I’m not usually one for new year’s resolutions but this year I decided to make one. I’m trying to keep my house cleaner and more organized. Since we were having people for Christmas, we got everything cleaned and organized downstairs and have been keeping it up for the past few weeks. Over the weekend we cleaned the bedroom thoroughly and moved all the furniture around. We’ve been keeping up with the dishes and vacuuming every few days (we do have four cats).
I have to say that I am exhausted. I feel like I am constantly wiping, vacuuming or picking up something. Which made me think about our mothers. Both our moms are museum quality cleaners. Nothing is ever out of place. The bathrooms are always sparkling and they were that way when we were growing up. How the hell did they do that? Both our moms worked full-time at some point during our childhood, plus took care of the kids and the house. How did they do all that?
When we purchased our house, I commented to Jeff one day about how dusty the basement was. He told me that was normal. “But my mom’s basement isn’t dusty. Neither is your parents’.” Jeff informed me that our moms cleaned their basements. And after confirming this with his mom, it’s true! I can’t even keep my house clean, let alone venturing down to the basement to clean there. I’m starting to think our parents just didn’t sleep for all those years. I’m not willing to give up the precious little sleep I get to have a perfect house. If anything is going to get my sleeping time, it’s going to be knitting.
So I venture on, trying to figure out the correct magical words that will keep my house clean. Clatto Verata N… Necktie… Neckturn… Nickel… It’s an “N” word, it’s definitely an “N” word! Clatto… Verata… N-[coughs]. Okay, that’s it!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
So maybe you didn’t get every little last SYLLABLE…
In my house growing up, the reason it was so clean was because my parents had US doing all the random picking up/vacuuming/washing dishes/dusting. My chore in particular was to clean the bathrooms; my brother did the trash. My dad’s favorite expression was “Let’s immaculatize the downstairs.” Yes, he actually said “immaculatize”. My parents were neat freaks but WE were the ones doing most of the nitpicky stuff. Today, my sister is immaculate, my brother is decent about neatness but has lots of bike clutter, and I am…well, you know.
But yeah, in my family, the only reason our house was clean was because my parents had a captive team of cleaners for free. 
You know what? I’m a SAHM and I still can’t manage to keep my house as clean as my mom did and she worked full-time. Sometimes I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that she made us (my brother and I) go outside a lot more than I make my kids do.
That’s one thing that makes me sad about the world we live in today. When I was growing up, everyone in the neighborhood knew each other. We got off the school bus, grabbed our bikes and played until the sun went down. I see those NFL play60 commercials and I laugh. If I saw that as a kid, I would have thought we were in trouble because we could only play outside for 60 minutes a day. We spent at least 3 hours every afternoon during the school year, even in the winter, outside playing with our friends.