Help! IM 15, Smelly dirty house?
Question:hello, ok, im 15 and i have a nice family with normal parents. only one problen: THEY CSNT CLEAN FOR THEIR LIFE!! they have a hard time taking care of their jobs and me and my two 9 yr old brothers, and i try to clean but they screw it up again...they dont do anything around the house but I DONT WANT CPS INVOLVED THEIR GOOD PARENTS BUT theyre just lazy as heLL. our clothes smell like our house too and the smell makes me want to cry...HOW AM I GONNA GET A GIRL WITH THIS HOUSE?! IM SO DEPRESSED!
please i ask you guys to please help me, view these pics by clicking on these links and tell me how to clean these areas and to keep them clean...
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb222...
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb222...
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb222...
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb222...
really folks, i appreciate this 100 percent. thx
Answers:
Oh, sounds like my sister's house.
I literally sat on her floor and picked up the trash and the stuff to keep. I bought her a 4 drawer file cabinet for her important papers. I tossed out the trash. I then was able to vacuum.
You have to look at everything. What should be tossed out, what should be reorganized. You need shelving bad. And those cheap Walmart bins. I got this $19 for 3 shelves chrome shelving from Walmart. I got the bins ($8 for one, white transparent) and stacked them on the shelving. You can then see what you have in there.
Stack the clutter they wan t to keep against the walls on these shelves. You could make a 6 to 9 shelf chrome structure and then put the bins on them. I do this for myself.
Once the clutter has a place to go, it helps a lot in keeping down the mess.
Once you get the floor done, keep up the vacuuming.
The kitchen may be another story, you need a dishwasher, and someone has to take on the job of clearing out the fridge evry couple of months.
Would your parents pay you to keep theplace clean?
Start with just one room, probably the living room. Makes the biggest difference. It will take hours and hours to get the work done. See if you can enlist your brothers.
My sister's probelm is that she nevr taught her kids to work, and her husband doesn't clean and my sister is always too exhausted to clean.
Just decide you will keep the living room clean. Forget the kitchen. Gets too messy constantly and you need others to coooperate. Unless you can do a thorough cleaning and then you teach the younger kids to do certain chores. Get on the Internet and find the chores list for different ages of kids. And get your parents to back you up with the younger kids doing their chores.
Get a recipe box and put your daily chores in there and then your weekly chores. Get a box for each kid, too.
Then you get out your cards dialy or weekly and read what the chore is and you do that chore and put it back in the box. Go thru your stack of cards that way and then you are done.
You are 15. If your parents will back you, you can get all of you kids working, and then keep it going. You will finally have a neat house. You will learn to be a leader and how to delegate, and this will be terrific experince for you later in life.
Wow. That's pretty bad. If that's really the house that you're living in, then someone does need to step in. I'm sure your parents are good people, but part of being a good parent is taking care of your children, and that includes keeping a living space that is clean and healthy. If you don't want to involve CPS (YET), is there another family member that you can go to and ask to speak to your parents? Your grandparents, maybe, or aunts or uncles? If not, I suggest talking to a school counselor. They may be able to contact a 3rd party on your behalf (like CPS, or maybe there's another option). For you and your brothers' sake, though, you really need to speak to another adult about this and ask for help.
I'm sorry for your situation.
With the 3rd pic listed: get some bins or something to organize the junk. Same with any other area. Throw away anything you dont use anymore though, and useless stuff.
With everything else I suggest getting products like Mr Clean, or Clorox, and just read the instructions and do as follows. You'll want to get everything, the walls, especially the floors from the looks of it. Before you clean any floor though sweep it really well then get a mop or a sponge and get to scrubbing.
It will be a lot of hard work from what I see, but once you clean everything well (I mean, get everything! all the corners, behind things too) after that you'll just have to maintain it, and that wont be so bad. Perhaps get your brothers in on it also. Opening up windows and letting in fresh air will also help with the smell. If you use some sort of strong products though you will want to be in a well ventilated area anyways.
But also perhaps you should make your parents sit down and have a talk with them about how you feel about things.
1st, decide what color you want the rooms to be.
2nd, buy paint and other repairing materials. looks like the place needs to get renovated and not just cleaned. ask help from your neighbors or the parents of your friends.
3rd, get all the things outside of the room or your house. Then use soap and water or other cleaning solutions to clean the place (floor, walls, ceiling).
4th, start repairing stuff like cracks, etc.
5th, after the repaired parts are dry, paint the room. use newspapers, masking tapes, rolling paintbrush (i don't know what they call that thing but it makes you paint easily and more uniformly plus it can reach higher parts of the room).
6th, while waiting for the paint to dry, sort your things. throw stuff you don't need or sell them. recycle the unnecessary things that can be recycled.
7th, buy cabinets and thing sorters like dividers. make sure to label the cabinets, etc. so that your parents won't have a hard time.
8th, don't forget your fridge of course. clean the fridge and freezer and make sure meats have proper labels so they would be easy to find. if you can, include the date of purchase, too. Do this for every fresh food that will be purchased the next time around.
9th, renovate the kitchen and other parts of the house, too. your parents will be embarassed to clutter again when they see the "new" house.
10th, each time you see them cluttering, remind them. Old habits don't die easily.
LAST: INCLUDE THE CAR KEYS, NOTEBOOKS, JUST EVERYTHING. FIX THEM/THROW/ORGANIZE, ETC.
OK? :)
WOW! I'm sooo sorry for you.
Looks to me that you may have to many cats? I've seen cat hoarder houses and that's what they look like. I do notice that there is fecal matter and probably urine on the stairs and in one of the pics by the litter box. That's not only unsanitary but REALLY unhealthy. A mixture of bleach and water would be the ideal thing for that.
Is this just your basement? If so then it's not as bad as it looks...just bad.
Listen, you really need to seek some outside help. Talk to your guidance counselor at school (that's what they are there for), or maybe an outside family member. SOMEONE should be able to help you with this.
Wow this seems so overwhelming, it would take a crew to clean & repaint all that. It is more than you can do by yourself. I guess you know how you don't want your house to be as an adult. Homes take daily picking up and at least weekly cleaning to maintain a "clean" you can live with so it doesn't get away from you, the more space you have the more time & work it takes.
I went out with alot of guys in high school that I never went to their homes so don't feel like you have to bring a girl to your house. If you are not allowed to go out then wait till you are & see the girl outside of your home.
When you are older & find the right woman that loves you she will already care so much about you that she won't care how your parents home looks. Especially if you prepare her for it. My ex-husbands mothers home was even worse than yours(way worse) He was embarrassed about it too & family members would go in & clean it for her as a team once in awhile, but with in several weeks it was back to the filthy mess she was used to. Her house was so bad there was only a path to walk from room to room. So however bad yours is there is always worse. You cannot change your parents, just be thankful that you have good hardworking parents who love you. And thankful that you see how you don't want your home to be when you get one.
Not much help for you but hope this makes you feel better.
15? Probably dont have much money to do a whole lot.
Here tho:ask your friends parents for coat hangers if you dont have enough. Wash and dry the clothes and hang them up.
The cat's cute but if it's not using the litter box, sorry, it has to go if you want cleanliness. A nasty litter box will smell up any place. Even your cat wants a clean litter box so make sure its clean b4 you can see if the cat is using it or not.
Even tho you have a cat, you may have mice that died and are adding to the stink. You cant see with all the clutter.
You might go to garage sales to see what you can afford to get for storage. If you cant afford anything, a NEAT place in the open is fine. Use plastic grocery bags to bag similar items that are small enough and hang the bags also-just to get things organized-if you dont have the $$ for storage.
You might have mold if the basement is humid. Mold stinks like heck. Bleach will help to kill mold-usually black color on walls or floor. If items are blackened by mold throw them out also. Dont touch mold without protective gloves, or plastic grocery bags if you have them.
Dont feel overwhelmed by what needs done. Do a little bit, set a goal like clearing off the washer only that day. Or just washing the floor one day and something else the next. Take it in bits.
I've seen worse, believe me.
I dont see some of the photos that I've read other people reference.
And if the smell doesnt come out of the clothes, well...replace what you can from thrift stores or garage sales.
Keep yourself clean (no kidding) and eat right, my sis in law and her kids did have a natural but unpleasant scent. I think most likely from poor diet.
Get your bros to pick up the garbage-ask your parents to give them the chore.
You dont have to bring your girl to your house. By the time you feel comfortable bringing her there, you'll probably have it in order.
When your girl really likes you, she'll likely be more focussed on you than your house.
Dont fret, like I said, I HAVE seen worse.
God Bless.
hello ppl he is 15 years where is he gonna get money to clean and organize the entire house by himself, im sure whatever money he does have is to get out of that pleaces. listen when your prantes go shopping go with them maybe add some bleach.,pine sol, windex and ajax to the cart. then one day when you have off or a weekend you and your siblings if you have some clean, maybe you might wanna make it seem like a surprise for ya parents they might get the pic then. start with those litter boxes, throw out all the trash... open windows and light candles clean the bathroom and the kitchen... sweep the entire house and make a pile of whatever needs to be vaccummed up in the middle of each room. also dust with a wet cloth not a dry one, dry dusting just mixes the dust in the air then it just resettles.
That is really bad. If I were you I'd talk to a trusted teacher, older friend, or trusted growen up.
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