clean the house

two weeks ago, my husband and i sat down and wrote out a list of things we needed to do to keep our house a home.

we’re starting out small, which is helping us to stick to our deal of decluttering, cleaning, organizing, improving our living environment.

i’m knocking on wood that we both stick with this deal.
our house and our sanity need us to stick with it.

“practice FLYing with a like-minded group of 43thingers”

we had another reason to do some house cleaning, and i hunkered down in our bathroom and made it presentable.

we did some light cleaning around the rest of the house since it’s still relatively picked up and not so dusty from our last house-cleaning frenzy for family holiday gathering.

i don’t see any habits forming here … yet.

it’s more the impetus to bring the house up to a reasonable standard for guests.

we got most of the house clean … well, as clean as we could considering how disgustingly filthy it was and parts still are.

we kept our cleaning to the first floor, hoping family would not head upstairs.

one wonderful celebration down tonight; one more at our house Monday night.

i so do not want to do this task.

if we could afford a housekeeper.

you know it.

we had a housekeeper for years, but that was then.

blah.

We’re having one of our Christmas celebrations at our house this year, so we really need to get the house picked up and cleaned.

In between all our other goals, maybe we can get some serious cleaning done.

blah.

since i’m the breadwinner in this family,
my husband does the vast majority of the cooking.

he used to do all the cleaning.

he does the laundry.

he takes out the trash and recycleables.

he has slipped tremendously on cleaning the house, especially the kitchen. that room is an absolute nightmare. a place i would rather not visit for reasons one can imagine.

the deal i made:
if my husband thoroughly cleans the kitchen i will clean the rest of the house (not including the basement and attic).

let’s say our ratio is 1:1 on progress.

we’re both dragging out this task like we are professional procrastinators.

if only we got paid for procrastinating. we’d be enormously rich.

I hate cleaning.

I hate it.

Plus, all that dust … there’s a lot … is bothering my breathing and sinuses.

I don’t believe i’ve ever dragged out this chore in such a sluggish manner as i have this week.

if only we could once again afford someone else to do it.

bah.

such a beautiful 1922 arts and crafts home is a torrential mess. papers, clothes, books, dishes, you name it, all over the place. boxes full of stuff that need to be stored away or given away block some of our walk ways.

there’s dust everywhere … though i’ve started attacking that. and have done some decent work on gathering up papers and books and clearing out the dining room.