I was so frustrated this morning, but I’m feeling much better now. Nothing psychological, I just cleaned the house. It’s amazing how that works.
I think I’ve said this a thousand and a half times, but I’m amazed at how much easier cleaning is now that I’ve done a lot of decluttering. I sent the kids to work on their rooms and they were actually able to do it mostly on their own, since there’s now designated places for things. I do say mostly, because of that somehow invisible pair of dirty undies that I had to point out six different times.
After they cleaned their rooms, I “let” them do some paid jobs, like cleaning bathrooms and sweeping the front porch, back patio, etc. Well worth the 5.50 I spent.
Again, in the past I wouldn’t have trusted them to clean the bathroom, since it went so long between cleanings that it was a HUGE job. But, even though I haven’t done the daily wipe-down in over a week, it hasn’t been that long since it was thoroughly cleaned, so they could handle it.
Since my dream is to not only re-train myself, but to train my children correctly in housekeeping, this was encouraging. It’s impossible to teach them the basics of wiping down and picking up when I let it get to the point where you need a hazmat suit.
I’m doing a lot of thinking about my personal goal/theme for 2010, so stay tuned next week as I’ll share my plan.
