filed in Daily Life
Keep It Clean (or not)
When I reach for the tube of toothpaste in my bathroom cabinet, I think of my mother. She would’ve never let any dirt accumulate. She scrubbed inside and out. She also went to work, came home and cooked, ironed our clothes. She was so weary at bedtime, there was nothing left. I made a mental note of this growing up, determined to make different choices. This could be why I don’t own an iron. I rarely clean behind things. I don’t neatly stack my t-shirts. And I believe I’m happier.
House of Atlas by Grace Weston
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9 comments for “Keep It Clean (or not)”
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People might not mind someone who likes to clean, but might mind someone who doesn’t. Advice: always clean.
I once had a boyfriend with a filthy apartment, and I definitely noticed and didn’t like it.
I don’t like to clean, but I like my space clean. I cannot afford a cleaning service, so I clean. I would rather cleanup than cook.
I’m the opposite Stacy. I’d way rather cook than clean. Sounds like a good partnership.
I’m with Wendy – I’d rather cook than clean. As much as I don’t like cleaning, I can’t stand to have a dirty house. A dirty house stresses me out. One of the best choices I ever made was to have someone come every other week to do all the heavy cleaning. This keeps the cleaning I need to do to a level I seem to be able to manage and live with. My house is small, so it does not cost me much and if I have to make choices, there are certainly other things I’d cut back on before this sanity saver.
Cheers!
I don’t like to clean, but I admit that I don’t like to see dirty pots and pans in the sink or socks laying on the floor. I take my cleaning in phases, vacuum one weekend, clean the bathrooms another. When I was doing 12 hour shifts (not counting my commute), I cleaned when I was staying up late to get in sync with my night shift schedule. My house is not spotless, but it’s not filthy either. It’s a happy medium kind of clean.
Jalina, it sounds like you’ve got a good cleaning routine, and a good attitude about it. Much better than mine.
I am a messy person. It’s not just that I find cleaning a waste of time (which I do) I actually have a refined ability to tune out the mess. I like to think of myself as an absent-minded-professor type, even though that stereotype is normally reserved for men – go figure.
Two memories that stick out for me about being messy. The first is of my grandfather standing in my cluttered room when I was nine-years-old and saying (in a perturbed, not kindly way), “If you don’t learn to clean up after yourself you’re never going to get a husband.” The second is of my boyfriend after college saying, during a fight, “And another thing, girls are supposed to be neat and have nice clean sheets and stuff.”
I no longer let dishes mold in the sink, but it took a while.
That’s a vivid story about your grandmother, Jen. My room was always a mess as a kid. I don’t like visual clutter, so now I’m pretty good at putting stuff away.