Today I’m welcoming Tonya from Live the Adventure. Tonya recently mentioned that she had a new appreciation for cleaning and laundry after her area was hit by devastating tornadoes. I asked her to share her experiences and insights with you.
There are days when I simply do not feel like cleaning. I’m sure you’ve never felt like that before, am I right? I know. I’m the only person on earth that gets behind on laundry or prefers to prop my feet up after a long day instead of washing dishes after dinner.
I manage to keep the rest of the house picked up. Those are just my two trouble areas. Well, I guess sometimes my bedroom gets a bit messy. And once in a while the kids’ rooms could use straightening. And I guess if I’m totally, utterly honest, the bathroom could be tidied, but who’s counting?
I’ve been a slob for years. Really I have. Normally I manage to keep it hidden but once in awhile my slobbishness will raise it’s ugly head. But I think I’ve learned my lesson or I hope so anyway.
Last month I didn’t FEEL like cleaning for a few days. I swear to you, that’s all the time it takes for my house to be completely turned upside down. I was in one of those “No one appreciates me so I’m just not going to do anything and see if they notice” type funks. To be honest, I don’t think anyone noticed.
My plan backfired terribly when our area was devastated by a series of tornadoes that hit throughout the day. Our neighborhood was fine. The only problem we had was that we lost power for five days, longer in some other areas.
You may not think that is a big deal, but when your entire area within an hour drive loses electricity and you have no clean underwear because you’d been on a laundry strike, and you can’t buy any because everything is closed, well, let’s just say you learn a lesson or two.
The minute our electricity came back on I became a laundry washing freak! You have never seen anyone happier to wash their clothes than me! And I just have to tell you, I have NEVER appreciated clean underwear more!
Tonya Prater is a homeschooling mother of three teenagers who spent a year and a half traveling in a motor home with her family, discovering that you really don’t need as much “stuff” as you think you do. Today you’ll find her attempting to keep up on laundry while sharing stories, tips and reviews about her family’s travel experiences at Live the Adventure.
Nichole says
I have to admit that everytime a storm comes through I immediately start washing clothes and dishes. And if there’s a power outage my house becomes spotless. Disaster always puts me in a cleaning mood 🙂
Laraba says
We were without power for 4 days once and oh, it was awful! Laundry is not my nemesis and we had clean laundry, but we didn’t have running water or a refrigerator or freezer. ARGGHGHGGHHHHH! And this with (at the time) 7 kids under the age of 11.
Rachel says
Hi Nony, I’ve been reading backwards and haven’t commented yet but felt the need to here, although I have nothing really significant to say 🙂 This post actually touched home with me since based on the date I know exactly what she was talking about. I was in the same area and without power for 5 days as well. My home was also untouched but I did suffer the no power issue. Although I did have clean clothes since it was just me and the dog with the boyfriend in Iraq at the time. My biggest frustration was I stocked up groceries including lots of meats just two days before so all of that ruined.