Romancing the Genres: cleanliness

No, not our house in the background

I grew up in a family where my Mother had certain standards of ‘cleanliness’. We didn’t have plastic on furniture nor did we take our shoes off just inside the door, but we did

         - change our clothes as soon as we came in from school or church on Sunday,
         - do the dishes every night right after dinner, and
         - clean our rooms every Saturday morning (unless we wanted to miss getting our allowance and going to the Saturday Afternoon Matinee).

There were more chores than listed above but the biggest challenge for me was meeting my Mother’s high standards for cleanliness.

In my fantasy life, my family (whoever is in that configuration at the time) pitches in with housework, yard work, cooking, whatever needs doing. Over the years, I’ve tried Family Meetings, Chore Lists, Rewards (dinner out for example). Nothing my creative mind came up ever really manifested my fantasy. Even with just my youngest granddaughter and me at home, it still isn’t happening.

Why?

The truth is that neither of us likes housework/chores and neither of us have a ‘clean gene’. In the past, I’d clean if I knew people were coming for a meeting or to visit. I’m less fussy now and really don’t care what friends who stop by to visit or spend the weekend think of my housekeeping skills.

What about cleaning this one?

My granddaughter and I sit down every few months, write up a plan to keep the house clean. We commit to it and even follow it for a few weeks or even a month and then something comes up and we put the plan aside for just today or this weekend. Except we never really get back to it. We still have times when we do clean – it just gets too messy and dusty for even us. But for the most part, we just live in our house, keeping things up (we aren’t hoarders, you don’t need hand sanitizers if you stop by, and you will feel comfortable using our toilet) to a standard that would horrify my Mother.

In my dreams, I’m published and my books sell well. The first thing on my ‘dream list’ I’ll do with that extra income is hire someone to clean the house! Do you enjoy cleaning house? If you do, please share why. I’m curious to know. Maybe it will help my granddaughter and me to do more in our home.

Pictures by Mariah Klefman

Friday, April 6, 2012

Clean? Do I Have To? by Judith Ashley