Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Nesting Much?

I don't know if it was the few days of really nice weather we had, or what, but I have been cleaning the house like mad.  I guess some have called it nesting, but so far my only "nesting" tendencies are for really weird projects, like washing windows and polishing kitchen cabinets.
Yesterday, I let my children play in the road while I cleaned the front room.  (Okay, not really) (Well, kinda.  I caught Jacob at the end of the driveway.)  Then in the afternoon, I spent four hours cleaning and organizing the dining room (which is also the school room).  Yesterday, I spent 2+ hours cleaning the bathroom, which included getting down on my knees and scrubbing the entire floor with a brush - something I haven't done in..... Well, who am I kidding?  I've never done it.  GROSS.  (Our linoleum is very textured, which disguises dirt.... Unless you know what it's SUPPOSED to look like, then it just looks gross and dirty all the time.  Not to mention the fact it's the bathroom, and we have two little boys.)
I was wanting to tackle the kitchen before rewarding myself with time to blog, but I figured the kitchen would just look like this again in 24 hours, so why even try?
I've noticed, though, that in every room, I have something that I don't clean.  Front room:  computer desk (not my mess)(okay, not ALL my mess).  Living room:  tv cabinet.  Dining room:  top of the tall cupboard.  Bathroom:  top of the towel cabinet/dresser.  Kitchen:  top of the microwave.  Mostly I think I avoid these places because they're all landing spots for those little tiny annoying things.  Game pieces, marbles, pennies, paper clips.... Anything I want to keep away from the boys.  I need to get better at putting them away right away, and not stashing them.
Well, that's kind of the story of my life.
But my major battle is the dining room table.  Probably because it is in the traffic way to EVERY room in our house - to go to the kitchen, back porch, or bathroom, you walk through the dining room.  To get from one of those rooms to the living room, our bedroom, or the front room, you walk through the dining room.  The door we come in from outside is in..... the dining room.  We eat there, do school there, I pay bills there.....  So what do you think it looks like most of the time?  That's right.  A huge pile.  It's the landing zone, I'll-deal-with-this-later stacking place.
And it grates on me.  It really does.  So I made this sign:

It works.... About half the time.  Worst is after we have one of those weeks, where you're running, running and don't get time to do much cleaning.  I've found I can take 5 minutes every day to clear off the table, or let it go for 3 days, and it takes me an hour to clean off.  (How does that work?)
But having a clean house just makes me feel SO MUCH BETTER.  I don't know if I view it as a reflection on me as a wife, or what, but it is so weird how peaceful I feel to sit and look at a clean, organized room.
And with that, I need to go clean off the dining room table.  And finally tackle those pans in the kitchen.

1 comment:

Berta said...

Now you are beginning to understand why your mom was so compulsive about it. Well, that and the fact that I did not want my home to look like the home I grew up in. Whatever it takes... I am proud of you.