Truthful Tuesday is here once again. Pondering what to share this week, I came to the conclusion that I should share one of my dirty little secrets. I hate to clean. No, really. I HATE to clean the house. I would rather go get a root canal or sit through a daylong, boring lecture about a subject I don't care about than sweep, mop, vacuum, or do laundry.
That's not to say that I like things messy or dirty. Clutter doesn't bother me as much as it does Deputy D. On the contrary, clutter makes me feel safe and happy and surrounded by items that I love. But I don't like things dirty or messy or laying all over the house. I just don't want to be the one to clean it up.
I blame this entirely on my mom. Let me interject here that I love my mom, and I have forewarned her that she may pop up occasionally on the blog. She was hesitant, but said that the understood how important this writing was to me, so she would try and be understanding. This being said, I will be calling her as soon as I post this to let her know that I love her no matter what her quirks are. Everyone has them. Deputy D could write a book about mine. One of hers just happens to be liking things extremely neat and clean all of the time.
At any rate, back to blaming my mom for my loathing of cleaning and chores. Growing up, this is how a typical Saturday went down at our house. Wake up at 7:00 a.m., clean the bathroom, do laundry, clean the bedroom, do more laundry, wash dishes, vacuum, do yet more laundry, dust, take out the trash, sweep, still more laundry, do the dishes again, finish the laundry, go to bed. My mom's recollection of Saturdays growing up is quite different and consists more of her cleaning the house while my brother and I argue with her about helping. Dad's view (very wisely) is very similar to mom's. While my brother's is somewhere quite firmly in the middle.
Keep in mind that my mom worked both a full-time job and a part-time job to help take care of us, and Sundays were reserved for church and resting. In her defense, this really only left Saturdays for the housework and chores.
Still, I stick to my contention that having to clean the house from dusk until dawn every Saturday made me hate cleaning with a passion. Deputy D knows very well that if we ever win the lottery, Merry Maids will be my first call, even before we call our parents or call to quit work. It was even worse last year when I was so depressed. I was tired and apathetic and just didn't do anything around here like it should have been done. Laundry piled up on the couch for weeks at a time. Dishes piled up in the sink until Deputy D had time to deal with them. You get the picture.
It doesn't help that once I started cleaning again, I felt like I was picking up after Deputy D and Little Man constantly. Deputy D likes to leave cups laying all around the house and outside. I find cups in the garage, on the back porch, and in the driveway by the cars. Little Man likes to leave his dirty clothes on the floor in his bathroom and his closet. He has laundry baskets in both places, but refuses to actually hit them. The clothes go on the floor right beside the baskets. Every day.
I do not pretend to be innocent. I have a strange hang-up to where my shoes have to be kicked off right as I walk in the door. So unless we know there is company coming, you can find a week's worth of my shoes piled up by the front door on any given day.
And I dirty up every pot and pan and spoon in the kitchen when I cook. It's really bad, and blame this one completely on my dad. He does the same thing. Mom hates it when he cooks because she has such a huge mess to clean up. I submit the following photos from Sunday's lunch as proof that I am not exaggerating.
Right. Rambling again.
So we had to come up with a solution that worked for both of us, to where the workload was small enough that we could handle it and that we could both share the workload enough to make it manageable since we both work full-time. I came across some ideas on Pinterest and also from a friend's chore schedule that I found on her refrigerator one night while I was visiting.
We decided to make a schedule that included cleaning up one room and doing one load of laundry every day. We don't necessarily do a deep cleaning of the rooms on the schedule every time, sometimes just a quick pick up to make the rooms presentable. Also, we left Little Man on his own with his room. It seems to be working out really well for us. I just glance at the chart each morning, and do what I can before I leave for work and even at lunch. Then I finish up after dinner, and usually have a little time left to relax and watch a few minutes of TV or read with Little Man.
I am not sure if it helps anyone, but here is the schedule that we came up with:
Sunday - Sheets (Laundry), None (Cleaning)
Monday - Deputy D's Clothes (Laundry), Living Room (Cleaning)
Tuesday - Little Man's Clothes (Laundry), Little Man's Bathroom (Cleaning)
Wednesday - Towels (Laundry), Master Bedroom (Cleaning)
Thursday - Whites (Laundry), Master Bathroom (Cleaning)
Friday - Jeans (Laundry), Office (Cleaning)
Saturday - My Clothes (Laundry), Kitchen (Cleaning)
Of course, we do the dishes and pick up the kitchen every day. The cleaning on Saturday is more of a deep cleaning. Spreading the laundry out to one or two loads a day has made it immensely more manageable than what we were doing before. Which was basically trying to do all the laundry in one day for a whole week's worth of clothes for a family.
I hope this helps someone out there that detests cleaning and chores as much as I do to know that there is a way to make it manageable, if not pleasant.
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