Size 4 Jeans

So I’ve finally given up and hired someone to clean the house. I’ve always said that we’re not dirty, just cluttered, but lately it’s edging closer to dirty, especially in the bathrooms and kitchen. Problem is, I HATE to clean. Yeah, cleaning is one of those other words that gets a HATE in capitals tacked on in front, so you just have to DWI (Deal With It).

I can always think of something else to do besides clean house, and it really takes no effort whatsoever to get on with something else entirely when faced with cleaning the bathroom. Add to that the fact that it takes about 30 seconds for the rest of the people in this house to dirty it up again, and there’s just no hope of ever turning me into my grandmother. My wonderful grandmother, may she rest in peace, LOVED to clean. Okay, maybe she didn’t love it (though she sure did it a lot), but maybe that was just because it gave her something else to be a martyr about. However it truly was with her, her house was always clean, and she was well and truly over set when she got to the point where she keep the house to her satisfaction any longer, because she was just too old.

Well, I’m not THAT old, not even close, but there are some cleaning tasks that my hands, arms and back just don’t handle well anymore. My hands and forearms are weak due to chronic tenosynovitis, and any really strenuous or repetitive action (think scrubbing sinks and bathtubs to remove lime deposits or stovetops to remove whatever’s been baked on) and then my hands hurt and I can’t do the things I LIKE to do. Ha, sorry, not going to go there. As for the back, well, vacuuming is okay, but bending over scrubbing bathtubs and/or floors doesn’t make it either.

There you have it, in a nutshell: why I don’t go out of my way to clean. But then there’s the guilt. I don’t work outside the home, though I DO work, and most days it’s more than a solid eight hours, between web design, quilting, kids and regular house stuff like laundry and shopping and meals. But I still feel bad (a little) that I don’t keep the house cleaner and shinier. So then I hire someone else to do it, and I feel guilty about paying someone else to do what I could be doing.

Then again, I pay someone else to change the oil in my car, though I (or more likely my husband) could very well do it. The mechanic is just better at it, has the right tools, and does it all day long so he’s faster at it too. The same could be said for the cleaning person. She’s better at it, has the right tools, and does it all day long. And let me tell you how much faster she is than I am: in three hours, she was like Wonder Woman in my house. It was amazing. It would have taken me six hours, minimum, to do what she did in three.

After she left, I washed a few of my windows, which she doesn’t like doing, and that’s one of the things I don’t mind. Yes, there are a few tasks I don’t mind doing, like windows or vacuuming, or…well, like windows or vacuuming. Can’t think of many others right now, but they may come to me in time. But it was easier for me to have a go at the windows, because the bathrooms and the kitchen weren’t crying out for cleaning attention anymore. And when I know she’s going to show up on Tuesday mornings, Monday night sees the whole family decluttering the house, and putting things away where they belong, so that she CAN clean. The house stays cleaner all around, and there’s less clutter that’s just THERE forever, until I have a clutter overload and get mad at everyone and make them pick up all their junk.

I’m just going to have to get over the guilt at this point and move on. C’est la vie. If I’m a bad person because I HATE to clean, I’m a bad person. Meh.