mm....I am up at 5 this morning because I am having a picnic here today to celebrate graduation of my daughter from Law School....WAYYYY to much to do...we are having shishkabobs....whose idea was that any? Does anyone know you have to cut all that stuff up? grrrr...

omg - I was just wandering back from the bathroom thinking if my friends could see this house!!!!!! And yes, I am cutting a new veg garden, so it will look like this into the fore seeable future.

Nancy who doesn't care if anyone knocks on my door, as I am in the garden.

Me too. I may be hosting the knitting group this week and all I can see are cat hair tumbleweeds, dirt that has been tracked in, plant catalogs and an assortment of books piled everywhere. Not to mention, I found my missing pruners in the bag of chicken feed on the mud porch.

I was out watering and weeding the other day and stopped to rest and realized a patch of primroses had bloomed that I hadn't even noticed. My garden has gone from bare to jungle in the past few weeks, so I try to stay out in it as much as possible since it sort of peters out by late June.

Now why is this single garden glove sitting here?

kent

Hi Gotta,

Hahaha the cleaning lady of the house goes on strike in the spring and summer and can be found only in the garden. If someone knocks.....no one will answer, but if they look around the garden they might find someone home. I am doing laundry this morning because its raining. lol Yup priority is definitely the garden right now. Weeding, pruning and pulling out the things that didn't make it this winter. Did I mention weeding, weeding and more weeding? lol!!! Where do they all come from?

Sierra

WHAT HOUSE, oh you mean that place where one scares up something to eat or orders take out from, can still get a hot shower because I did pay the hydro bill and I can still find the bed to catch some zzzzzz's in? Very dusty I'm afraid, I can only spread myself sooo thin and this gal has her priorities straight.

Annette

This is so funny and so right on the mark!

My back porch becomes the place I kick off gardening shoes, apron, gloves and anything else I don't want to leave outside.

About every two days I get embarrassed and swamp it out. Now what I loosely call the patio outside that same back porch is the pot ghetto.

You could write your name on the tables in the living room.
I need a maid!

It is just DH and I; where does all the mess come from?

THE CLEANING LADY HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!!!!!

Man this post is timely! DH went riding his bike with his friend this am...I thought, okay this house is a disaster. I should really do some minimal cleaning. Then the dog barked and needed to go outside...while out there of course I had to check all the beds, recent plantings, etc...started going through the plants I bought yesterday laying them out where I want to plant them...you get it...

THEN DH pulls into the driveway with his friend! I froze! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...so we are all talking outside for awhile and DH has the AUDACITY to invite him in or a coffee AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I shot him the best daggers I could. Lucky for me the friend was afraid it was going to start raining and wanted to get home on his bike before the downpour! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! When he left I asked DH if he was insane. I said you do recall what the house looked like at 6:00 AM when you left right...he says yeah, I said well it hasn't improved! He just laughed. He didn't think it was a big deal. UMMMMMMM Sugar Pops all over the kitchen floor (thanks to DD attempt at breakfast this morning) cat and dog hair, dirty dishes in the sink ARGHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually felt grateful to not be "caught" and when it started raining shortly after friend left, I actually did some cleaning!

Cleaning is for rainy days . . . oh, wait . . that's when I do catchup on my paintings . . . ooooops! I forgot, my house is under construction and I'm refinishing my kitchen cabinets -- you got it again, on rainy days. Actually, I worked outside earlier today after church -- in the rain. And it's easier to pick up the clumps of dog hair if they get large enough, than to get out the vacuum and plug it in.

Hahahahahaha. I agree with everyone. Right now it is just me and the trail of dirty clothes to the bathroom is getting deeper.

Hey, housework makes you ugly.

I'm not taking that chance, let me tell you!

Actually, most of my house looks pretty good...only because we had overnight company this weekend. The best first impression is the front yard. After all that prettiness even a clean inside is an afterthought.

This is prime gardening time. The heat and humidity will come in the next couple of weeks and I can go inside to........well, probably not clean, but write or quilt or do something interesting.

Not taking any chances on the ugly thing....

You're all so lucky to even have an inside of a house to call an inside. Hurricane Seth went through my house, for the last month!

Can you even get the back door open with all the shoes and garden tools dumped behind it? Not me! I don't even have a kitchen table right now. That convenient flat surface sometimes used to complete other peoples garden designs (only because it is large enough to hold paper big enough-I still do them by hand- no computer designs here) is covered in garden magazines dating back to 1997. Did you ever notice that the same articles appear in the same magazines a few years apart? Recycled information, great idea.

House is for dumping laundry, school bags, and dirty dishes. Someone said it perfectly, sleep, eat and collect dust. Heck, there are still feathers from the cats' latest prize floating around the front hall.

It rained most of the day and I spent it in other peoples gardens. 4 to be exact. It would have been a great day to catch up but I would have found an excuse to be out in the garden even in the rain, and wind, miserable as it might seem. I (underscored) would have had a great day! :)
Dana

Some friends actually have the nerve to suggest I need a bigger house! What for? So I can have a bigger mess???
Winter is for cleaning. I am lucky to have winter.

My kitchen has white floors where every speck of dust is visible (especially if I put my glasses on). Since the door to my garden I use most often is thru the kitchen - you can imagine. At the time I finished creating one flower bed and started another one, and going back and forth brings lots of ...outside in.
Hey, who cares! If they don't like it - let them sweep. It's spring, and I have priorities.

My week has been hectic since we got back from France a week ago.

Friday...got flowers, and plans together for greyhound fund raiser
Saturday...spent day at greyhound fund raiser; no computer time at all
Today...worked in garden until 2:30; grabbed a quick nap on screened porch; showered; had early dinnner with in laws;

I'm Type A about having the bed made. It's been unmade for two days in a row!

I see dust puppies around on the floors!

I am glad I'm not the only that this happens to!HaHa.

Let's just say that I've lowered my standards lately and leave it at that.

OMG, if you could see my kitchen right now, you'd laugh. I just cannot seem to keep the floor clean, between me out in my beds every chance I get and coming back in the house totally covered in dirt and my dog a close second behind me, my floor is always dirty these days and I just don't have the energy to clean it! I'm just too tired after pulling on roots and amending the soil to do much of anything but just flop down in the chair and sigh. This is on the weekends, I work during the week.

But you know, it feels good and when I see the outcome a month down the road I know it will have all been worth it. I'll most likely wash my floors the next time it rains, but then again, my chocolate Lab, Cocoa, will just track in mud behind him, making this a vicious circle that seems to last well into the middle of summer.

I must admit, I love it though, this is the best time of the year!

Linda

This is funny because I was just talking to my DH about this very thing. He'ed come home and I'ed have to say I was out in the yard all day. I told him that I have a small window to get all my gardening and garden/yard projects before it gets hot. Down here in the humid hot south once June hits I am inside till the cooler weather comes in October. My garden is on its own during the summer cause it is just waaay too hot and humid to be out there working! Soo I may be a little slack on the inside right now but I will be stuck inside for months in my cool air-conditioned house and do lots of inside stuff so it all balances out in the end. I always say ya, the inside may be a wreck but doesn't the outside look awsome!? Then he says ya, I guess your right! lol
Meghan

You all aren't going to believe this, but my ddh does almost all the house cleaning. Either he's really grateful that I take care of the outside stuff, or he realizes that the inside won't get done if he doesn't do it himself...probably the latter.

He's something of a fuss pot and was grumbling the other day when I wore my dirty garden shoes into the house. What a switch, huh?

My DH has been cleaning house on weekends since I've gone back to working a lot. He spends most of Sunday cleaning, that way I have time for band practice on Saturday or Sun. evening.

GGG

Guess I'm going to have to be the exception here because my house is clean, although with all the windows open lately I do see some of those cat hair tumbleweeds Slub mentioned. : ) I get crabby if my house is dirty. It's also very calming to come in from a hard-working garden session and know I don't have to face more messes inside. I figure there are seven days in the week, I can give one to the house - the gardens aren't going to fall apart. My motto: I'm not a slave to anything, not even my dearly beloved roses. : )

Diana

All I can say is....Bwahahahahahahah!!!!!

(But one of these days, I will get around to mopping the floor, really!)

We've had rain, clouds, and chilly for the past few days! I'm doing the housework like it or not! We've got a frost advisory for tonite so I'm at a planting stand still. I'll cover everything again. My deck is full of winter sown babies and is over flowing with little plastic cups, containers, empty milk jugs and buckets. As soon as it stops raining (soon, I hope!) I have to get my outside things done!!

We've got 16 people spending a camping weekend in our back yard. I've never had house guests before! I'm trying to stay focused on the inside but can't wait to get back to the gardens!

Someone send some warm temps and sunshine! I'm in gardening withdrawal! Thanks, LC Grace

Gottagarden, you made me laugh out loud with your posting title. Gosh it felt soooo good to hear that most of us are in the same "mode". I'm old enough that I can remember that I would probably "talk" about someone with a house as dirty as mine is during gardening season. Thank God I outgrew that nonsense! Thanks for the fun thread all of you.

Carol

Gosh, I thought I was the only one with this problem. However, I'd much prefer to be outside with my plants than inside dusting or vacuuming because in a week the dust/dirt is back, and it doesn't bloom nor is it as colorful as my plant.--Besides, I need to accumulate enough dust to add to my compost pile, and I'll never be able to do this unless I let it accumulate.

Can we give this a name? Perhaps we could tell those who wouldn't understand when they visited, "I'm so sorry but all of my household currently has a virulent case of Gardendustitis. I really wouldn't want you to come into contact with this so perhaps you could plan your visit for November?"

Carol, I can sooooo relate to what you mean. Except in southern speak, we would add, "bless her heart".
You can say just about any thing about someone as long as you add, bless her/his heart.

Kathy

It's so darn cold and rainy here I don't have an excuse!!!!
Chickens are now out of the house and in the garage.
Got a new toy...A steam cleaner for my floors. Operates like a giant steam iron wrapped in a towel. I could eat off my floors. But I'm sure the fun will wear off soon and my brief period of super clean will be over. Sanity will return. I'm dying to be outside playing in the dirt.

State of house is in direct proportion to the temp outside!!! Come on "redbed"!

georgeanne

I was going to clean this weekend but it was sunny, in the low 80's with a nice breeze blowing.
I posted lots of pretty pictures in the gallery. However, the picture inside the house isn't so lovely. Maybe I'll clean next weekend.
Hahahahaha..........

~Melissa

I'm glad to read these posts! My house is in such a state lately... I had a baby last month, so he takes up most of my time, and then the garden gets worked on in the little 5 minute slots of freedom when he actually sleeps. I need to take some garden pictures while my columbines and brunnera are blooming, but at this rate I won't get a chance. The housecleaning is really low on the priority list.

Actually today I need to call someone to repair something in the hall, and I'm looking around out there at the spilling over bag of alfalfa, the spilling bag of potting mix, the seed packets, pots, tools everywhere... I'm almost too embarrassed to have the repair guy come in.

Ok, I got up at 5:30 this morning to pick up the house a bit. But of course I went outside first. I picked up all the plant labels that fell on the lawn. Picked up all the empty pots and other bits of junk. I arranged the lawn chairs around the fire pit and put back the the small tables that I used while planting veggies. I picked up some clothespins that fell down when we frantically took laundry off the line when it started to rain. I corralled the rest of the WS jugs. Garden is nice and picked up now... as for the house... dirty dishes, floors need sweeping, dirty laundry piling up, clean laundry need to be put away, and clutter every where. ( We won't even talk about bathrooms.) BUT THE GARDEN LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. - kim

I'm one of those people who has to keep the house clean, too, or I get out of sorts and feel disorganized. I've got a definite type A attitude about bed making, and dirty dishes! :-)

One thing I'm doing this year is concentrating on turning my patio into a more liveable outdoor space, particularly for entertaining. Actually, I think I have spent more time sweeping the patio lately, than the kitchen floor!

With the addition of more potted tropicals, wicker furniture and wrought iron tables, it's starting to shape up really well.

Marilyn

Boy, can I relate to this! Those of us with dogs ought to hold a contest for the biggest hairpile we've swept (not swept) off the floor. Thank God I don't have carpet in the house!

The garden calls so strongly to me that I've been known to throw fishticks in the oven for the kids and just plan to quickly water some new seedlings for a minute or two.......Twenty minutes later after I've been engrossed with the new blooms and the smell of white sage, my daughter comes out and tells me the fishsticks are burned! If we hadn't bought a dishwasher lately, the kitchen itself would be a total disaster. I don't have a DH, but thank God I have a DW now!

I learned this from Kathy. "Suzie Q's a horrible house-keeper ...bless her heart." See I could learn "Southern". Ya'll make everything sound soooo much nicer. Love it..thanks Kathy.

Carol

"I've seen better barns" Lol! My house is a disaster right now, too! I would answer the door only for other gardeners right now : )
Remy

I have SO much admiration for those of you with (a) a spouse, (b) children, AND/OR (c) pets. I have none of the above and my house still manages to get really dirty when it hasn't been cleaned for two months. The point where I finally said to myself "enough is enough" came when I knocked a bottle of raspberry syrup onto my tile floor while putting away groceries. Cleaning up that mess would have been a headache no matter what, but trying to mop it up from a floor that hadn't been vacuumed for two months was really a nasty job. It took much more of my time away from working outdoors than it would have if I had started from a clean floor. And I also regret to say that I hadn't cleaned my bathroom for such a long time that it looked like the bathroom at the local bus station - really gross!!

Mary

My wife works long hours, and I am the one who does pretty much everything around the house. If I didn't clean, it would never get done. Saturday mornings are usually designated for this most fun of activities. This time of year, though, I find my standards have loosened a bit. The 3-4 hrs I might usually spend cleaning dwindles down to an hour or so. I HATE a dirty, cluttered home, but I can only do so much. The garden most definitely comes first.

Marilyn and Diana I am in the club with you. I take all the oriental rugs up from the wood floors downstairs and wash the floors on my hands and knees every Spring. Since DH has been in Italy >..comes home tomorrow...YEAH, I took all of them up Saturday and did the floors. I then packed a bag and grabbed my mountain bike and trail shoes and headed to Oak Mt State Park near B'ham Al. I had a BLAST. My best bud met me and we did trails twice a day. There is a killer 17 mile mt bike trail and I finished it in 2 1/2 hrs. It is really rocky and stream crossings and steep climbs.

Back home now and watered everything and cleaned pool . So time to get started again here. But the house is clean :) c

Ladies, ladies, ladies!!!( and the men too)

why on earth don't you have a housekeeper?!!

Listen.. i spend far too much time on the outside and my time is too valuable to waste on cleaning. OK- i do dishes and the daily stuff and try to keep it neat ( with a one year odl that' simpossible) but every other week I pay some "probably not legal" immigrants to come dust, do windows, ceiling fans, change the sheets, mop the floors, vaccum, everything!! and i love these people too. been using them for 6 years now.

and i'm not loaded. I live in NJ- it is expensive here. It's $60 each cleaning. when i got preggo we thought we'd save money and we stopped using them. big msitake. two months later we called and begged them to come back. they were overjoyed to come back.

with a big dog and a mommy who tracks in jsut as much dirt as he does.. I need all the help I can get. I work full time.. if I didnt- ok that's one thing.. but I do.. so I say my spare time shouldnt be wasted on hours of cleaning.

plus- i have a baby to teach gardening skills to! :)

if that makes me snobby- label me! :) I live for everyother wednesday when they come. the house looks great for about 3 hours. haha

ps- don't go with merry maids.. you'll pay too much.

I am chuckling to myself because usually long before we get to this many posts, people start posting photos. Not this time! I will keep my shame hidden and you will have to use your imagination for how bad it's gotten.

Friend - I had a cleaning lady when I worked. (Ironically before kids my house never even got dirty!) I thought being a stay-at-home mom would leave me plenty of time for cleaning (Ha! What was I thinking??) but I didn't plan for spring gardening marathons.

Newskye - you have a newborn, you have all the excuses in the world. No one expects YOU to have a clean house or even a garden at all. Congratulations, it does not seem that long since mine were tiny.

I had a repair guy come through the house the other day and I could almost read his mind, "What a mess! And it looks so nice from the outside too." But I hope I'll never see him again.

But Kathy has taught me a new trick - "Her house is a wreck because she spends all her time in the garden, bless her heart." You're right, that doesn't sound so bad.

Thanks for all the stories, I have had a few great laughs reading this, and feel better that I am not the only delinquent house cleaner.

i dont want to know what mine would look like without the housekeepers. haha!! I know that the week they dont come- it get spretty crazy around her.. by the time they come- you're swear it hadnt been cleaned in a month or two. haha

I am trying to keep up with 'homecaring' and gardening, and trying to look at it all with a more relaxed state of mind. Life is too short to stress over some things. Yes I have dust bunnies, yes we have stacks that need to go into the attic after reinsulating, and we are in the middle of remodeling our bedroom also. Plus we also have 4 cages in here as we have 4 feline girls recuperating from being 'fixed' Tuesday. They will all be my garden helpers once they get their stitches out. :-)

Happy Living and Gardening however you choose.

FlowerLady

We have two vacuums, both so old that it's hard to get new bands for them and both need replacing so the rug is disgusting. Luckily the busy leopard print "hides" some of that. Then there are dust bunnies tumbling around from cats. Dust lingering everywhere and pollen as all doors have been open. The back office has cat litter on the floor everywhere as Miss Kitty is a litter kicker and I've been going all day and haven't had energy to clean (but she's fussing about it now. Litter kicker likes the floor clean. Go figure)...the guy who sometimes comes and helps me clean has been on tour with his rock band. I think they are back, I saw their lead singer today. Maybe I otta call!

GGG

I wanted to write this morning before I forgot, to say thank you to all who posted here. While I don't stress over a perfectly cleaned house, I do like it to look nice, so last night around 9:30 I washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. Went to bed feeling good, and woke up feeling even better knowing the kitchen was ready to meet the new day. I do not have a dishwasher, I am the dishwasher and DH does them sometimes too.

I have a 'solar-dryer' which I enjoy as I get to be outside in the sunshine and fresh air and the laundry smells so good after line drying.

I work part-time, do all the gardening except for stuff that is too heavy, too big, or too hard for me to handle. I cook from scratch, mostly.

I love being outside working among the flowers, butterflies, birds and other critters, and our cottage is small so being outside feels good. Outside is the universe filled with much to enjoy.

Now I'm going to go into the scullery and take out my colored glass collection etc. from the garden window unit over the sink area and clean the shelf. It and the glass pieces are dusty. I just remembered I wanted to do that this morning before work.

Have a great day everyone. Enjoy being inside or out, homecaring or gardening. Whatever you do, do it with love, joy and thanksgiving and you will feel much better.

FlowerLady

I laughed right out loud when I saw this title! The inside looks like a hurricane went right through it & all I keep saying is, "I'll have time next week, etc." (Been saying this for over a week.) In the meantime, all I can think of is buying more flowering plants & putting them in hangers, windows boxes, the ground, etc! Forget Christmas: THIS is the most wonderful time of the year!!!

God Bless you All
I was feeling sorry for myself...not keeping my house up. Between trying to get a quilt done,weeding getting a pinched nerve in my neck,therapy and then traction it was fun 3 weeks, I did get one son to plant a rose bush for me,another came to town with intention of helping but then it rained but he did get 3 butterfly bushes planted. The weeds are slowly disappearing I am laying paper and mulch.

my sister gave me a sign a couple years ago that says "My house may be a mess but.....you should see my gardens" - guess that tells you where my sentiments lie :)......

Lynne

At the moment.. it resembles a lasagna garden on the floors, a recycling depot on the counters, and a pig sty in the bathroom! But there's a crab apple tree waiting to be planted, two Explorer roses waiting for new homes, and hubby's glads to admire, as they are finally poking their heads out of the ground. Think I'll just take my coffee, puppy, and trowel out for a little wander in the gardens! To heck with the house for the moment...that's what nighttimes are for!

Enjoy your gardens everyone, spring has sprung for us too finally :D Kym

We moved a couple of months ago and I had to let the yard (I can't be called a garden at this point yet) just be... no matter how painful it was. My focus was house house house... it was ours but we had rented it and they turned it into a crack house. Well, we kicked them out and after a month of making it livable we moved. However, the work had only just begun... we removed popcorn from ceilings, replaced fixtures and doors... and we still aren't finished. But my focus has shifted.... causing much distress for my poor DH. (He works a lot right now so the house is all on me)

I have been digging out the years of neglect (When he and I began dating he was in a different house, which we lived in prior to this move... a master gardener had lived there prior and all I had to do was maintain it all). The house we are in now was his, but he doesn't bother with anything but mowing the weeds and it has been at least 3 or 4 years since anyone has done anything here other than that. All the beds had been filled with rock, the yard is weeds and sand, it is bad.

The good news... we have gorgeous trees and a great spot on a lake... so the potential is there :)

Back to the topic of the post, since I started focusing on the yard and my garden in the making the house has gone to hell. There are clothes everywhere, still boxes that didn't get unpacked, spare bed is covered in christmas stuff that needs to go in the attic, no clean dishes to be found, dirt and dust galore... Ugh! My kitchen is covered in potting soil and plant seedlings, cuttings, pots and trays. I don't have a potting bench or anything even close yet, so the kitchen has been converted. My ottoman has become my sort and send for my seed trading, there are baggies of seeds everywhere.. Everywhere! My living room is littered with bubble evies... it is terrible.

Best part is, a friend of ours is in need of a place to stay for a little while so he;s moving in this weekend. I am going to go into cleaning shock... and yet I'm still determined to get in some yard work this weekend.

We'll see how things turn out... this is my first real garden (of my own) and the first time I've been completely responsible for so much (I'm kinda young still... just finished college and am starting out fresh... but with the love of my life so its all good!). I'm just looking forward to next spring, when I will have been properly prepared and things can really look nice :)

Kim (cottage style junkie and newbie)

This thread has made me lol more than once.

All I'll say is the cleanest room in the house right now is my soon-to-be 15 year old son's bedroom. Considering that until recently he hadn't picked up anything from the floor or vacuumed in three years (!) you can imagine my shame. (he has acquired a girlfriend which is why the sudden neat attack.)

But the gardens are looking good.

Love this thread. Can totally relate! Spring here in Australia. Hoping it doesn't rain as forecast, tomorrow, as I MIGHT have to do some cleaning.

Trish