Much as I can't explain it, I truly like what I do. Maybe it's my lack of attention span, flitting from thing to thing to thing in a single day -- maybe I just like to make things shiny. What I suspect is that cleaning is in my blood, it's in my genes. My mother was German -- the sort known to scrub sidewalks. I've been folding towels since I was three -- I know my way around Jubilee Appliance Wax and I have never met a stain against which I wouldn't wage war.
Some people hate to clean -- flat out don't, won't, can't do it. (I don't get it -- I am grateful for them, but I don't get it.) Our home is where we spring from every day, where we retreat to every night, it is our one safe haven in all the world. If no where else, we should want our own home to be at least nominally clean.
Some people simply don't know how -- they don't know where to begin or which products to use. Don't let's even begin a discussion on whether this is right-brained or left-brained thinking. We'll simply conclude that if this is you, you've come to the right place -- I can walk you through an easy, concise clean.
The loveliest aspect of what I do is that several times a week I am a sort of paid member of the family (often the most helpful member.) My families love me -- what's not to love -- I come in, clean up their messes, don't give them too much lip about it and promise to come back to do it again. And I love my families -- they are funny and interesting. They are an endless source of cleaning challenges. (How do you get purple paint out of tan carpet? -- first you send the five-year-old who put it there off to boarding school.) I get invited to parties, am counted upon to pet sit, begged to solve the age old "what's that stain?" question... all of which, and more, I love quite a lot.
This blogging aspect is new in that instead of actually surveying the damage, laying out a strategy and rolling up my sleeves to set it right again, I will be walking you through it. My plan here is to share what I know about cleaning, organizing and how to get through the day and the week as cleanly, as efficiently, as successfully as possible. (Here's a tip -- we don't clean for Clean's Sake -- we clean so that when we need our stuff -- clothes, dishes, beds -- they will be intact and ready to use. We clean so that when there are better things to do -- and there always are -- we are ready to enjoy ourselves, our family and friends, our lives. That's why we clean!)
So, I hope you'll come visit from time to time. I hope you'll find this blog helpful. I hope you'll use the "comments" section to ask questions and to share cleaning tips you've found helpful to you.
