Homemaking Tryouts

I’m of two minds; I love a clean house but hate to clean. I suspect most of you agree with me, even if you won’t admit it. I have the “oif’n spritz unten shmitz” approach as my mother calls it (on top you spray, underneath is dirt). I also believe in the adage, “if you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist.” So cabinets and drawers are closed, and there’s no telling what’s inside.

On top of that, I’m very sentimental. That scrap of paper with the sketch I drew in fourth grade — I still have it. Correction, my mother still has it, in the junk drawers she asks me to clean every time I’m in Brooklyn. Meaning, not only is there clutter, it’s clutter I don’t want to get rid of.

I’m a big girl though. Or at least I’m supposed to be. And my husband hates clutter. So every once in a while I try some type of cleaning/organizational approach. Most are one-offs. Some actually stick, like stacking board games and folding clothes vertically.

One time I made a list of all my household chores and made a six-week rotating schedule. I put everything on there, from washing walls to scrubbing baseboards to polishing silver. I think I kept to it maybe one week. It was too overwhelming, I’d rather do jobs as they come up organically (which really means too late, and I can see weeks of fingerprints on my walls to the point of embarrassment.)