I deleted my chore list on my Blackberry.
I created the list, more of a schedule really, when we moved into this house. I was overwhelmed by how much floor space there was for toys to spread, how many toilets there were to scrub, and how many surfaces there were to get grimy.
So I made a schedule.
I had a similar schedule when we were selling our house in Utah. The house had to stay presentable because we were getting one to three showings a day, usually with little advance notice. I tried to do things that made sense. Like cleaning the bathrooms on Friday so that they would be ready when friends came to visit over the weekend. And I saved all the cleaning of floors until Monday, after the increased traffic flow had subsided.
I discovered that I really like having a clean, presentable house. I liked that I didn't feel the need to panic when a friend wanted to drop in for a spur of the moment visit. Or when the mailman rang the doorbell with a package... yes, it's true. I'm that crazy.
When we moved here to the Midwest, I buried myself in taking care of the house in order to forget about how much I missed the friends and the life that we had left behind. I found myself living by my list. I had daily chores, once a week chores, bi-weekly chores, and once a month chores. And my phone told me when to do them.
Then Sevvy was born. Survival mode kicked in and our house fell apart. Dishes sat in the sink for days, clean laundry had to be found wherever it had landed when it came out of the dryer... usually not folded. I had to avoid really looking at my toilets when I used them. But we were (aside from the sleep-deprivation headaches) happy.
This week I read this post, and this one too. I realized that no one in my family but me cares what the house looks like. They do, however, care about the quality and quantity of time we spend together.
Mommy's just no fun when she's scrubbing toilets.
I'm still working out in my mind how this is going to work. I'm sure that I'll stress out about it, because that's what I do best. But I'm going to do my best to spend my time doing the things that will some day be out of my grasp. Like cuddling my kids and tickling them and singing a couple of extra songs at nap time.
Today I took my first step in the right direction.
5 comments:
Thanks for reminding me. I'm going to go cuddle my kids. :)
you've probably already heard of this, but on the off chance that you haven't, I wanted to share. Flylady is the queen of a clean house. Just 10 min. a day. Really. A room or two gets cleaned a week and the whole house each month. It's fantastic. I just do Kelly's missions every day. Here's the link. http://flylady.net/pages/FlightPlan_Missions.asp
And yes, I too have shoved it all aside in order to build a fort with my son. :) LOL
Good for you. I am OCD about the house being clean. Some friends of mine around here have a cleaning service go to their house once a month. They have been raving about it, their husbands even love having a clean home and less stressed wife so much that they insist it is money well spent.
I am pretty tempted to try it out.
Yeah, John's salary will go up a little in July... I'm hoping that it will cover a little preschool and little housekeeping. We'll see.
Good for you! Thanks for the reminder. I am slowly learning that my perfectionist tendencies can totally backfire when it comes to building a home that the kids will want to come back to someday. (On the other hand, I also benefited a lot from what I learned on flylady - I definitely don't do her whole "program" but I found a few routines that have saved my sanity.) I asked Mom if I could have her "BLESS THIS MESS" sign but it had fallen and broken. If I ever find one, I'll get one for you. :-) Peace :-)
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