Simply Stated

A few months ago, I entered Real Simple's Simply Stated Blogger Contest. For the contest, I had to write about something difficult that I gave up in order to balance my schedule. I chose to write about cleaning or rather NOT cleaning. I didn't win the contest, but you will still be able to read what I wrote right here! So keep reading, and keep in mind, that I did just vacuum the floors today, so... there.

My mom once asked me, “Are you okayliving like this?”

What she meant, in that “loving mom”way, was: “Your house is kinda messy.”

I clean. But cleaning was getting in theway of me enjoying my free time, so I gave up worrying so much aboutkeeping my house clean.

My husband and I have schedules thatcontribute to the growing number of dirty dishes in the sink and dustbunnies under the couch. I leave at 6:30 a.m. to go to work, notgetting home until 7 p.m. My husband, a teacher who leads severalafter-school activities, gets home at the same time. On weekends andweeknights, the last thing we want to do is clean!

When we moved into our three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouse two years ago, I knew trying to clean thewhole house in a weekend would be impossible, so I created a chorechart, assigning certain chores to certain days—cleaning thehallway bathroom on the first Tuesday of the month, for instance. Iplaced the chart on the fridge and used a magnet to mark what day Iwas on. The day the magnet fell off, landing out of my reach underthe fridge, I fell off the cleaning bandwagon.

But I realized that our house doesn’thave to be spic and span every day. We clean the dirty pots and panspiled up in the sink when we have time. Sometimes I want toscrapbook instead of wash the kitchen floor or see a movie with myhusband instead of scrubbing tubs. I want to spend my limited freetime doing things I love with people I love.

But don’t fear for your health uponentering our home. We’ll make time to clean before you get here.