I spent about seven hours today cleaning my poor, much neglected house. Since Connor's been sick and I've been spending all my spare time after he's asleep skating instead of doing the dishes and/or cleaning up after myself, my house has been looking steadily shabbier as a result. I think usually my house tends to be a reflection of my mental state; the more stress I've got piling up the higher the resulting piles of clutter. Now that Connor is feeling better and thus my worries are cleaned up, it's time to clean up the physical side of things too!
But the first thing I did was go to the bookstore and coffee shop. One has to prepare oneself for this sort of cleaning job. It's important.
I was helped along in my quest for cleanliness by the fact that Jeremy got to leave work early today, so he could watch the boy for me while I sprayed everything in our house that wasn't moving with some sort of cleaning solution. He knows to keep out of my way when I start brandishing dust cloths with that sort of gleam in my eye.
I finally ran out of steam around six in the evening, which is when Joanna came over to watch the boy so Jeremy and I could go out. Our first stop was the bookstore, and then after dinner we went to a coffee shop. The fact that I had done both earlier in the day was completely irrelevant. Jeremy and I will probably continue to buy books until we are forced to build little tunnels though them to navigate around our house and we perish when we accidentally bump into a wall of them and there's a cave-in.
It could totally happen.
Anyway the house is finally looking halfway decent again, and I'll be working on the rest of it tomorrow. I still have to do all the mopping and work on decluttering our bedroom and our master bathroom, which currently have every available horizontal surface covered in bits of paper, books (of course) and detritus, but that hopefully won't take me too long.
And then I can enjoy the bliss of a clean house and a peaceful mind! Not that it ever lasts very long-- I get complacent and let it all build up again-- but I'll make the most of it while it lasts!
~Jess
If you don't know what that title is in reference to, you should go look at this blog. Pretty much this is my stance on cleaning and adulthood responsibility in general. Also it is hilarious.
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4 years ago
6 comments:
Thank you so much for the link. I really needed to add another blog to my favorites list. After all, who needs to do anything useful like work if there are more blogs to be read. If dinner is heated up leftovers I know just who to blame.
I've been very curious for some time now - do you reread all the books you've got?
I'm also a book lover, but I buy most of my books used and then send them off when I'm done (unless they are so phenomenal that they end up being a "keeper" book - and I can reread my "keepers" forever!)
I do reread most of my books, Jennifer. It's very rare for me to pick up a book that I really, really don't like-- enough that I don't want to keep it in the house or ever reread it again.
What I do end up doing is acting as a lending and/or giving library for most of my friends, so some of my books leave the house that way.
oh my goodness I love Hyperbole and a Half!
That's awesome, Jess! I have such bad luck buying new books. I seem to always pick out books to buy that sound good on the back cover but aren't nearly as good inside.
I live two hours from the nearest bookstore, so if I find a book that I really want, I'll order it online. You're so lucky to live close to bookstores. As soon as I walk into a bookstore, a calm, relaxing feeling takes over me, no matter what mood I'm in. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about! =]
You would have loved the antiquarian bookstore I worked in in Downtown Ft Worth. Books flowing off the shelves into 4-5 ft piles on the floor. Three stories of book hunting bliss. Of course, I could locate any of them, even the ones in the piles. *sigh* I miss is there. My boss retired at the same time I left for college and sold his inventory to Larry McMurtry, so I can't go back, but that was a cool place.
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