Well it’s summer and that means my house is a total mess. Oh,
sure, anyone who has ever been to my house knows that it really
doesn’t matter what season it is; I usually have a mess somewhere.
But in the summer it’s even worse.
Well it’s summer and that means my house is a total mess. Oh, sure, anyone who has ever been to my house knows that it really doesn’t matter what season it is; I usually have a mess somewhere. But in the summer it’s even worse.
It just seems like between summer camp and sports and movies and swimming and all the fun stuff that summer brings, I don’t have time to clean the house. And it doesn’t help that I’m a slow cleaner. I start to clean something, then the phone rings or I remember something that I just had to do that day, like go to the outlets and see if there are any cute sandals on sale. You know, stuff that can’t wait.
Unfortunately, man – or woman – cannot live on sloth alone. Or something like that. Anyway, I have to get the house clean, so I found these handy dandy tips and tried them.
Schedule cleaning as you would your job.
OK. I will clean between 8:30am and 10:30am every day. Well, except Wednesdays. Oh and except Monday, Thursday and Friday when I have other stuff to do during that time. So that leaves Tuesdays between 8:30 and 10:30. Oh, unless it’s bill paying day, which sometimes happens on Tuesdays. In that case I could switch cleaning from 4:30 to 6:30, unless there’s karate. Then I’d have to do it from 6:30 to 8:30, but that interferes with dinner. Huh. I guess this could be a problem.
Get motivated. Tell yourself that today is the first day of your lovely, clean life.
Okey-dokey, here goes: Woo-hoo! I am going to scrub that toilet and it will be FUN! Yay, me. I get to clean bathrooms today. I am so psyched. Wow, how lucky can a person be? It’s a beautiful summer day and I get to spend it chipping dried up food out of the microwave. Does it get any better than this? My life is perfect!
Omigod. I’m like a Cleaning Cheerleader from Hell. Someone should seriously save me from myself, because the day I start believing my motivational speech is the day I should be put in the loony bin.
Have your friends come over and help you clean.
Seriously. This must be a joke, right? I know my friends. I love my friends. I will not lose my friends because I asked them to come to my house and clean my toilets.
Have other family
members clean up after themselves.
OK, I laughed so hard at this one that coffee spurted out of my nose – which is very uncomfortable, by the way. Not to mention that it made yet another mess for me to clean up. I think that’s enough of this suggestion.
Dress for success.
They suggest that you find a cleaning uniform that includes shoes, gloves and eye protection. What are these people cleaning that they need eye protection? I’ve never needed eye protection. On the other hand, I’m not exactly living in Sparkly Clean Land, either. So I’ll wear my sunglasses when I clean. Hey if they protect my eyes from the sun, surely they’ll protect me from the shine I scrub onto the kitchen countertop.
Learn to multitask.
When you go to the garage to get something out of the freezer, take the trash with you.
OK, so I did this. And I promptly got into the garage, got distracted by the fact that I don’t have a freezer out there and then three days later I went into the garage and found that I’d left the garbage on the floor. But not to worry. The dog found it. I’m sure she was multitasking too, when she took every single item out of the trash bag then dragged all kinds of gross, icky stuff all over the garage and through her doggie door into the backyard. But you know, I came to an understanding about it. After all, what some call a garbage-strewn yard, others call a very large compost pile. And I’m okay with that.
Put your cleaning
supplies in a basket
and carry it around with you.
Fabulous idea. I just wish I knew where I left the stupid basket. It’s probably in the backyard compost pile.
I’m not certain, but something tells me these ideas won’t work for me. On the other hand, if I wear my sunglasses 24/7, I don’t even notice the filthy house.
