First, I've been reading for a couple/few days now to get to 'know' y'all and you're all very funny. (I particularly liked the joke about the shrimp and alligators on the side of road but, there's waaaaaaay too many good ones to mention here!)
Housework? URGH! The worst!!!! - I am a neat-freak but I'm at the point of "who gives a ______" (not at all a procrastinator, lol!)
I have a couple secrets I learned from mom - not technically because she actually DID the housework and everyone pitched in - like it or not. Something obviously didn't sink in well enough, me thinks, as I try to snap out of it....
I can't stand clutter but you ever notice as soon as you organize clutter, you can't find anything?? I hate that and it's one of my best excused to date. In working out a simple way around that one(which I haven't done yet cause I NEVER procrastinate on housework when I can be on-line instead - Seriously, though, I have a dog who comes first and takes a lot of time to care for - Dog-toy clutter I can't avoid. My sweet dog leaves me cookie crumbs between the sheets, turning laundry day into a major search for crumbs under and behind the bed - req. working super-bright flashlight, like I wasn't already sore from pulling her gazillion and 1/2 toys off the bed with all the covers, bed spread, pillows, etc.)
I'm thinking of getting some stacking boxes and instead of officially organizing my own clutter and labelling them "This was all the paperwork next to my computer" and "This box is stuff I
threw in closet", etc. But, that's just organizing clean clutter.
When my mom would clean the house - and I mean seriously - it was that freshly cleaned smell you could smell from the street that said, "Cleaning day is here!" Two things - amonia and lemon pledge with all the windows open. iow, I'll cheat by doing a light clean and using a lot or leaving some amonia in an open container - windows open, then putting a glade plug-in on high. I mean no one's doing the white-glove test. (Minus the bathroom and kitchen for health reasons, it's just dusting and vacuuming and with a dog that is every to every other day.) But once a week, while the dog is playing outside, I do the amonia thing - fumes are too strong to use around pets - and the lemon pledge I do on tops of things. Everything else is non-toxic dishsoap and water. Still, yuck on housework - people give me lots of decorative stuff I love but, it makes for more cleaning if I worry about being that particular. I'd love to have a big curio cabinet for those things! No one elses notices except me, though so "who the _____ cares?" If it's not perfect, it's not perfect. Neither am I. It gives me room to improve I guess.
I can't do a big-clean even bi-weekly but, people don't get offended if things smell clean - if the clutter went to the ceiling - no dust and a fresh smell and people are happy campers.
The clutter, though, is maddening to me and I hate losing stuff so even w/ some idea of what to do, I keep putting it off. URGH! Gosh, my mom was such a neat freak,(she had her junk drawers, like we all do) if us kids didn't pick up after ourselves (and we had toy bins, etc.) stuff would be gone by the time we got home from school the next day, lol, never to be seen again...if it wasn't kept in our own rooms, so how I ended up this way, I can't explain! I don't have kids --- yet --- but, I do prefer a clean house and would moreso/I'd lean on the side of being a germaphobic w/my own kids and kinda go that way with my dog, too. Cookie crumbs are one thing - mud from outside and the dog sleeps in the laundry room not on my bed til I give her a bath. Otherwise, my place looks a little too lived in but, I've had to prioritize my health so "who the _____ cares?"
The really big stuff - windows, curtains a good rug shampoo, I wish I could afford to hire a housekeeper.
I don't have an answer other than to keep the lights off and pretend it's just so. It works for me for half of every day and gives me time for the things I enjoy doing.
I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, in my case. I just have had to prioritize cause what's the point of a picture perfect place while hacking to death? Enjoy your company - life is too short as it is! It only took us kids twice of missing toys to figure out how to use a toy bin. I empathize w/ you - it's the bending to pick stuff up - Seriously, we had a joke, eventually, growing up - whoever was closest the ground (by height) had to do the picking up, but I can't teach that logic to my dog, lol!
"Who the ____ cares?"
(there's always tomorrow...)
They would be shocked that I asked them.
