In which we are curious...

[jesshartley]

I have a weird question for the viewing audience.

Do you make the bed?

Not "when the in-laws/company is coming" spreading it up as part of a "someone might see it" thing, but on a regular basis when you get out of bed every morning, do you make it, or leave the covers all rough and ready to jump back into that night?

Question part deux- How does that compare to the rest of your house-keeping habits? Are you tidy throughout the house, or more of a "do damage control once a month" kind of person? What, if anything is a daily household chore, versus "eh, when it's so bad I can't stand it any more or someone's coming over" kind of thing?

Comments

[authorm.livejournal.com]

I make the bed most every day -- by making I mean aligning the body pillows along the top and pulling up the covers to give the appearance of neatness. :) I didn't do it today, and I just might not. I don't make my kids make their beds.

As for the rest of the house, I function better and I'm happier when it is clean. To that end, I clean on Fridays. Top to bottom, or whatever I can manage while both kids are in school. At the very least it's vacuum the carpets and sweep up the chunks from the hard wood (no mopping, that's only done...like...never) clean the toilets, wipe down the sinks in the bathrooms and the kitchen, clean off the kitchen table, which is a repository for all manner of goods during the week. I might strip the beds and do laundry, too. Clean the shower. I cook on Fridays, too, so it's a domestic dream come true.

I find that if I set aside one day to clean, the house is maintained at a level I can live with and I don't worry about it the rest of the week.

I'm home all the time. I can't stand living in squalor. I can't stand having crap all over the place. But I also refuse to be the only one who cleans things up, so there's often much hollering in my house ending in the words "...it's going to go in the GARBAGE!!"

:)

M

[aberdeen.livejournal.com]

I make the bed once a week when I wash the sheets. Or, if I've had a very busy night and everything is unsleepable, I make the bed before I get into it. I've never really seen much point, otherwise.

I have, at 36, developed the pattern of cleaning somewhat regularly. I am a clutterer. I have too many ideas in my head, and each idea is accompanied by a project, and each project is begun... and when I have my dream house, there will be a room for each project...

Anyway, I tend to do the cleaning and straightening that I feel necessary and not much more. I don't regularly clean the toilet, say. But I do (any leftover) dishes and laundry and vacuuming every week.

[bladededge.livejournal.com]

I don't make the bed regularly. Sometimes I'll get in a mood for about a week and then the hubby is in for it if he doesn't make the bed...but normally...no.

As for the rest of the house...I try to keep it clean with daily walk-throughs..but that never seems to work. The major cleaning (vacuuming and dusting) always happens on the weekend.

[deepabyss.livejournal.com]

Since I normally sleep with one, maybe two blankets no not all the time. Other than that I tend to be tidy around the house cause family likes to drop in unexpectantly and be judgement about anything but when I was actually fully living by myself with not many people dropping in I was almost all tidy. Hey the dishes didn't get done everyday but I was the only person there and sometimes there would be no dishes.

[sheriffjoe.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I'm a total weirdo. You see, I don't make the bed until just before I use it. I mean, I live with two guys who are never in my room (unless it is to fix my computer or retrieve their dog)...so what is the point of fixiing it up and expending energy on it when no one will be around to appreciate it? So, just before I crawl into bed for the evening, I make sure everything is crisp and neat so I can destroy it again whilst I sleep.

I live in a house with two fire signs...(aka, disorganized slobs). Well, not slobs...just always in a hurry to be somewhere else. My role, as Capricorn Earth sign and control freak extraordinaire, is to be the little serving wench that follows them around and picks up after them so the mess doesn't grow to giants clots of things. Thus, when I go on strike, it is quite noticeable. They try...I give them credit...but they are incapable of being neat, ordered and tidy...and I am unwilling to be their bloody maid. Thus...once a week, things get vacuumed (copious amounts of cat and dog hair), washed, put away...only to become cluttered within 15 minutes of finishing. Sigh....

Oh, to be able to live alone...alas, in San Diego, unless you bring home six figures, you can forget about it.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Wow, the story of your housemates sounds like mine...from 5-9 years ago.

I wound up (a) moving out and (b) investing in a bimonthly housecleaning service. :)

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Do you make the bed?

Yep. But mostly because I have two cats and decided that I didn't like the idea of them walking all over the sheets that I put against my nekkid skin when they walk around in kitty litter. :)

Question part deux- How does that compare to the rest of your house-keeping habits? Are you tidy throughout the house, or more of a "do damage control once a month" kind of person? What, if anything is a daily household chore, versus "eh, when it's so bad I can't stand it any more or someone's coming over" kind of thing?

I make my bed more than I pick up the rest of the house. Having a housecleaning service has done a lot to motivate me to keep the house cleaner than usual; not only does it get vacuumed and scrubbed bimonthly, but it also forces me, to a certain extent, to keep the clutter creep down to a managable roar.

Which isn't to say that we *don't* have clutter around our apartment. It just either has to be out of the way or easy to 'pick up' so the housecleaner can do his thing.

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I've moaned covetously whenever you've mentioned a housecleaning service... I've never had one, nor known anyone who did.

What are they like, what do they do, how much are they, and what made you decide to use one?

[prince-cosmic.livejournal.com]

I hired someone to clean my apt when I lived on the lake when I was 18, and I've hired services and people to come clean my house like once a month to keep the basics done well, especially if my mother was coming over.

Of course, my mother has cleaned my house many times. I tend to have more difficulty with the organizing. Once it is organized in a particular manner, I can keep that order.

However, I like projects too and they tend to sit around in piles of things to be done eventually.

But then you've seen my house... :P

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

Yes, but not all of us have the luxury of your... staff.

Man, that sounded dirty. :)

[prince-cosmic.livejournal.com]

Wow and that's so true... ;)

[http://users.livejournal.com/____k____/]

You do know someone, me. I have a housekeeper that comes every other week. She's independent and worked for someone else I know locally. She charges me $20 an hour and usually works for about 2 or 3 hours.

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

Oooh!
What does she do? What do you like about it? What don't you? Why is it worth it to you?

More input!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Look at me, catching up on email and finding the notification of your comment. :)

I have to admit, I've moaned covetously whenever you've mentioned a housecleaning service... I've never had one, nor known anyone who did.

What are they like, what do they do, how much are they, and what made you decide to use one?

Uhmmm, not sure how to answer the first question. :} My particular cleaning service sweeps and mops the linoleum, vacuums the carpets, scrubs down the counters in the kitchen and the bathrooms, scrubs the surface of the rangetop and re-surfaces the burner reflectors with aluminum, cleans the toilets, sinks, and tubs, periodically cleans the mirrors and inside the microwave, and takes the garbage and recycling out. I pay $90 every two weeks for this.

What made me decide to do it was giving up, after about 5 years, on the concept that myself and my housemate(s) would ever manage, holding full-time jobs, to clean the house more frequently than once a season. I decided it was worth the ~$180/month to have more free time for myself, not to have that particular potential bone of contention to mar the housemate relationship, and to guarantee that my house is cleaned on a regular basis, especially with the two long-haired cats.

Believe me, I fought the decision tooth and nail when I was living with shofixti and filidh--both of them wanted to get one, but I was too stubborn, proud, or stupid, thinking we should be able to keep things clean. Sometimes, if you can afford it, it's worth it for the peace of mind.

However, if I ever do run into financial problems, it's the first thing that's going to be cut out of my budget.

[alabrax.livejournal.com]

I never make the bed unless someone is coming over.

As for keeping the house clean, we do pretty good at cleaning the house once a week and keeping it picked up the rest of the week.

[generalbullet.livejournal.com]

what is this "Make the bed" that you speak of?

I like a neat house, but only the parts other people see. my bedroom is my own affair.

I have a maid too. her name is "Mom", though I help with dishes and laundry :)

[lilithsaintcrow.livejournal.com]

I don't make the bed unless I've just washed the sheets. I have enough to handle keeping the dishes washes (tho the DH helps with that) and enough toys off the floor that I can Kwai Chang Cane my way around. Part of the problem is two little ones, bless their disorganized little hearts.

I was raised in a house that had to be surgically neat, or else. So I have retaliated by being cluttered and not hoovering every day; I also don't force my kids to keep their rooms clean. (I say, "Mommy's room is messy. Why should she make you clean yours up?" A little life lesson.)

Yet oddly enough, both my kids love to make their beds and mine, so I often enthuse what a wonderful job they've done. And the seven-year-old has started, quite on her own, cleaning up her room. She recently excavated her closet. Sigh. My baby, growing up...

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

I do not make my bed. I generally don't because I don't like the bottom to be tucked in - I like my sheets and blankets to be loose, so making the bed kinda defeats that purpose.

Then again, I am pretty much a huge slob. I'm one of those tidy on the inside people, messy on the outside. You come into my place and it's usually a pit. But if you open my drawers, everything (even underwear and socks) is neatly folded and sometimes, god help me, color coordinated.

I don't understand it, but there it is.

What makes you ask this? Idle curiosity?

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

I was just mentally preparing for the hecticness that will be next week, preparing for the 2 week visit from my father in law, and realized that, outside of his home (completely spotless) and my sister's (runs a daycare out of her home, and thus keeps it "company" neat all the time), I really never visit anyone anymore. I have, in the past, had friends that keep house all the way from "feel like you need a shower and a tetanus shot when you leave" messy/dirty to "is it okay to sit on the furniture or would I muss it" tidy, but honestly don't really know how most other folks do.

I have started making the bed every morning, first thing, as we got a beautiful new comforter when we moved here, and it makes me happy to see it all spread up nice and all the pillows arranged at the top. It also is a great place to dump the clean laundry when I'm bringing it up from the basement laundry room, so that it gets put away before bed, no matter what. (Our old house had a gradually growing pile of clean laundry made from first one, then two, and eventually three laundry baskets full of laundry that sat on the laundry room floor and eventually were piled so high you couldn't remember what was at the bottom. I'm trying to avoid that.)

I do laundry almost daily, ditto with running the dishwasher and I try to pick up both after myself and the rest of the family, but sometimes it seems like an endless battle.

[prince-cosmic.livejournal.com]

I love seeing comforters and other nice lovely bed things when a bed is all made up though. I felt I should say this so you'd know... ;)

[jagash.livejournal.com]

1) Yes, i do make the bed. Usually in a span of a few minutes after getting dressed. Now, its not exactly the best job, but its enough that it looks decent.

2) I usually keep things clean, with only a small measure of clutter accumulating. Now, i never dust but thats a seperate issue.

[maethe.livejournal.com]

I only make the bed when I have fresh sheets or they've become to tangled to sleep comfortably.

I'm clean, but I don't have any daily housekeeping chores beyond dishes. Most other stuff is based around my socks. I run out of socks, I do laundry. I vacuum the floors during the wash cycle, and clean the bathroom and kitchen during the drying.

Garbage goes down the chute at irregular intervals when it gets full or unsightly.

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

Sock based house keeping.

That's awesome.

[winnett.livejournal.com]

I straighten the bed, pull the covers up over the pills and have everything laying flat... usually. Especially if I recently washed everything.

I don't think I am a slob, but I am not a clean freak. Lately I have been more slob than clean though. I really vary. If I have a clean house I keep up on it. If I get too busy and can't keep up on it, I let things slide, so it gets worse and I care less... until I go insane and clean it again. :)

[deliciouspear.livejournal.com]

Yes I make the bed. I actually get rather freaky if I don't.

The rest of my house is full of clutter and piles of art projects.

[melsner.livejournal.com]

I've been better about making my bed in the morning, but that's because I then cover it with cardboard to use as a "shipping table" for eBay stuff.

I haven't been great about cleaning lately, but our apartment is still better than a lot of cammies...

[melsner.livejournal.com]

oh, and cleaning tends to be a depression coping tool for me... as well as procastination. The theory is that if I'm cleaning, then at least I'm doing something productive.

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

I...well, kinda make the bed. I am almost obsessively neat about it when I put on new sheets, making sure the blankets hang evenly, doing neat little hospital corners. After that, I just sort of tidy it. Pull the blankets straight, that kind of thing. I don't borther tucking and folding and stuff, though.

The rest of the house...well, I do the kitchen almost every weekend. Four people in the house, it gets sloppy, and I believe in keeping counters and floors clean and bug-free. Other than that, my roommates clean every weekend. We have a deal where I don't try, because I break things. Otherwise, I'd probably go on a rampage and clean about once a month, because most of the time I don't care, but every so often I just go "Arrrgh, clutter!" and tidy up.

I don't dust, though. It's harmful to my belongings. If I live alone, practically nothing ever gets moved, so it's always straight.

[passionandsoul.livejournal.com]

I find this funny as Duncan CAN NOT function if he does not make his bed before breakfast. Ever.

I/Adam rarely make the bed- ever. My office bed I always try to keep neat as soon as possible when it is used, as it functions as a staging area for art and as a couch for folks who visit the office space.

I function better in a tidy space. But does that mean we clean? Not as much as I'd like. But when my brain can't focus, most of the time I look up in the space I am in, realize it is untidy- clean for an hour and am back to peak functioality.

[rfrancis]

We make the bed when we can no longer reasonable get both of us under the covers.

And that's basically how the rest of the house goes, too, particularly with two young children right now.

-R

[eros-wind.livejournal.com]

Actualy I can't stand to sleep in a bed where the sheets are tucked in. It's like I'm all bound up and can't move to get comfortable. When staying in a hotel the first thing I do is rip up all the sheets. So no, I don't make the bed, at most when I clean the sheets I just lay them down on the bed in order, but never tuck them in.


As for other cleaning, well I'm not the best at it. But try to keep the public area's livable. My personal area though, is livable for me, which it seems drives everyone else crazy.

Defiance

[carnaleminence.livejournal.com]

I 'make the bed' when I change the linens.
I straighten the bed every morning.

I come home and find it unmade to a degree by a very pestiferous beast who likes to burrow and attack the blankets while I am away.

Once, I left a t-shirt on the bed and I came home to find it half shoved under the pillow with a cat shape impressed into it...

[whitewolfjmi.livejournal.com]

Why make the bed? I'm just going to sleep in it again anyways. I also cannot stand tucked in sheets -- my feet must be on the outside, or at least be able to reach the outside of the sheets. I spend 75% of my day in my bedroom lately, and the bed is the place I relax to read, play video games, work on needle point or knitting... if I made the bed, I'd just have to unmake it to be comfortable.

The house... well, as I spend about 75% of my day in the bedroom, I really don't pay attention to the rest of the house much. I can't stand it when the bathrooms get too messy, and though I hate a dirty kitchen, I hate washing dishes more. I do my dishes when I have to, though I've been working much harder on getting them in the dishwasher and rinsed immediately after they're dirtied. The house gets damage control unless I'm expecting company. If it's my parents, it gets scrubbed top to bottom -- they're insanely judgemental about even a little clutter.

[arimenthe.livejournal.com]

I love having the bed made, but I'm usually not the one who does it.

Josh gets out of bed much later than I do, and so he does it.

I love getting ready for bed - and feeling that nice aligned space.


I need a maid, although, for the house. It's overwhelming

[silverhawc.livejournal.com]

As a matter of fact I do. Just feels like I'm being careless and untidy to leave the sheets all askew. Now I don't always carefully arrange and smooth out, but I do pull the covers back up the pillows.

The rest of it? Well that varies. I like to aim for not having to clean up because company is coming, but every so often things just get piled up and left for later.

Generally

[liamgaidin.livejournal.com]

I generally make the bed in the mornings. Only time I don't is when I have to rush out to get to work.

I am pretty good with certain house keeping things. Mostly the kitchen and the living room, but when I am feeling run down or sick I usually let it slide until I can't stand looking at it anymore.

Most of the time my apt is fairly clean though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/____k____/]

Ok, I'm one of the really wierd people who can not sleep unless the sheets are smoothed out and at least my side of the bed is tucked in. In fact, I have been known to wake up out of a deep sleep because the sheet was pulled out from under the bed and my feet touched blanket.

But I don't make the bed when I get out anymore, because Frost is most often still in it. During the week, I'm rushing out the door when he gets up. During the weekend, by the time he gets up I have forgotten about making the bed and don't often go back into the bedroom until time to sleep. So I usually "make" the bed right before we get in, meaning I go around the bed, smooth out the sheets, make sure the bottom sheets all in place, my side is tucked in and the blankets straight. If I can't do this before Frost gets in bed I get very flustered and can't sleep.

Yes, I'm truly a freak.

The rest of my house tends towards "cluttered" as a by-product too small of a house and not enough free hours in the day. So the table turns out to be a desk and hobby spot and the den has clean laundry in hampers waiting to be folded. If it wasn't for the bi-weekly visits from the house keeper helping me keep up with the stuff like vaccuuming, dusting, windows, floors, ect., I wouldn't have time to sleep so I wouldn't need to make the bed. :)