Once a month my house turns into the touch down site of a tornado. The Diva and I have much work to do in a very short period of time.
Tuesday morning:
"When we get home, we need to pick things up."
"The cleaners..."
"Yes..."
Tuesday evening:
"We do very basic pick-up..."I will wake up a bit early tomorrow morning to start the laundry and finish picking up the house - litter box duty etc"
Wednesday morning (can you see where this is going) the tornado touches down.
As usual, I not only did not get up early, but I was five minutes late.
I become a Tasmanian Devil.
You laugh, but I am serious.
Just imagine an hour to shower, get two people ready for work/school, and finish picking up the house. Every surface and the floor has to be clutter free so that the cleaners can do their thing.
The funnel cloud, that is me, moves from room to room sucking up all matter in its way and tossing it onto other surfaces.
"You know, we wouldn't have to do this if we would put things away after we have used them."
Yes, but what would be the fun of that!!
For periods throughout my childhood, my mom hired cleaners to come into our house to do the heavy cleaning. I don't think that they had much to do as my mom is a very tidy person, but... it was something that helped her. That said, she cleaned the house before the cleaners came; something I do not do.
A few years after the Diva was born I decided that cleaning was just not a high priority on my list. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter over concentrating that time on the cleaning of the house.
My mom said her biggest regret is that she spent more time cleaning than with her kids.
A friend of mine said that every working mom deserves to treat herself to having her house cleaned.
And thus, once a month, the cleaners come to do the bathrooms and kitchen and use their industrial vacuum on the carpet (which I need to replace with wood)
And once a month the Diva and I wait to the last minute and then watch as the tornado hits our house.
"The best thing about today is that when we get home, the house will be clean!"
13 comments:
Growing up my mom had a cleaner who came in weekly. My brother and I could never understand the idea of mom my telling us to clean up because someone was coming over to the clean the house...
I really, really need to think about doing this.
Funny I was just thinking about this the other day. That when I every got my own place again I would have someone come in once a month and do the heavy stuff. Enjoy my life while I can.
Carpets - that is, the wall-to-wall kind - are the devil's work.
What lies beneath the pile, we do not want to know. Give me hard floors anytime.
Which reminds me of pillows, and the horrors that lie within. (Hotels, let's not talk about them. The idea of sharing pillows with strangers will make you shudder.)
Sorry about creep in the comment thread here, EO, but after many years of travelling for a living, such things raise my emotion.
Growing up, every Saturday morning my mom and my sister cleaned the house together. I did outside manly stuff with my dad like mowing the lawn. Looking back on it, thats how we bonded.
Although I would really like a maid.
i am a tidy person. wife and two kids are not so tidy. i am trying to deal with their messiness, really i am, but it is very hard....i try to convince myself that they will get tidier but thus far i can't get the kids to even close their cupboard doors each night before they go to bed (and its been 2 freakin years of tryin!)
(OK to link you???)
Growing up, we had a cleaner. I suspect it's the reason my mom is still sane after she found my new 'collection' of sandwiches I had saved from my lunch everyday and hid under my bed. We went for lunch, (while discussing how unhealthy/wasteful/absolutely wrong it is to leave 17 sandwiches under your bed and not tell anyone) and the cleaners went to town. Everyone won.
MC - I never understood why my mom cleaned for the cleaner. She didn't want the cleaner to know how messy we were, I guess. ;)
Just Run - It is fabulous... highly recommended!
Mike - It is nice to not have to worry about cleaning toilets and showers - better to be outside enjoying the day!
Ah the wise wombat returns. Thank you for your... well, enlightening input. I will now be removing my carpet and traveling with my own pillow - which is probably full of dust and such anyway. I think I heard that a pillow has a short shelf life?
Scotty - As Wombat suggested, I need my carpets removed and wood installed... September is nearly over, ya know!
You had a great bonding experience - did your sister?? ;) I think that it depends on how you spend that time. I spend more time with the Diva. SO we are bonding doing other things rather than cleaning! ;)
And you want a maid... in a French maid's outfit! ;)
This is how our days can be different sometimes. You seem pretty happy because you are going to be coming home to a clean house.
I feel happy if I know I might be able to crawl over the garbage and get to the kitchen...
In the end, it's good to be happy.
Laughing Boy - Link away!
I wish you all the best with your attempts to reform your family. My dad is a pack rat (and that is an understatement). My mom picks up without thought as she walks. They have been married for 40 years - neither has really altered their behavior!
Brandy - Your story made me laugh!! Thanks! What a great collection - what were you planning to do with them?? ;)
Ryan - And that is what it is all about - being happy. Just think of all the treasures you find as you journey throughout the house... your life is such an adventure!
I can totally agree with you on getting a house cleaner. I'm the only person that lives in this house and I have a hard time keeping up with everything WITHOUT a kid running around!
I totally agree with you on the cleaner! Its nice to come into a clean space and not have had to do it yourself.
Like what michael c said; my mom made us clean for the cleaning lady... but because she was there my mom had that much more time for us. Good call The Exception; good call.
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