Well, good thing it's growing season, right? How long do you plan on staying in this place? Ask the landlord if you can take the cost off the rent if you plant grass...go with bermudagrass. It grows fast, fast, FAST, and since you won't be buying this place, you don't have to worry about it. It's going to eventually come up anyway. It's indestructible. Bad part is, it dies down in the winter, but it still holds the sand in place while it's doing it. Just want to tell you though, that if you live in FL, you are going to have weeds and sand..it's just the way it is. The sand comes in from everywhere. It doesn't matter how much grass you have, sand will blow into your house at some point. They say dust is made from dead skin cells. With all the elderly people here, I guess that explains why there is so much. (no offense, I'm contributing to that dust too!)

Entling, Small world, we used to live in Arl Hts. Have you tried looking for a high school kid in their neighborhood? That used to work for me. If you know of anyone who lives in Surrey Ridge West (just south of Northwest Community Hospital), the homeowners association has a directory of people living there, and in the back is a list of kids that will do yard work. I guess that other homeowner associations might have something similar.

Hi, I'm new here. I've been looking online for ways to cope with living with a very sloppy person. It seems nearly impossible to change a slob. I found one site about living with a sloppy partner. I have read such sad accounts, couples that marry (I guess totally unaware of how the other really keeps house), and end up divorcing. I notice that mostly, the tidy, organized person, the one who prefer to live in a sanitary and orderly house, ends up having to change, ends up having to relax their standards, ends up having to back down, and having to live in silent frustration. It seems so unfair, how slobs are able to have/take such control. They dictate how things are going to be, how things going to look, smell, etc. Slobs don't see a need to change how they are, all they have to do is drive the clean person crazy. My daughter and her child and I share a rental since she split up with her bf. Every day I wake up and cringe, dreading what the day will hold. It starts with my daughter never waking to my gd crying and screaming. I have to go in her room to wake her and I dread it because I just know I'm going to have an out of body experience. The smell of her room hits me as I open the door. This sets me off. She doesn't bother to flush her toilet. She lived in poverty with her bf for several years and developed some really bad habits, like half the time they didn't have tp, so she doesn't always bother to use it. Her floor always has junk thrown about, clothes all over, clean mixed with dirty, who know which is which, dirty silverware and drinking glasses she has repeatedly been asked not to take to her room, pop cans spilled or half full and just waiting to be spilled by her child. A big stinky mess, squalor. And there she is snoring away, none of this bothering her, not even a bit. Sigh She makes a mess in every other room, has to be reminded to clean up after herself, or she won't do it. Her cleaning up after herself barely qualifies as cleaning. She works full-time and goes to school, so she is busy, but she uses this as an excuse every time we get into it over her piggish ways. We get into some big screaming matches, and I'm always the loser. Nothing ever changes. She might go to her room and make an angry attempt at straightening out, but not really cleaning, slamming things and yelling so I hear her. I feel like I'm living with a child, not a young adult. I'm having to parent her, and should not have to. I'm near retirement age with my many joint pains, it was a struggle to keep up with my own chores when I lived alone. and now I feel like I work nonstop and get nowhere. I'm sad and angry over all of this, and when depression sets in, it really affects how I feel and what I'm able to do. None of this filth bothers her. Her brand new car, the new car smell has been replaced with the smell of rotting food. She is so gross. I sometimes lose my mind, especially when the smell from her room makes it's way downstairs. I have simply lost it and have started cleaning her room while she's at work, because I just can't take it anymore. I have found dirty diapers tossed in the cabinet under the sink, pads with dried blood thrown on the floor by the toilet, scum with hair, dried toothpaste and makeup on every inch of her sink. I can't understand how someone can live comfortably in such an unsanitary environment. Disgusting. Thanks for reading my long vent about what I'm living with. Thank you for your comments.

My heart breaks for you. I've been married for a year and my husband's daughter (32) and son (37) hate me and shun us. They don't even know me. It's been so sad. Then recently, I said to my husband, "If I'd had to live in the same house with them, it would have been a nightmare! And your ex is in another state (and they don't speak to her, either), so I really have it very easy." What I'm hearing is that you need space from the stress. I do think the last entry is correct - it's time for the adult children to find their own homes - and change the locks, which I am in the process of doing, myself, because even though we don't live in the family home, the stepkids think they can walk in at any time! If there is no repect, they have no right being in the parental home. No matter what, it is always hard for adult women to share a home. And children do not become adults until they leave. I hope your husband will support you in this. I work in a coporate setting where a number of young women have children to raise alone, and they find all sorts of assistance, through the company and otherwise. Perhaps you could quietly research what's available for the daughter. In the process you might find out resources for yourself, as well. At the very least, you need to have some rest - a space of your own in the home. Chronic money problems are grinding. So many adult women in your home and your feeling disrespected is for crazy-making. You must have support from your husband with all of the women. You must work as a united team. We can't make people treat us with respect, but we can make them live with the repurcussions.