Super Cleaner Party Mode
I love having company over to the house, when my living room is full of people eating and talking and laughing I'm at my best. However, to achieve this state I usually put my family through hell as I go into super cleaner party mode.
Party mode means that all public areas of our home get good solid cleaning, vacuming, dusting, etc. Kitchen, bathroom, livingroom, hallway, and Katie's room (because that's where coats go). If we're having a large crowd it also involves moving furniture (Geordon's least favorite activity) and setting up seating groups to be used. Then making sure that there's enough serveware for foods (thank goodness for pot luck) and plenty of paper plates, cups etc. All of this needs to be completed by at LEAST one hour before the guests get here for me to not have a total melt down. I love it, my husband thinks that I've lost my mind usually, and the kids try to stay out of the way so that they don't get yelled at too much.
Over the past year, I've relaxed my stance on party mode quite a bit. When the household members come over for a sewing day or what have you, I give have "party mode lite" I know that those people aren't going to leave my house snarking about the mess. When Becks comes over, I've stopped worrying about it all together. Poor Becks has to put up with normal sloppy me. Tomorrow however is the annual Shire Revel, which I host, and many people come to. People, who though we're friends, I still wonder if they snark at how unorganized I am and my lack general lack of a cleaning schedule. People that I want to be comfortable in my home, and not have to worry abouy where to put down a soda can, or if they're going to knock over a pile of whatever. So I'm leaving a warning note for the fam when I go to work today that party mode mom has begun and these are the things that need to happen.
This year, I've told a couple of people that they're welcome to come early to get some sewing done. Hrmmm... I'm really wondering how that's going to work. I'm hoping that they can contain the project in the Kitchen. Not to mention that I may be getting a massage during he hour before the party and I have to figure out a space that we can set up the table! I'm thinking scooting the bed in Katie's room over, Or maybe Tori's room would work. I've still gotta figure that one out. Regardless, people are going to see me in this hyper stredded out phase of anxiety that I go through before we have guests and I'm worried. I really hope that letting them in "before hours" isn't a majorly bad idea. I guess we'll see.
Why do I freak out before I have a party? I blame it on my mother. My mother was *ALWAYS* concerned about what other people thought of her. She was an obsessive cleaner too. Since I've had places of my own, the condition that I kept them in was NEVER good enough. I can remember when we moved up here to Rockford. As we moved the couch, she had a FIT because there was dust and papers and "stuff" behind it. Right there in front of all my friends, I had never been more embaressed. She just couldn't believe that I never had pulled out my furniture and vacumed behind it, she was disgusted and made sure thay EVERYONE understood how sick it was. She did htis in some form with every placce I've eve had. So, I blame her for my nerossis and in ability to function like a normal person before I have company, rather than a super crazed cleaning freak. And for the record, my super crazed cleaning, was also NEVER good enough for her, she'd still always find something to slam. Essential I spent the first 35 years of my life never ever being good enough, not even coming close.
Party mode means that all public areas of our home get good solid cleaning, vacuming, dusting, etc. Kitchen, bathroom, livingroom, hallway, and Katie's room (because that's where coats go). If we're having a large crowd it also involves moving furniture (Geordon's least favorite activity) and setting up seating groups to be used. Then making sure that there's enough serveware for foods (thank goodness for pot luck) and plenty of paper plates, cups etc. All of this needs to be completed by at LEAST one hour before the guests get here for me to not have a total melt down. I love it, my husband thinks that I've lost my mind usually, and the kids try to stay out of the way so that they don't get yelled at too much.
Over the past year, I've relaxed my stance on party mode quite a bit. When the household members come over for a sewing day or what have you, I give have "party mode lite" I know that those people aren't going to leave my house snarking about the mess. When Becks comes over, I've stopped worrying about it all together. Poor Becks has to put up with normal sloppy me. Tomorrow however is the annual Shire Revel, which I host, and many people come to. People, who though we're friends, I still wonder if they snark at how unorganized I am and my lack general lack of a cleaning schedule. People that I want to be comfortable in my home, and not have to worry abouy where to put down a soda can, or if they're going to knock over a pile of whatever. So I'm leaving a warning note for the fam when I go to work today that party mode mom has begun and these are the things that need to happen.
This year, I've told a couple of people that they're welcome to come early to get some sewing done. Hrmmm... I'm really wondering how that's going to work. I'm hoping that they can contain the project in the Kitchen. Not to mention that I may be getting a massage during he hour before the party and I have to figure out a space that we can set up the table! I'm thinking scooting the bed in Katie's room over, Or maybe Tori's room would work. I've still gotta figure that one out. Regardless, people are going to see me in this hyper stredded out phase of anxiety that I go through before we have guests and I'm worried. I really hope that letting them in "before hours" isn't a majorly bad idea. I guess we'll see.
Why do I freak out before I have a party? I blame it on my mother. My mother was *ALWAYS* concerned about what other people thought of her. She was an obsessive cleaner too. Since I've had places of my own, the condition that I kept them in was NEVER good enough. I can remember when we moved up here to Rockford. As we moved the couch, she had a FIT because there was dust and papers and "stuff" behind it. Right there in front of all my friends, I had never been more embaressed. She just couldn't believe that I never had pulled out my furniture and vacumed behind it, she was disgusted and made sure thay EVERYONE understood how sick it was. She did htis in some form with every placce I've eve had. So, I blame her for my nerossis and in ability to function like a normal person before I have company, rather than a super crazed cleaning freak. And for the record, my super crazed cleaning, was also NEVER good enough for her, she'd still always find something to slam. Essential I spent the first 35 years of my life never ever being good enough, not even coming close.