I know that I was feeling a little down about how to get our house clean the other day, I have located the source of the problem...
My Husband.
Truly he is an amazing husband and I am so lucky to have him.
He works 24 hour shifts at the firehouse and I seem to get bursts of cleaning energy on nights when he is working. He comes home in the morning when I am still in bed and by the time I roll out of bed the kitchen is full of dirty dishes again. I think part of the problem is that he is gone when I decide to clean for 8 hours straight. He comes home and sees the final product but really has no idea how much hard work goes into it.
Prime example Thursday I worked super hard and took our kitchen from this...
to this...
It may not look like I did a lot but here is the list of things I did.
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changed the decorations to spring and Easter
went through all of our food (fridge, freezer, pantry even baking supplies) and got rid of the expired food then organized it
cleaned every drawer and shelf
(how does a drawer where you only put clean stuff into get so dirty?)
found room (in our tiny kitchen) for almost every appliance and cookbook that was on the counter and top of the fridge
cleaned out the fridge and freezer including the top of it, they get so gross
*
I am pretty sure it may look like 30 minutes of work before you open the cupboard.
Our kitchen looks so much less cluttered but now I am unsure of how to get hubby to keep it that way. I just feel like I get three steps ahead then he comes home and I am 2 steps back. I have to undo what he has done before I move on to the things that really need to be cleaned.
Any suggestions?
10 comments:
We take turns cleaning our kitchen. Even though I stay home and don't work I got really frustrated being the one that cleaned all the time. Limey NEVER threw anything away. He'd take the wrapper off a piece of cheese and put it on the counter instead of the trash can right behind him. I would get so incredibly frustrated that finally we agreed that we'd take turns on the kitchen. Now he knows how frustrating it is for me and he actually does a better job than me now. He can get our counters 5x cleaner than I can.
If you figure this one out, will you please let me know!! I swear I spend 95% of my cleaning time picking up after the hubs. I really don't think he gets this...
I work part time, so majority of the time it is me who cleans the house. Honestly, having a clean house is daily work. I actually sat down and created a household binder (another blogger gave me the idea!)where I do checklists for my morning routine and household cleaning schedule. It's made a huge difference in both the cleanliness and organization of the entire house.
The sad news is, that no matter how much your husband cleans and picks up after himself, keeping a clean house takes constant work, it is never ending!
I love your kitchen!
such cute decorations! i need to be cleaning my kitchen right now!
I absolutely understand! Have you ever seen the character PigPen on Charlie Brown? He has a perpetual cloud of dust and dirt that floats off of him. I feel like that is my hubby sometimes. Messes just follow him wherever he goes. It is so incredibly draining to clean...and not just surface clean...but really doing the unseen things like throwing out expired food and organizing. And then to have someone come along and "trash" it, IRRITATING! My hubby works long long days as well...he just got off of working 30 days straight. Today we did some major cleaning to our home. It helps if the hubby is involved...but we are still working that out. :)
My husband of 36 years is like Pigpen, too. Of course, so is his Mother!! His favorite excuse for clutter is "I thought you were decorating the table with that stuff." You might as well save yourself a lot of arguing and hurt feelings and pick a battle you can win....
This has been the hardest part of married life for me! Cleaning up after a man is NOT fun! If you find out any secrets let me know!!!!
Have you told him? Once I directly told my husband that he needs to just rinse the dishes, place them in the sink and throw away what ever box/wrapper he has finished with it made a difference. He still doesn't like doing dishes but we agreed that I'll do them and he'll empty the drying rack (we don't have a dishwasher).
The dishes don't bother me as much now because I know I don't have to empty the drying rack!
Picking up after Husband doesn't bother me too much. It is frustrating when he can't do a simple task like rinsing the sink after he dumps out a mostly empty bowl of salsa... What drives me crazy is when we come home and says 'man we really need to get this house clean' and sits on the couch waiting for it to happen! He's getting better about it, but its still maddening!
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