I do not consider myself a neat freak. I can easily work on a project or two and leave the mess for the morning. I let people make sculptures and paint pictures and I don't make them clean up as they go. I've been known to leave my gardening tools out to rust and I have on more than one occasion left a wheelbarrow overturned in my yard. Truth be told, I don't really enjoy housework. I do it because I have to and not because I want to. And, frankly, with two messy children and a husband who collects cardboard, life as a neat freak would require more effort than I physically have.
However…
I do not like it when things are messy. I get edgy when there are dishes in the sink or when there are bunches of dirty clothes on the bedroom floor. I get particularly edgy when someone stops by unexpectedly, and there are toys and games and magazines all over the living room. I might not be mopping the floors and cleaning behind my stove on a daily basis, but I do need a certain amount of clean, clutter-free space to live, breathe, and think. So what does that make me exactly?
Recently, I checked out the Flylady's book, Sink Reflections, from the library. It was dog-eared, the pages were falling out, and it looked like it had been put through the ringer. I took that as a good sign. And though there were, in fact, many excellent organizational tips and sink shining routines outlined in the book, two ideas really worked for me and have helped me stick to my housekeeping routine:
Dust before it gets dusty and put the laundry away after each load.
Those might be extremely obvious ideas to some people but, holy cow, have they changed the way I do things. Instead of doing a thorough, deep cleaning after the house is officially dirty, I pick up and wipe down a little at a time, all the time. The house spends more time being clean and less time being actually dirty. And I dust the same time every week, even if there are dishes in the sink and crumbs on the floor. For some reason, when the little pictures and pieces of pottery are shiny and clean, it makes the rest of the house come to order.
And the laundry thing? Putting the folded clothes away after each load instead of stacking them up on my bed? It totally, totally works. Every time. After each load. Always. Why was I making it so difficult?
So that's all. Those two things have really helped me with housework and I thought I would share.
Here's to happier cleaning!
That means you, too, little man!
