This weekend, we had some last minute guests for dinner. As they arrived, I said to them, “I’m not a housekeeper. I’m not even not a good housekeeper. I’m just not a housekeeper.”
I like to be organized, though you couldn’t tell it from my house. Most of the time, I have better things to do than tidy up. Or more important things, anyway.
So when I do start to clean, I get a little obsessive. A few years ago, I wrote this, because cleaning for me usually goes like the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie:
If I’m going wash the bathroom mats, then I might as well wash the rugs from the bedroom.
If I wash the rugs from the bedroom, I’m going to have to sweep the bedroom.
If I’m going to sweep the bedroom, I may as well sweep the hallway, too.
If I sweep the hallway, I’ll probably end up sweeping the rest of the house.
Back to the bathroom!
If I am going to clean the tub, I better mop the floor first (so I can dump the dirty mop water in the tub).
Before I can mop the floor, I have to clean the toilet.
Before I clean the toilet, I have to clean the sink.
If I clean the sink, I better put away all the things that have collected on the counter, so I can clean the counter, too.
The moral of the story:
Unless you’re ready to clean the whole house, don’t clean the bathroom!!!
It wasn’t the bathroom yesterday, it was laundry. I had half a load of my boys’ clothes, so I asked them to find other clothes that were in their room that might need to be washed. It turned into cleaning their whole room. I did find another load and a half of laundry, though.
Meanwhile, I could have been sewing, or learning lines, or answering emails, or writing this blog post, or… I think I’m done cleaning for a while. Except that the bathroom is dirty…
Blessings,
Mary