|
|
Post by Perfect Mess on Dec 6, 2008 22:27:15 GMT -5
First I want to tell everyone the thing that inspired me to finally roll up my sleeves and get down and dirty a couple hours every day after work to get the inside and outside of my house clean. Unfortunately, it started with a tragedy. My dog of nearly 10 years died early last month and tests revealed that it had to of been a poison. And most likely possibility the vet thinks is rat poison. Now we don't keep rat poison. We have never bought it and I know there isn't any in this house.
So worried that a neighbor might have done it scared the daylights out of me. She had gotten out and into a neighbors trash a few days before she died but I didn't know that's where she got it, so I had to proceed with caution and assume there was poison somewhere in the yard if in fact a neighbor had tossed something over the fence. She was an inside dog but was outside the day she started getting sick. I didn't want my kids out there either and I was worried for our other dog too so I already knew we had to clean up the outside.
Then a week after my dog's death I decided that I needed to get a new dog. So in the hope that I can get approved for adopting a dog from a rescue that specializes in a pure breed, I started cleaning. They do home visits.
I devised this cleaning method I call zones and layers. It works for me and the fun part of it for my kids is they can follow it with me. They helped out with the layers part and were excited about it. It was a nice way of getting help while also keeping them from being a distraction and getting in the way.
Hubby also got into it eventually. And that wasn't even planned on my part.
So the house isn't perfect (and of course I notice that everywhere I look) but maintenance is already needed. And man, is it boring. I got a kick out of seeing the progress, but keeping it this way can be mentally exhausting. And the problem is my desire to keep it "perfect". It's too draining trying to keep that level of cleanliness. So I have an idea to addon to my "zones and layers", but I'm curious if anyone here has had success (even for a short time) with a maintenance routine of any sort?
|
|
|
|
Post by sleepymom on Dec 7, 2008 0:22:58 GMT -5
I`m sorry about your dog, that is such a sad thing to have happen, and to worry someone might have done it on purpose. I hope it was just something in the trash.
On the other hand, I`m glad to see you here again, and glad that you`ve found a system that seems to be working. I`d love to hear more about it, if you have time to share. For me, maintanance still seems to mean getting stuck at the same level of a bit more messiness than I`d like, but hey, it rarely gets worse, so that`s something, I guess.
|
|
|
|
Post by Little_Ninja on Dec 7, 2008 6:58:13 GMT -5
|
|
Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
|
Post by Blackswan on Dec 7, 2008 12:33:05 GMT -5
So sorry to hear about your dog. It must be so hard to not know where she got the poison from. Very heartbreaking.
It is so good to hear that you got your house clean though. Tell us more about zones and layers, we are dying to find out.
As far as maintainence goes, my original system was to clean every room every night before bed. This took about five minutes. Now though, i just sort of clean up messes when I see them. It works pretty good, and when I want to have people over it rarely takes me more than half an hour to clean the whole house. Another very important thing I did was to get my son into cleaning mode too. He does all kinds of things to help out and I delegate a lot of jobs i don't like to him because he doesn't have dirt/bug anxiety like I do. So he takes out the trash, does the dishes, cleans the toilet (I don't mind that one, but he seems to love it for some reason).
|
|
|
|
Post by AnnieOkie on Dec 7, 2008 12:46:28 GMT -5
Perfectmess-So sorry about your poor dog. Congratulations on your clean home!! I have gotten a few areas in my home into shape and I worry about maintaining them, too. Just keeping the clutter from accumulating back right now is where I am. Then getting a routine for dusting, sweeping, etc. down is in order. I'm so glad you posted and let us know how things are going!  |
|
|
|
Post by notsomessyshell on Dec 7, 2008 19:14:59 GMT -5
I wish to add my condolences on the loss of your dog. I hope it was just a horrible accident and not done on purpose.  Way to go on the clean house! Glad you found a way to get it that way that works for you. I hope to make it to the boring part of this--maintenance.  |
|
outofchaos
New Member
Joined: December 2008
Posts: 65 
|
Post by outofchaos on Dec 8, 2008 12:14:12 GMT -5
First of all - can you explain your zones and levels system in more detail?
Secondly - I have slowly added a couple of routines that would be considered maintenance. I don't go to bed until the sink is empty (that came from my brief subscription to Flylady - I couldn't keep up with the e-mails). I make my bed every night before I get into it. And I put my dirty socks and underwear into a hamper right after I take them off.
|
|
|
|
Post by gottaproblem on Dec 8, 2008 14:35:14 GMT -5
I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your dear dog.  It sounds like you have accomplished alot! Congratulations on that!  |
|
