housekeeping

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Well, things are the wrong way round in my life. I'm certainly not a neatness freak but I like things reasonably neat and tidy and the apartment gets cleaned two or three times a week (we have cats). The lady I'm living with is however a bit of a slob so that means that there are piles of clothes, piles of papers, and she has a nasty habit of dumping food trash in the sink.

I love her. This means that I just accept it then deal with it. Just let me know a few hours before you come to visit so I can hide all the piles of stuff in cupboards.

Ed Almos

Housekeeping? What's dat?
My shower curtain has a life of its own.

Housekeeping? Once I pick up everything off the floor, I'm too tired to sweep and as for mopping, forget it!

No problems here.

I don't actually enjoy housekeeping but I like a cluttered/messy environment even less, so I do it. A little grudgingly maybe, as I can always think of about a thousand other things I'd rather be doing.

schedule it two or three times a week and do it, between cleaning times don't worry about it

you are obviously not somebody who is every going to maintain a squeeky clean enviroment like some people do, so accept it and push yourself to do it a few preset times a week

I am absolutely hopeless. As a child, my mother did all the cleaning and wouldn't let me "help" as she preferred doing it herself. Which meant that I never learned how to do it.

Because I am so useless at practical things, I have to be shown how to do something before I can do it (or have idiot-proof step-by-step instructions written down, preferably with pictures.) If I do not, I get anxious that I may not do it "properly" and so I tend to not do it at all.

My house is a complete tip - newspapers, magazines, books, clothes, carrier bags, videos and dust everywhere. My idea of tidying is shoving it all into binliners and throwing them into the spare room (or taking them to my unit in the safestore). This of course means that when I need something, I can't find it, and everything all gets thrown around the place again while I look for it.

Every weekend I say I am going to sort my house out, and usually I do start, but invariably I get interrupted and it gets left part-done, which is even worse.

But I am obsessive about hygiene things like not using the same cloth for washing up as I do for wiping the worktops, and I can't stand going to my friends's flat because he never ever cleans his kitchen or bathroom and the stench is really gross.

My parents visit me every 2 or 3 months and do a lot of my cleaning, but they are getting old now and won't be able to do it much longer, so this is pretty worrying for me.

I am so organized, it's pathetic. If I'm exposed to too much stimuli or am experiencing extreme stress, it's even worse.

Small story to illustrate:

This past weekend, I had my neighbor over for her birthday (she and her husband are the only neighbors I associate with), and cooked a nice meal, bought a cake, beer, etc. Well, unbeknown to me, my neighbor invited her sister and husband, along with their kids. I was a bit irritated, and although I don't know her sister and husband all that well, decided to just go with the flow.

As the night progressed, I became more agitated, especially because my neighbor's sister's kids were getting on my last nerve with their whining. So I began cleaning the backyard, picking up garbage, washing the patio table, taking plates away (while people were still using them ), and then came the piece de resistance -- I reprimanded the husband for not putting away his empty beer cans correctly, e.g., stacking them in the box three by three as opposed to just throwing them in there haphazardly.

The look on his face was priceless. But he obliged!

I'm not sure the neighbours should have invited their rellies just like that. Most people would have considered it a bit of an imposition and what if you'd only cooked for two extra people instead of 5 or 6? When I was married, I found it a big trial when his rellies came over because they thought my house was a sty and I'm not confident cooking for more than a couple of extra people.

I am frequently making food for an indeterminate number of people because I run a venue, and that means I am feeding multiple bands. I always make vegetarian chili for frito pie (i guess it is kind of a Texas/southern US thing)...but everyone loves it for the most part...everyone can eat it...vegetarians and meat eaters alike (it is very hearty)..nobody muisses the meat at all.
It is a neat meal for when you don't know how many people you are going to serve...You just set out the crock pot and people help themselves...the recipe is available with a PM..

but the reason i was actually responding was to say

I feel lucky that my mom gave me chores to do and asked for help doing things around the house. I don't think I would understand any house work at all if she didn't. Mind you I didn't like learning it at the time because it meant I wasn't reading or playing on my computer instead. She was never a real neat freak so our house is perpetually in a varied state of messiness, but I know how to clean, just still not real clear on the timing of when to do it.

I also have trouble cleaning up around the house because most of the mess is other people's things. I can't stand it when people "clean" up my stuff as I can never find things so I have a hard time cleaning up other people's things. I never know what to do with it. I usually end up making piles of stuff for each person to go through and deal with their own things.

Well...alot of the stuff pertains to our obsessions.....we end up with several of the same thing...like my collection of 50+ Raggedy Annes....(i have gotten rid of and rebuilt my collection at least twice.....Flakey's 9 gravitation games....etc....so i guess that would make it sentimentality...perhaps compulsion....

I cannot see a raggedy anne or andy(esp. a homemade one) at a thrift store and not buy it.

(the thing that I like about them I guess is the way that each can be so similar and yet so different at the same time)

I have a passion for homemade toys in general and they are all over the house and fall into categories....sock clowns...raggedies....plastic faced dolls.....crocheted animals.....vintage sock monkeys....european made teddy bears....(I usually try to keep most of my collections together)
(I like homemade toys, partially because of the uniqueness of them and the fact that some anonymous person took the time to make them..to me, each one is a work of art)

There are several things that fall into the category of things Flakey cannot pass up.
He can find a thing that interests him...and immediately it becomes an obsession so that he has to get as many of that thing as he possibly can....wooden games....(his newest is called "close the box") toy musical instruments...He has about 20 xylophones...noisemakers....books, esp. children's books...."mountain" shirts etc...etc....etc.....

When he met, he became obsessed with sock creatures, and that's how we ended up together.

When I buy socks, I am thinking about what kind of creature I plan on turning them into...unfortunately I buy them too fast to get around to sewing them and have thusly ended up with hundreds of pairs of socks.

I have heard of aspies going either way. I posted a thread about hoarding a very long time ago, and the people who responded to the thread seemed to lean towards either extreme.

I have a great uncle who was rather on the autistic side and he was an immense hoarder. I come from a family of hoarders...I am not as bad as some though

I can't cope with too messy an enviroment, it makes me feel depressed, but it's taken me a long time to acquire cleaning skills. I used to be a big slob. You just have to force yourself....besides, it's something to do. I feel mentally a lot calmer and clearer in a tidy environment.

I hate stacks of dirty plates in the kitchen. If you get rid of any dishracks, wash up, dry and put away as soon as you've used a plate it helps - you need lots of tea towels for this. I also use disposable/reusable plastic plates sometimes, you can just chuck em out.

I no longer work and it's amazing how much more mess there is when you're at home during the day. I fondly remember working life for the lack of mess at home. Maybe I should get out more! I would if I could stand people much.

If I'm dating someone, I keep my place nice and clean, and I always think I should always keep it like that because it actually helps me feel better and think more clearly. I recently had a cleaning episode, my place now looks great, I'm not embarrassed if a neighbor rings the doorbell... Makes me feel productive, efficient and ready for action!

Well, last weekend I decided I was going to make a start on getting sorted out, so I spent most of it in the Safestore going through bags and bags of junk.

I achieved quite a lot & felt pretty good about it - but in order to do that I didn't see either of the two friends I normally see over the weekend, and I think that they may be upset about this.

One in particular rang up & said "So if you've tidied up I can come round tomorrow then" - but I haven't started on the house yet, that's for this weekend, so I said no & he acted all hurt.

Why, oh why, can I only do stuff if I shut everything & everyone else out? I suppose it must be the AS that makes me that way - that I only want to see my friends when it suits me, & if I am busy then I forget they even exist?