I'm a crap housewife!

Yeah, I admit it....I hate housework and seldom do any!

This is probably my biggest guilt inducing area. DH does the washing most of the time because he is someone who sees a job to be done and gets in there and does it. He hangs out the washing and folds it into baskets when dry. What do I do? Leave the baskets full of clothes until they've all been taken out and worn again! Little Chicken's room has FOUR baskets full in her room at this very moment - two are our clothes that I put off our bed onto her floor last night as it was the only place where there was any room. I blame the fact that we don't have proper storage and too many clothes for the poor storage we do have. DH also does the dishes, vacuums, cleans the toilet and bathroom, and all the usual guy stuff like mow the lawn, trim the hedges, and wash the car.

The kids also help by taking turns to wash the dishes (not every day) and help hang out and bring in clothes when I actually do some washing. We will be building a new kitchen soon which will have a dishwasher so that might improve the kitchen situation.

I only ever iron if I want to wear the item/s out to dinner or something. I only tidy the house, clean the bathroom, make the beds, etc. if visitors are coming over. I haven't washed any windows since we bought the house 18 months ago. You get the picture!

How do you all keep tidy, clean houses? No, my real question is: Where do you get the motivation to do it? I know that I feel bad a lot for not doing what I should be doing while home...and I actually do feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when I do (rarely) clean and tidy areas.

As I stated earlier in this entry, we have poor storage, not only for clothes, but all the books, papers, and other crap that fills the house. In the last couple of months I rearranged some things in preparation for a crawling baby and in attempt to declutter the place, but I get it somewhat done and then piles of stuff that have no particular home remain on the floor and benches.

We actually have a one bedroom granny flat downstairs with virtually empty kitchen cupboards and a large robe in the bedroom (currently housing a lot of my teaching papers and books I collected when at Uni). We rarely go in there since the computer was rehoused upstairs a few months ago. A lot of stuff could be stored down there but it is the decision about WHAT to keep down there vs. upstairs. I don't want to separate all the kids' educational stuff, games, art stuff, etc. down if it won't get used or seem as important as it would upstairs. Does that make sense? Geez, I'm anal hey? :-) Any ideas for the granny glat would be welcome tho.