Cleanliness, Schmenliness

I hate cleaning. It's true. I Hate it with a capital H. There is no other responsibility that I have that I like doing less. And this has been a permanent part of my character too. I remember my mother always complaining that the room I shared with my sister(s) looked "like a pig sty."*

As an adult, I would like to think that I'm not a complete slob, but I do admit that I have a really hard time getting motivated to clean. There are certain things I'm really big on - like washing dishes. I never leave dirty dishes in the sink, ever. I don't care what else is going on, I cannot stand dirty dishes. But the other routine cleaning - sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, etc - that stuff I hate.

So it's a good thing that my sister and her husband are coming to town today and are staying with us a couple of weeks. We were forced to clean. We had become so lax in the cleaning department that we made a list of all of the various things that needed to be done. I kid you not, the list was close to 60 items long! It included cleaning the microwave, scrubbing the toilets (all four of them!), sweeping, dusting, mopping, vacuuming, weeding, mulching, and overall decluttering. It also included cleaning the "den of mold" that is our master bedroom shower, and the "disaster room" that is our storage/laundry room.

We've spent the last three nights or so working on it, completing almost every task. And our house looks fabulous. Even though I enjoy having a clean home, I have to tell you, the process of going through all of the work to actually get there is almost too much for me. It doesn't help that first thing this morning Ellie tossed her oatmeal-filled spoon off the high chair onto the floor that Matt had just mopped last night. And this is really why I hate cleaning. As soon as you're done, it's time to do it again.

So I say, why bother doing it until things are really out of control - like the den of mold discussed earlier. That's generally my standard. The way I see it, there are two things that could be done to solve this anti-cleaning attitude I have.

Resolved: we should host visitors at least once a month. Then I will be forced to do more cleaning.

Resolved: hire a maid service. I'm not to this point yet, but someday when I am rich and famous, or at least rich, this will be the first luxury I sign up for.


* I always thought that was a ridiculous claim for my mother to make. Of course, it didn't look like a pig sty. I've seen pig sties and my room was much cleaner than those - cluttered, yes and definitely in need of vacuuming - but it certainly didn't have pig slop and excrement all over it.