Here's a question for you to answer. Ready? Gonna tell the truth?
What's the one spot in your home that would embarrass you terribly if an acquaintance saw it?
I'll be the first to be brave and answer my own question.
Under the bathroom sink.
Okay, you wouldn't find any skeletons or shameful secret things there. Just the usual. You know, toilet bowl brush and cleaner, plunger, sponge for cleaning the sink, bottle of Windex, roll of paper towels, shower stall cleaner spray bottle, small bottle of Ivory liquid soap used for washing out my unmentionables in the sink, etc.
But how often do I pull everything out and clean the floor?
The answer is not nearly often enough. As I happened to (really) look under there this morning I thought, yep, that would be my most embarrassing spot.
But wait. Nope. Maybe there is somewhere else that is . . . dum-da-dum-dum . . . worse.
Ooooh, ya. Under. our. king-size. bed.
Oh, my.
What could be there that would be embarrassing, you ask?
Eight boxes of flooring that we purchased and planned on installing on the bedroom floor. Maybe six years ago? Okay, eight. Two big rolls of the foam underlayment for same floor installation.
A box of candles of all assorted shapes and sizes. A box of packages of assorted construction paper. A box of tissue paper. What? You don't store these things under your bed?
A box of my mother's cookbooks I brought home with me when we cleared out her apartment after her death. In 1997.
A scale. Which I have not stepped foot on for somewhere around ten years. Why? I'm petrified thinking of what I would be forced to face if I did.
Two storage tote boxes of my husband's shoes which will be in very good condition for the rest of his life. Because I think there are only two pairs that I've seen him pull out and wear on rare occasions since he retired eleven years ago.
But the really embarrassing thing that is under the bed is the herd of rapidly multiplying dust bunnies. I obviously clean under there less frequently than I do under the bathroom sink.
Now it's your turn. What is the spot in your home you would least want a (snoopy) guest to see? Tell the truth. I'll keep it as our little secret and won't share it with anyone else. (Hee-hee.)
I have so many of them that it would be pointless to try and choose! Teenage son's room and/or bathroom usually rank right up there, but he recently "cleaned" them so they aren't QUITE as bad.
ReplyDeleteUnder my kitchen sink! Too many cleaners, etc, next on my list to reorganize...
ReplyDeleteMichelle - Somehow I don't think a teenager's room can be blamed on the mother! And I cannot believe you are the kind of housekeeper that would have "so many" areas you would be embarrassed to have a visitor see. You'd have to prove that to me with pictures!
ReplyDeleteNancy - I think there's something basically ugly about the pipes under a sink! How can you keep that area looking nice?? Besides which, if under your kitchen sink is full of too many cleaners . . . hey, I think that's an oxymoron!
Ha – like I'd show you PICTURES!!! I think it's precisely BECAUSE I'm inclined to be the kind of housekeeper who wants everything neat and clean – and live in a house (with a wood-burning stove in the dusty countryside) with two other humans (plus two dogs and a parakeet) who don't do things the way I wish and ask – that I would be so embarrassed to have visitors see so many areas of my house. Make sense?
ReplyDeleteMichelle - I know exactly what you mean about wood heat being "dirty." I know for a fact that in summer time we track in more grit and grime from outside -- as opposed to winter when we always have boots on outside and remove them when coming in, even if it's only "clean" snow on our boots. In the winter I can sweep the kitchen floor every morning and gather up an unbelievable amount of stuff I call dirt bunnies. It's not gritty, and not fluffy like dust. Hard to describe but I know it's from the wood heat 'cause it's not there in the summer. Good gosh, doesn't that sound like we live in filth!?!
ReplyDelete-grinnnn- We are both in a question asking mood, this evening I see!!!!!!! Yours is light. Mine is heavy. But... Both can make us, uncomfortable. (Great minds running in similar circles or something like that, maybe...?)
ReplyDeleteHow many such spots, are we allowed to have??????
'Cause I have more than one!!!!!
All places where cleaning products are kept. Isn't that weird? Cleaning products often sit in dark and dingy places. Hmmmmmmm....
Oh how about behind a couch???? Surely I am not the only person, who has discovered, how many things can be slid in there! Not seen by anyone. Not remembered, by me.
"True Confessions" and all that jazzzzzzzzz.....
"A box of my mother's cookbooks I brought home with me when we cleared out her apartment after her death. In 1997."
ReplyDeleteBingo!!!!!!!!
On my latest post!!!!!
The basement. The entire, disorganized 'it's down here somewhere' basement.
ReplyDeleteI have a definite dread to ever tidy the spare bedroom closet... Stuff just winds up in that thing, and when I finally clean it out each spring, you can't imagine what treasures I remember I had...Jeepers!...Lol!
ReplyDeleteRe: Your comment in my blog...
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I have more than one stash of old photos!!!!!!
Many, with no identifying info, both old family ones, and mine. -sigh- What an accumulation!!!!
It would have to be my entire house! It's so small and there are four people trying to cram all their stuff in it. Things get put in boxes and put away never to be seen again. I'm always embarrassed when people come over because we don't have anywhere for them to hang their coats or put their shoes or even a comfy chair to sit in. We only have a three person couch and a computer chair in our living room so we have to drag kitchen chairs into the living room when people visit.
ReplyDeleteI only have to pick one? ;)
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Oh my. My sink cupboards are tidy as of now, but boy, under the bed would be one, the utility room two, the garage three.....
ReplyDeleteThe closets in the two guest bedrooms. Why do I keep clothes that don’t fit and probably will never fit again?! I’ve started a donation purge. So far there are four pairs of shoes and two purses. On to the clothes. Everything else that I haven’t dealt with is in there too ... broken suitcases, yarn remnants, clothing patterns that I couldn’t fit my big toe in, a lot of stuff!
ReplyDeletewisps of words - Oh, yes! Behind my couch. No room to put anything there as it's smack up against a wall, but I KNOW the dust/dirt behind it must be atrocious as I haven't moved it in over a year. Maybe more. Uh-oh.
ReplyDeletetpals - We did some reorganizing of sheds, attic, storage areas this past summer and some stuff came out of our small basement and other stuff got put down there. But has the basement been newly sorted and organized as we said we'd do this winter? Ooops, not yet. :o\
wyomingheart - I wish we had a spare bedroom with closet in which to stash stuff! However, I have a feeling we'd do the same as you tend to do. Ugh. Not good.
Sparkless - Oh, for sure, not having enough space to begin with is a challenge. I read once that you don't need that much living space IF you have adequate storage space. Like outside sheds or buildings. Our living room is like you describe yours. If we have more than two people as company, we have to drag in kitchen chairs so everyone can sit down!
Leigh - Haha! As I read these comments, I am reminded of a bunch of other places I wouldn't want anyone to see!
Kristina - Sounds as though none of us should have snoopy company in until we do some work! :o}
Katie C. - Oh, the outdated/no longer suitable clothes we do keep! I used to love shoes, but have defective feet that have gotten worse as time goes on so that the only shoes I can wear are ones that my orthotics fit in. Which means I have many boxes of really nice shoes I should get rid of. But I can't seem to do it! (You have TWO guest bedrooms?! I am bright green with envy!!)
Under kitchen and bathroom sinks, the garage, basement. Gee it seems like a lot of areas. The basement is storage from my sister and my two daughters and some of mine. The garage is full of my Mom's furniture, from when she died in 2009, plus all gardening supplies and four pallets of wood pellets for the pellet stove. It goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteLynne - I guess we can safely assume there's no room in the garage for your vehicle? ;o) It's hard enough to sort, organize and clean areas when it's our own stuff, but add the fact that you're storing things for others . . . ooof, that's a hard one to handle. Sounds like we've all got work to do. (Or ignore for a while longer.) :o\
ReplyDeleteMy back entry way/mud room, which of course is the room they are most likely to see. I know why they call it a mudroom. It's why I appreciate advance notice from anyone stopping by. Sacks of bird feed, mail waiting to open, shoes, boots, floor to mop, and now I'm seeing a cobweb in the corner in the middle of one of the worst winters!
ReplyDeletePhil - Yes, entry rooms or mud rooms are natural collectors of all sorts of "necessary" things. And have you noticed when more than one person comes in via said room, there's never enough room for all the bodies to easily remove boots or articles of clothing? Same when they try to leave. I suppose when you consider the area is usually used by only one person or perhaps two at a time it would be a waste to have a bigger more spacious area. I think our entry room is made all the more difficult because you have to step up one step out of that room into the kitchen. Oh well. Nothing is perfect!
ReplyDeleteHmm, now that the junk room is cleaned out it would have to be the laundry room.
ReplyDeleteJ.L. Murphey - If you have the "junk room" cleaned out, I'd say you're ahead of the game! I think the secret for all of us is to keep the cleaned out area . . . well, cleaned out! Somehow those areas are prone to revert back to their earlier stage, have you noticed? ;o)
ReplyDeleteHow about my HOUSE?
ReplyDeleteSusan - I do not for one second believe that. So there.
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love Susan!! She's great!!
ReplyDeleteLynne - She's one of a kind! Wish their were more of her in the world. She does such a good job of turning lemons into lemonade and giving the rest of us a smile or chuckle or ray of sunshine with every blog post.
ReplyDeleteYour so right Mama Pea. Susan does just that! Iwish there were more people in the world like her too !!
ReplyDeleteWhere do I begin? There are too many to count! My crafts room is messy but all over the house the carpet is filthy and the walls all need painting and under the sinks....yes...can I stop now? Closets except my bedroom because I just cleaned it out....the garage? Yikes! I better go now and get busy! LOL!
ReplyDeleteLate to the party as usual.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on worrying what people think about my house years ago I figure they’re here to see me not what’s under my sink or under my bed.
Actually my Achilles’ heel is my barn. I will clean my barn for hours before I go people come to look at goats my house now not so much. 😂
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ReplyDelete