Friday, August 29, 2008

The Bliss Aspect of a Clean House


Even though I was exhausted when I got home from work last night, I noticed that there was a nice caking of dust on my end table in my living room. I am one of those housekeepers that like to have a tidy house, but not a spotless house. Reason? I have three children - four if you count my husband. Keeping a spotless house would take up all my time and energy and only result in frustration since it would stay that way for all of thirty seconds.

I decided to start dusting, and that turned into vacuuming, and then in between all this, I was cooking dinner. By the time it was all finished, my living room was sparkling - clean carpets, dust-free surfaces, and the nice aroma of cornbread filled the air.

Not only did I feel accomplished, but I also felt like everything was right in my world. When my house is in chaos, my life feels the same way - generally because it is in chaos.

However, when my house is clean...it's very easy to feel much better about my life. I feel more organized, more accomplished, less harried, and much more settled. I like to feel settled. I like to feel that I can sit in my living room and relax without thinking, "I need to pick that up. Dust that. Vacuum here."

Now if I can just keep it this way...

On Tap for the Labor Day Weekend
  • Nebraska football on Saturday - Go Huskers!
  • Friends on Sunday
  • Writing
Have a great weekend!

6 comments:

  1. I'm so with you on this! Last night Scott left to spend the night in a sleep clinic. As soon as he left, I was a tornado whipping through the house, cleaning and polishing. My whole psyche always feels more at peace when things are uncluttered and clean.

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  2. I'm the same way. If my house is in order, my thoughts are. I hope while all that dusting and vaccuuming were going on, at least your thoughts were contemplating writing! (I find mine do, when I have to tend to routine tasks. At least then it feels like I'm working on the writing).

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  3. Lisa - Yes! I'm much more at peace when my house is clean. But I can't figure out why I can't KEEP it clean!

    Joanne - Whatever I was thinking must have done some good because when I finally opened my laptop last night, I had a zinger of a plot twist emerge!

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  4. Congrats on the zinger! I recently had one and it helped get me back on track.

    I'm so with you on the cleanliness and order thing. Though it hard to do with a 3 and 5 year-old, I need some sense of order before I take a crack at writing...weird but true :).

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  5. Jenna - Yeah, pretty much impossible with two kids under the age of 6! Of course, my three are 15, 13, and 8, and it hasn't gotten any better with time! ;-)

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  6. For me, it's the kitchen. I HATE it when my kitchen is a mess. And I swear there are times I want to shave the cats. No sooner do we get all the fur up off the floor, than it reappears!!!

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