For a long time, I decided I was just broken or wasn't born with some cleaning gene that other women were born with. Or maybe they just read the right article or watched the right YouTube video and it gave them some secret that my mother never passed down to me.
Surely there's trick to keeping up with it all. I'm a big sucker for articles or YouTube videos like "5 Easy Steps to an Organized Home" or "20 Tips for Clean House". I'd much rather read an article or watch a YouTube video about decluttering and cleaning than actually freaking doing it. I mean why do it when I'm clearly broken and can't do it without that dang gene or secret? And, someday, I'll find that secret out and keeping my house will be easy.
I'm almost 50 years old and still struggle with a messy home. I'd like to be able to use my kids as an excuse or maybe even my husband. After all, they really do leave their crap everywhere. And I do have a lot of kids. But, even when I had only one, the house was a disaster. And I was down to two kids until the end of 2019 and my house was still a disaster.
Then in my perusing YouTube for what the secret is, I came across this lady named Dana K. White from A Slob Comes Clean and she actually had the secret. You know what it was? Drum roll....there isn't one. You just have to freaking do it EVERY FREAKING DAY. You have to establish habits that you do every day. Dishes get dirty every day and you have to clean them every day. Clothes get worn every day and you have to deal with them all the time. It doesn't end. There's no magic trick. There's no such thing as a quick fix. There's no cleaning gene that I can switch on. There's no article or YouTube video that's going to fix my broken cleaning gene in 5 easy steps.
Every thing on my messy kitchen countertop has to get put away EVERY FREAKING DAY. The dirty socks my son and husband leave everywhere have to get picked up EVERY FREAKING DAY.
You know what? It worked. When I started spending time EVERY FREAKING DAY establishing habits of doing the dishes, doing the laundry, going around picking things up, cleaning my floors, and other BS chores that I FREAKING HATE DOING, my house looked better.
You know what else? It sucks. But, it sucks less and less the more I do it. If I don't do it every day, it sucks a whole lot more. Two days worth of dishes sucks a lot more that one days worth. A few weeks worth of laundry sucks a whole lot more than a few days worth. Cleaning off my countertop every day sucks a lot less than letting it all pile up for weeks and then not being able to even find what I need to cook when I have three hungry kids.
It really does suck that there's not some magic trick, though. Having to actually do it really does suck but I kind of like having a cleaner house and clean underwear.
You know what else I discovered? When I keep up with the laundry, I don't actually need 500 pairs of underwear or 10 pairs of jeans. And fewer pieces of clothing means less clothes to wash and more room in my closet. I didn't actually need 10 spatulas when my favorite spatula gets washed every day.
Seriously, though, who would have really thought that the secret to a clean house was actually cleaning it? I sure didn't. It never even occurred to me that was the answer I was looking for. It really does suck, though.
My house is far from perfect but, it's better. I'm happy with better.
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| My actual kitchen as I write this! |
So, thank you Dana K. White at A Slob Comes Clean for letting me in on the secret that there is no secret or gene or trick to keeping my house clean. It really does suck, though. I really have a lot better things to do than clean my house.
