I set myself a deadline of 5 PM tomorrow night. At least the front of the house has to be clean (the bedrooms are hopeless in that time period). As a self proclaimed life long slob, wife of a slob, mother of two slobs, we have always been one big happy slob family. Until someone wants to come over.
I know for a fact that my friends love me for myself, not the neatness of my house. They know there will be piles of books, partly finished projects and laundry (clean) that didn't make it to the drawers artfully draped on all available surfaces. I've tried to justify it by saying our house is homey, but reality is, it is a mess. So I did the one thing that will motivate me to take action - I invited someone over for dinner.
The person I selected is someone who has only been to my home once. I really want to have her over and have been putting it off because she lives in an immaculate, beautifully decorated environment. I admitted my guilty secret when I realized her feelings had been hurt by the lack of invitation. So I took the plunge.
My tried and true plan for rapid cleaning is to throw everything cluttery in to boxes and shove it in a bedroom with the door closed. I will probably have to do that again, as I have serious bathroom cleaning on the agenda and my kitchen floor is clearly due for some scrub brush action. The downside to the "bedroom" cleaning method is that I tend to lose track of things like bills and insurance papers that disappear in to the void, only to reappear when they become a problem.
I am now focused on envisioning the clean and welcoming house that will open its doors to company on Sunday night. Of course I also have to get myself off the couch and make it happen. Oh, and I need to plan a menu. My husband was supposed to cook but he has band practice. Sigh... (I do that a lot)
P.S. I did get 97% of the business plan ready for my Tuesday meeting!
4 comments:
The only way I can keep ahead of that is to clean on Sat mornings. I won't give up more of my weekend than one morning. THe laundry takes a little longer but I can occupy myself while the machines do the work. I am a harpy about people leaving things laying about in the public areas of the house. I don't care what the bedrooms look like so much but I want my clean, peaceful living room and ready to cook in kitchen! Good luck!
OMG--I though you lived in New Mexico, not Citrus Heights! I could SWEAR that's my house!!! (And I have very few people I trust enough to see the extent of my slovenliness. After this post, I think you might be one.)
Hey! In my defense I have become much less slobby in my later years! Admittedly it takes three weeks for the laundry to get folded (and I only do it then because I run out of underwear) and we only do dishes when there are no clean ones left to eat on, but by golly my bedroom floor has not disappeared once since we moved into this house!
Why, that's how I clean house, too. That bedroom has gotten fairly clogged up with crap in the past 13 years or so. I might want to think about excavating one of these days. When I don't have anything else to do. Like that will ever happen.
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