Smell Ya Later!

I forgot to add the best part of having my house back - A SPOTLESS HOUSE!

Yes that does merit all caps! If I had before/after pictures to show you, especially of my carpet you would know why! Man, it was driving me crazy because it was really starting to look like crap around here, and since moving here I have (I think) done a really good job of keeping my house decent, if not spotless. However, adding 5 people totally changes that. My carpets were so disgusting I couldn't stand it. Some people didn't think anything about letting their kids carry drinks and stuff around outside of the kitchen, or wearing filthy work boots on my floors. Things I never allow, and tried not to allow with our company, although apparently unsuccessfully. It is hard to keep a house clean when you have a bunch of people staying with you that hangout in all of the living areas of the house, but only clean up their room and have their daughter do the dishes once a week. The rest of it was left to me and the kids. Ugh! Like I don't have enough to do already.

Now, before this turns into a total complain blog, I just want to say I have been really impressed with how hard my husband and kids worked to get my house back in order and to keep it that way. John shampooed ALL the carpets in the entire house. It took 2 bottles of cleaner, but almost 1 full bottle was used just cleaning the room our guests were staying in. I rearranged the girls' room, and put everything back where it used to go. I used lemon cleaner to wipe down all the wood furniture (oh that smells sooooo good!!), all the floors got mopped and the bathrooms got scrubbed. It was like an exorcism for our house, but for dirt. Haha

Of course, the laundry room is another story . . . . Sigh. Although it is getting better. I sorted through my 5 million boxes of kids clothing, and got out all the kids' summer clothes. I figure since it's been in the 80's all week, and is supposed to stay that way, that we don't really need winter clothes out anymore. So I packed up what they had clean in their rooms, and then I have just been sorting it out of the laundry as I get it done. It is just so hard to keep up on laundry for this many people! I feel like I am doing a million loads of laundry every day. I really don't know what to do differently to make it less of a huge chore. What I really wish was that we could get another washer and dryer! My laundry room is HUGE and it has more than enough room for another set. I could probably fit a couple more sets in, if I didn't have a couple freezers and a laundry sink in there. It is the size of a decent kids bedroom, and I love it!! Anyway, I am hoping that I can convince John that we need another set, because that would definitely cut down on how much time is spent on the stupid laundry. I told John that someday, when we build our own house, we are going to have basically a laundromat in our house. An entire room of industrial washers and dryers that can do a bunch of laundry at once, and not take forever. Oh, if only it was going to be someday sooner.

Speaking of which, I better go switch the laundry over and start another load . . . . . . .