So I haven’t mentioned it, but my mama and D.’s mama are coming to our house for a visit next week.
Together.
And while I would love to be a fly on the wall (or windshield, as it were) for what I’m referring to as “The YeeHaw Mamaw Roadtrip,” my primary concern right now is that, at some point in the next couple of days, THE BEAST THAT IS MY HOUSE MUST BE TAMED.
First of all, there’s the matter of a lovely new addition to our foyer area:
Now if I were my mama, I would drape a chenille throw over the top of it and pretend like it wasn’t there, just like she did with what she perceived to be an eyesore in her den:
See? If you look very carefully to your left, you’ll notice that the throw has taken on a square-ish shape that is quite uncommon where throw-draping is concerned.
Unless, of course, the throw is draped over AN OLD METAL WALL HEATER, in which case the square-ish shape makes absolutely perfect sense.
But I digress.
Because my point is that my house is a wreck. Nothing’s where it should be, and I have to do some serious cleaning / straightening / washing between now and Tuesday. Oh yes ma’am I do.
It shouldn’t be difficult to get started, though, because my vacuum has been standing the middle of our dining room for the last two weeks.
Don’t believe me?
It’s just so much more convenient to keep it there instead of in the hall closet where there are, you know, DOORS.
I should also have a relatively easy time with the disinfecting process, because look where my Clorox Wipes are:
On the bar! Next to my earrings! In the living room! Right where they should be!
And then behind the bar is yet another convenient storage facility:
Because where else would you keep a fun noodle, a portable basketball goal, some Nerf balls, a water toy and a box of personalized notepads?
I mean, I don’t mean to brag, but I think it’s PRET-TY CLEAR that it’s a veritable bastion of organization around here, people. We like to keep our stuff OUT IN THE OPEN, so we can SEE IT REAL GOOD.
And then there’s the garage.
But I’m not even going to show y’all a picture of that.
Why, you ask?
Because I am deeply ashamed seeing as how the garage is still full of moving boxes.
Even though we moved in December.
And the moving boxes have stuff in them. Stuff we have not yet unpacked. In almost six months.
Oh, it’s going to be quite the funtacular around here this weekend.
But if push comes to shove? And we run out of time? I’ll just go buy a bunch of chenille throws and drape them over all the boxes.
I think Mama would be proud.
Sister, you best get busy. :)
xo.
I’m in your club, Sister. But, my boxes in the garage are almost 1 1/2 years old. I haveat least 20 sets of hot wheels tracks…together in two boxes. No instructions. I need someone who has time and likes that kind of thing to come and get them! Help me…
I always start in one corner and work to the other (unless I’m in that random mood, where I work in five rooms all at once! Nothing gets done.). Praying for your sanity and rest…and a clear head to get that thing D*O*N*E!
P.S. I’m getting Mama a screen to cover that thing.
Ya, after looking at the pictures of your house Im so ashamed of mine… but having 3 kids (under 3 years old) and two big, big dogs, I could never imagine my house clean.
PS – You added your brown flower theme back! Woohoo. I love this theme.
You have a Better Batter IN your house??? You are SOOOOOO brave BooMama!
You mean I don’t have to keep the vacuum plugged in. All the time. I thought it always had to be that way in case I turned it on.
So when I read “…seeing as how the garage is still full of moving boxes.” I imagined that you had a garage of self willed boxes that insisted on parading about. Now, if the boxes would cooperate and unload themselves into the appropriate rooms, that would be something!!!
You know, I moved into my house 6 years ago and there are still moving boxes in my garage.
You could just leave it plugged in and wait for that precious little son of yours to come along and push it for you. I present Exhibit A: http://www.vitafamiliae.com/archives/2007/02/best_day_ever.html
This is how I justify leaving the vacuum cleaner plugged up in the dining room. It’s there in case my 3 year olds get motivated!
We moved last July–and we faced boxes that were from the last move—TEN YEARS BEFORE. Those boxes left the house because I knew, that if I didn’t miss it for 10 years, I’ll never miss it (but I did unpack the photos 9 years and 364 days before…). Although, I’m sure you could find some lovely throws in garage decor…up here in the North, we would call them ‘tarps’
I moved in August 2006. Some of the boxes that moved with us were still sealed from our move in July 2004. For a while I was making sure to spend 20 minutes a day unpacking and that worked really well. Then life took over and those boxes are still in the basement. Oops.
Boo-
They’re Stunt Boxes.
Pay them no never mind.
I have some serious spring cleaning to do. I understand your sweeper being in the middle of the floor, because my daughter’s toy box has been in the middle of the hall for 2 weeks. Spring cleaning her room left no room for it. It’s too heavy to carry downstairs to the basement by myself! Maybe that ole sweeper is beyond your carry weight. Yep. Just stick to that excuse! (And if it makes you feel any better, the toy box is blocking the entrance to our room from the hall. We need to side track though the bathroom to get into our bedroom!)
All you gotta do is have Alex keep them so busy that they don’t notice….is he up to the challenge??? I KNOW. HE. IS!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!!! You are hysterical. I look forward to lurking around your blog daily. But today I had to pick myself up off the floor after seeing the clever way your mother ignores eyesores and leave a message. In the words of Melinda, “rock on” (sorry, ignore that AI comment)
I’ve got a couple throws I could send to you just to get you through the next week. A real pretty purple one that would hide anything! Just let me know :-)
Someday when you come for a visit you will feel right at home in my house. We have the same housekeeping philosophy, which is why do today what you can put off til Mama’s on the way.
If this is all you have around, you are in good shape! I have fishing tackle in my upstairs hall, as we speak and we have guests coming for lunch! There’s nothing like company to force you into cleaning house. :-) I have often suggested to my husband we need to have company at least twice a month to force us to keep things cleaned up around this place.
Be sure to take lots of photos while Mama and Martha are there. I know the little man is excited.
Some would say if you haven’t needed it in the past 6 months, throw it out! Yikes!
I bet mine looks worse. I have been so busy for the past 2 days that cleaning was pushed aside. And with 2 kids and a husband that don’t grasp the concept of pick up after yourself, well…I’m about to get to cleaning mine now!
My four-year-old Wild Man wields a vacuum with a practiced hand. Alex needs to give it a try. Also, he dusts baseboards with his trusty dust-eating sock puppet. And, he cleans glass with a high-tech spray bottle of vineger and a few Viva paper towels. Let’s see Boo and Alex vs. the House. Who will take home the victory?
LOL As for the garage, just tell the Mama’s the kids are building a fort & you don’t have the heart to ruin their precious fort by unpacking boxes.
Even though spring has more than sprung – it’s cleaning and organizing time in blogville! Between you and Bev and Laura with the 30 day challenge, there’s a whole lotta cleaning going on! Good luck to you – and you better update us on all the fun times that will be had.
Just arrange the garage boxes in a car shape and throw a tarp over it. Tell them you where Overhauled. :>)
Now I read “Better Batter” and immediately thought, I need some Maggie Moo’s Better Batter ice cream…stop it!
6 months is nothing! We moved over a year ago and our garage is still full of unpacked goodness.
Shoot, a few of the boxes have been packed for our entire 6-year marriage.
Wanna trade? ;)
I LOVE that window in your dining room! I realize that keeping those lower panes clean is a pain but I simply adore big huge windows like that. Lucky you!
LOL you are so funny.
girl — you should come check out my home… the sad thing is that a good cleaning at mine probably looks like a “bad” day at yours…
my mama is coming a week and a half.
I don’t dare take pictures…
blessings,
Karla
You’ve been tagged…when you get time ;)
http://swtbamamamaof2.blogspot.com/2007/05/where-do-you-eat.html
What happened to the spring edition? I loved the bright colors. :)
Happy cleaning…looking forward to the stories to come after this visit. :)
oooo i am SO glad that i am not the only one! i am tickled right down to my toes that you would show me that your vacuum cleaner is still plugged in and in the middle of the floor. good grief i do the same thing! i realize as i walk past it what a silly thing it is, and how easy it would be to take care of and yet… sigh…. i just can’t muster the energy while im walking to the kitchen for a cookie. :)
i am ready organized for life by sandra felton- methinks you would see yourself in the pages… although.. what am i doing?! giving you another reason NOT to clean! :)
h
um so i can’t spell reading. maybe i just can’t see my keyboard b/c of the pens that have migrated to the desk. who knows… or maybe, just maybe i was distracted!
I have been in this house six YEARS and still have eight unpacked moving boxes in the guest room closet. That’s YEARS, Boo.
Toss the loose junque into a trash bag, stick the vacuum in the closet, toss the throw over the kiddie do-whop and you’re good.
No worries. I’m sure the mammas are coming to see all y’all and not your house! (Did I use the proper plural of y’all?) Anyway, my house is a wreck because we’re moving and I left my oldest son and husband home alone for 3 days. Yikes. I better get busy myself.
Many years back we bought a Nordic Trac. With the idea that you will use it more if you see it everyday we put it out in the open of our living/dining area (open floor-plan). It’s not true. You can use it to hang clothes on and after a while you don’t notice it at all!
I had to chuckle at your vacuum. I tend to leave my ironing board sitting out in my dining room, out of convenience, especially since my husband is overseas and I don’t have him coming home in the evening to hold me accountable. (ouch)
We, too, have LOTS of boxes in our garage. By looking in there, you’d think that I haven’t unpacked much at all and we moved here in November. *Ãœ*
Hope you’re cleaning goes well. How exciting to have mamas coming!
Enjoy your weekend ~
Christina
My vacuum always stays plugged in and ready to use because it is used so often:-) Have you seen these??
http://www.heartlandcrafters.homestead.com/VacuumCleanerCovers.html
Your Mama would be proud;-)
I must stop from my own fevered cleaning (in which I moved the VBS boxes from the middle of the living room to over by the door so we can walk across our floor) to comment on the comment above. . .
I truly don’t know if those are hilarious or sad, however, I DO know that though there is no publicly acknowledged case system in the United States, there are certain places in which you will find a proliferation of dishsoap bottle covers, and toilet paper roll covers, and the New Kids on the Block–the vacuum cleaner covers. . .atleast they have branched off from the cupi/Miss America doll pattern of old and added a multiculteral aspect.
Oh…….does this mean that there will be “Mama” stories coming our way after their visit???? I cannot wait!!! It makes me laugh just thinking about how entertaining it will be at your house this week……or how funny you will tell them. Can’t wait!!!!!
I’m with Terri…forget about the cleaning up stories — it’s the Mama & Martha stories that I can’t wait to hear! Keep that laptop close, Boo.
I hear the Christmas Tree Shop is having a sale on chenille throws…
Too funny! I, too, have boxes everywhere. We have tons of stuff in the basement from when we moved FOUR YEARS AGO! It’s mostly home decor type stuff, so I don’t worry about it too much, since I still haven’t gotten around to, you know, decorating. In four years. I try to cut myself some slack, since I’ve had two kids and a health crisis in that time, but seriously, it does get ridiculous after a while.
I can’t wait for the MAMA! AND MARTHA! AND ALEX! stories. :)
My husband is a neat freak, so we keep a pretty clean house. Of course we’re gone at work all week. Now that I’ll be home more, it’ll be interesting. Because when it was just me and my son, neat we were not! But I’ll have more time to clean, yep!
I love you, BooMama