Housekeeping Standards

My husband said he liked his shirts and pants washed by hand and ironed. I tossed them all in the washing machine and dryer and bought him an ironing board and iron and said have at it.

I have never been a slave to the iron. I remember my Gram slaving over large baskets of laundry, using her bottle sprinkler to dampen the dry clothes. I am glad to have a dryer to "fluff" the load.

Linda--I can't believe you changed the sheets every day and ironed underwear!! Glad you eventually realized that was a bit unnecessary.

Did you make noodles from scratch??

I'm glad you don't feel the need to go back to your own standards--you seem like Martha Stewart as it is with your cooking, etc. You have a very lucky husband!

I'm not a slave to the iron either--anything that's a bit wrinkled I just hang up and spritz with a water bottle. That usually causes the wrinkles to fall out.

ha ha
I don't even own an iron any more. But yes I did make noodles from scratch. I haven't done that in years.

I'm definitely not Martha Stewart. I couldn't decorate if my life depended on it.

Years ago I tried to keep my house spotless and I remember ironing the kids clothes for hours at a time. Well, after 6 kids, 8 grandkids, 2 dogs, 10 cats, 8 rats, 2 gerbils, and 2 tanks of fish.... Well, I have given up on the house and the only things I iron are a few of my blouses. Sometimes I hire help with the cleaning and yard work. I'm not physically able to do the work all myself anymore nor do I want to.

I find housecleaning much easier now that I'm in my 50s. Theory being, if I can't see it, it's not there! My mother was big on ironing, but my mantra has always been 'wash and wear'!!

My mother is a "neat freak" and I decided years ago that I wasn't going to be like her. I took up the bad side of the Virgo in me and became a slob. I've gotten better over the past few years, but I am still a "piler", piles of stuff here, piles of stuff there. At least I keep the dishes, clothes, sheets, towels, etc. clean. HA HA

Sometimes I have to force myself to relax and enjoy my family instead of being so uptight about the cleanliness of my home.

I did all that when I was first married, too. I baked bread every day, made noodles from scratch, the whole earth mother thing. We put on so much weight from all that baking I did that I had to stop. I never did iron sheets, tho, or underwear.

Well, I gave it a try, too, a few times. I've failed miserably. Now when I can't stand it anymore, or my husband looks around at bit dazed, I give everything a quick clean. I'm not proud of it, but I've just go so many other irons in the fire. And they aren't the kind to press clothing.

At least I'm not the only one who was a compulsive clean freak. But life is so much simpler now without all those self imposed standards. Relax and enjoy.

Our self image used to be tied up in how good we were at being housewives. I still bake my own bread, but it is because I truly enjoy it. The memory of my husbands dumbfounded reaction when I refused to darn his socks is priceless.

I don't worry about house cleaning either, Linda. That's why I got married. (joke)

I tried to follow the "Slob Sisters" routine. The one where you write all the jobs that need done on index cards and work your way through them ans Voila your house is clean and all your chores are done. After about a month, I was a raving cleaning machine with a nervous twitch and a broom. I had to relax. No home with three small kids is going to be spotless.
A hundred years from now, nobody will care if your house was spotless!

I am a firm believer that dust is a protective coating....

Watch out William. One of these days I'm going to get your wife's email address.

I think DQ has the right idea. Maybe we can bottle some of that protective dust and sell it.

I've never been like that ever. Until about 13 or 14 years ago I didn't even cook very much. I knew how to make spaghetti, chili and I could fry and grill things. My stove actually had dust on it quite often.

I'd say I'm going in reverse a bit but then I don't keep house either. It costs us $20 a week to have someone come in and vacuum, sweep, mop, clean the kitchen, bathroom and dust. We have a much smaller place now and that helps. I never make the bed because I figure it's only going to get messed up again when we go to bed at night. LOL

But I have learned to cook rather well. My mother-in-law, the epitome of good cooks in the family, loved my cooking once I learned to do so. LOL

I think I'm a mixture of both. Being disabled, both myself and my husband, everything takes longer than it used to and we're not old enough for this! But, I still cook from scratch (no homemade noodles though), we don't own a microwave, I cook on the stove and in the oven, my husband is kept "away" from the stove and the oven as I'd like not to burn down this place. We've downsized out of necessity as we're living in a seniors/disabled housing apartment and there's just not room.
I've done other things though, had a successful website for a few years till it got to be too much for me, packing and shipping orders daily and getting no sleep. Now, I am still making our shampoos, creams, lotions, lip balms, perfumes/after shaves, massage oils, pain blend, potpourris and such, including soap and enjoying all of it, but I'm no longer selling it. Somehow that' so much more enjoyable, and if we can't afford the supplys, they don't get bought till we can.
I really love being on gather and all the great people here and also Moderating on another forum with more great people, and have made many online friends. Sooo, all in all, I keep really busy and I also read (in my spare time), and we enjoy our son, who's grown, kind of, he's almost 29 and I'm hoping for a grandchild sometime in the next 30 years or so!
But, since living in an apartment, the upkeep is done, that's a huge load off of us, though we miss the gardens we had so much fun planting and harvesting, we know that we're no longer able to do these things, and just have to accept it and go on and do whatever we can do. And make it ok, which we do.
We live in a small town, people-wise and it's always been when you went grocery shopping, you saw about half the town! And we do as much volunteer work as we can, on each Thursday, morning is in our Food Pantry, which, with all the lay-offs lately, and rising prices has had many more people than ever before and it's good to meet and talk to others and just get out for awhile, and at night, we volunteer at our Human Services where the town has a free clothing room, which is also a huge help to many familys. It's a good life, but we DO get sore! We're not seniors by any means, but the disabilitys hurt, not enough to stop us from being with our son and doing other things, but enough to say OUCH a lot!

that is wonderful, I wish I would stay away from the prepared foods, oh I do cook too but use both.

If I ever iron a sheet, I think Iwill have lost my mind! LOL. I don't think even my mother did that, but I am not sure. She was a good house wife too - with candle lit dinners and homemade items - then they got divorced and it was convenience from then on. I was about 4 and a half, so I did not get a lot of those memories, but my sisters did - they are 6 and 9 1/2 years older. Now, I would love to have someone clean for me - I hate it. I liketo cook and do other "wifely" things, but cleaning is not on that list. It shows, unfortunately! LOL

Where did you find household help for $20/week Marsha? Now that's a bargain!

Thanks for sharing your story Marilyn. You've created a fulfilling life despite your challenges.

Cleaning hasn't been high on my list for quite some time Monica, but it's moved down a notch further since I discovered gather.

We have a cleaning lady that comes to the apartment once a week. She charges $75 to clean the large 3 bedroom apartment and do laundry. I obviously keep it up during the week but she does all the heavy cleaning i.e. vacuuming, laundry, mopping, cleaning the bathrooms.

I confess, I am a clean freak. I never iron sheets, but I would never leave a bed unmade. I can't stand clutter and disorganization. It bothers me if things are not in order. My mom is just the opposite. If I have spare time, I clean her house too. Maybe I need a 12 step program. :)

Not at all Stephanie you just need to travel.......say to Arkansas LOL I will let you clean my house anytime you run out of things to clean LOL. With Chris gone to Iraq, I find that there is much less cleaning to do. The kids clean their room, I do the laundry but they must put their own away. Right now my mother in law is here with me and she does her own laundry. All three kids left yesterday and they will be gone a little over a week. They are going to Colorado with my mom and my sister. Thank goodness for private schools they aren't being counted absent as long as they their work. So there won't be any cooking around here LOL I have never been much on keeping house I surface clean. if you can't see it then it's not dirty LOL and I definitely don't iron sheets. My mom did though. Chris was home for 3 weeks in August and I thought I would die from all the housework and laundry. He likes big meals with several side dishes, which I will admit he does some of the cooking but he makes a tremendous mess when he cooks. So that doubles the work lol

Chris might have made a mess Julie, but I'm sure you were glad to have him home.

My mother ironed everything including sheets and underwear. She also scrubbed the kitchen floor on hands and knees every week. Every other week she removed everything from the floors of the closets to clean.

I did not inherit her love of cleaning. I would much rather cook. I do make pasta from scratch because I enjoy doing it. I only clean when absolutely necessary. The only daily job I never forget is litter box cleaning. Cats tend to let you know when their box is not clean enough.

Your mom was a real fastidious housekeeper, Marian. I never went quite that far. And I never really liked the cleaning part. I just thought it was what I was supposed to do.

I still cook and shop. But I don't do anywhere as much housework. I keep the kitchen and bath clean and take care of the kitty litter. Beds don't have to be changed every day if you bathe every day.

Linda-you brought back the memory of my mother standing in the utility room ironing her bras! My mother, too ironed everything, including the sheets.

Now, at 81, she's not ironing her sheets or her bras but her house is spotless and so is her yard. I never reached her housekeeping standards but she understands why.

I even ironed socks, Barb. But I sure don't do that any more.

Well I do stress about the house when I know someone is coming by, no matter how many times they say oh we are here to see you not your house.(yeah right lol)
My Aunt says that when her children were younger that she decided that your house is here to serve you. Not for you to serve your house.

I know what you mean about company Melissa, but I've learned not to let it bother me.

When we first moved to Florida, we had neighbors who would purposely visit in the morning. I think they liked to catch people with the beds unmade, towels on the bathroom floor and the breakfast dishes in the sink. I used to worry about stuff like that.

I tell everyone that 5 kids (i only have 4, but count the DH for this one! LOL) and 2 dogs live here, and I am the only one to clean up after them! My door is always open and the coffee's always on, but I make no gurantees on any other conditions they may find!! You know, I have never had a friend leave because they were offended!
( Or an inlaw unfortunately!)

I know what you mean about husbands Cindi. Sometimes they can make more mess than kids and you can't put them in time out for not cleaning up :}

No one has ever left my house because it was a little messy. My mother in law was the only one who ever complained and she did that back when I did keep an almost perfect house. Fortunately she lived in NY and didn't visit often.

If you'd like to see some excuses for not doing housework, I can point you to my article here -

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976791903

Thanks for the link, Jiya. Those are some good excuses if I ever need one.