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3.25.2009

Boring Women Have Clean Houses - Calling all slobs! Giveaway Contest



A friend of mine and I often commiserate about the upkeep of our homes. We both agree that caring for and teaching the kids is our top priority, and with 7 kids between us - the housecleaning can fall by the wayside.

Our husbands believe a cleaning lady will be the answer to our prayers, but us girls aren't convinced. We've both had some bad experiences (um, stealing and shortcuts ring a bell?) and feel like it sends the wrong message to our kids. She voiced it perfectly as she asked: We're here to work together as a family to make this home run smoothly...do we really want to leave the hard parts to a cleaning lady? Don't we want our kids to learn how to clean up after themselves, know how to do laundry, take pride and care for their belongings? Do we want them to just hire people for the yucky parts? (Husbands vote yes, moms vote no)

I'm not going to lie, I struggle with it but I can't bring myself to let someone into my home again. This is my sanctuary, I want to feel safe and if I'm doing it among crumbs...so be it.

I've mentioned the sign that rests above my kitchen sink: "Boring Women Have Clean Houses". I saw the quote one day and it just spoke to me. The sign came about as the result of an argument about the messy house, you know, stick it to the man? I'm compulsive, creative, messy...sometimes I really mean to clean the house but I get a really great idea that I. Must. Complete. I get tunnel vision and pretty soon, the floor isn't vacuumed. I can't help it! Notice the dishes in the sink, I'm keeping it real.

One of my fave blogging chicks Whimsy Girl is a kindred spirit in many ways including her struggle with the mess that tends to build up. She had a call on her blog for Couch Cooties and when I saw what she pulled out of her cushions, I knew I had a (pretend) friend for life (who has no idea who I am). I hope she doesn't mind, but I am about to steal her fantastic idea for a contest. Hey, Big Guy, it made me clean under the cushions...Bonus!

This is going to benefit us all, see, you can win your own "Boring Women Have Clean Houses" sign (to stick it to the man) and I will not feel like the only slob in the world. We will scratch each others backs on this one. Yeah. (that is actual laundry from my vacation)



This is what you have to do:

Respond to this post with a story about or picture of your own mess, it can be your junk drawer, a messy room, your own couch cooties... I don't care, just give me some messy love! If you post about this contest in your own blog I will enter your name twice (link me, baby)! If you can come up with other messy quotes for me to use I will enter your name three times, hell yeah!

I will randomly select a winner On April 7th, just in time for spring cleaning. Due to the shipping, I will have to limit this contest to those in the U.S., you understand, right? Make sure I have some way of contacting you of a win, either a link to your blog or an email address.

To get the ball rolling, here are my "couch cooties" brought out from hiding for your perusal. A pencil, a playing card, a Yu Gi Oh card that I swear my kids haven't played with in a year, a pencil, a feather (?), a tuft of fuzz (maybe from a stuffed animal), a card listing all the states and capitals, a dog chew that looks like a turd, a quarter (cha-ching!), a Chinese relaxation ball, and an hour glass from the dentist to help the kids brush their teeth long enough (Yeah, brushing on the couch? I think not, nice try Dr. McKee) and while we're at it, do you remember this post?



Good luck and happy messes! For a another contest to enter your own "green" projects, check out ChicaandJo

15 comments:

  1. Hhmmmm miss......this may be a tough one for me!! We'll see what I can come up with!!! :) plus...I think I need a tutorial on how to put a link on my blog!!!!! :)

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  2. So sorry I won't be able to join you. You see, even with a full-time teaching job and a two year old, I manage to keep my house immaculate. I come home everyday, and clean while I play with Sam. I simply don't understand not being able...blah, I can't even write that with a straight face! I've already taken my pictures and I'll post as soon as Sam goes to bed. ...if I can pull myself away the TV! God forbid I actually do some cleaning...

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  3. Great post! I give you credit. At our house, we often just say that there isn't enough time in the day. LOL.

    Your husband may not like this, but I say maybe he should clean.

    I do (and enjoy - I might add) all the cleaning in our house. My wife does a lot and when we split up the household responsibilities, cleaning fell to me, which was fine. But now I've kind of become OCD. LOL Hey, at least the house is clean. Anyway, was just giving your hubby a hard time.

    BTW, I fired an old housekeeper for stealing a DVD a few years ago!

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  4. Oh where to begin?? I just tonight had a complete melt down in front of my kids about the mess of too many toys in this house!! I feel like they are consuming me. Then there are the "junk" drawers that have led into the "junk" closets. I try to be an organized person but as soon as you feel like you have made a dent in one room the others fall apart!! I have 3 boys also and most days there isn't much picking up going on!!
    Anyway I will post a link on my blog and send some pics soon!
    You are not alone!!

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  5. Hey sister, I couldn't agree/sympathize more.

    For reasons that I can not divulge here, I took this photo of my husband's "side of the bed" I'm refusing to touch it..again, for reasons I will not divulge, but you can figure it out. He doesn't quite seem to get that a cleaning lady would do nothing with this heap of crap either.

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  6. I have two boys (well 3 if you count the hubby) that simply refuse to pick up behind themselves. So I completely feel you girl! I have a spare bedroom which has now been turned into a storage/junk room by my boys and hubby. I should take a picture of it but the batteries on the camera are dead and payday is a few days away. I love the sign!

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  7. I just started reading your blog because I saw your photo plaques on etsy and fell in love. I think I'm going to order one for my best friend's wedding, but I have to find a quote first!

    Anyway, I don't have any kids yet, but I do have a 3 month old puppy and my friends and I joke that if he's a big enough handful that I don't have time to clean, I will never have a clean house once I start having kids (granted, years and years from now). One of our favorite things to say is, "A clean room is a characterless room," and that's kind of become my mantra about cleaning... Why strip my apartment of character? So, that's me submitting a messy quote you can use :)

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  8. Let me tell you about mess - I have a 7 year old, 4 year old, 20 month, 7 month old, and another on the way. Mess defines me.

    I found this contest just minutes after finishing up cleaning my van. Underneath one of the baby's car seats, I found anentire eight ounce bottle of milk - minus the bottle. It looked like yellow cottage cheese, and if the health department saw it, they'd condemn my van for sure. the thing is, no one has had a bottle inthe car for at least a month. (My little baby nurses and my big baby is weaning off the bottle.)

    I'm taking it in for a steam clean this afternoon. yuck.

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  9. I had always been the clean one, the organized one, the “Don’t forget to take your shoes off” one…and then I had my son! With him, came scattered toys, muddy footprints, food-covered hands/clothes/hair (gasp!)…I had two choices, either waste precious moments chasing him around with Clorox Anywhere Spray, or learn to love the mess. So I chose the latter. To me, the mess means we’re enjoying his childhood, because one day, he’ll be grown up, and I will have a clean house…and I will wish for the refrigerator handprints to come back…

    Here is a picture of my mess…and I love every bit of him: Oreo-kisses and all! (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-ho8njyEcGk/SdYVFDfKaaI/AAAAAAAAB40/0mThOjZeaqw/s1600-h/messy_jack.JPG)

    And here are a few “Messy” quotes I’ve come up with:

    Messiness (or cleanliness) is a matter of perspective…

    I’d rather be happy than clean…

    I clean in my spare time…(Hence the mess!)

    You see a mess…I see life enjoyed!

    NOTICE: Handprints on the wall are intentional (I can’t vouch for the laundry)

    I’ll clean the house right after…

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  10. Oh it is so nice to know that I am not alone in the world. I have found my soul sisters!!!! My husband always says if I just kept the house clean I'd be the perfect wife--but I just tell him perfection is boring! I am way too embarrassed to take a picture or even tell you how infrequently I sweep out my kitchen/dining room, but my husband was teasing my son today about rubbing dirt on a booboo (long story...) and so he told him to go in the kitchen to get some dirt! If I didn't know how much he loved me, I might actually get mad...but I still probably wouldn't clean up any better!
    kellbell_6@hotmail.com

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  11. Done! Finally posted! Let's not talk about the fact that it's the last day of the contest...mmmkay? Sorry!

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  12. Oops! Here's the link to my entry!
    http://brightfishfamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/read-at-your-own-risk.html

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  13. A picture is worth a thousand words:

    The area in front of my couch:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk353/nfmgirl/IMG_2665.jpg

    My office, where I haven't even begun to unpack yet:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk353/nfmgirl/IMG_2669.jpg

    My boyfriend's room, where he has been storing his stuff:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk353/nfmgirl/IMG_2668.jpg

    My laundry room, with more boxes I brought in from the garage in hopes of unpacking them:
    http://i308.photobucket.com/albums/kk353/nfmgirl/IMG_2670.jpg

    Is that enough? Or do you need more? You'll want to party with me! I am the least boring woman around! I have the pictures to prove it!

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  14. How did I miss this? Anyway, I don't have a picture, but I inherited my cleaning ability from my mother.

    When we dated my husband used to say that when it was time to clean the house, my mother would just redecorate instead. I kind of like that philosophy, so you can reword that anyway you'd like and use it as a quote because it's SO true.

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  15. This is so weird because I recently took a picture of my "crafting area" which is basically my desk. I'm way to ashamed to put it up but there is tons and tons of stuff all over my drawers, shelves and table top. Here's a sampling:
    Origami paper, small boxes, pretty tiny bags, make up, random crochetted things, 4 scissors, folders, books, eyeball keychain, pens/pencils/markers/tissue paper/ rubber bands, modge podge, 2 bottles of elmer's...

    list goes on. I never really clean it up becuase if I do I can't find a thing. =D

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