Cleaning the House For You

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Are there many things better than waking up in the morning and walking into a clean bathroom? Getting in a clean shower, drying off with fresh towels and then seeing a clean outfit hanging up behind the door, ready to be put on before work. Walking into the kitchen to pour yourself a cup of coffee that has already brewed because you remembered to set the coffee pot up the night before. Pulling your packed lunch out of the fridge and seeing the ground beef thawing in there as well because you planned to make spaghetti for dinner. Having a clean, organized house is one of life’s little pleasures. If you’re laughing at me and thinking it’s impossible, she doesn’t know these Neanderthals I live with, keep reading.

I was once what my favorite blogger Flylady calls a “martyr”. I would come home from work, exhausted, to a messy house, no dinner in sight and basically explode. I’d stomp around and clean up EVERYONE else’s mess, order pizza or some other greasy crap so I didn’t have to figure out what to cook, help with homework, take out trash, maybe start laundry and wonder how the hell I got to this point in my life. I would then go to bed angry and feeling very much alone in a house full of people. Then I would lay in bed and think of a million other things I needed to do and not be able to fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning, cursing the audacity of everyone else in the house for being able to sleep in this pigsty.

Or I would go to the opposite extreme and decide I wasn’t doing a damn thing. If they couldn’t get off their lazy asses to do something then I sure wasn’t going to waste my time doing it. Except I’m a Virgo and most Virgos I know cannot tolerate things being out of place. So, I ended up waiting until the weekend and spending Saturday and Sunday cleaning all day and making sure everyone in the house knew I was giving up MY time to do this. Does this sound familiar?

If so, you need to stop it. Stop it right now. I’m going to share with you a couple of things I’ve learned over the years.

1. Some people do not know how to clean. Nope, they don’t. Especially if you have a husband/spouse whose mother did everything for them like I once did.
2. Everyone has a different idea of what clean is. I grew up in a house where clean was pretty much about the smell of PineSol. My wife hates the smell of PineSol so that could have been a big problem for us.
3. If you have kids, let them be kids. However, make cleaning FUN and you will never have to worry about a huge mess again. Start as soon as they can walk with little cleaning supplies their size. My 14 year old thinks it’s FUN to clean his room – I’m not kidding.
4. Instead of cleaning with hate and anger, try cleaning with love. An attitude of gratitude goes a long way to changing the entire mood of yourself and everyone in your home.
5. Stop buying every new gadget or cleaner on the market. If you find something you love, keep using it. I love Mrs. Meyers cleaners so that is 90% of what we use for everyday cleaning.

Now, I want you to stop a minute and think about what you want. Do you want to live in a clean house? Then clean it for you. You do deserve it you know. Yes, you do. This is the start of my series on cleaning for you and if you enjoyed it or at least find yourself mildly interested, sign up for my newsletter so you’ll know when something new comes out.