I don’t really enjoy doing housework. I try to avoid it at all costs, or I try to make Dave do it. It really isn’t any fun at all, but it is what I’m doing right now (I’m taking a blog break)
Our bedroom is a disaster, I mean really it’s completely insane in there right now. It could be contributing to why I don’t get much sleep these days. There are clothes all over the floor, but it isn’t my side of the bed that is the main issue. My side of the bed has your standard pants, shirts, undies, socks and hoodies thrown around. Daves side of the bed is a strange world indeed. During the cleaning process, I am not only finding at least twelve loads of laundry, but also an entire library of ripped up, stepped on magazines, books galore, Pepsi cans, coffee mugs, you name it.
Cleaning up my half of the room was easy, but his side is giving me a back ache. I realized something else about our room too. We have a crap-ton of books. His is mostly magazines,Lord of the Rings and various other fantasy novels. My half is filled with horror novels, Stephanie Pearl McPhee, and books about serial killers (it’s how I roll).
I think I might stop avoiding housework for 6 months at a time. When I do that… it ends up being a job that lasts all day instead of just tidying up after myself in a few minutes. Instead, I have made it a habit to put certain rooms off over and over again until I can’t avoid it anymore. Every day I wake up in that room and it just stares me in the face, as if it were asking “Why, Wendy? Why do you let me look like this? My carpet is covered in your dog’s hair, my furniture is cluttered with books, clothing tags, and various clutter. Why, oh why did you let this happen?” Of course I don’t have an answer, and swifly leave the room for my morning coffee… but my room is up there taunting me all the time. Today it gets what it wants. Today my bedroom is liberated of clutter and random useless objects that have no business being in my room.
Oh… and I actually folded and put away laundry. Yeah… the dresser is not just for show anymore.
Silly, dressers are for storing overspill from the closet stash. Laundry goes on TOP of the dresser.
I have mixed feelings about cleaning but I always like the results. My bedroom used to be a disaster, back when the kids were small and sharing our bedroom. Now it’s an uncluttered sanctuary and I think that really does contribute to a good night’s sleep.
Once you overcome Housecleaning Inertia, it’s a very powerful thing. Usually it’s in our heads – try setting a timer for 15 minutes and see how much you can get done in that time. Amazed? Yeah, me too, usually. Because I make it such a big deal in my head and put it off until it is a HUGE deal. When I finally stopped doing that, it felt like I was taking care of myself in a wonderful homey kind of way.