I don’t know what the big deal is about cleaning your house. I have friends that seem to tell me when they clean their homes (a specific day of the week) and how exhausted they are after doing this and how lovely their home looks. Why is this such a big deal? I truly think it stems from our Mother’s who enforced this type of behavior as some accomplishment. “If you want a good man you have to learn how to have a clean house” picture my eye-roll at this part of the blog.
50’s and 60’s Housewife Duties
One of the duties of the housewife in the 50’s and 60’s was the endless attention to cleaning, cooking and making sure the kids don’t bother the Dad when he gets home from work. Because of these tired old activities many women still carry with them a sense that a clean house is one that will be rewarded in some way – another’s approval or it is expected. Switch the aforementioned word another to “a mother’s” approval and that still works in your brain.
Many people now still place an importance in doing activities weekly – even if the home is perfectly clean – as a way to feel some sort of accomplishment. We don’t always feel so “accomplished” these days with COVID-19 being mentioned every 2 minutes on the radio and on our media screens, so perhaps these methodical cleaning sessions give people some semblance over control over their lives. A clean house means no Covid and my mom would be so proud of me. But is this a thing I need to tell people?
Clean as You Go
I take an easy approach to cleaning and strive to keep areas clear, floors swept and items put away as I go. Having just purchased a new home and after going through the crazy purge of all-things-purchased-in-estate-sales-that-needed-to-be-gone phase (donate or dump) it really hit me at how easy it was to amass stuff that was truly not needed. I vowed to keep a tidy, somewhat minimalist household and by God this is working! I tidy up and place things back to their spots. A bit of spot cleaning as I go does the trick. Why? Because I love my new home. I love the space and the colors, furniture, my record player and old records and I feel comfortable here.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
If we are on the phone talking about things I will never ask you if you cleaned your home. I will never tell you that I swept my front porch. I literally cringe when a friend is gushing about how many hours it took her to clean and her bathroom shines. Please refrain from cleaning your house chats with friends. Find new topics like sharing a story about a day out that you recently took, or a book you are reading that gave you some insight, or some new music you’d never heard before but liked or even a recipe for wine with rum and fruit (sangria, my favorite).
Having written all this, please know that you, my friend, are important to me. If I have to endure another conversation about how exhausted you are after that extensive mopping session, or the surprising junk discovered under the fridge revealed a long lost cat toy and kitty is happy now – ok, I will listen. I listen because I am your friend and just maybe it reminds me to take out my trash.
Let’s step it up friends and make each other laugh more. Sometimes it is about cleaning the house.
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