I quickly discovered, however, that since my stomach was this big:
crawling around on the floor cleaning baseboards ranked right up there with "putting on a bathing suit" and "ever getting pregnant again" on the list of things that I did not want to do. So ... the baseboards didn't get cleaned. The babies came, my stomach shrank, and the baseboards didn't get cleaned. The babies got bigger and into a good routine, and the baseboards still didn't get cleaned. Every day I looked at the grime on those stupid boards and vowed to clean them. And every night I went to bed, vowing to do it the next day.Well, last night I finally got around to cleaning those darn baseboards. The entire project took all of an hour, and I was left wondering why it took me so long to just get it done. But I thought of my five very good reasons to let cleaning wait, and I had an epiphany: cleaning can always wait. You may think it silly that I call this thought an epiphany, but you must keep in mind that my maternal family tree is teeming with clean freaks ... it's as much a part of who we are as our eye color and shoe size. So for me to make peace with letting my housekeeping slide is kind of a big thing. But I know that there will be time when my kids are all in school to have a spotless home. Right now, spending time with my little family is way more important! At least, that's what I'll be telling the grime in my bathrooms the next time it beckons ...
8 comments:
ha ha. Well said Katie! I'm a clean freak so it's hard to relax and let things just go. That's something I'm constantly working on. Congrats on the baseboards though! :)
Oohhhhh.....look at you! Bless your heart! (lol)
I am the same way about my house. I find myself constantly picking up Deacon's messes and my Mom finally told me to relax...and just wait until he goes to be to just tidy up ONCE instead of MANY times.
I can't do that.
I still pick up after him many times a day.
there's this old sampler that's been on my mom's wall ever since i can remember, and wouldn't you know it that i can't think of how it starts at the moment, but it ends like this... "so quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, i'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep". i always recite that silently in my head when i'm stuck in a rocking chair, feeling like i'm not getting anything done -- because although it may feel important, the cleaning really ISN'T that eternal.
Katie, you amaze me... my house is upside down all the time.. I'm sure if I came over to your house right now it would be spotless! It always is! I never even think about my baseboards.. ha ha ha
I think about my baseboards, I but I never have enough energy to do them. 1 hour doesn't seem so bad maybe I'll give it a try.
I am reading Lighten Up by Chieko Okazaki. Anyway, I ran into a quote that I really appreciated today. She said "Give yourself credit for the good things you do. . . If you do only half of what you wanted to do, or do it only half as well as you would have liked, pat yourself on half your back. But lighten up!" I loved that. Especially the pat yourself on half your back. Makes sense to me. Most the time I only get things half way done. Still, that's a lot of pats on half my back. Yippee!
I love this entry...thanks for sharing! I too am a little obsessed about cleaning, yet you wouldn't know it by looking at my house. I am always wondering when I am ever going to be all caught up...and then I realized I will NEVER be caught up! I will be constantly cleaning the rest of my life, it is an on going process!
I totally agree...Cleaning can always wait!!!
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