Welcome Home

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 I'm joining Rosie at Like Mothers Like Daughters to talk about how our home looks to other people.

Like most folks, I want to have a nice home to present to friends and family, and the occasional stranger who stops by to sell something (actually I really don't care what he thinks), but with three children still at home, and all with different interests and schedules, it doesn't always happen. Shoes are often left on the porch or by the door and baskets of clean and folded laundry are often parked on the front hall bench awaiting a pair of strong arms to carry up the stairs. Dollies and scooters are often left on the porch and the front hall floor is frequently covered in a thin layer of dog hair (even though I sweep at least once a day). Though I may want for my house to be perfect, it almost never is. I can only do my best and hope no one who visits wears white gloves.

 The front walk and the front porch.

 We really use our front porch -- at least when it's not 90 degrees out -- and that makes it a little harder to keep tidy. Doug might leave his newspaper there and Faith might leave her dollies there, so it's just another room to tidy up. Fortunately we can hose it off after Faith chalks on it, and squirt the spider webs from the corners. This year we have some aggressive Virgina Creeper that needs to be tugged down from the brick. I'm thinking about painting that brick, by the way, and wonder what your thoughts are on painted brick.

 Our home is an almost-30 year old central hall tudor style house. Through the front door you can see straight down the front hall and into the kitchen eating area. I always hated that you can see the table from the door, but it is incentive to keep the table cleared off as much as possible. The bench in the hall (the one that occasionally catches laundry baskets) often has a stack of books on it, but that's the only thing that permanently resides there. When we have a crowd for dinner we use the bench at the kitchen table instead of two chairs on the side.

I find the best way to keep the house as tidy as possible is to have and obey the rule "a place for everything and everything in its place." I might set a basket of laundry down for an hour, but by the end of the day it will go upstairs and be put away. And Faith might leave her shoes laying next to the door, but they will get put away before bed. The only way to keep "stuff" from building up is to constantly stay on top of it. Make certain everything has a place and constantly remind people to put their stuff there. It doesn't come naturally, does it? But if we let stuff sit, it never seems to find its way home.

Stepping into the front foyer you can see the living room to the right. It mostly stays clean because the children don't use it for the most part. Doug tells me once in a while that he would like to have a television in there, but then I remind him that a television would make the room inviting to the children and that ends that discussion.

I find that the two groups most responsible for clutter in our home are: our children, who want to acquire more stuff, because stuff is what "it's" all about, and our parents, who are trying to get rid of the stuff that they have acquired, because apparently stuff is really not what "it's" all about.

Doug and I do not, for the most part, acquire anything. We throw things away -- when the kids aren't looking, I throw away cheap plastic crap, toys and games with parts missing, and other stuff that has no use (in my humble opinion). When our parents give us things, we go through them and keep things with meaning and give the rest to charity. I used to have a real problem with stuff my mom and Doug's parents gave us. I felt obliged to keep everything. It was a real revelation when I gave myself permission to keep passing things on. I know that most of the time they just want to get rid of things, so I only keep that which we truly can use or has sentimental value.

I do think that a tidy house is inviting to others. Not only are we sometimes embarrassed by other people's messes (do we really want to see their dirty clothes and messy dishes?) when we go to their house (and our own when they come to ours), but who wants to sit down and visit when you feel like you should pitch in and clean.

I find the one tool that is most helpful to keeping a house tidy is baskets. Remember the rule I mentioned above -- a place for everything? If you keep a reasonable number of baskets and assign very specific things to those baskets (and they are not overflowing with random junk that really belongs elsewhere) you can keep a fairly tidy home without knocking yourself out every day. 

 I also once heard a motivational speaker say "handle each piece of paper once" and that has become very helpful when dealing with stuff in the house. When the mail comes, I take it right to the counter next to the trash can. What is trash goes straight in, and what is a bill goes right in the bill folder on the counter next to the trash can. I have one heavy duty magnetic clip that keeps things that need immediate attention, but everything else gets dealt with promptly. 

The most helpful tip, however, for keeping a tidy home is just not acquiring stuff. For every thing you acquire, get rid of another. Recycle or donate and keep it moving.

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