To put it simply, I hate cleaning. Sophie Kinsella’s phrase “Undomestic Goddess”, the title of one of her novels, is a flattering way to describe my domestic abilities. It’s not that I can’t physically do these things….it’s more that I’m not inclined to spend hours maintaining a “perfect” home. Yes, I care that the floors are clean and things are put away (sometimes). But I don’t overly concern myself if the windows aren’t spotless, if the space beneath my couch is a graveyard for stray toys and dog hair, and if my stove is splattered with red sauce. I don’t dust everyday and baskets of clothes are not always folded as soon as they leave the dryer. I like my house to be orderly and picked up, but after putting Macie to bed at 7:00 p.m., I’d rather write, edit photos, read, or watch crappy T.V. than spend an hour cleaning.
Even though I stay at home half the week, I don’t consider myself to be one of those rock star housewives. Some of my acquaintances are the embodiment of domestic goddess. By 8 a.m. they have baked a cake, worked out, dropped the kiddos at school, and are perfectly coifed. Not me. Sure, I’m usually awake by 5 or 6 a.m. each day, but most of my time is spent meeting Macie’s many, and increasingly intelligible, demands. Most days I am in yoga pants and a tank top, with disheveled, pony-tailed hair, and no makeup. I often fit in a work out, but it is usually cut short by Macie demanding to be held. Cooking is on an as needed and limited basis. On motivated days I try to pick up after Macie, but I find myself cleaning the same mess over and over again. Most of the time I don’t waste the energy.
Challenges to keeping a clean house:
1. Macie is like a search and destroy missile. Her mission is to extract every article from the recycle bin, her toy chest, the kitchen cabinets, her bookshelf, shoe basket, and DVD collection. Basically, she undoes my work in a matter of seconds.
2. Gunner’s dog hair covers my floor. In order to keep the floors clean I have to Swifter multiple times a day.
3. Josh is a slob. He leaves things all over the house without thinking twice. For example, he leaves shoes in the bathroom, dirty clothes on the floor in front of the hamper, dirty glasses all over the house, and his snack items and breadcrumbs all over the kitchen counter right after I clean.
Unfortunately, now that we are in the process of putting our house on the market, I have spent much of my free time doing the thing I loathe- cleaning. When we actually list the house I am going to have to spend hours each week washing, scrubbing, polishing, and vacuuming in order to maintain an immaculate home. Although my house is small, scrubbing the main floor is exhausting enough. How am I going to find the energy and motivation to keep the basement and sun porch pristine? I will be spending a lot more time engaged in these tedious domestic tasks, which does NOT make me happy. I guess I need to create a good soundtrack for inspiration. Any suggestions for cleaning music? Better yet, any of you domestic goddesses want to volunteer to help maintain my soon to be immaculate home?
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