Coping with Messy Guests - Cloudmom

Hi everyone, Melissa here. Welcome to CloudMom. Read such a funny confession on Scary Mommy the other day by a mom who was so irritated when another mother came over and gave her children non-washable markers and Play Doh. She was like, "Thanks". This has got me laughing because I have dealt with this issue when people come over into my house, and their kids can be really messy, and you're gonna have to spend the money, let alone the time, to clean up your stuff. So, here are three things I've started to do. Number one: Throw a few pairs of shoes by the door. This is like putting up a sign, "We don't wear shoes in the house", and most people are gonna take the cue. And if little Jack just runs on in, and it's really important to you just go after him, and say gently, "Jack, we leave our shoes by the door". Done. Number two: Food in the kitchen, and you wash your hands after you eat. This cuts down on 80% of the spills and mess people, believe me. The Cheerios and raisins in the couch, the juice on the rug, you name it. Number three, and for this one you gotta be really hard core, but if you're a hard core neat freak, if it's a big gathering, throw some cheap, big, white sheets over your furniture. People laugh at you, just say, "I learned this from my grandma". So anyway, these are three things you can do, but honestly once everybody is there, I would just give it a shot and then forget about it because the important thing is that you're with people that you really care about and you're having a good time, so you have to let it go which is what I've had to learn. But anyway, those are my little hints and tips for dealing with messy or potentially messy people in your house. Please let me know what you do by commenting on this blog on cloudmom.com or you can tweet me @CloudMom, and thank you so much for joining.