[shelleyterrell]

Okay - this is a odd way to start a thread.
I ask this because my family and i are about to start our homestudy, and i always think my house isn't 'clean' enough.
We have five children of our own ranging in ages from one to ten years old. It seems there is always a mess somewhere. The older four have their chores to do from sweeping the floor to cleaning the table after dinners to doing the dishes (although when the 6 yr olds do the dishes i secretly wash them first).
They have to keep their rooms clean, and bring their laundry to the basement for me to wash, BUT their rooms are not the cleanest, the oldest (boy, ten) his room is on the third floor and this will be off limits to the fc, and my twins (girls 6 ) share another room on the third floor, so this will also be off limits - but their rooms just look messy. Not dirty, just messy. Is this going to be a huge problem? I go and clean it myself once every week, but they still throw clothes in chairs papers on the floor etc.
My 8 yr old (boy) is the only one who will be sharing his room - so i know this will have to be very debris free, but what about the other kids. What do most caseworkers really look at? To almost anyone my house is very tidy and clean, but if she looks in the corners there may be a dust bunny, or if she goes through our lego drawers she may find a mixed in lincoln log - how neat and clean does the house have to be?
I really think she is going to just drop by and I want our house to be as 'clean' as possible. Aarrgh!

[Withay]

I wouldn't worry too much. They are mostly looking to see if 'deep down' the house is clean. Messy is one thing, dirty is another.

My house is almost always messy. Rarely dirty (I admit that there are times that mopping the kitchen is not super high on my list as the babies are never in there).

I have apologized for the mess, but am always told that they would rather see my house messy and the kids clean and happy than the other way around. This way they know that I am spending my time with the babies. I do try to straighten up each evening after they are in bed.

Good luck.

[Bug-n-Bears-Mommy]

Funny thing...when we licensed first time around I went so far as to shampoo the carpets. With having the 2 boys at 2 years old, I was happy that the dishes were done and the laundry was not piled on the couch! They didn't care.

[AmyAnne]

We were told our home should be "Cleanly". In other words, clutter was okay. What they did NOT want to see was the cleaning solvents left out in plain reach, cat vomit on the floor and dirty dishes piled up and trash all over, and a bathroom to rival a service station.

[Scrapsathome]

When they did our homestudy they just walked around the house with us and glanced in each room. They didn't open closets or even look in the laundry room. They are looking for fire hazzards and dangerous stuff. I'd get it about as clean as you would to have a friend and their kids over. Child proofing is important.

Don't stress. We did, and then laughed afterwards because it was not at all a big deal.

Jess

[happyhomemom]

The CW only went in my kids room on our first home study visit and our annual renewal. I would not worry about it everyday. I admit I like to tell my kids she is coming to motivate them to clean up. However they usually have stuff thrown around their rooms.

[Mystik]

We're going through and agency & we too were soooo worried that our house wasn't going to be deemed clean enough. We have 3 dogs, a cat & 3 caged rats and I was petrified they were going to be a problem. But we were given a check list ahead of time as to what they'd be looking for and the inspection was planned and not a surprise. Never has anyone ever just shown up unannounced.

The inspection was mostly just making sure all of our sharp objects, chemicals & medicines were locked up. She went through all drawers & cupboards in the kitchens & bathrooms & our bedroom. But was only looking for the above things in case we missed something and if we did she just pulled it out and said that needed to be locked up too (I was worried we would fail the inspection if we didn't have it all right ahead of time) but it was no big deal. She observed the room we had set up as a nursery just making sure we had the required crib and dresser. She made sure we had a first aid kit, an unexpired fire extinguisher, hot enough tap water, that our fridge & freezer were cold enough, food stored in fridge/freezer was in a covered container & not exposed etc.

Cleanliness wise the only things she was really looking for was that our walls were intact and we weren't living in filth with insects crawling or animal droppings on the floor etc. It was made pretty clear they wanted to know the house was comfortably lived in and that sort of look is preferred as opposed to some immaculately clean home where it would actually make them concerned that if the house is too clean then how are you going to handle the mess and disruption a child brings?

Because we're going through an agency we have weekly visits done by the agency social worker as well as monthly visits done by the county ones. I always try to at least vacuum before they come, but sometimes I can't. We have a 3 month old and a 8 month old and I think a lil bit of chaos is to be expected. I've had them over with dirty dishes in the sink, un-vacuumed floors, occasionally a litter box or rat cage that hasn't been cleaned yet or whatever and never once has it been an issue. They just do their visit, observe the babies and talk to them & hold them etc.

Once a month they do a mini inspection to make sure my smoke detectors are still working & that my fire extinguisher still isn't expired, that I still have cribs for them to sleep in and just things like that. Never do they check to make sure I've vacuumed or done my dishes or whatever. So the best advise I can give is not to even sweat it. As long as your not living in filth they wont be concerned. If they do find something they don't like they'll tell you and let you fix it.

[AwaitingBeloved]

I'm going to tell you what our SW told us (uh, AFTER she was in our immaculately cleaned condo... lol).

She knew we were very nervous. We had no kids to distract our nerves either (or to add to them.. lol). So we were able to focus all of our energy on cleanign our condo, top to bottom. Washing walls, dusting picture frames, changing air filters, etc, etc, etc.

She told us after she helped put us at ease, that the flag is raised a bit in the homestudy when the house has no dustbunnies, etc. She says that looks like people are trying to hide something.

Sooooo.. my advice would be, clean up, wash your floors, vacuum, dust, etc, whatever you would do for your weekly clean up anyway. And just maybe put some of the clutter away. Like the kids toys or whatever. They're going to poke heads into your rooms, but not in closets or under beds, etc. They'll want to make sure things are safe. That's really it.

Good luck! It's a very exciting time.

[shelleyterrell]

I feel much better now after reading your replies. Hopefully when she comes everything will be fine. And i was concerned if there was something we missed they would just 'fail' our house, its good to hear they just tell you what it is so we can take care of it.
And now everyday maybe i won't tell the kids to clean up their room, just maybe though.

[Boulderbabe]

The funny thing is that EVERYBODY feels the way you do, the first time! I actually cleaned my oven!

Let me tell you, that was the last time my oven has been cleaned in four years. Once you have a kid in the house, you'll be lucky if you can FIND the oven in the midst of all those injection-molded plastic toys! At my last homestudy, I literally had to push the morning's cereal bowls aside to make a place for the social worker to sit down. She took it in stride.

They're looking for basic hygeine, not perfection. And no, they will not be looking inside the oven. :-)

[tylind23]

I was worried about my house being clean enough as well. I have dogs and it is pretty much impossible to ever get rid of all the dog hair. However, my homestudy was nothing. They walked through the living room to the kitchen table where we did our interview. They glanced in the kid's room (from the hall, didn't actually step into the room or anything). That was it. Didn't check outlet plugs, didn't go in any of the other bedrooms, didn't check cabinet locks, didn't look in the closets or refridgerator, nothing.