Great pictures! I know what you mean about a clean house! I have standards--they are just lower than most peoples. I had a giant closet in my big apartment in Park Slope (where I was when I met you). I used that for clean-up. If I was having people over, I just threw everything in there. That one space looked ridiculous. One might find anything in there--we had a giant bag of finished/dead pointe shoes, which we kept in case of an emergency--then she would rummage through the bag and pull at the least destroyed pair for one last use.
I love looking at people's homes like this. Humanizes them or tells me they are just as neat and perfect as I thought they were--out of my class entirely on the housekeeping front. I insist that I definitely am not a true hoarder, but not very neat either.
My kitchen is clean now. Except for the floor, of course. (I like to eat!)
But the old saying that you can eat off a particular woman's kitchen floor it is so clean? Why would you want to do that? That's an unrealistic standard. I have plates so I don't have to eat off floors. And since I don't eat off floors, so I don't care if they're a little dirty. My feet aren't offended by walking on dirt and dog hair!
Yes! I also won't buy anything for my house that shows stains or ordinary wear and tear easily.
Entertaining is a great way to keep one's house moderately clean. I entertained a lot when my kids were little and it really, really helped.
The people who lived here before us had a white tile floor and white cabinets in the kitchen. WTF. And they had small children and a dog; I don't believe they were neater than we were.
I would frequently mop the floor (usually before guests came over!), and as soon as I let the dogs back in, there was mud/dirt/leaves on the white floor again. Our back door opens from the kitchen/dining room, and neither the dogs nor the humans in our house use the backyard for just sitting and admiring; we get dirty, and then that dirt was tracked across the white floor. That floor is now brown tile for a reason!
I haven't been able to replace the cabinets yet, but they're on the radar. In addition to be white and showing every little thing, they were some cheap Ikea model that the previous owners put in just to say they put in new cabinets and, eight years later, are now literally falling apart.
In addition to being white and showing every little thing, they were some cheap Ikea model that the previous owners put in just to say they put in new cabinets and, eight years later, are now literally falling apart.
OMG! Know exactly what you mean. Cheap home improvement--installed by people who don't know what they are doing--is a good description of our current apartment. We have already made vast improvements by painting two rooms (even the not-so-old paint jobs were badly done) and installing new flooring in three of them. We chose dark flooring also that will not show any minor flaws and don't show it badly when they are in need of being mopped.
Yes! That is the previous owners. My dad calls them Mack and Myer for Hire. He'll see something and be like, "Oh, that must be left from Mack and Myer for Hire!" There are still some pretty heinous aesthetic things that need doing.
Most disturbing, though, is that there were quite a few straight-up dangerous things about the house, namely festoons of mold in the basement and a radon level that was off the charts. Their kids' playroom was in the basement. And they got caught by the home inspector trying to rig the radon test because they knew they'd be on the hook to fix it before we'd agree to buy the house. When he reran the test, it was three times the limit recommended by the EPA. I guess if you allow your kids into the lung cancer basement, doing the same to strangers isn't going to weigh on your conscience!
I love looking at people's homes like this. Humanizes them or tells me they are just as neat and perfect as I thought they were--out of my class entirely on the housekeeping front. I insist that I definitely am not a true hoarder, but not very neat either.
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But the old saying that you can eat off a particular woman's kitchen floor it is so clean? Why would you want to do that? That's an unrealistic standard. I have plates so I don't have to eat off floors. And since I don't eat off floors, so I don't care if they're a little dirty. My feet aren't offended by walking on dirt and dog hair!
Yes! I also won't buy anything for my house that shows stains or ordinary wear and tear easily.
Entertaining is a great way to keep one's house moderately clean. I entertained a lot when my kids were little and it really, really helped.
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I would frequently mop the floor (usually before guests came over!), and as soon as I let the dogs back in, there was mud/dirt/leaves on the white floor again. Our back door opens from the kitchen/dining room, and neither the dogs nor the humans in our house use the backyard for just sitting and admiring; we get dirty, and then that dirt was tracked across the white floor. That floor is now brown tile for a reason!
I haven't been able to replace the cabinets yet, but they're on the radar. In addition to be white and showing every little thing, they were some cheap Ikea model that the previous owners put in just to say they put in new cabinets and, eight years later, are now literally falling apart.
Reply
OMG! Know exactly what you mean. Cheap home improvement--installed by people who don't know what they are doing--is a good description of our current apartment. We have already made vast improvements by painting two rooms (even the not-so-old paint jobs were badly done) and installing new flooring in three of them. We chose dark flooring also that will not show any minor flaws and don't show it badly when they are in need of being mopped.
Reply
Most disturbing, though, is that there were quite a few straight-up dangerous things about the house, namely festoons of mold in the basement and a radon level that was off the charts. Their kids' playroom was in the basement. And they got caught by the home inspector trying to rig the radon test because they knew they'd be on the hook to fix it before we'd agree to buy the house. When he reran the test, it was three times the limit recommended by the EPA. I guess if you allow your kids into the lung cancer basement, doing the same to strangers isn't going to weigh on your conscience!
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So true!
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