A Moment of Expense

Imagine coming home to a clean house.  You just walk in the door and the floor is mopped, the bathrooms are sparkling, the baked-on chili, which no amount of scrubbing seemed to loosen off the stove, is gone.  Of course it only lasts for a moment, just long enough for dirty shoes, a little boy's bad aim and boiled over mac'n cheese for lunch.  

Ugh, housework.  It's something that I hate.  And I'm not good at it.  So, I hired a cleaning service.  They only came once a month, it's not like I had a live-in maid, but it was definitely a big help.  I got to have a clean slate (pun intended) once a month, and my goal was to maintain it until they magically showed up again four weeks later.  But my cleaning fairies are no more.

I started thinking about how expensive that moment was.  That moment, post cleaning crew, just after I open the door to my house and just before the kids and dog catapult in behind me.  It's an amazing, fresh, sparkly moment.  And for a little while I was able to convince myself that it was worth any amount of money.  But now that I've mostly quit my job, and therefore mostly lost my paycheck, I had to reconsider how much that moment is actually worth. 

Tomorrow is the day the cleaners would have come.  They would have dusted my dining room hutch and Windexed all the mirrors.  They would have gotten my kitchen sink cleaner than I've ever been able to, almost as clean as my mom can get it.  They would have stacked all the kids' books in nice, neat piles and lined up the stuffed animals on Max's top bunk.  They would have.  If I hadn't called earlier this evening and told them not to come.  Again.  Ever. 

So, tomorrow I'm going to get up and dust.  I haven't really dusted since the cleaners were here a month ago.  That's first on my list.  And then I'm going to wipe down my kitchen appliances, taking great care with my coffee maker, of course.  Wiping down appliances was something I never really did before, not unless something was splattered on them during one of my baking fiascoes, but it was my favorite thing the cleaners did.  Made such a difference.  It really did.  And I'm going to do windows tomorrow, too. 

I have a strange kind of excitement about whipping this place into shape on my own.  I think I've been feeling kind of useless lately (a topic for another day) and I'm ready to create my to-do list while sipping coffee in the morning.  And I have always gotten some satisfaction from crossing items off as I get them done. I don't need that cleaning crew.  But I definitely need to tell Wade to splatter less of his chili on my stove. 

Clean slate

I just walked in the door to a spotless house. I think this may be the happiest I've ever been.

For the last few years I have gone back and forth between wanting to hire someone to clean my house and, of course, doing it myself. I've called several companies for estimates, but when it came down to it, it just seemed like such a waste of money. I can do this myself, I would think. I'm a stay-at-home-mom. Isn't that what stay-at-home-moms are supposed to do? Spend their day cleaning? So, I would call the cleaning person and tell them I didn't need their services. There, I would tell myself, I just saved myself a bunch of money.

Here's the thing: I never quite get around to cleaning it myself. As much as I believe that I should have the time and energy to clean my house, the fact of the matter is that I don't. Between getting kids up in the morning, fed, dressed, and to school on time, my morning is pretty much shot. That's also when I usually get to the Y, and I'm not going to give up my workout so that I can scrub my kitchen floor. I'm done exercising in time to pick up my son and get back before the bus brings my daughter home from kindergarten. Then it's making lunch, feeding the baby, cleaning up after lunch and we're usually off and running again to play group, a play date or running errands. There just isn't much "staying-at-home" for this stay-at-home-mom.

On the days when we do spend the afternoon at home I can't clean until I deal with the piles of laundry that seem to have overtaken every surface of my house. And having clean underwear is suddenly more of a priority than clean light fixtures. With five people and one in cloth diapers (more posts to come on this topic!) I spend most of my free time sorting, washing, and folding laundry.

I haven't even mentioned the time I spend wiping faces, picking up toys, getting snacks, finding Lego pieces, kissing boo-boos, brushing American Girl Doll hair, pushing on the swing, and of course, changing diapers!

I'm not complaining about what I do. I love being a mom and I love all that it entails. But while having a clean house is a priority, what I've come to realize is taking the time to get it clean isn't. At least taking the time to get it as clean as it should be. I vacuum and dust. I clean my toilets. But I never take the time, or have the time, to clean my whole house well. I truly have every intention of doing it, but each time I seem to get it surface clean and tell myself I'll do it better next time. It dawned on me recently that "next time" wasn't going to arrive. I suppose I could clean after my kids are in bed, but, I'm just being honest here, that's not going to happen. Sure, I could be cleaning instead of writing this post, but this is the first time I've sat down all day and I'm going to take these precious few minutes to do something I want to do (plus, that would be silly...right now my house is totally clean!). So, instead of feeling badly about the state of my house, I decided to do something about it.

Today I came home to a spotless house, and it feels really good.