Yes, my house IS a mess!

[FoxPaws]

As it says on the needlepointed pillow:

If you want to see me, stop by any time.
If you want to see my house, make an appointment. 

[Cupcake Fiend]

I so need to do that in my own house (stage the whole sorting/tossing stuff out/cleaning extravaganza).

It's well worth doing, but do not start unless you are willing to see it through.  I had been planning on doing this for a while, but when my son brought home some New years info from school, it cynched it. My son is in a Mandarin Chinese imersion school, Chinese new year is Feb 18th. Tradition states that howver clean your house is come new year, that is how it will stay the rest of the year.

GAH!  That does not bode well for my house, haha!  Can I celebrate the Chinese New Year this year instead? 

[CreteGirl]

Has this happened to you? How do you deal with it without pulling your hair out, or being rude?

If I have not invited anyone over to my house, I simply do not answer the door.  Period. 

I think I posted before about the time my MIL brought an out of town visitor over to "show off" our house without first calling.  I was in my oldest PJ's, with the house totally torn apart, down on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor.  Neither my house or I were in any shape to entertain visitors.  I did not answer the door, and they finally went away.

[Bijou]

In the last two weeks I have had a rash of unnanounced guests, some family, some friends. My house is currently really messy, as I am sorting and tossing everything we don't need/want/use. The staging area for this is the livingroom/diningroom. From there I can keep an eye on all three kids.  Hubby works between 50 and 60 hours a week, and helps out when he can, but is bone tired when he gets home. I am at my wits end dealing with uninvited visitors commenting on the state of my house. It is not a health hazard, it is not uninhabitable, it is just messy, and getting better. How am I supposed to clean when you show up and park yourself on my couch for an hour?

Has this happened to you? How do you deal with it without pulling your hair out, or being rude?

Here are some suggestions:
Don't answer the door
or grab your purse as you go to the door and say, "Sorry, I was just leaving!" 
I know it's kind of hard to do the purse thing when you have kids, so how about, "Oh, I thought you were the babysitter.  I have an appointment and she's a little late.  You don't mind watching the kids for me, do you!  Thank you so much!  Bye!"  (Only do that babysitter thing if you know and trust the person to watch your kids, of course).  I"m sure they'll be gone in a second.
Turn on the shower, throw on your bathrobe and shower cap and head for the door..."Sorry, you caught me at a bad time!" 
Grab a handful of tissue and go to the door looking like the last rose of summer, sniffling and blowing and talking like you're all stuffed up...that might get rid of them in a hurry.
But seriously, maybe just, "Gosh, I'd love to ask you in but I just can't visit right now.  I'll give you call and we can arrange another time to get together.

[RegionMom]

So...Feb. 18th is the new target date we all have to get it in order.  I like that!  
Means that my resolution to get it all done now while cooped up during an ice storm can be put on hold a bit longer!  
The only comments I get are, "wow, you have a lot of...stuff."
This is because I do.  I am a packrat.  I am also usually pretty organized, and extremely creative.  My husband knew this when he married me.  My kids have neat rooms.  
On our wedding video, you can hear in the vows when I say," and all that I have is yours" that I stress the ALL, and there was a giggle or two!  

[housewife2k]

housewife2k are you in China?  I only ask because my supervisor just put a deposit down for a Mandrin school for his children because he will be relocating there in August and he is trying to sort things out so that I can relocate as well.

Minnesota, actually. A new school opened this year, it is a free charter school, so we were very excited at the prospect.

[IndianInlaw]

Would it be snarky to whip out a pad and pen, write down their comments and say "thanks, I've made a note of that"?

[ccnumber4]

I agree, just don't answer the door.  I had some people stop by to share their religious views last month. 

Normally, this doesn't bother me, but I happened to be in the middle of a pretty intense practice for a Christmas program I was playing.  I knew they could hear the piano and it seemed strange that they still thought that knocking for 20 minutes would get me to finally open the door.  It became a test of wills, after awhile.  I won. 

These same people stopped by several weeks later when I was not quite so busy, and I did answer the door then and was gracious. 

I don't mind pop-ins, I guess, but have no problems simply not answering the door if I am busy or just plain don't want to.   

[freakyfemme]

I don't know what I'd say, because all my friends who I consider close enough to me that they're allowed to just walk into my apartment without knocking already *know* that I'm a slob, and if anything, they'd probably say something if they thought the place was too clean, lol.

[Suze]

I agree, just don't answer the door.  I had some people stop by to share their religious views last month. 

Normally, this doesn't bother me, but I happened to be in the middle of a pretty intense practice for a Christmas program I was playing.  I knew they could hear the piano and it seemed strange that they still thought that knocking for 20 minutes would get me to finally open the door.  It became a test of wills, after awhile.  I won. 

These same people stopped by several weeks later when I was not quite so busy, and I did answer the door then and was gracious. 

I don't mind pop-ins, I guess, but have no problems simply not answering the door if I am busy or just plain don't want to.  

arrggh - I really dislike anyone "pushing " religion door to door.  Around here they will pick the worst days (snowing, raining, 400 degrees) and drag around an infant with them. I guess you should feel sorry for the child and let them in.

I have my religion thank you, I do not need to be told all about yours when I didn't ask you for it.

20 min knocking - I hope they brused their knuckles.

I have really got to get off this machine and clean out our front garage (it's our "family room") it has become the "drop point" and I really need to find the floor back.

[kethria]

My mother is usually the one who comments on the state of my house. I work 50 hours a week, get home at 6-6:30 every night, and then I am usually so tired I can barely cook dinner and fall asleep...

So I just stopped letting her come over. I visit her.

It also doesn't help that I have 2 people living here who love to make messes but never clean... sigh...

[CreteGirl]

I knew they could hear the piano and it seemed strange that they still thought that knocking for 20 minutes would get me to finally open the door.  It became a test of wills, after awhile.  I won. 

20 minutes?  They knocked for 20 minutes?? That goes from knocking to stalking in my book!

[jibby]

Would it be snarky to whip out a pad and pen, write down their comments and say "thanks, I've made a note of that"?

Bwahahaha!!!  That was laugh-out-loud funny!

[NYGirl100]

Would it be snarky to whip out a pad and pen, write down their comments and say "thanks, I've made a note of that"?

Bwahahaha!!!  That was laugh-out-loud funny!

That was hilarious.  I would be tempted to do this...

[housewife2k]

Would it be snarky to whip out a pad and pen, write down their comments and say "thanks, I've made a note of that"?

Bwahahaha!!!  That was laugh-out-loud funny!

That was hilarious.  I would be tempted to do this...

Hubby read this and determined that we must now have a whiteboard, or a pen and notebook at the doorside table!