I don't want people in my home!

first lady · Status: Offline

I don't want people in my home!

Deanna · Status: Offline

First lady,

You are right...hospitality is a very important part of ministry. What I would recommend is www.flylady.net. Become a subscriber. It has helped me greatly. (It's free!) Get on the flylady's email list. She will help you get beyond what she calls C.H.A.O.S. (Can't have anyone over syndrome)!!!

One thing beyond flylady that I have learned is...keep your front room (living room...whatever is your first room as you enter) presentable for guests even if the rest of the house needs more picking up...if the front room is ready you can invite guests in and meet with them there without taking them through the entire home.

There are tons of tips on flylady. Please try it - tell me what you think!

love,

Deanna

LW · Status: Offline

Dear First Lady,

I am new here, but I have been a Mom for 17 years and am also a homeschooler. Try this: I have found it's very helpful to keep laundry baskets in the living room for this problem. Have your toddler sort the items into these baskets like this: 1) toys 2) clothes 3) shoes and misc. items. This way, if company is coming, these baskets can be hidden away from view. It also teaches import skills to your small child. He or she can pull the baskets down the hall, and you can run the vaccum quickly, and all in at least one room, is comfortable and clean. I have had many a surprise news interview at the last minute, trust me, it works!

Love, L.W.

cassandra · Status: Offline

I don't have people over very often -- unless it's my dear friends and their homes look like mine -- which is lived in -- and we are comfortable and relaxed with each other. If I must meet with someone with my husband for counseling or something, we meet in a resturaunt, the church or something. Now that I am strating an at home business I feel more pressure to be tidy but I LOVE Flylady and she has changed so much about how I view housekeeping. I've been flying for a year now! Hovering above the ground some days but still flying none the less. ANYHOO. With three SMALL children like that I think you should lighten up and make other arrangements until you feel you can get the grip you would like on your home. But I know this first hand..the devil likes to beat us ladies up with not keeping our homes perfectly. And you can get order and be neater -- we all can-- but you a re not going to be able to be perfect and still spend decent time with your dear family and with God and His work. SO cut your self some slack, find a lady in the church that would keep your kids at their house and you could take people out, fix your dinners at the church (like in a fellowship hall or even we do them sometimes in a Sunday School class and fix one elegent nice table. Toddlers and resturaunts are hard sometimes. And our life comes in seasons and right now you may can even delegate some of the responsibility of hospitalit. But flylady will tell you a maid is not the answer. I know women who DO have ladies keep their houses clean and they still complain. It is about routines. You just have to sign up. You will see. She is God's answer to women like us who are already beating our own selves up. We don't need to feel like others are too. You can do it. And above all let me share this scripture with you. It helped me so mucha s I was struggling with a preschooler and newborn. It was about the toys and clothes--everywhere in every room of the house. Food everywhere BUT the kitchen. And I was reading proverbs. And it says something like an empty stall stays clean but there is no life in an empty stall. (NLT) and God said one day your house will be toy free and as clean as you wish, but your kids will be gone and you'd trade those toys and mess back for these days with your kids in a minute. So I started relaxing. And second I got one of the best books ever called "Professionalizing Motherhood" by Jill Savage of Hearts at Home. It is so awesome and showed me that a fun home is a home that they will grow up happy in and sometimes (most of the time) fun is messy. So you have to relax. Do the best you can with balance and peace as your guide. We are praying for you. Relax and kiss that baby. Dust balls be quite. Dishes go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.