If life were like that…I’d be reading instead of cleaning. A cleaning service would come in every week to shovel out Camp Good and help keep it sparkly clean. Not in twenty-two years of marriage, eighteen of those being a mother, have I figured out how it can get so damn disorganized around here in a space of hours. Suffice it to say we like the ‘lived-in’ look.
Now I’ve heard it said that some people enjoy cleaning, I’ve even met a few who’ve confessed to such disturbing traits. Nightmarish stories of getting up before the sun rises to vacuum, excitement over certain brands of cleaning products. I’m not sure I believe them. But if it’s true, I want to know what they put in their morning tea that causes this strange desires. Or maybe I’m missing a gene.
Interesting fact: One writer Ava Gardner did know quite well was Ernest Hemingway, with whom she was good friends. She starred in three movies based on his writing – The Sun Also Rises, The Snows of Kilimanjaro andThe Killers.
If life were like that what would you be doing right now?
Urgh – cleaning! Hate it…leave it ’til the last possible minute…rail at self for not doing it on a more consistant basis…repeat! You know, for all our advances in technology, how come no one’s come up with a self-cleaning house? Or eliminated dust altogether. As for clutter – amazing how it can muliply in minutes!
If I had a self-cleaning house, I’d spend more time not feeling guilty about not cleaning! Of course, I’d find something else to fill the guilty void 😉
Cleaning and guilt. Worst things ever. Besides, clutter. But whose fault is that? Mine. So, the first thing I need to do is stop whining and just get it done.
Although, I would like to advancements in the area of self-cleaning besides the Roomba.
I’ll tell you a story which you might one day make use of in your writing (because I sure as heck wouldn’t tell you what to do in your own home).
I have a friend who is a family therapist. As you can imagine, she sees any number of combinations of family members who cannot agree on the “right” way to run a house. Re: cleaning, she has them brainstorm some lists: health hazards, fight-starters, annoyances, just skip it. She guides their negotiations of what goes where. Ultimately, if someone is over-invested in something (say, cleaning the ceiling fan blades) then that becomes their responsibility with no right to pout that no one else does it. She says the fight-starters list dwindles rapidly and that in the course of a few weeks, more of the household cooperates in the clutter-busting (not, however, the scrubbing).
Thankfully, it hasn’t gotten so bad we’re a health hazard. Yet, as I just made my 17 year-old clean his room. {{Shudders}} But since for the most part we’re fairly reasonable people I think more negotiating over responsibilities would help, as well as more listing of responsibilities and who does what, instead of me stewing about it.