Is Your Home "Drop In" Ready?

Now, yes. It never was, in the past. I am a SAHM now, so I have plenty of time. I NEVER was able to keep the house clean, when I worked. I have no idea how woman who work full time do it.

Usually its a 30 minute clean up needed. I have a 6 year old, 2 yr old, and a 10 week old and my husband works away from home for weeks to months on end. So needless to say, cleaning isnt always top on my list. My laundry room has a door on it so no one knows how much I hate doing laundry:) After reading responses, I think I am opposite most. I clean my bathrooms daily. I cant stand to think about sitting on a dirty toilet or looking into a dirty sink as I brush my teeth.

Not today. The bathroom sink is gross from my husband trimming his beard and not cleaning up after himself.

My home is always drop in ready. If you drop in then you need to BE READY to see how we really live! Which is comfortable, with toys everywhere and laundry that needs to be put away and sometimes there are dishes in the sink. I am not wonderwoman, nor do I profess to be a good housekeeper. I am me...messy and comfortable.
L.

Nope. It almost never is. I work, my husband works, we have two kids. I don't like to spend my life cleaning things. So my house is messy (not dirty, messy) because I don't like to spend my free time cleaning up after everyone else.

But, I have to agree with one of the other answers -- I think we need to go through and really purge everything out. If we had less "stuff" it would stay cleaner.

Pshaw. No.

Although, like you... it's not DIRTY, just messy.

I mop my floors every day, do laundry every day, clear off all the counters and flat surfaces every day... but my house is a little like the Beast's castle in Beauty and the Beast Disney version. Stuff walks around all on it's own. I sometimes feel like the villagers who have to beat the mess back with a stick. Back! Back I say!!!

I need a maid. I consider them a C.O.D. gift from god.

Yes. People pop in all the time.

If they've come to see me, they're welcome. If they've come to see the house, they can schedule an appointment for sometime next week.

My house is never drop in ready lol my mom pops by once a week usually and will text me 5mins ahead of being there ( HI hun gonna swing by and see the baby are you home?) lol This is when i tell hubby load the pack and play with everything in the living and push in in the spare room, so whatever is in the living room , clothes toys shoes mail lol gets thrown into the P&P while i clear the kitchen cabinets and hubby hits the bathroom w the cleaner spray lol Then mom walks in while im sweeping as i say o hey mom you caught my sweeping Logan (DS) just decided to pour cherrios all over the floor ( BS these have been here for 4 days lol) yep thats how my pop ins go lol....

Wow, I envy your strength and energy to keep your home clean like that. Seriously.
My home is never drop in ready. It's dirty AND messy. LOL!
I work full time and refuse to spend what little time I have with my son cleaning.
My husband does more than his fair share, but neither of us seems to really care much.
I mean don't get me wrong, if my son flings food everywhere or spills something we certainly clean it right away.
But dishes? Laundry? Yeah....you will typically see those strewn about. They get done when they get done....typically when DS is sleeping.
REAL cleaning? Doesn't get done unless we are having company over.
Which is always planned well in advance! LOL

Added: I actually like drop ins though. It makes me feel good, like "Wow, We have friends. People want to see us." Our neighbor just dropped in the other day and it was great because my husband had just so happened to clean the house the night before (I have a super special wonderful man :)) in preparation for his parents coming over. SCORE!

It's not usually so bad that I couldn't make it look respectable in 20 minutes (some clean laundry folded on the sofa or a basket waiting to be folded, a few pairs of shoes here and there, the kids' socks scattered where they took them off after taking off their shoes, a DS or ipod or charging cords/earbuds laying on a seating surface somewhere, some plates in the sink or unwashed coffee pot, a dog frisbee or two if we've brought them in from the yard).
It stays fairly cluttered with these things during the day, because we LIVE here and this is part of our life.

If someone drops by unannounced and I don't have 20 minutes to pick up (or get the kids to pick up) the clutter, then you get what you deserve for not calling first.

Now, to host an event, I would need 2 full days (with no one else home to interrupt me or require meals being prepared or activities to need transport to) to get it done. LOL

First of all, I HATE when people just drop in. I think it's rude and I would never do that. One time my husbands friend just showed up over here out of nowhere and my house was a disaster! I was out in the garage and I saw his car pull up and I went into a panic. I had a huge pile of dishes in the sink, the kitchen floor had crumbs everywhere, just huge messes everywhere. Of course his wife is a neat freak and so is he and their house is always spotless. That happened over a year ago and I think I'm scarred for life from it, because ever since then my house is always drop in ready!

In my 44 years I have never had a friend or family member just drop in. That being said, our house is not really "clean" but its picked up and I'm not embarrassed when people come over. I honestly dust about every 6 months and only mop the floors (we don't have any carpet in the house) when they need it, maybe every few weeks. We have Saltillo tiles which are disgusting and we hate them. We have a built in desk in our kitchen which is the "pile" of stuff. I dont really care who sees it. Our front room where the kids hang out and watch tv and wii is in good shape, its always picked up and its the room people walk into. our back room where hubby and i hang out is a little messier. like i have piles of stuff on our coffee table and my end table where i sit. I go thru and clean it up every couple weeks but then it gets like that again. Our kids are older so we don't have the toy issue, the kids stuff is all in their rooms. when they do bring stuff out, they know to take it in their room when they go to bed or it WILL disappear at night and they won't get it for a week. It only took them doing that a couple times before they learned to put stuff away...works like a charm. So I don't worry about the house but we have made a huge effort to downsize which has really helped being able to stay better on top of it. I feel bad for the crazy houses that are spotless, they don't feel like "home" to me and I feel bad for the people that live there because I think they don't really enjoy their life and cant just sit down and have some "me" time. I get lots of ME time and I love it! I can spend more time on the house when the kids are gone but right now they are my priority. =)

NOPE... and it's ok. It's clean, not dirty, but typically messy - toys, papers, shoes ... etc. We have 3 kids and a dog and both work full time... no cleaning lady (unless you count me). We LIVE in our house : )

I actually took pictures of my kitchen counters clean. THen I can look at them when I need to. Otherwise this week we are drying peppers and. have pepper jelly all over the place. I also have cupcakes on teh counter.
My sons bug collection is out. All of last weeks' papers and mail is all over the kirchen table. Along with a huge Biome project and solar system in the making.
And tonight my daughter is finishing up her pumpkin so the glue gun, paints and felt are all over the place.
THat's just the kitchen.

I don't worry about it. My family/friends know how busy we are. Our house [from what I'm told] is much neater than most people with 2 kids, but I have to remind them that we are both working parents and the kids are in school most of the day.

no no no. i dont like having to apologize - oh, sorry, just move that stack of laundry and have a seat! :)

One of the most embarrassing days of my life happened when my 2nd baby was 6 weeks old and my husband's brother "dropped in". My husband and him had taken our boy (who was almost 2 at the time) to go try on tuxedoes for his wedding, and I had made big plans to put the baby down for a nap and clean clean clean our nasty house (hey, i had a newborn and a toddler. It was pretty funky in there!). I ended up passing out on the couch in the living room out of shear exhaustion and woke up when my husband was standing over me saying "wow, you really didn't do ANYTHING but sleep did you?". Keep in mind that my baby was super colicky and I hadn't slept longer than a 1.5 hour stretch in 2 months. My brother in law doesn't have any kids, and his wife is a complete Type-A neat freak and his face was so disgusted at the site of our house. I started crying and pretended I heard the baby waking up so I went upstairs to finish. That was so horrible and embarrassing--now whenever I know his brother is coming over our house gets the cleaning of the century.

As long as said drop in guest stays in my living room, we would be fine. Venture into the halfway redecorated bathroom, the kitchen where a leak has oh so conveniently sprung under the sink, or the downstairs family area which has become the catch all for the things I need to sell or donate and I would be embarrassed. Not really because of the mess but because I am not doing anything about it. I am watching my daughter play tug o' war with the dog, having a cup of tea and messing around on the computer. My room is nice and clean. I even made the bed today. My youngest daughter's room is also looking fine. My oldest daughter's room has toys everywhere. She needs to pick them up this afternoon but she is a child so toys should be expected. And I am caught up on the laundry.

I don't like people coming by without calling first. I might be running around in my underwear, getting a shower, trying to get the girls settled down, trying to enjoy a moment of quiet, trying to get the little one to take a snooze, etc.

Nope it is not. I was sick yesterday so dishes are piled high, there are four loads of clean laundry that needs to be folded and the floor vaccumed. The house is for the most part clean, we are not living in filth, but I focus more on family and let the other stuff go. You can walk into my house and usually get "oh I am so glad I am not the only one with dirty dishes in the sink" and the other mom hugs me.

The bathroom is always a wreck (hubby makes such a mess) so as soon as I know someone is stopping by or randomly drops in I quickly excuse myself to use the bathroom and do a quick wipe down.

My mother kept a 'drop in' ready style home, b/c she had me and my sister to do all the work....

And you guessed it, now that we are gone, her house is a disaster, and she has no relationship with her kids.

The question you have to ask yourself, is....are you happy with how your family lives and operates and functions? Are you clean? It sounds like it. You're just cluttered. As children grow, all those toys get sent to the goodwill, or given to friends. You'll have more time to devote to sorting...

Focus on what's important. And break the jobs down into manageable sections. Focus on just one room for an entire week, or two weeks if that's the case. Get that one spot the way you like it, then move on to another area...but keeping the first area picked up with a 10 minute spot check every day.

Another easy rule: "A place for everything, and everything in it's place."

Get rid of stuff you really don't need. How many toys an one really play with?

For example, I took tons of books this summer in our RV for my daughter to read. She did not read ONE. I was unhappy. So I got rid of all the books and left just one...and you guessed it, she read it. Loved it. It was overwhelming for her to choose.

I work full-time, have 2 little boys and my husband works swing. My house is generally drop in ready. Yeah, there are toys out and sometimes piles of folded laundry on the couch, but I am ok with that. I love company and don't mind if someone stops by unexpectedly. We don't have it happen all that often b/c of where we live, but occasionally we do and I kind of like it :)

I'm not a fan of the "unannounced pop in" and I wouldn't do it to someone else. Seriously, in the world of cell phones & texting--there's no reason to do that.
But generally, yes, I would be OK, clean-house-wise, with someone popping in. In my case, it wouldn't be the clutter but the floors may need mopping. I try to keep my bathrooms clean enough so that a stranger could use either and I wouldn't be embarrassed.

I grew up in a very small, falling down around our ears house (parents divorced when I was 3..Mom had 4 kids, no means to support all of us, jerk of a dad, none of the skill or money required to maintain the house well, etc). There were always alot of people and some beloved pets. I always knew it was ramshackle but I grew up with more love and support then most people can attest to!

But as an adult, with OCD tendancies, my house is pretty neat. Not "super dusted, floors mopped every day, bathrooms scrubbed" clean, but no piles of laundry--perhaps a basket waiting for its owner to put it away that evening--no sinkful of dishes most times.

But I do home childcare, so things can't get out of hand anyways. We have a very minimalist design idea (if thats what you call it), so there is not alot of clutter and knick knacks and such to start with. Our child is 17 now so her mess is in her room (and it IS a mess..OMG).

But I always super stressed about my daughters pals (and meeting their parents, etc) when she started having them over in high school (shes not been very social till recently and now does regular baking and movie parties here as we aparently have more space than most?). But after seeing a few of her friends houses...one the Mom is even an Anesthetist Dr..a DR!! And their houses gross me out, I won't lie. Made me feel downright superior about my own home.

At the Dr house, not only were the parents super rude people, but the house/kitchen was so gross, that I made my daughter toss the cupcakes they had just made into the trash (I had to go get my dd and a friend from this house as the dad took the teen who lived there to a church function..and left these other 2 young teens at his house alone..then I went to get them as soon as I was told of this...and we had alot of our nice baking trays there, so I needed to get to the sink to rinse them..OMG..SO GROSS..and the Dad was a jerk, telling us to get out of his house. REALLY?? your daughter set this baking date up!)..OK..sorry....I got distracted.

But from what I have seen I am at least in the middle and drop ins are feasible without embarrasment, but I like warning. As much as possible!
After work or on weekends, we are usually in clean PJs/lounge clothes, but I am braless, no make up perhaps, etc. A 20 minute warning of a drop by would do wonders!

My house isn't always tidy but it's clean. If you mean drop-in ready per my MIL's standards, then no, it's not. She expects an immaculate home at all times even with messy, busy, noisy children. She's the type to follow around after children AS THEY MAKE A MESS with a dust pan and broom and to follow up with a wet paper towel AND mop. Everything in her "show kitchen" as well as her "functional kitchen" get wiped down to sparkling clean whether they've been used and touched or not. No one went in a room that hasn't been used in months? weeks? days? It gets vacuumed, dusted, and polished. Daily.

The entire house is ready for the Pope to visit any day now. You can seriously eat off of her floors. After my FIL's funeral last week one of my BIL's dropped some food on the floor and while we joked about how clean the floor was and how you could eat off of it... he actually did! In front of our aunts and cousins and MIL! We got a smile out of her. But my house will never be that ready for company even when I'm expecting company. :-)

I'm a decent housekeeper, but my fibromyalgia does limit me quite a bit in how long I can do certain things and what I can do some days. My husband helps a lot and the kids have been helping more. I take what I can get. As long as my home is clean, I'm happy.

Ugh, dishes are piled over and bathroom needs a good clean. Living room has some toys but over all is ok. I still wouldn't want someone to drop in right now, though.

You would have thought my husband having some time last night after work while I was with the girls getting haircuts (theirs & mine) for 1 1/2 hours would have done the dishes, nope, he decided to play his new video game. {{Sigh}}

No my home isn't drop in ready 90% of the time. If people drop in then they are dropping into a snap shot of your life. This is who we are ; this is how things have to roll. We may not like it but sometimes it's just the way it is so push aside a pile and take a seat. If you brought milk with you even better.

It should be a compliment that your friends feel so comfortable with you that they don't care and neither do you. That's real friendship. (messy and a bit dirty in the kitchen are one thing, really filthy no so OK!)

L.:

For the most part, my home is drop-in ready.

yeah, there might clutter in the den (that's a given) but overall? Is someone were to pop in right now? I'd be okay!

My kitchen floor RIGHT NOW is "dirty" because it's raining and I came in from outside. So to mop it now would be a wasted effort. I wait for it to dry and then vacuum it up!1

One great thing about my house...It never has to be "drop in" ready.
One , cause I don't have anyone here that would just drop in haha
Also, any of my friends, that live out of state know how a house with 2 little ones look.
So I don't care if they come over and there are toys everywhere.
I clean it up after the kids go to bed. No point in cleaning it during the day :)

I work 60+ hours a week (for right now any how) my husband works 40-45 hours a week and we have 4 kids. Laundry there is always a load that needs done, but I done one every night so it will be ready for the dryer in the morning. I seperate all of the clothing that needs to be hung up for one/two loads that are done on the weekend where I can hang them up asap. We do toy pick up's every night to keep the house presentable since the Nanny comes. We put our dishes in the dishwasher asap. I vaccume and mop about every week to week and a half. I try to change bed sheets every Saturday morning so I have all day to wash them. It also helps that I can do a huge load of laundry every time. O I clean the bathroom when my youngest is in the bathtub playing.

*MY FAV* We keep toys that aren't played with boxed up and put away so there is more room for us and for other toys. As they out grow them I put them in a box labeled as to what it is and who it belongs to so when they have kids I can hand them down.

Not usually, drop in ready but it is a goal of mine. I'm getting much better. I would say I'm at 60%, depending on differing standards. I don't mind if people drop by, as long as they don't care what my house looks like.

Guess what, friend just called & said couple minutes away , wanted to stop by. Luckily, today I'm in the 60 % region.

One of the best things I read (and now I can't remember) where is about the "Martha Stewart complex" that exists in our society. We watch HGTV and Food Network and all these shows that depict a parallel universe where homes look like nobody lives in them. I would much rather have our friends and family feel welcome, regardless of what they find when they arrive, than to only allow them to stop in when everything is perfect (since it never is!). That being said, I do find a planned visit by someone special to be the best motivator to take care of the clutter that's been nagging for too long ;)

Oh yeah, I'm also all for using the fancy china and placemats (since the tablecloths don't coexist with little ones who can yank 'em off the table) for visits, be they fun or formal. No reason to save the "good" stuff for something better to come.

As for the toys, I find a great barometer of our friends ease with themselves and others is how quickly they drop down to the floor to play with whatever the kids were using just prior to arrival ;)

I guess my final thought is that some of our best evenings have been when someone stopped in "just to say hi" or to drop off something and stayed for hours. We enjoyed their company, whatever we threw together to eat, and loved that we could welcome them into our - completely disorganized, cluttered, warm and friendly - home. So stop fretting, Martha, and smile at your drop-ins (or give them a hug), open the door wide, and don't bother to apologize for living your life...

If people show up unannounced at my house they are not let in - sorry - my home is NEVER drop in ready. lol

I do have a cleaning lady that comes every other week so on the days she shows up it looks real good - two days later - disaster.

You are not alone... :-)

NOPE! Work every day, and take care of the house! Although I stress to make it so by 10 am everyday :) BUT I never judge others if I drop IN!!

Never. And even though most folks would not expect us to be drop-in ready, I would still not feel comfy if someone just showed up unannounced. I can't imagine just dropping in on another family either.

Ooooo!!! I HATE, I mean HATE when people "drop in." It makes me really angry. They should call or text first (and wait to get a reply with texting). My home isn't "drop in" ready either and it probably never will be. Life gets busy.

.

I do not know how working families hold it together. Do the kids have chores? Or is it all you, L.?

I have to admit that with my husband away from Monday to Friday, I've let a few things go. So, no. Right now, not drop in ready. If you came into my house from the front door, you'd first see the playroom - not dirty, but strewn with toys. I mean, almost hard to walk through toys. Then the dining room, a little dusty, with mail and a two week old art project on the table. The guest room has clean folded clothes on it, ready to be put away. The bathroom has some dried toothpaste in it, but otherwise pretty clean. The toilet could use a once-over. The kitchen has the dishes done, but you've caught me on a good day. The kitchen table is clean but a few crumbs are visible from today's lunch. The TV room has throws still balled up unfolded on the couch, two week old dust, spiderman slippers, a whole stack of library books, and a basket next to the door spilling over with shoes.

I am a bit of a hermit. I like to keep to ourselves most of the time. But I do like people to come over on occasion and I would just rather like the bathroom to smell clean and the toys a bit more organized.

Well, I would definitely have to spend an hour or two cleaning.
Now that you mention it, I do need to do some cleaning because my parents will be over for 2 weeks helping me with the baby. The baby will be here in 2 weeks, by the way.

Usually yes... I keep the 'living areas' of the house pretty clean and tidy all the time. My bathroom? No promises, because that's my husband's job. But there are never stacks of dishes in the sink or piles of dirty laundry all over the place, if anything, you're going to trip on a few toys ;)

I have an 1100 sq ft house with three people, four dogs, and 15 cats living in it, so it's always in need of some sort of cleaning or another. No one who knows me comes to my house expecting a Martha Stewart experience. And those who know how much I'm in and out know better than to drop by without calling first to make sure I'm even home.

My house looks lived in, not model home clean. I try to keep it 20 min from being clean, if we do have company on the way. I definetely keep the bathroom clean at all times, because it never fails, that is the one place that company always needs to use. I feel more comfortable if my house is picked up. My kids have things lying around, as much as I try to keep it in their rooms, it always spills out, to the rest of the house. Oh well, they are only small once.

I have 5 kids under 8, I work full time plus and my husband works almost full time......I always have clean laundry folded in baskets next to the couch, school papers on the bar, random toys dropped wherever my son drops the(gotta love 18 month old babies!)......my house is clean as far as the floor, toilets and dishes.......but it is definitely lived in and I find it very embarrassing but just don't have the energy to clean and organize better

Yes, but I'm a little OCD, lol.... My house is always clean.. I'm a SAHM though.. I do have 1 child, 1 husband,2 dogs, 1 cat, and iguana to keep up with..
With that being said, I DO NOT like people just dropping by... It's a pet peeve of mine~

We make sure everything for the most part is picked up before bedtime the night before. then at least it's not too much of a disaster the next day :) the kids do their stuff and we do the kitchen, etc. our kids are 5 & 2

Mine is much better now thanks to another mama on here that reccommended flylady.net
Check it out. Just take baby steps and create new habits. It's not easy to create new habits as adults but you can do.
:)

Great website www.flylady.net - check it out!!

Um, no. LOL. My home is almost never drop-in ready!

HA!! Yeah, no. Definitely not "drop-in" ready. And I don't like drop-ins, as a general rule. I don't like it the other way around, either. (As in, I don't like to just drop in on others.)

Nope! But I made a commitment that if anyone does drop in, I don't apologize for my house. I have active young kids and that's life, if you want it clean, call first ;)

I LOVE to drop by my family & friends homes unannounced, but haaate when it happens to me. And when I look around at the homes I'm dropping in on there actually is alot of daily clutter and mess, but ironically it makes me feel more relaxed and comfortable. This is their life and I just popped in. If it looks neat tidy and you smell windex, you'd be scared to drop something on the floor or leave a dish behind right? So I say, clean as you go and when a guest shows up offer them a drink and always have a box to oven dessert on hand.