Wednesday, May 12, 2010

FAQs

Q:  "Janine, how do you keep your house so clean, especially now with two little ones."

A:  "Ummm, I don't ???"

I get asked this question quite often, surprisingly, because I feel like my house is usually a mess.  Except on Saturdays when Jon's in his deep cleaning mode.  So I guess the real answer is, I tend not to post messy house pictures on my blog.  That, and most of my pictures are focused on my kids, not my living space.  But, lately I've been inspired by another blog by a photographer who takes the most poignant pictures of her girls and home, which happens to be beautiful, colorful and generally very messy.  I swear I saw mold around her bathtub in one shot.  So, in the spirit of "being real" here is a picture of what my living room looks like EVERY DAY.  By 10am.  Courtesy of Tank.   Well, except for the occasional baby item.  Oh, and those playing cards have since been relocated.

But if you're one of those personages that happens to randomly stop by and claim my house is "clean", well, then I may have an answer:
  • We're one of those "everything has a place and everything in it's place" kind of families (mostly due to my husband).  So it's very easy to pick up and put away in just a few minutes.
  • I try to clean everything up during nap times so it doesn't catch up with me at the end of the day.  We always clean up the living room at before bed.  And usually, if I'm having a good day, we try to have things picked up before Daddy walks in the door.  Sometimes I let things messy just to make sure he understands what we go through here during the day.  :)
  • I'm married to a very neat and clean product of a military academy.  Jon vacuums every Saturday morning just because he enjoys it.  And when I let the dishes pile up in the sink 'cuz I just don't have the energy to tackle them (like last night for instance), he usually has them all washed by the time I come downstairs in the morning.  Whataman!!
Even so, there are some days when the mess is just plain overwhelming.  I can't tell you how many times one of us has nearly killed ourselves, or the small child we're carrying, while tripping over a toy.  Then there are the times when Jon and I are having a relaxing evening watching a movie when a random cow puzzle piece starts "mooing."  Which is why I'm so looking forward to THIS:

a current formal dining room, in our new house that, since we have neither a dining table nor formal dishes, we'll be changing into a playroom.  I can't wait to keep all that mess in one room!

Until then, please comfort yourself with the fact that we can be a very messy family and that, although in the past I have avoided posting pictures and videos because they showed the dust on the bookshelf or crumbs on the floor, I'll try not to avoid said behavior anymore!

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