Nothing makes me clean my house better or faster, than having people come over to visit.
Right now I’m counting the days until my BUNCO party that I’m hosting at my house. It’s next week, and I have a lot of spring cleaning to do, but I’m just not mentally there. I saw a meme the other day and it seriously summed up my feelings on spring cleaning: “I HATE having a messy house. Not enough to actually clean it, but enough to give it a really disgusted stare from my seat on the couch.” But, as soon as I have guests coming, I’m extremely motivated to make my house look perfect.
Here are the reasons why I procrastinate my spring cleaning:
- I’m SO busy! When I hear, time for “SPRING CLEANING”, at first I’m motivated and I have ideas of what I want to do and what I need to purge and scrub, but then reality sets in and I have seven baseball games in one weekend (three of which, I’m coaching). By the time I got home Sunday, I was exhausted, sunburned, and hungry. There was no way I was going to start a deep clean, I was happy that I got dishes put away.
- I get distracted. I’m guilty of starting in one area, making a mess, and then realizing that something needs to be done in another part of the house, so I move there. During my crazy fall cleaning purge, I started on my oldest son’s room, but then somehow didn’t finish because other items and areas needed attention (at least in my mind). When he came home, I had to explain, “I did a thing”. He was shocked, but we found a way for him to get to his bed and sleep. It just took me a few days longer than I initially thought.
- Planning to clean just doesn’t work for me. I have seen all the great schedules for what I should clean daily, weekly, and monthly. I’ve tried to use them and then I feel that I failed because I didn’t get to one or more of the things on the list. Then I get disappointed in myself and it’s just an unending cycle. Cleaning should never make a person feel bad about themself.
Fortunately, I do have guests coming next week and I will begin my spring cleaning this weekend. Like I said before, having guests is my inspiration for cleaning. I’m not going to set up a plan, but will do my best to stick to one room at a time. I’m also going to get my boys involved, they do not know it yet, but our spring cleaning begins this week.
I think that when it comes to spring cleaning, we all just need to do what works best for us. Don’t judge yourself and find peace of mind with what you can handle.
