Jan. 10: I’ve been thinking about writing some posts about my struggles and strategies with keeping my home clean and uncluttered. Then I think, “Who wants to read about how dirty my floors are?” But since house cleaning is a big component of my job as a stay-at-home mom, and since everyone I know has to find ways to keep their home the nest they want it to be, I’ve decided that maybe people would be interested. So here’s the start of a mulit-post topic: Clean House!
Background:
Bryan and I were both working out of the home until December of ’07. During our time at home, I think we did a good job of prioritizing time-with-Andrew over most other things. So than meant that our kitchen was usually dirty, our meals were unplanned and thrown together, our floors were cleaned only occasionally, and in general, we played with Andrew until he was in bed at which time we both collapsed – most real cleaning and laundry and yard work etc. occurred on the weekends. In some ways, I’m glad that I can comfortably live in a messy home. It meant that I wasn’t too stressed out when the bathroom was requesting a cleaning and I told it to wait until Saturday.
After Sylvia was born and I changed jobs to working in the home, I found myself transitioning to feeling like I needed things at a higher state of cleanliness all the time…not just once in a while. But with a new baby and a two-year-old, I didn’t know when in the heck I was supposed to find the opportunity to mop the floor or clean the toilet.
Then last June, my friend Julie wrote a post about some of her random quirks. One of her “quirks” was that she never leaves the house without making her bed. Another was that no crumbs are ever left on the counter. I mulled these over in my mind for days. I’d be walking down the street thinking, “No crumbs left on the counter ever?” I sometimes wash off the counter. It is occasionally clean. Before making something new, I usually clean off the part of the counter that I’m going to use. But a totally clean counter every day? wow.
And then bed making. I’d think to myself, “I know how to make my bed.” I make my bed when guests come over. Sometimes. I’d put away our decorative pillows years ago because they never made it on the bed. I had put bed-making on my “not going to worry about that” list. I wonder what it would be like if I made my bed every day. huh.
So that was Part I: feeling like things could be cleaner…starting to want them to be cleaner…but really not knowing how to do it…