Get the Clean On - Make the Mess Gone

You shower, everyday, right? I hope so. Or at least every second day...the point is you have a personal hygiene schedule, I would expect, so why is it so difficult to maintain a certain level of hygiene for your house? The laissez-faire attitude of someone-else-will-do-it can only get you so far, but eventually there comes a time when you just learn to shape up and clean up. This week's topic is:

HOUSEWORK

There was a time when chores were chores and you had no idea why your mom and dad would make you do them. It was because they were mean parents, the WORST! and didn't remember what being a kid was like. They just make up chores cause they can. Vacuuming, picking up clothes, stacking shoes nicely, hanging up your coat. Some were easier than others and of course, being kids, you took shortcuts or lied and said you did something but really just swept the crumbs under the counter...

Well, now we're all grownups. We have our own places to live and we all have jobs. Guess what: chores still exist. Of course, we don't have kids to do the work for us but chores being chores are just that - chores. If chores were fun we would call it fun time. But then we would avoid fun time like the plague.

So if you don't want to do chores, why do we? Well, they have maid services. Paid people who come to clean your house. It doesn't cost all that much and they generally do a pretty good job. That's all fine, but I live in a 1200 sq ft townhouse. I don't want to say it all comes down to money, but when you don't have a lot, why would you pay someone to do something you can do just as well in about an hour.

Well, procrastination is the key to this puzzle. I hate cleaning the bathtub more than anything in the world and I'm often unmotivated to pick up the vacuum and walk it up and down the stairs. It is, however, somewhat gratifying running the vacuum over the carpet and hearing nothing but the clickity-clack of little rocks and dirt flying up through the vacuum hose and into the canister. It's gross to think about it but it's one small victory in the battle of home maintenance satisfaction.

I love to cook. I'm not all that good and my food usually comes out too spicy, too salty, too burnt or a mix of all three. For this, my kitchen MUST be clean. We're not talking countertops made out of Lysol, but a little bit of daily TLC wouldn't hurt the kitchen's ego. To make matters worse, we don't have a dishwasher. I know it's a pain but it just means dishes have to be done literally every day. There is no way to hide them away, close the door and walk away to clean dishes. It's a horrible job, but with no kids around, it has to be done...but grownup people. Movies often portray horrible messes in kitchens with dishes stacked to the ceiling and garbage bags flung all over, empty beer cans astray on the floor and a fat guy with a half eaten pizza lounging around in a mustard stained la-zee-boy recliner. Well, my house doesn't have enough dished to stack to the roof but if it did, it would be impressive (damn you, raise ceilings). Alright, so my point. I like the kitchen clean and these days it's because I like it clean, not because my parents tell me I should.

I have no problem with mess, either. But selective mess is the key. You see, the key itself is the difference between DISorganized and UNorganized. Disorganized, of course, if your average "oh my god, it's time for work and I don't know where my keys and wallet are" versus the unorganized "I, personally, know where everything is that I need but if YOU came to my place to try to find it, you would be as lost as a sheep with no herd (or something else that gets easily lost)". For those keeping track, I'm the unorganized type.

Sorry to jump back to kitchens, but this is a place where I will always be lost. Moving to a new kitchen is like falling asleep on a road trip and having no idea where the heck you are when you finally wake up. The plates are in the corner, in the side, up top, to the left, on the bottom on the right...it's insane. Don't even think about finding a specific kind of glass! Glasses organized by colour, size, weight, genre... Even cutlery drawers are confusing sometimes.
But it all comes down to chores. Maybe the kitchen owner was having a bad/great day that day and thought it would be a horrible/great inconvenience/prank if they put the spoons in one drawer and the forks in another. Maybe they just don't really care about how messy the food cupboards are, or maybe they were being lazy and they asked their kids to do it for them. Maybe all or none of this is true and maybe, just maybe (and most likely) they just really didn't want to care about anything because it's just another chore.

Thanks for stopping in.