Cleaning vs Clean

When I was growing up my mom was very big into Saturday being Cleaning Day. She always seemed so super excited about cleaning. My sister, it seemed, was always assigned the duty of vacuuming while I was always honored with the task of dusting all the wood furniture and cleaning the mirrors and glass. When we got older my sister also got to help clean the bathrooms and I helped clean the kitchen.

It was awful. At least it was awful to me when I was a child. The last thing I wanted to do on a Saturday, after a long hard week at school (haha my life was so tough!), was to wake up and do chores on a Saturday.

What made it truly awful was that I never understood why we had to clean again when we just cleaned everything, and yes I mean everything, just the week before. It never computed in my little child brain that by keeping things clean made it that much easier to clean them!

So now as an adult I avoid cleaning at all costs. Now don't get me wrong, I do not live in filth. I definitely like having a tidy kitchen. (Casey will read that last sentence and laugh as I hate to clean the kitchen). I enjoy having a bathroom that is nice and clean and smells beautiful. Yet, even though I love having things clean, I have the hardest finding the motivation to get my butt up and moving to do what seems so tedious.

I mean really, who enjoys scrubbing the toilet? Everyone loves a clean toilet, but truly who enjoys cleaning it? And by all means, if you are one of those strange, rare, extraordinary individuals, like my mother, who loves and adores cleaning please do not be offended by my following statement: Those who love to clean have always confused me more than just a little.

I do not enjoy cleaning. I enjoy the end result. It feels wonderful to walk into the house after a good cleaning to it smelling clean and not like dog stench. (It is a miracle to me that we can eliminate the dog stench from our house in the first place! (yeah I know, gross.))

I dream of the day where I can be in a financial position to hire a maid. It would be truly lovely to come home to a spic and span house without having to lift a finger. This is where my mother would ask me if I would enjoy the clean house as much if someone else cleaned it as if I cleaned it myself. In all honesty, I would love it more! To never have to scrub another toilet seat, or mop another floor or vacuum ever again would be heaven.

I realize that this dream of mine most likely will not come true. I can think of so many other valuable and long lasting experiences that I would rather put my money towards but just the thought of a maid is delicious.

But my current reality is such that I clean my own home. I take pleasure when what I've cleaned is nice and I'm proud to show it off. I'll continue focusing on the end result, not the task at hand to get it to that result.

Either that or while I'm cleaning I'll day dream of someone cleaning my house while the cabana boy fans me and feeds me grapes.

Now that would be heavenly!