I am so random. I act like changing the sheets on four beds deserves an “Extreme Home Makeover!!!” moment.
Although I’m grasping the concept of the need for daily tasks slowly but surely, I am still so incredibly random when it comes to non-daily tasks.
I love clean first-night sheets. Oprah once said something about changing her sheets every two or three days, because you know, that brand new sheet feeling starts going away after that. Thankfully, even her expert organizational/cleanliness guest looked at her like she was crazy for that one.
But there should be some time frame. I change my sheets when the mood hits. I might change them again in a week, or it might be two, or even three or ?. Only time will tell.
This is one of my problems. I’m so random on the tasks that don’t have to be done daily to avoid a pile-up. I’m random on the daily tasks too if I don’t stay conscious of them, hence the blog. But the ones that some people do weekly can slip my mind for a very . . . long . . . time.
I know that the organizational experts, even the ones who are former slobs and get what it’s like to be me, all encourage some sort of system. Note cards or binders or whatever. Honestly, this is the part in reading their stuff that make my brain start to feel all jiggly. I usually skip that chapter and think I’ll come back to it later, when I can really absorb it, you know.
I heard a speaker say once that a home can run for a very long time on mini-maintenance. That’s what I’m hoping for with focusing on the daily tasks. It’s helped ever so much in making our home not be a disaster area. But, I do have dreams of being able to know, without getting out a calendar to try to remember what big events we had at our house last month, when was the last time I cleaned the bathrooms.
I’d like to clean the bathtub even when there isn’t a layer of leg-hair-infused-soap-scum on on it.
No solution today, just something that I need to start thinking about.
Ok. That comment about the layer of leg hair infused soap scum literally made me laugh out loud. Hysterical! Maybe because I can relate?! 🙂
As for the sheets, I change them every Monday. Without fail. I love clean sheets and actually look forward to Mondays so I can sleep on them. Yes, it's weird…I'm definitely aware.
Your honesty about your house is refreshing. 🙂 Can't wait to come back and take a look around!
-Lauren
(Mama Laundry)
I so love reading your blog because (a) you write well and (b) you seem to have the *exact same* issues that I do. So, at least if I'm a slob (hangs head in shame), I'm in good company! There's great comfort in that. I'm the same way with my sheets — from much preferring that clean-sheet feel (ah, crisp white sheets from Lands End, how I love you) to thinking I practically deserve an award for changing them once a… well, less frequently than weekly.
I was thinking about this whole issue in respect to my husband and me. He's also a slob. But he's a happy slob. The mess doesn't faze him in the least. Clean sheets, dirty sheets… mah, whatever. I mean, when I change them, he likes it, of course. But it doesn't *bother* him when I don't. Me, on the other hand, this stuff nags at me and makes me feel like a flunkie.
MJ, I'm afraid that may just be called "being a man." heehee Thanks so much for your kind words, they mean a lot.
Sheets are not a big deal for me and I change them pretty regularly. If I can't get to the sheets (and I didn't today because I was doing 5 loads of laundry!), I'll at least change the pillow cases. I do change the towels regularly though (one of the loads of laundry today so they'll be ready for the next time I change them).
The big thing that has me off balance this weekend is "Christmas undecorating". The tree decorations and lights are down and wrapped up to put away. The tree is out for recycling (sorry to see it go, it was a beauty), and the living room and porch are swept as free of pine needles as can be (I'm sure I'll find a few strays in the corners for months). The living room furniture is back in place, but I still need to take down the banister decorations, put away the angels, change the mantel from Christmas to snowmen, etc. However, the big thing, the tree is done, as are the dishes, the five loads of laundry, and tomorrow's lunches.
I am so glad I found your blog. It's so obvious that you and I aren't alone in our cleaning issues.
i found your blog from your link to your pantry challenge update, and i'm so very glad! i'm a slob, too. well, maybe i'm not a slob exactly, but i am lazy, and my husband is definitely a slob, and those two do NOT go well together for keeping our house in order! it's funny, though. before he married me, DH changed his bedsheets every sunday. it was his routine. we started off our marriage with this routine, and with him doing most of his own laundry, but that's changed over the past 2 years to me doing almost all of the laundry, which means the sheets don't get changed every sunday. sometimes not even every other sunday. i think i need to start making and following a list, too.
Hi Mar and Amy, I'm glad you found me too!
Not sure how I found your blog.. but i love it! I work with people who hoard as as social worker, I can relate both personally and professionally to so many of the posts I have read so far! Lucky for me I have a very anxious husband who loves to clean — haha which we often fight about, but who also keeps things on track in our house. The sheets on the other hand- well yes, I do it RANDOMLY -no system and definitely not often.
Keep up the good work!
Laurie
I’m so glad you found me, Laurie! I know your job must be a difficult one.
I know this post is old, but I totally changed EVERYONE’S sheets today and was a little bit bummed when the parade didn’t march through my upstairs hallway!!!! My sheets get changed…. every….. um…. whenever I um…. yeah, enough said.
So, how often do NORMAL people change their sheets? I grew up in a house where we might go months between sheet changes, so I honestly don’t know.
I’ve heard once a week or every two weeks. I’ve heard . . . .
Since I am reading backwards after just finding you, this may be totally irrelevant now, but I can tell you what works for me for a few “random tasks.”
I am one of “them” instead of a slob, but I have health issues that have made keeping up with housework incredibly difficult. Changing the bed is one of the worst. It’s a king size bed. Takes a lot of TIME. And EFFORT. and it can WEAR. ME. OUT. just doing that. Which makes it easy to put off. Which then makes you wonder how long it has been since the last time????? (ick….)
I have learned that some things I will do more often if I am able to, but I have an idea of “it has to be at Least this often.” So, I do laundry once a week. On the first week of the month that I am doing laundry, I strip my bed, turn my mattress, and remake it with our second set of sheets. Then, I know it gets done at least that often. Yes, I would like to, and sometimes DO get it done more often, but I know that I get at least that done, and I don’t really have to think much about it, (no list or anything), ’cause I have a set time.
I also have a plant I have to water about every 10 days. I just figured on or about the 10th, 20th and 30th, I water it.
Hope that helps!
I LOVE your blog, I love your honesty, and your humor. You make my day 🙂
Yes, that works for me too! Having a set day for things helps so much. And thanks so much for your encouragement!
Just found your blog tonight, and i just love it! Can so relate to so many of your posts. This one about the sheets made me laugh. I grew up in a house where the sheets were changed weekly – top sheet was put on the bottom, bottom one was washed, new top sheet put on. However in my house – I do what a friend told me years ago she does – change them with the seasons! I put flannelette ones on when it gets cold, cotton ones when it gets hot. And they stay there for however long it takes me to get sick of them – if it’s hot and we shower most nights, they might stay on for months! Glad to read that there is still hope for me yet! A friend gave me some advice years ago that I still think of. She said “has it gotten to the stage where you don’t know where to start?” When I said yes, she said “well just start somewhere” – so true!! Might go and empty the dish-drainer before I go to bed. Thanks!
Welcome! And yes, just starting somewhere is the key!
i’ve been reading your blog the past few days, and love it! i’m not a slob, i’m kind of the opposite–stuff out of place in my house gives me the heebie-jeebies, and i cannot rest till it’s been put away. and i notice everything. and i married a slob, haha.
but regarding the sheets–my trick? if at all possible, wash and dry the sheets and put the same ones back on the bed. i hate folding sheets, and this eliminates that. now, i know it’s not always possible, especially with babies/small children, but when i can, i do. this also means storing way fewer sets of sheets.
LOVE YOUR BLOG 🙂
This is one of my life goals!! It makes so much sense, if I could only trust myself to actually get them back on in time!
And thank you for reading. It means a lot to know that “normal” people read and don’t turn away in horror!!
The key to changing sheets often is to have a little boy sleep in your bed who, despite wearing night time pull ups, pees on the bed every few nights, if not every night. 🙂
I have recently decided that since I’m very aware of when payday is, twice per month, that those days are reminders to wash the sheets. We have three beds and it takes two loads to wash them. We put those same sheets back on the same day, usually right after they come out of the dryer.
Good idea! I love mental reminders like that. (Y’know, ones that don’t have to be written down on pieces of paper I’m sure to lose!)
So this is my 1st time to comment. I found your website 3 days ago on Pinterest, started from the beginning, and have made it this far. (And I also purchased both eBooks on the Kindle w/in 24 hrs)
So re:Clean Sheets – Just a funny (or not) realization I thought I would share.
I actually just washed mine this morning after I went to make the bed and thought…I bet these are
P R E T T Y funky b/c I couldn’t remember when I last changed them! (I am already working on my daily habits) The really sad thing is that we (family of 5=4 beds) have at least 2 sets for each bed and my FIFTEEN yr old daughter changes hers out every weekend!!! (Sometimes she will skip a wkend here & there but never goes more than 2 weeks w/out changing her sheets) I know b/c she throws them in the laundry room for me to wash. So realizing that my messy teenager’s bed is almost always cleaner than her mother’s kind of made me feel like a loser. But then, I also realized, hey, I just commented to my Slobs Anonymous group for the 1st time, I washed my funky sheets, and I bought the books to desperately try to improve my habits so that right there (however small it may be) is progress.
So….Hello, My Name is SewLittleTime,……and I am a slob.
Thank you so much for creating this blog. Like you, I’ve read and tried TONS of stuff to get/keep my house in order, but I’m thinking they didn’t work or last b/c the people that wrote them didn’t have the same slob brain we do. And until I read your blog, (literally 3 days ago) my head would just cry, WHY can’t I make these methods work?!?!? Uh-huh…slob brain. Totally explains it.
Love it!! And welcome!!!
I’ve been reading backwards and loving it. I’ve listened to all your podcasts and daily blogcasts and this is helping me get my fix over the summer. I just found it funny that this morning when I slowly got out of bed (strained my back two days ago), I thought ” it’s been a long time since these sheets have been changed” but I did nothing. I was in too much pain, I’ll get to it later, blah blah, excuse, excuse. Well after sitting on a heating pad, reading your blog and seeing this post…I’m getting up to go strip the beds and wash the sheets. If I do nothing else today at least we will all sleep on clean sheets tonight. Thank you Nony!
I’ve tried (unsuccessfully) over the years to create a rotating schedule for tasks that only need to be done once or twice a month. I’m off work on Tuesday mornings so if everything went according to plan: the first Tuesday of the month I’d deep clean the bathroom, the second Tuesday I’d vacuum and wash all the sheets and towels, the third I’d deep clean the kitchen, the fourth I’d vacuum and wash sheets and towels again (or something like that), and repeat. The plan was to also create a list of things that needed to be done even less frequently and rotate those each month (cleaning windows, scrubbing the inside of the refrigerator, cleaning the ceiling fans). It all sounds good in theory…I’ve just never followed through with it. I’m getting on board with focusing on some basic daily things. The house has been improving over the past week or two. I’ve been mixing in some major decluttering/purging, and it feels so good 🙂