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For quite a long time, we used to have a cleaning service that came in every other week and cleaned our house. "Clean Day" was as close to a religious experience as I think I will ever have; there was such anticipation and joy at the thought of coming home to a house that seemed to magically clean itself. Even after I started my "sabbatical", we kept the cleaning service as long as we could afford to (which, in retrospect, was probably too long). Eventually though, we had to give it up and shoulder the burden of doing our own scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming. Which is, of course, why The (Real) Big Red House looks like a disaster area these days -- we SUCK at house cleaning. Lately, we've even taken to watching the BBC show "How Clean Is Your House", just so we can feel like SOMEBODY is worse than we are (and, believe me, they are).
Discipline is part of the problem for us -- our intentions are good (aren't they always?), but we're easily discouraged and always ready to procrastinate. I think if we could break things down into more manageable chunks rather than having to face an entire weekend of housecleaning, we might be more likely to do it. Or not. Who knows.
Apart from wanting to have a clean house again, we also have this notion about getting Charlotte to do some household chores. She's old enough now to be able to pick up after herself, put away her clothing, etc. But convincing her that it's worth doing includes getting ourselves back on the straight and narrow. I ran across this website at the very useful Lifehacker site a couple of weeks ago: it promises to help you devise a cleaning schedule, assign jobs to specific indivduals, and let you break down big tasks into individual steps. I don't know that lazy housekeeping can be solved with online software, but you never know.
If it makes you feel better, we suck at it too. (It always makes me feel better when someone else's house is as dirty as mine!)
Who wants to spend the weekends off doing more work?!
We'll do really well for awhile, but we eventually get behind again.
Sigh.
Posted by Sarah [URL] at 07/10/07
Oh yes, as a kid I was enlisted to service e-a-r-l-y.
It started with the dishes, nightly, on a stool to make me tall enough to reach the sink. Later it developed into my allowance for vacuuming certain rooms, emptying litter boxes, etc.
I find in this house, living with 'he who will not allow cleaning people in his house (tm)' that making a list helps as we both find great pleasure in CROSSING items OFF the list.'
*sigh*
But really, I just want my own queen with a distaste for dust and a penchant for straightening.
Posted by jo [URL] at 07/10/07
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