Be Honest from Jane

Spring has obviously sprung. At least in blogworld. All around us are stories of cleaning, or the lack thereof. Some people hate it, some perople are resigned to it, me I just do it, occasionally. At What about Mom? she's put up a post about home and hearth. And, asking you all to be honest in your answers. I decided to copy it. Sortof like a meme (plagiarism at its finest). heh. So give it a go.

1. How big is your house? How many people do you have living in it?

2. How many hours a day do you spend cleaning?

3. Do you work for money in or out of the home? Do you clean more/less if (now that) you have a paying job?

4. Are you successful at getting hubs (or wife, my two, dear male readers) or kids (what age?) to help? HOW?

5. Do you clean frantically before guests (your mother-in-law) come?

6. Does housecleaning/house-messiness/housecleaning-inequity affect your daily contentment?

7. Have you discovered how effective blogging is at procrastinating/blocking out messes?

Jane

I'll be interested in the answers from everyone. Another sort of the eavesdropping on your lives I enjoy so much. My answers:

1. 1100 square feet. 6 currently and a very large cat.
2. Um. less than one most days. Then I spend a day a month really cleaning.
3. I did work out of the home for three months recently. I did absolutely nothing at home when I was working, thus this past weeks drive to get things in order. I can't imagine working full time away from home like I did recently.When the girls were young however, I did work full time away from home, and keep the house in order. I have one daughter who thinks I was superwoman. However, we have a rule in our house: "You're part of a family, help out. Bus your own plates from the table, rinse them and put them in the dishwasher if it's empty, on the counter if not. My sons-in-law are finding this an interesting rule. Also, if you made the mess, clean it up. And yes, occasionally you can do something to help with general cleaning, it's your home too."
Keep in mind that I run three individual businesses right here out of my home too. Doing that, and working full time was too much. The three here and cleaning is a much better fit for me.
4. See house rule in question 3. Yes, we're in this together. If you can't keep your room clean, keep the door closed. Mine is closed most of the time, beds are never made, unless there's a party or I go on vacation. Speaking of vacations. That's when my house is cleanest. Because you never know if you are going to die away from home, like my great aunt Vera, and then some random stranger is going to go to my house and go "oh wow!" Silly. yes, I know.
5. Growing up, we'd ask my mom who was coming over any time we cleaned. It was not very often. So this week was a mad dash to make up for the lack of deep cleaning over the last three months (and hoping for a remodel laziness) in prep for a party. But usually if my mother, mother in law or anyone else for that matter, usually gets what they get. I am over trying to make someone think I'm something I'm not.
6. Not in the slightest. My husband on the other hand, it bugs him to death most of the time, so we compromise and try to keep things tidy. He does understand a time crunch and always helps out. Except with laundry. It cracks me up when he does laundry. His clothes are the only dirty ones he can locate.
7. Not messes per se, but worthy endeavors. I could be making money right now, if I'd just get off the computer. sigh.