The Art of Cleanliness

How many hours a week do you spend cleaning? I don't know either, but I feel like it's alot. How many hours a week do you spend dreading cleaning? I don't know either, but I know it's alot more.

I have alot going on in my house. I have a three bedroom ranch, with a full, unfinished basement. I have two 2 year olds (for a couple of days), a husband and I "work from home." My office is in my bedroom. I find myself walking throughout my house, hating my house. Not because the layout is bad, but because everywhere I look, there is something for me to do. It's a constant "to do" list. When I open the refrigerator I have thoughts of "I need to clean the refrigerator." Going to the bathroom, "I should clean the toilet, and the tub AND the floor...for both bathrooms." Walking through the front door, "I really need to sort through that pile of mail." You get the idea. So, does it ever end? Am I a bad housekeeper? A bad organizer? Has anyone really mastered the art of cleanliness? I could sign up for services like Fly Lady, but I don't have time to read 20 e-mails per day. Or I could hire a cleaning service, but I can't afford it? So, what do I need to do to maintain the clean? Clean, I guess. clean clean clean clean clean. It just doesn't seem healthy, but neither does a messy home.

Of course, I would like to take a moment to thank my dishwasher. I can't imagine my life without him. He's hard working, reliable and we run him EVERY single night.

Approximately two times a week, I find myself dumping out Anna and Noah's toyboxes. I dump them out and reorgazine the toys. Of course, this is the time they discover they have all of these toys making it almost impossible for me to get the job done, but it's a great way to keep things together. I seperate the legos from the wooden blocks, I seperate the Little People from the Thomas the Tank Engines, I seperate everything. And I do it again in a few days. But for a couple of minutes, I feel great about the toys.

Why do we hate cleaning? It's not hard work. It's just putting things away. What's difficult about that? I would rather get in the car, drive 1 hour, find a parking space and shop for 3 hours looking for a pair of shoes AND wait in line then clean my bathroom. Does this mean I have a problem? Is it laziness? Could it be laziness when I feel like I clean all of the time? (well, not always, you know the name of this blog!)

I would pay alot of money to be able to walk into the creator of Fly Lady's living room in the middle of the day. Wouldn't you love to see if her house is really clean or organized? I would. Maybe Fly Lady is a woman living in a disaster area who doesn't even have time to shower because she telling everyone else what they should be doing...when she should be sorting her mail or cleaning her fridge or folding her laundry. Of course, if her house were immaculate and everything was organized, I'd find the time to read those e-mails.