Yaayy, Friday! Yaayy, matching plastic storage bins! Yaayy, Laurie! :)

(oh, and yaayy, svelte-and-limber-indeed Bob!)

Well I'm shocked. Mr. Beckham should be hiring people to do this for you.

I am a very neat person. Clean and neat are two very different things. I have had to try hard to be a clean person. I'm the kind of person whose house has every little thing in it's place 99% of the time. Want to check in the closets?? Then it's hard hat time. White glove check? Now I'm rudely throwing you out the door.

My husband is the clean one and I'm the neat one. I do believe that the clean/neat ratio of a couple is much more important in a marriage than love and even sex. Especially after 18 years.

Laurie, you've seen photos of my house, right? How does your office compare to say, my garage??

Omg, I feel the need to clean house now!

I call the need to clean "Cleaning-Fits" It is amazing how much stuff you can get done when you get in one of these fits.

This weekend, it is my goal to organize my loft area in my apartment. Complete with desk and setting up the computer (which is in pieces in my front room)

Dear Laurie, My single gal twin...

I too have these moments of the cleaning frenzy. My mother suggested I NEVER fight these urges as they might never return and then I would be forced to live in the chaos that is my house and car.

Moms are smart.

This wild and crazy gal on the other side of the US will be spending her friday night slimming down her wardrobe, AKA cleaning the closet - the only room that can physically hold more stuff than its actual dimensions.

Should the alternate-dimension portal open from my closet to your office while I am in there, I'll say "hi!" and "Could you pass me the dust buster?"

have a good weekend!

Liz ... my office is definitely the indoor equivalent of your garage!! I have bins and bags and boxes in there of who knows what. It is such a mess. It's where I store everything that doesn't "go" anywhere else. But what I really need to do is pare down. Do I need owner's manuals for appliances I no longer own? No. Do I still have those owner's manuals? One guess.

Well, since I discovered Buster the Cat pooping in my walk-in closet this morning, guess what I'm doing?? YES! Cleaning out all the piles of clothes that got stuffed in there to make my studio apartment "holiday cocktail party ready"! Damn cat, I can't bring myself to sell him to the gypsies, so I might as well clean. Good motivator!

suzi... your mom is wise :)

I have to clean while the fevah strikes or else I would never get to any of it!

we hosted an old home tour last May and I still can't open my garage...and the house is full of junk again. where does it come from???

I get cleaning fits, too! I think it's partly a psychological reaction to when your life is chaotic. I can't control the world, but I *CAN* clean up my house. When I'm feeling overwhelmed and cranky, cleaning my house always calms me down.

I try to clean every three weeks. That's about the time the cat-fur tumbleweeds get out of control. Major chores - cleaning the oven, flipping the mattress, scrubbing the soap scum off the shower doors - are done quarterly. Put it on a schedule, and then you can forget about it the rest of the time.

YAY Fridays! Frank and I always do the grocery shopping and the laundry right after work so we have the rest of the weekend to relax and enjoy.

Great photos of Bob! SO adorable!

I heart Bob! How could anyone ever accuse him of being even the slightest bit bigger than he should be?

When you get done decluttering your place, I'll buy you a ticket to Logan and provide chauffeur service so you can come and do mine, ok?
I'll even lay in a supply of good merlot...

do you smoke a cigarette afterwards?

oh, and btw, stephen colbert mentioned spanx on the rerun last night after his guest asked him if he was wearing a corset.

mmmm....stephen...

I have those cleaning frenzies too, but they usually coincide with a "friends-are-coming-over-and-my-room-is-a-wreck" sort of feeling. Bob looks very happy ^^

I wish I could do as good as OtherLisa. I used to clean house on a regular basis when I was young but now in my 40's, I'm all...meh. The dishes, counters and stove get cleaned on a daily basis and then the...the...hm, I don't clean much else very often. Except that next in line would be the toilet, of course, but vacuuming and dusting? Only when company is coming during the day and then it's my hubby commandeering the vacuum. At night you can't see much of the dirt! I only have one cat but his hair gets everywhere and in everything. I really should do better. I get so lackadaisical (sp) about it or how about just saying it like it is? I'm LAZY!!

Way to go, Laurie! I do on occasion get those cleaning fits, too, but they are few and far between. Hey, maybe you should post before and after pics of the room!

I am so NOT a clean person. I think that a clean house is a sign of having too few hobbies. If the house starts getting too clean, I just pick up a new hobby. Like in the past month, I have started making jewelry (I got all the tools for Christmas) and just this week, I start spinning my own yarn!!! So needless to say my house that was starting to look a little too clean, is now covered in small beads, pliers and other such jewelry making mess and now - FIBER! Problem solved!

LOVE Bob in the pi first off.

I get the cleaning crazys as well, I'm about due for one soon.

Why is it that when I start to think about cleaning that little voice in my head says "beer break"?
Please come get crazy at my house, I'll buy the drinks.

Did Bob push Frankie out of the pi?

Boy, we single gals know how to get our freak on during a 3-day weekend, don't we? I also have "clean til I drop" plans for both the house and the car (WHY does the car become such a pigsty? Mine looks like a homeless person lives in it).

Oh, and aren't labelmakers the BEST? I will label anything that holds still long enough.

See, you are not alone in the "craziness." ;-)

3-day weekend? Not me, I have to work Monday. ~sigh~

Hi Bob! :)

I get the crazy-cleans too. I think it's astrological. See, I'm a breezy Auquarius and I normally don't give a fig about the tidiness of the house and give, maybe, half a fig about the sanitariness of the house.

However, my chart does have moon in Virgo and every so often I get all Monica Geller. Check your chart for some sneaky hidden Virgo and let me know if my theory holds for you.

cutie pie in a kitty pi

Ah, Laurie. Your hilarity never fails to make my day. Your cleaning fits very closely resemble my own in both nature and unpredictability. Also? My car is actually my purse. A very messy, cluttered purse. Mayhap I shall clean my car this weekend in honor of you and your Jeep.

reorganizing my stash sounds like fun. i have christmas decorations to put away though.

My cleaning fits have become more frequent since I've started co-habitating with a boy and a dog. Things that never used to bother me are now unbearable.

Like this morning, I cleaned my stove for 30 minutes. Of course, this was mostly due to the fact that you could hardly see the surface of it, since the boy took it upon himself to cook dinner last night.

All my cleaning craziness seems to stem from controlling the mess he makes as he performs nice tasks for me. Like cooking.

So glad to find out there are so many of us who do not put a high priority on housekeeping. Now I can stress less about the state of mine own home.

Girlfriend, send some of that cleaning mojo my way. I did actually go out and spend surprising amounts of money on closet space organizers and extra shelving, but haven't yet gotten around to actually taking said organizers out of their packaging.

In my defense, I am still recovering from surgery (the cosmetic kind...we are in So Cal after all), so I can only dream of a clutter-free home for now. But, boy, I'll have a hell of a game plan when I'm able-bodied enough to actually let the cleaning urge have its way with me :-)

Say, Laurie, I just wanted to say a quick thank-you for being such a steady blogger! I really look forward to reading your blog every day.

We're attached at the cleaning hip this weekend. I'm trying to turn my junk room into my office/studio. But the masses of paper are detering me. After reading this post, I'm super inspired. I must finishe cleaning, organizing, and then (the fun part) buying furniture!

Laurie your a bad bad influance on me. You are goingto clean your home office and have been talking about it. Low and behold, I cleaned up my desk yesterday. LOL It took me 2 hours to clean out all the old unwanted things, file away recipes and knitty type things. along with dusting the desk. Today I'm goingto tackle the hutch part of the desk, which is tha catchall of the desk. Once that is done on to the rest of the room and getting 2 new book cases to put books and kitty supplies on.

I'd be a real clean freak if I lived alone. I've finally outgrown my need to hoard, but the rest of my family has not. I figure the kids will take most of their stuff when they move out in a few years and maybe then there will be room for all of The Husband's stuff...which includes VHS tapes from his film school years...um back in the early '80s! Gaaah!

Laurie,

For all the organization voyeurs out here in the blogosphere, I ask that you please give us some before-and-after pictures of the home office transformation. I need some motivation! Or more kitten cuteness will do.

Funny, i have clean home office (and i work at home - believe me, this room is SCARY!) on my list for sunday. I already labeled everything and mostly this will be going thru stupid pieces of paper that I probably don't need, having a shred-a-thon and then vacuuming the uncovered floor space! yay for clean.

the rest of the house, every other friday 2 lovely ladies come and do it. it's worth EVERY PENNY. cleaning ladies=inky's sanity.

I used to get the cleaning frenzy with such regularity that my ex called it a Sunday Morning Fury (note the caps).

Now I seem to have an everyday cleaning frenzy. I think, like jaclyn, it comes from cohabiting with boys of which there are three in my house.

When I have taken photos - blog or otherwise - I have had to be aware that I don't inadvertently reveal the mess-that-is-my-house. I have those sudden form out of freaking' nowhere urges to tidy, tidy, tidy, and since summer, when the in-laws visited, I have been rotating the piles-o-stuff in and out of the under the stairs closet. Tackling that is what is in store this weekend - fun for me!

Ahhh Laurie, the pictures of your precious roommates makes me miss my cat so much and the more I read about them, the stronger I yearn for another house cat. I miss my Rusty so much, it has been almost 5 years......without a cat in the house. Oh the occasionally litter to take care of for a few weeks have come and gone but ONE person in the household refuses to allow another animal in the house....I will fight this fight when the times comes (less working hours)....but that doesn't help the yearning feelings I have to deal with until then..... :-(

Sherri

Wow. Those are *some* eyes on not-clutter-kitty!

I have the same clean mania. I try to keep it presentable most of the time, but then every so often WHAM! must...clean...whole...house...

Enjoy the fruits of your labors, Oh Favorite Crazy Aunt of Mine. I'm off to make toast. :)

Amy said: I think that a clean house is a sign of having too few hobbies. If the house starts getting too clean, I just pick up a new hobby.

OMG!!!! TOOO FUNNY!!!! I thought I was the only one who went on these cleaning binges. It's like Cleaning Bulimia!! A couple of months ago it was my books....hence the LibraryThing.com account. I have successfully passed the genes along...which is why we call my daughter's room "The Black Hole" She's definitely MY daughter!!! LOL

Humm...I only did that while preggers...they call it nesting. I sure wish the urge would hit on a regular basis.

Awww! Bob is too cute! He looks a lot like my Jamie - except I'm afraid Jamie is a little..erm..more big-boned than Bob.

Bob makes my heart just melt. He and I share a similar BMI, I think. Which reminds me it's the last days to register for the National Body Challenge at www.discoveryhealth.com, which includes a free 8-week membership to Bally's Fitness. Maybe this year I'll actually go & work out instead of just using the shower when my water heater bit the dust.

My problem is that my cleaning-fit energy often wears off halfway through the job, so it goes unfinished. This is not good news. Good luck to you!

You should really write a book. Come on, give it a try. I laugh almost everytime I read your blog. You have such a way with words, it'd be a shame if you didn't end up being the next Janet Evanovich or someone like that. Think about it, k?

I'm so glad to find so many others who experience the cleaning crazies! I always go nuts before my mom visits, but there are other times when I just clean & clean & clean. I've been looking at the kitty tumbleweeds for the last couple of days...and feeling another frenzy approaching.

Please share before & after pics of your office!! Please?! Pretty please?! Pretty please with kitty pi on top?!

I was in the wrong line when they were passing out skills for cleaning. I married a man who was also in the wrong line. That adds up to a 900 sq ft bungalow with stuff everywhere. (we were both in the pack rat line :)
Once or twice a year I force myself to purge and give a bunch of stuff to the ARC (Savers). I must admit, it does feel good to see the floor.

Love the Bob!

I'm watching my Tivo'd Knitty Gritty and they are knitting steering wheel covers.

Problem solved on the slick Armour All steering wheel!

See, it must be something in the air. Last night while at Target (my new fav store), I bought and lugged home one of these. (really hoping html works in your comments). I also got 9 cloth drawers to go in it. AND a 2-pack of expandable file sorter box things for the patterns. I plan on using it for my yarn stash which has begun to crawl out of its nice shelf in my closet and is inflitrating my already too small room. But yes, you're not the only one who is planning a fun and exciting holiday weekend of cleaning and organizing. :)

Since HTML not allowed, here's the very long link:
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-1/
qid=1168627416/ref=sr_1_1/602-0138215-7995017?
ie=UTF8&asin=B0002I269S

I did a cleaning hysterical frenzy before Christmas. I had this insane morbid thought that I just must not start the new year with a untiddy, cluttered house. It become an obsession.

Now, that it is done, I do feel proud.

On the other hand, a girlfriend asked me why I did all that cause I will have to do it all again in 6 months.

My husband calls my cleaning fits "rampages." And I feel another one coming on.

I now have an overwhelming urge to make my kids clean my car - and the bathrooms. Too bad they do a crappy job & I'm never satisfied with it. BLAH!

I also have a pile of paper to conquer this weekend - if I can find the camera I will take photo's of it. Unfortunatley I did a little of it last night so a full "before" shot is impossible.

Most insane thing I expect to find - I know that I have pictures of the lights we chose when we built our house (along with everything else) in a file. We've been living in said house for 3 years - if I'm wondering about the lights (and everything else) can't I just open my damn eyes?

Tracie I bought one of those a while back! Here is a picture of the foreman helping me put it all together:
http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2006/04/every_construct.php

And you know, since I bought that thing it has just hid more piles of crap in the office but this weekend I am going to empty it of assoted junk and use it for actual (good) storage. I bought some wicker baskets for mine and a couple of doors for a few random cubes. I would take a picture tonight but it is literally covered in junk.

Or maybe that will make a nice "before" pic LOL. I mean I can PILE like nobody's business, and that whole shelf is under a big pile of junk.

Good luck with getting your cleaning on.
I agree with Tracie, it's something in the air, because the year flipped to 2007 and suddenly I took a look at the house and though "meh, TOO MUCH CRAP." I'm a horrid hoarder and not so good at the cleaning (ugh, the bathroom HAS GOT to get done this weekend. yuck).

I have to use a phased approach to getting rid of stuff unless I'm really in a frenzy, otherwise I spend too much time going "ooh, lookit this, I remember this" and get sidetracked. There has to be a Can't-deal-with-this-right-now box, and a Truly Junk box/recyclable/garbage box, and a Someone Else Can Use This box. The sidetracking items can go in the former so I don't have to think about them. Anything I dither over for more than 10 seconds goes in the Can'tDecide box.

Oh yeah, and loud, bouncy music. I think it disrupts my tendencies to sidetrack. Plus, you can dance with the vacuum!

I start cleaning compulsively when I have panic attacks. I think it's why I actually hate to clean - I associate it with being a total basket case.

You have not seen hoard until you have seen my house. Next time the urge strikes you, would you please come visit? Bring Beck with you, I'll show him the town while you're busy.

I LOVE it when I get cleaning fits! When my place is a total wreck and it's driving me nuts, I know that I just have to wait until the next fit hits me. I wish I got them more often!

So...what's a 'greenie'?

I love it when I get cleaning fit! I wish I got them more often!

http://www.greenies.com/en_US/products_feline.asp

So...what's a 'greenie'?

Inquiring Canadian minds want to know...also, do they taste better when served on the bathroom scale?

I am so TOTALLY the same! I can only clean out things and truly organize when I get in the "mood". Otherwise, the apartment is simply "serviceable".

What I hate is when I get in the mood, but I'm super-busy with other stuff that I don't end up cleaning and then the mood passes. Blah.

Happy cleaning!!

My sister always refers to her own car as a "purse on wheels." Which is to say it is very very cluttered.
Do you know about flylady.net? I'm using her tips to declutter my house.

Um, do you ever get clean urges in other people's houses? If wouldn't hurt my feelings if you came up here and got the urge in my house.

Oohhhh! We came back home from staying with my parents and the clean-crazy mood hit me, and I was all full of plans and what to trash and what to recycle and what to simply put away... and then EVERYONE GOT SICK, and I couldn't do it. And now the clean-crazy has gone, and there's just clutter everywhere :-(

Still, I tidied my desk at work. Totally. There is NOTHING on it. And it's stayed like that for... 2 days!!!!

Okay...I get the hint...Lets have a clean/organize along. Please post before and after pictures...the minuons need motivating

My one big extravagance is that I have maids come every two weeks to clean my house. It is as fabulous as it sounds and absolutely worth every penny!

Darci -- my mom does that! its her little treat to herself, mind you she still straightens and keeps things crazy neat and tidy all the time, but she loves that someone else does the dusting and vacuuming. I laugh when she starts vacuuming the kitchen carpets before the cleaning lady comes over, she says the house is to dirty for someone else to clean. she's crazy.

But isnt it so cleansing when you can get through those eleventy-seven million pieces of paper and actually see the top of the desk again?? I love that feeling.

Be still my beating heart! Clear plastic bins, file sorters, label maker...love, love, love 'em, especially organizing the stash, patterns, and all that Good Stuff. But alas, I am a slob, or truly, it's my house that is a slob, yeah, it's the house's fault: no damn closet space, no damn garage or even a carport. I'd need a 2nd mortgage to be able to afford all the clear plastic bins I need to organize stuff 'round here. But I do think there's something going around 'cuz I have an overwhelming urge to dust and polish something with Howard's (love that orangey aroma), but I am trying to ignore it. Perhaps I'll go knit :D. That reminds me, due to your enabling ways, I have ordered KnitPicks' Suri Dream yarn...enough to make 2-3 Kitty Pi(s) [what IS the plural of pi?]. Next thing you know, I'll have to get 2-3 kitties to go with 'em :-)

I can't believe how many comments you get within a few hours of posting!

But anyway, I have the occasional cleaning frenzy, but they tend to be short-lived and usually occur at about 11 pm. I thought the purpose of an office was to hide all your messes from guests, but perhaps it would be nice to not have to step on papers to get to the computer desk.

A label maker? A LABEL MAKER???

Wow.

When you're done with your office, will you come and organize my apartment, too?

And I totally envy you the Dyson. I still scoop up the cat hair in my apartment with my fingernails. Individually. Dirt Devil my *ss.

I wish you could infect me with some of that cleaning frenzy. Your office sounds like my sewing room. I only go in there to dump more stuff into it. I really need to get that crazy clean virus in me and get that room back into shape so I can one day use the sewing machine again.

Sounds like you are describing me. I am generally not a good housekeeper until something posesses me and then I break out the electric toothbrush to clean around the drain/faucet handles/base of the toilet and tub (the little inexpensive, battery-powered Crest toothbrushes rock at this).

Mine, however, IS directly related to the weather. It is when it cools down or rains. Then I get all nesty. Yours seems to have gripped right when it cooled down too.

I do desperatly need to do the car. After two holiday road trips it is embarrassing. If your little jeep took you an hour, what is my behemouth Outback going to take me? Especially since I have dog hair on the CEILING.

Ah Laurie, I think we are long lost twins in this respect, down to the super messy room as a kid! The weird it's time to clean every last nook and cranny feeling is so damn unpredictable too, wish I could turn it on and off at will.

I went Clean Crazy the other evening, does not happen to often. Pretty sure my family was going to call an intervention when I started using the little shop vac to vacuum,clean the house vacuum. I think this was brought on by a trip to Sears to covet the Dyson that was on sale that I still cannot justify buying. Oh well some day....

I once spent hours cleaning under the top of the stove where all the overboiled pot scum goes. Then, I cleaned under all the edges of the sink where it connects to the counter. Did I mention I did this with toothpicks?

"Boy I make the single life look so appealing." Count thy blessings, Laurie: If you were married, you'd have not only your mess to clean up, but his as well. I highly recommend "Clutter's Last Stand", a hilarious book by Don Aslett.

Be careful with that label maker! When my best friend went blind, his mom got a braille label maker, and she put a label on his (40 yo) brother's forehead. Honest, swear to Soba!

Hmmmm. Cleaning. Yes, that would be a nice way to procrastinate on grading papers and doing progress reports...

Oh--I've also Armor-All'd my steering wheel. My first car, my first cleaning of said car...sadly, I was in my late 20's at the time!

Honey, ANY time the urge strikes you and you don't have an outlet... please feel free to head my way. I've wanted to BE organized but alas the urge to actually do anything about it has not hit (I blame the intoxicating powers of my couch).

Heck I'll even supply the cheap wine and a plane ticket (any desire to see Iowa???)

:)

Yep, I think we need before and after pics!!

I am a neat freak to the core. Unfortunately, I married a man who was less than so.

We've almost learned to comprimise.

Almost.

I'm de-lurking this week. You're cleaning, I'm d'lurking. Thanks' for sharing yourself with us and being a lovely human bein'. Your tales of kitties, Francisco and dating are so, well, friendly-like. Thanks! Take good care of yourself! Back to the lurking......

Oooooh, I want to see the before and after pics! I will take pics of my messy car when I tackle it this weekend. Not that I want clean it. Nope, no cleaning bug here. It is just at the point where it MUST.BE.DONE.

I blush when I admit that the crap on the floor is level with the front seat and, well, lets say opening the back doors is no longer an option. Unless you have a shovel handy. *ahem*

You write so great. I love reading your adventures. (Glad I found you) You're asking how I found you maybe? Well, I have just started knitting (again) and found you thru someone's site I can't remember now. :( But I am glad I did!
Lo**

you made me look up the same post i'd made a few year's ago. take a look at my office and you won't feel so bad -- http://mewithoutme.blogspot.com/2004/08/office.html

although i never got it cleaned until i moved out of that house! hope you have better luck. and if not, just keep the door closed.

Your P.123 meme response is so sophisticated and technical....I can barely remember HTML. It makes me feel so 20th Century, LOL!

A woman who hand washes her Jeep is damn sexy. You go, Grrrl!

I think I've joined your Clean Team. I've been doing a very good job of ignore the dustballs and clutter in my house, but today I caught your bug and have started to attack some of the mounting problems. Luckily I don't have a label maker or I'd be in real trouble!

how is it your brown sofa is never covered in hair? I must find a magical sofa like this!! :)

Maybe later I'll tell you all about other exciting things such as vacuuming or making toast.> They would be exciting, the way you write to Laurie

I have a label maker too :) I completely understand what you mean by suddenly having the need to clean compulsively! I think I'm going out to clean the garden now.

Unlike you my cleaning binges are perfectly timed to my menses. I barely get the scrub brushes put away when I have to reach for the feminine hygiene products. And god forbid anyone gets between me and my mop during these frenzies.

LOVE. your. blog!