I made a September Resolution
I suck at making resolutions.
In fact, I don't think I've made any since 1996, the year I decided to be less of an introvert, and ended up tipsy in my buddy's back yard, cutting down his trees with his equally tipsy wife. Oh, we had a TON of fun, but my buddy wasn't exactly thrilled that we'd been at his power tools while partway through our third bottle of wine. In any case, I fulfilled my resolution, but not necessarily in the right way, so I stopped making them.
However, since more than a decade has gone by, I feel like maybe it's time to try again.
My September resolution is to keep my house clean enough that if people were to suddenly stop by, they would not sit silently in my living room and judge me. At least, not my housekeeping.
My personal theory of housekeeping is this; if it doesn't stink, and it's clean underneath, it doesn't matter what's on top. Which is to say, I love to kill germs, and I clean under my fridge and stove religiously, but hey, if dishes sit in the sink, whatever! Clothes all over the floor - whatever! General untidiness - no smell, no tell!
It drives The Hotness mad, because he's a kind of neat freak - I say "a kind of neat freak" on purpose - his idea of clean is exactly the reverse of mine - as long as it LOOKS tidy, it must be clean, which means that surface clean is all that matters. (insert shudder of horror here. O! the bacteria!).
Still, we've managed to find a more or less happy medium, in which I spend more time keeping the kitchen counters clear, and he ignores the dishes in the sink.
Honestly, though, since I started to work from home more, I've become more aware of how annoying my general clutter is. So I've decided to fulfill The Hotness' greatest wish, which is to have a house that looks as clean as it smells, at all times.
For the month of September, at least. I make no promises about October.
As part of my cleanup, I decided to work my way across the house, from my office and sewing room, all the way to our bedroom on the other side of the house. The basement belongs to The Hotness - it's the Man Zone, so if he wants it clean, he has to do it himself, other than cat litter, which makes him gag and complain loudly about how hard he works all day long, just to have to come home to clean cat litter. He's lucky he's got a nice tush.
The sewing room was almost done, but now the office is as clean as it's going to get, and I've made myself yet another cat-related project. I can't help but think I'm trying to evade doing the muslin for The Big Dress.
Anyway, half of my desk used to sit directly under the massive window in my office. The window overlooks The Hotness' bird tree, which makes all the cats salivate. Here's a shot of about half of The Hotness' bird friends, taken this past winter. The other half is a bunch of yellow and orange finches, which apparently don't like to eat at the same time as these sparrows.
In any case, as you can imagine, a window that looks directly onto such a scene ends up being quite the cat-magnet.
So, when I moved my office around, I moved my desk away from the window, and put a shelf underneath it. It's a stainless steel wire affair, and not very comfortable for kitty feet, so I'm going to make a cushion for it. As you can see, the towel isn't really doing the trick. And it's ugly.
Off to my sewing room!
P.S. If you can't put your finger on exactly what's different on my blog today, I changed the image of the woman on the bottom left of the page. It used to be a line drawing of a lady in a blue dress with red flowers, and it's now the envelope art from a vintage pattern in my collection, B8017. I love changin' stuff!
In fact, I don't think I've made any since 1996, the year I decided to be less of an introvert, and ended up tipsy in my buddy's back yard, cutting down his trees with his equally tipsy wife. Oh, we had a TON of fun, but my buddy wasn't exactly thrilled that we'd been at his power tools while partway through our third bottle of wine. In any case, I fulfilled my resolution, but not necessarily in the right way, so I stopped making them.
However, since more than a decade has gone by, I feel like maybe it's time to try again.
My September resolution is to keep my house clean enough that if people were to suddenly stop by, they would not sit silently in my living room and judge me. At least, not my housekeeping.
My personal theory of housekeeping is this; if it doesn't stink, and it's clean underneath, it doesn't matter what's on top. Which is to say, I love to kill germs, and I clean under my fridge and stove religiously, but hey, if dishes sit in the sink, whatever! Clothes all over the floor - whatever! General untidiness - no smell, no tell!
It drives The Hotness mad, because he's a kind of neat freak - I say "a kind of neat freak" on purpose - his idea of clean is exactly the reverse of mine - as long as it LOOKS tidy, it must be clean, which means that surface clean is all that matters. (insert shudder of horror here. O! the bacteria!).
Still, we've managed to find a more or less happy medium, in which I spend more time keeping the kitchen counters clear, and he ignores the dishes in the sink.
Honestly, though, since I started to work from home more, I've become more aware of how annoying my general clutter is. So I've decided to fulfill The Hotness' greatest wish, which is to have a house that looks as clean as it smells, at all times.
For the month of September, at least. I make no promises about October.
As part of my cleanup, I decided to work my way across the house, from my office and sewing room, all the way to our bedroom on the other side of the house. The basement belongs to The Hotness - it's the Man Zone, so if he wants it clean, he has to do it himself, other than cat litter, which makes him gag and complain loudly about how hard he works all day long, just to have to come home to clean cat litter.
The sewing room was almost done, but now the office is as clean as it's going to get, and I've made myself yet another cat-related project. I can't help but think I'm trying to evade doing the muslin for The Big Dress.
Anyway, half of my desk used to sit directly under the massive window in my office. The window overlooks The Hotness' bird tree, which makes all the cats salivate. Here's a shot of about half of The Hotness' bird friends, taken this past winter. The other half is a bunch of yellow and orange finches, which apparently don't like to eat at the same time as these sparrows.
In any case, as you can imagine, a window that looks directly onto such a scene ends up being quite the cat-magnet.
So, when I moved my office around, I moved my desk away from the window, and put a shelf underneath it. It's a stainless steel wire affair, and not very comfortable for kitty feet, so I'm going to make a cushion for it. As you can see, the towel isn't really doing the trick. And it's ugly.
Off to my sewing room!
P.S. If you can't put your finger on exactly what's different on my blog today, I changed the image of the woman on the bottom left of the page. It used to be a line drawing of a lady in a blue dress with red flowers, and it's now the envelope art from a vintage pattern in my collection, B8017. I love changin' stuff!
Labels: projects
I guess you want kitty drool on that window?
Hubby's mother was a clean & neat freak. All of her sons are neat freaks. When her 3rd son married an untidy girl, he used the 3rd bedroom in the house as a "girl catchall": if she left it laying around, he would open the door a bit, pitch it in and slam the door. I doubt that pleased her. Don't tell his Hotness that this worked out well for my BIL - she became a neat freak, too. As for my beloved, he likes to pile everything. Neatly. Never puts it away. Says the piles are fine.
I'm a strong believer that if you don't disturb the dust, it won't disturb you. So I was hosting Christmas dinner for both families when my first son was 1 year old and the second was 7 days old, and I hadn't dusted in 3 weeks. My idiot mother stuck her finger in the dust on a table and made a face. I went to the kitchen, got her Pledge and a rag, and told her to make herself happy. The look on her face was priceless. The room erupted in laughter.
Oh Big Dress Avoidance, I know it well. We have been living in our current home for three years, and there have always been a bunch of unpacked boxes in the basement.....I just unpacked and organized the contents. Big Dress Avoidance at its worst.....
I am not religious, but for Lent last year I vowed to keep my house clean for 40 days. I thought once I passed the 40 day mark a habit would have been born and it would stay clean automatically. Alas, that didn't happen, but it sure was beautiful for those 40 days! Good luck on your resolution!