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Since we’re remodeling my office right now, instead of scrubbing the baseboards, we’re just taking them off and putting up new ones

I am a slob.  I freely confess it and anyone who knows me at all knows it.  But, lately, I think I have been discovering my inner neatnik.  My house is cleaner than, well, since I moved in, and I spent a good part of last Saturday shampooing carpets.  Dishes are done in a timely manner, the bathrooms are clean, there aren’t any dirty clothes on my bedroom floor.  And I think I like it!  What is happening to me???????

I always hated cleaning and now, I have a valid excuse not to clean--I have asthma, triggered by dust mites, exercise, pollen and animal dander. And if I don’t clean it gets worse.

I also have the most idiotic work schedule outside the realm of fire-fighting that any employer could have ever dreamed up, so when I’m home, I’m exhausted and the last thing I want to do is domestic chores.

Thank God for a husband who is semi-domesticated and has a willingness to take on some of those jobs!!

Lately, he’s been in panic mode because our child from LaLaLand and my dear son by marriage are headed this way for a quick visit in a couple weeks. 

Right now, the hall bathroom is half-devoid of wallpaper and hubby swears he’s going to finish the job this weekend.  How sad--I have to work and can’t help him! LOL!

On a less cheeky note, being the AR perfectionist I am, I hesitate to take on any chore that I can’t complete to my absolute satisfaction...it would drive me batty.  I truly wish there was a pill for this ailment, I’d love to get over myself and just do what needs to be done without obsessing over the minute details that nobody but me would even notice.

Connie, I completely understand!

My three girls are already eying the pile of swiffer dusters and assortment of lemon smelling cleaners with dread.  I work in the schools, so the second it’s out (one week from today!!!) I tear the house apart.  It takes about three days, but then I can enjoy the summer, and let the girls enjoy theirs too

Hubby travels while working, so he is seldom witness to the madness, but he knows enough to walk through the door and say “Wow, and it looks amazing, and that kitchen’s too clean to eat in--how about dinner out?”

I totally get it Connie!

Like you, I got my spring cleaning jones from my Mom.  I’ve been itching to scrub our house from top to bottom.  I can’t until we finish some drywall work and finish refinishing our stairway.

While I hate the actual work involved in spring cleaning, I absolutely love the smell of a freshly cleaned house.

For us spring cleaning also leads to the annual yard sale which leads to extra vacation cash and that sweetens the deal.

Errr, yeah, spring cleaning..
Sorry, I hate house work, no matter what. I do like a clean house, but I’m willing to live with a little dust. I’m not timely with anything, dishes, laundry, whatever. Never have been. We are happy, though. 

I am , however in the middle of a purge/paint thing. I have turquoise walls, apple green walls, and a periwinkle bedroom (so far). I am banishing white with a vengence.  I think it’s more of an organizing, dumping than a scrubbing! Now the garden is looking great, roses are going crazy this year!!

-Cinthia, there is a pill for that, it’s called a chill-pill !

It’s so hard for me to clean when I have two little ones doing their best to undo what was just done.  I just get done cleaning one room and walk out to do another.  Then I come back in and it looks like it was never touched.  The kids think they have a clean place to play so they bring out all their toys.

The other day I just got done mopping the kitchen floor and my muddy-shoed son comes running into the kitchen.  ACK!  The only time I seem to get things done is when they go to bed, but by then I’m just too tired.

But I do love the smell of a fresh house.  An there’s nothing better then climbing into bed that just had the sheets brought in from outside.

I adore a clean house and once I get into the groove, I’m a fabulous cleaner--I should be; was a maid in h.s.  The problem is getting my butt up to do it.  I WISH I had happy feelings associated with the anticipation of cleaning, like you have Connie, but I really truly and honestly would rather give birth than clean.

June is Winter here,
A clean house is a sign of a broken computer?

I love to organize and hate to clean, but in order to be organized I have to clean.  There’s the problem in a nutshell.  I love clearing out closets, getting rid of things, and organizing what’s left in neatly labelled storage boxes, but once it’s out you have to vacuum the baseboards and dust the shelves.  You should see my Goodwill piles in the garage!!  No garage sales for me - too much work!

I have to agree with J Perry, I’d rather give birth.  I would have been a terrible housewife in the 1950’s.  My mother is the queen of clean, dirt doesnt dare make an apperance in her house.  She got real bitchy when we left our stuff laying around.  She turned my sister into a clean queen too, its stressful to visit them.  Because what if a hair falls off my head and lands on their floor! Oh the horror!  I think thats why I think there are more important things than a super clean house, more fun things to do than worry about washing my windows or mopping the floors.  Keep the dishes done and the hair picked up in the bathroom and all is good, imo.  Shes coming to visit and needless to say when she leaves my house will then be “Judy clean” whether I want it to be or not.

I agree with dee!
Do they still make Orange Crush???

I think Spring cleaning is marvelous.  Didn’t like it so much growing up because every Saturday, my mom cleaned as if it were Spring cleaning....she still does.

My kids aren’t used to such a meticulous house and always ask if company is coming over when I get into a clean mode - the little rats.  Thankfully, they think it’s fun to help clean so....they each get a Swifter and can attack their rooms with zeal.  They are also a bunch of pack rats like their Dad, so I particularly enjoy the cleansing ritual it’s become.

OMG, J Perry Stone, I am with you.  I’d rather give birth than clean.

My mom was always so neat growing up and she always enlisted my help.  It didn’t end up making me appreciate the benefits of a wasted Saturday, uh, well spent.  I, instead, began to understand how Saturdays can be so much more fun when not spent with a worn out mop. 

I want a maid for my birthday this year.

I do love a clean house, but I like it better if someone else cleans it for me.

Right now, our house is in major purge mode, since our packers/movers will be here in 3 weeks!  UGH!!!  So, I’m trying to clean as I purge.  Once the house is empty, I’m hiring someone to come in and clean top to bottom.  I shudder to think about the dust monsters (no way they’re just bunnies!) behind the book shelves!

Ugh. Cleaning. Not my favourite chore by far, and according to my mother in law, I’m terrible at it. (And according to my grandma, I keep house just like my mother LOL)

But when I’m angry, I clean. I’ll work off stream by cleaning house until everything is sparkly and my anger has been purged along with the dirt. Hmmm too bad I have a happy marriage. My house might be cleaner if we fought more LOL

I’m with everyone that hates to clean but do it because it’s necessary.  I have relaxed it quite a bit from my younger years.

Like Santa, when I was young, Saturday was heavy cleaning day. None of us got out of the house until the entire house was spotless.  I kept up the Saturday cleaning tradition well into my twenties and early thirties. But 5 kids running in and out made it impossible, and I was working two jobs, and going thru college. I had to give something up.....cleaning seemed expendable.

It’s not so bad, if someone walked in unexpectedly, I wouldn’t be too embarrassed.

On a side note: thank God it’s raining, the air is heavy with the smoke from the Georgia fires.  I hope the rain makes its way there today!

I also LOVE a clean house.  Unfortunately, like so many others here, I don’t like to clean it.  In fact, I’m not such a hot homemaker - don’t like to clean, cook, do laundry, etc.  I’m a pretty decent mom, chauffeur, Gamecube and Playstation opponent, though.

I’m also with SusyQ on the whole “if I clean it, they will mess it” theory.  It always happens.  I spent a whole day just cleaning the kitchen recently.  I then went out to do some grocery shopping and came home to an absolute mess!  I get mad, they get yelled at and we’re all pretty unhappy.  So, I don’t clean.  We are all much happier that way.

I keep telling myself - just 8 more years and I can have my house back.  I’ll enjoy a clean, organized house then.

Cathzoe and twolilhahas are my two new best friends...we’d stink as roomates, however. 

WHO WOULD CLEAN OUR HOUSE?

twolilhahas, if that’s your daughter in your avatar, what a precious pie!

J

Cinthia - I’m also a bit AR and I really think that the reason I don’t bother most of the time is because it will never be (or stay) perfect!

I read once that there are 2 types of perfectionists.  Those that are in constant motion - cleaning, organizing and working to make their world perfect.  And those, like me, who don’t bother because they know they will never reach perfection.  Isn’t that interesting!

Here’s one for all of us with kids at home:

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the driveway while it’s still snowing.

So true, so true!

Connie,

This might sound silly- but…

Where do you start? Do you just dive in? 

J Perry,

I was a maid in highschool too! “knock knock “housekeeping.” Maybe this is why I hate cleaning and need to go to Fly Lady to figure out what to do with my own house~! lol

I’m with the crowd that doesn’t like to clean.  I like a clean house, I just don’t like having to do it.  And it never stays clean for long.  Talk about viscious circle.  I get dizzy just thinking about it.  My house is clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!! 

--dorothy

I would love to have a freshly spring cleaned house, but with 3 kids, I am just managing to keep the dishes, laundry, vacuuming and dusting done while providing them with food on a daily basis.

By the time I get to spring cleaning its usually time to paint/re-decorate the rooms, and that is when I do my spring cleaning, whenever I paint!

Maybe someday when I am making more money, I can hire merry maids to come in and do the job right!

I like to clean I just have to be in the right mood to do it.  My mom always says that I’m a great house keeper when I want to be.  My favorite time of the year to clean is in the summer though.  I can open all the windows and doors and let in the fresh summer air.  Then I turn up the radio and dance as I go.  I know it sounds cheesy but it makes it more fun.  I got the routine from my mom to but she didn’t open up an Orange Crush though.  She always started in the afternoon with an ice cold beer.  I do to now, it makes cleaning a lot more fun. 

Well… I love the purgative power of a good spring cleaning.  That’s when I actually tidy closets and give stuff away....rearrange rooms.... through TONS of things out....
Somehow I convince myself that by the time I’m done (which never happens - this is a journey, not a destination), I will somehow have everything in my life figured out and have the brief illusion of control.  (Ha! I don’t even think ShangriLa is that organized....)

But it never does get done in the spring.  The itch and twitch begins now....but I never have time until about August....and then it’s the ‘time to get organized before Fall” frenzy.  (You can always tell people who live by the school year, either because they have kids or because they teach… like me.)

No spring cleaning for me. Did waaayyyy too much of that when I was young. Had to help Grnadma and my aunts every year. We even had to put black shoe polish on all the screens. I still don’t know why, but we did it.

After they all died, all their family “stuff” came here. I live with four generations-worth of “stuff”.  Get rid of it? NO WAY. See, I’m one of those people who think “SOMEday someone might ask ...do you still have......... and I can say ..I sure do. Or I might need it SOMEday. So I keep ALL of it.

My word is verification is play86. I can do that!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll tell you what J Perry Stone, if I get a maid for my birthday, I’ll share. 

The good news is, this blog inspired me today.  I cleaned up the living room.  Yay!  Maybe that’s what the new trend in romance needs to be, heroines with an appreciation for cleaning.  Then maybe I’d be inspired more often.  As it is, I just want to be rich and pampered...even if I had to use a chamber pot.

And thank you so much.  That is my daughter in my avatar pic.  She’s my oldest.

It’s so funny to hear everyone posting about spring cleaning when here the leaves are turning red and gold and falling (OK, apart from the leaves on the native trees as they aren’t deciduous.)

I have to say I don’t have a set time to clean the house, but perhaps I should… I do love cleaning everything until it sparkles though, but then I get all weird and have to make sure everything is neat/straight…

orannia

PS Connie - good luck with the cleaning

Connie, my goodness you’re amazing. I’m nervous of what I’d find if I moved every piece of furniture aside and took every single item out of the closets. I’m also nervous that once I take everything out, I might lose interest and then everything will lie higgledy-piggledy every where. Now THAT would be a complete nightmare in my book.

what a great blog, Connie!  I am deeply envious.  My daughter and I do sit down sometimes and clean her doll house from head to foot—does that count?

she has a tiny creche, and we take it down, and the Christmas tree, and the tiny presents.  And we usually get around to showing away the tiny pumpkins from Halloween too.

Of course, it is Spring by then, but we love doing it!

Now I just have to get into the orange crush habit.

Eloisa

I love this blog!  Brings back fond memories of my mom and the 5 of us girls . . . and boy, did she love to do a thorough spring/summer clean.  Everything from windows, screens, drapes/curtains to even hand waxing of the floors.  Our fave moment was to tie old socks around our knees and see who could shine the fastest, LOL!  I distinctly remember feeling a serene calm and pride at having worked so hard.  I think its time to get cracking with a thorough clean . . .

I loathe housekeeping. It seems like that’s all my mom ever did lol I also hate the name housewife. I did not marry a house.

Irish Eyes, that’s a very interesting observation.

I’m definitely in the 2nd category.  I don’t bother doing anything because I know I’ll never reach that elusive perfection I crave.  Small wonder I’m not published yet! Hah!!

When I was away from hubby and the inhabitants of the domicile for 3 weeks for school last year, I was in a hotel room.  The maid hardly had to clean up after me, I kept it so neat and clean.

Anyone else here one of those who can tell if something of theirs has been moved, even the teensiest little bit?  I could always tell if my mom had been nosing around in my room because I knew exactly how far my closet door was open, which way my clothes were arranged in my drawers, etc....

~~sigh~~ It ain’t easy being weird.

I admit it here.  I HATE cleaning!!!  And out of all chores, I hate doing dishes most of all!!  In fact, I would rather clean the bathroom than do dishes.  This most likely has to do with the fact that I do not have a dishwasher.  There is just something about sticking my hands in hot chunky mystery water that grosses me out!!  Yuck!!!

As for dusting, was there EVER a better invention than the Swiffer duster???  MAN, I love those things!!!!  Talk about making a tedious job go by fast! 

Maybe some day, I’ll get around to hiring a maid for a day of deep cleaning.  Unfortunately, I’ll have to clean the house first or she will go screaming into the night as soon as she steps in the front door . . . 

I work full time; so does the hubby.  He sleeps in the recliner on weekends; I shop.  I refuse to have no weekend when everyone else in my family gets one.  That’s where Estrella comes in.  She’s my favorite person in the world.  Every Thursday, when I come home, the whole house has been magically transformed by Estrella’s powers of dusting, mopping, and vacuuming.  She is the BEST gift I ever gave myself.  My prayer for each of you is that you find a way to give yourselves an Estrella. 

(My verification is anti21 - anti-housework, of course!)

i start by taking everything off of every shelf and out of every drawer and then I clean every epty surface. From there, I get rid of the junk and do the windows and then the floors and then the baseboards. I completely finish one room before going to the next.

And remember, this is not my usual form. This is a once a year purge of the most strident variety. the rest of the year it’s, er, not so clean…

Besides spring cleaning, my Mom always had us clean the whole house right after Christmas, so we would start the new year off with a sparkling clean house.  I still do this every year; tree is down by the 27th and I’m starting to clean.  I do this before we leave on vacation too; it is so nice to come home to a clean house.

My Mom also said that whatever you do on the last day of the year is what you will be doing all of the next year. So I make sure I do all the things I like to do on December 31th!

I only do a ‘big cleaning’ when I am having company.  Other than that, I do my best to do a good cleaning job (tubs, toilets, sinks, floors, counters, vacuuming and using windex (mirrors, t.v. and hubbys glass covered hobby) every week. 

I spray my windows off in spring (and hopefully fall).  I love that windex you attach to the hose and just spray the darn windows.  I consider any dust that is around until company is coming my protective layer!!  We live out on the windy plains and the shelves have the same amount of dust 3 days after dusting that they have 6 months later...I don’t see the point.

My baseboards I do as I see bad spots and leave them alone other than that…

I can’t live in filth, but clutter doesn’t bug me too much…

Sam…

Cathzoe:

your messy house is a present to your mother, obviously she likes to clean, since she is doing it so often, so as the loving daughter you present her with something she loves to do when she comes visiting!

i tend to leave things in sight; clothes, books, magazines, cd´s, proyects.. the mess does not bother me. but it bothers my boyfriend no end. his version of cleening tends to be organizing and putting papers in neat stacs.

as for opening windows to let in fresh air, the winds here in zaragoza are strong and brings with them dust from the sorrounding dry lands, so open windows iquals more dust. and now, in may also iquals hot air and pollen.
i am more of a xmas cleaning girl. nothing like cleaning while the flat smells of cookies in the oven.

ok- that’s it, I’m going to try it. You know when the sun rays shine in the house.... and you can see dust floating- well. maybe not all of you, but I am going for it- no more dust!~! Shelves first~! Surfaces next! one room at a time!