be folded, ironed or put away? NOT likely! LOL!

Don't you just get furious at those women who say, "Oh, my house is such a mess!" and there's ONE magazine or newspaper out, and that's it?!!!!

Liza, I'll have to see if I can convince MY about to go to college daughter to do some actual "work" around here. Think I'll pay her via tuition money! She's a true princess, tho, (a very nice and sweet one), but thinks housecleaning is MY job! As if! If I can't get her to do some work as soon as she graduates, I may have to apply for the group rate, too!

My cats are outdoors, but I do have a Great Dane and a Daschund inside and out, and lots of doggie hairs everywhere! And mud, and flower petals, and seed trays and buckets!

Susi.

I don't know, Susi. THis is the only one of my kids who actually LIKES doing housework. She likes organization and arranging things. One more year and she will have a degree in Interior Design. I adopted this one so it is no reflection to on me to brag of her skills, LOL. MY biological daughter was totally ADD And made more of a mes then I did...now long gone to her own home (which is relatively tidy!)

Maybe we cn help Krissie understand how to design interiors for gardeners? Shower over the back door with dirt vacum for shoes? Something that catches all dust and pollen before entry into the house? A telephone with rocking chair just outside the back door for answering the housephone when working? A refrigerator with sparkling water and sandwiches,operable from outside the house? Oh yes, And a bathroom that opens to the outdoors and has a cement hoseable down floor? (Doubles as dog bath?)

Once past the "Martha Stewart" design for garden houses and rooms we could get real practical...Greenhouse-potting shed- bathroom and shower-stocked refrigerator--rocking chair and telephone, all dirt proof or to be handled with garden gloves still on!

I'm so glad to see these messages -- I'm going to print them out and post them on the front door, with a sign above that says "BEWARE OF ENTERING -- SERIOUS FLOWER GROWER LIVES HERE".

"----- Greenhouse-potting shed- bathroom and shower-stocked refrigerator--rocking chair and telephone, all dirt proof or to be handled with garden gloves still on!-------"

Absolutely, absolutely right on. Oh yes, maybe a nice radio or CD player to assist whistling while working. At a previous dwelling, one had to trek the whole house to get to the facilities. Sometimes one did not make it in time! Note: red faced but being glad no one was around.

Please pass along to your designer daughter that all houses should have at least one bathroom within a step of the outside, especially with any yard or kids or older folk around.

My mom's house has a small bathroom, just sink and toilet, which the last owner, a devoted gardener, built into one corner of the garage, right next to the door to the back yard. I've always thought that man must have been a genius.

I don't even want to mention the state of my house. I'm trying to pretend it doesn't exist.

Jeanne

The person I live with wanted to remodel the kitchen, two bathrooms and hallways to and from. New fake wood floors were put in and because the kitchen counter had some support issues the whole thing had to be rebuilt and so we sprung for a big stone countertop (marble or granite? I forget). All this sounds expensive and it was, but the real pay off is in the cleaning. All surfaces can be cleaned with simple warm water and a sponge. Not that it happens THAT often! This fact was really put to the test when I had the house to myself for two whole weekends. It was raining and storming outside so I actually wheeled a wheelbarrow full of growmix/compost blend up the front steps and through the front door, down the hallway all the way to the new and improved kitchen. That nice "L" shaped countertop made the perfect workspace and the wand attachment on the new sink made it so easy to remove all traces of my dirty deeds.

Friends would call and ask what I was doing. I would state that I was potting up transplants. They would then ask if we had put a phone line out to the potting/tool shed? I said "not exactly" and left it at that. You don't know who you can trust with this sort of knowledge.

LOLOL! Well that is one very functional kitchen! Planned for the gardener in mind.
Somewhere else I posted that we had Pergo installed that was riddled with dark speckles on a fake stone background. The installer said "geez, this looks like it has dirt on it already." I replied that was exactly why I chose this pattern. I only worry a bit when the 'dirt' starts to crawl or walk around.

My Dear Wife cracks the whip if any of my stuff gets farther than the front hallway. My garage, quonset barn and vehicle are absolute disaster areas though. I have my own lundry basket for my muddy stuff, which I wash myself and my boots have to stay out in the garage. I think I mentioned once before that we rehab injured birds of prey for the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, so there are always critters in the house messing it up enough without my adding to it with my farming junk.

It is nice to know that others are just as messy as me.

Take care,

Steve

This thread is GREAT. I've learned to except the fact that I'm just NOT a house keeper. I'm very lucky though. I made a deal with ALL my teenagers (now young adults that live here) "I will do the outside chores and YOU will do the indoor chores" It works for us. Unfortunately I continuously get scolded by my kids for turning the house into a mud hole. What will I do when they all move out on their own???????????? HEIDI

This is a great thread....made me laugh! I have a sink and dishwasher (from a thrift store) in my barn, so I can at least wash my hands and vases down there. We just moved a portapotty in for the part time worker I hope to hire soon! People always ask me "how do you do it" and I always state that I have a not so clean house during flower growing season! We also have a spot for muddy boots/shoes, etc. right by the basement door, so it helps prevent most of the dirt/mud/leaves from going into the rest of the house.

Okay, who peeked in my house?

Years ago I had a thriving business, a new baby, a tiny little mail order business and I was writing for some magazines. Oh yeah, I was training German Shepherds and doing a lot with my horse. A friend from church asked me how I had time for all that stuff. I looked her straight in the eye and said, 'I don't clean house.' The look on HER face was choice. LOL!

I'd rather mow and weed than wash and vacuum any day. Being in the sun and fresh air...much better than chasing cobwebs in corners. My house reflects this philosophy, unfortunately.

A couple of times a year we do a serious shoveling out and quickly do lots of inviting and having folks over. Then we get back to normal.

Glad to know I'm in good company here. Y'all can come by my house anytime!

Happy

And you can come to mine too...but I assume we will be in the garden?

Yes, IF I had a little screened summer house I would sleep in the garden, eat in the garden and never go inside. I would love a shower in my garden too! HOuses are for winter and catalog reading by the fireplace!

Yes!! Kindred spirits! What EVERYONE has said--that's me! I do like neatness and tidy-ness but I like to be outside more so neat and tidy happens on rare occasions, like at Thanksgiving when everyone is coming over.
LizaLily, I love your descriptions of garden living and what a house is really for. I have tried in the last few years to at least have the livingroom the least dirty room of the house and hope like crazy no one goes to the kitchen for anything or has to use the bathroom.
Right now, we can't eat in the dining room as the table is full of seedlings and plants and planting stuff and there are buckets of seed starting soil and containers and trays on the floor...and dogs....and my family still loves me.
Pam