Housecleaning and Me
Posted By Kathleen David on March 30, 2012
I hate cleaning but I love the results of cleaning. The catch-22 for me is that I don’t like other people cleaning for me because they put things in places that I don’t know and it can take me a long time to find something that I was going keep at hand. Also with all the craft stuff, it can be hard to tell what is junk and what is part of a project.
I read about people who clean their house pretty much every day and their homes are neat and organized to a pin. I look at magazines about Studios that are just lovely in their scope and cleanliness. I read the parent magazines about organizing with children in the house. I know most of the tricks in the book but I haven’t found that which will help my situation, which is a couple of collectors of stuff have careers that involve lots of stuff and they have kids who have stuff.
There is a lovely preschool TV show, which was one of Caroline’s favorites when she was a toddler, called Tiny Planets whose main characters, Bing and Bong, went from planet to planet exploring different concepts like colors and shapes. One of the planets they went to was the Planet of Stuff. Ariel commented upon seeing the episode, “That’s where we live, the planet of stuff.” And a lot of it is cool stuff we have collected over the years but it is still stuff.
Electronic books have helped us a lot. Having the books on an electronic platform is one less book that is physically going to come into the house. I am more reluctant about magazine subscriptions but am almost to the point where I am going to go there. But we still have the manuscripts and other materials that are needed for Peter to write the various projects. We still get comic books for various reasons. We still have paper coming in. We try to be good about getting out the paper we don’t need but we have a bunch of paper that we can’t get rid of by normal means (recycling it or tossing it out) because it has things that under the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) we promised to destroy rather than trash after we were done with it.
Then there is all my fabric, clay, tools, and other things that I use to make my art. I have cut way back on the fabric buying but there is a lot of stuff I have to be used. I now think carefully about what I am working with/on and if I have what I need already. If the answer is no, I try to buy just what I need for the project. Over the years I have gotten much better of estimating what I really need.
There are still things that need to be dusted and swept. Having cats doesn’t help since cat litter gets everywhere even after you think you have swept it all up. And then there is the flying fur problem.
So housework and I aren’t friends but we get along because we have to. I have learned over the years how to clean or create the illusion of clean so I feel better about the space around me.
So what clever tricks for cleaning and/or organizing would you like to share with me? I’m all ears.
I am grateful for things that are currently clean.
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