The Article That Inspired Change

So, I was just mentioning to Bear last night how pleased I’ve been with myself over the past month or so because the house has been staying so clean.  It’s only the two of us, no kids, no pets and no shoes inside but I used to feel like I spent all of my time cleaning.  Looking back though, I wasn’t spending all of my time cleaning, I was spending A LOT of time de-cluttering.  I hate clutter but it’s always been a problem for me for as long as I can remember. A little over a month ago I read this article from Modern Alternative Mama: “How I Went From I Can’t Keep My House Clean!” to “I Got This” and You Can Too……..” and something magical happened.  The light bulb went on and something finally clicked for me.  I was the queen of “later”.  I’ll put that away later, I’ll do that later, it can wait awhile longer.  Even though I knew that I was just prolonging the inevitable and I would come to almost dread the time right after Brock left for work because that’s when I would finally take the time to take care of all the “laters” that were waiting.  I don’t necessarily consider myself a lazy person or an untidy person but it felt like no matter how hard I tried to keep up with the house the mess just always got ahead of me.  I took comfort in knowing that I wasn’t the only one who struggled with these problems but that comfort didn’t fix anything.  I resolved to really work on just doing things when they need done.  I made a mental note of what this could look like on any given day; I would come home from work and put my bag and coat in the closet, get my dirty lunch dishes into the dishwasher and handwash my coffee cup right away.  When it was time to cook (dinner for myself and breakfast for Bear), I would run a sink of hot water and clean things up as I went.  If I got something out, I would put it away as soon a I was done with it.  The dishwasher would get emptied when it was done running.  I had been becoming increasingly unhappy as the months went on with the struggle to keep the house clean so this was the perfect opportunity to put real effort into trying something new.  And you know what?  It’s totally changed things in our lives.  The house has stayed so clean and with minimal effort.  Disagreements over the “condition” of the house have decreased like 99% – there’s still that pesky matter of a very messy basement… which we less than lovingly refer to as “the shit mess”.  I can tell that we’re both more relaxed at home.  This past Saturday (a day that would have normally been dedicated to cleaning) I realized that I didn’t know what to do with myself – there was no real mess to worry over.  I decided to do some deep cleaning which is something that I always felt like I never had to time to get around to.  I wiped down the kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as all the baseboards and heat vents.  It felt so good to be working on the cleaning that had been lingering on my “to-do” list for months on end.  I’m loving my new outlook on making our home comfortable for us.  I didn’t even realize the anxiety that was lurking behind every rung doorbell or offer to drop something off until it wasn’t there anymore.  I thought it was totally normal to run around like a mad woman when someone “threatened” to drop by.  I thought it was totally normal to need to apologize for a messy house.  It’s how I grew up (sorry, mom) but it isn’t how we’re going to continue to live.