Cleaning the House and the Soul

My house is cluttered. That is just a fact. With 3 kids, I could spend all day running from room to room picking things up and it would still be cluttered. Not that it's all their fault. I get lazy about picking my own things up too, sometimes. And, not to be offensive, but there are times when I swear I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies, in the sense that one day I just step over and around any little thing that's in my path, and the next I'm a whirlwind running around the house gathering up anything I can find that's out of place. And everyone knows that if you pick things up a little at a time it's easier to handle, but somehow that never really seems to happen around here.

Usually, I go on a cleaning spree when I know company is coming over. "Company" being just about anyone in any number. If I know someone's coming, I clean. If you want to see my house in it's "natural" state, drop by unannounced. On second thought, please don't. I love my friends, and I will never turn away a visitor, but the OCD-o-meter in me starts going crazy when I get a random guest: "Oh my gosh, there's 3 laundry baskets of clean clothes on the floor... there are toys all over the place... the table is covered in papers... my coat's not hung up.... AHHHH!" Generally speaking, I am fully aware that the Cleaning Police has not sent a spy to check out the condition of my living quarters, and my friends don't really care if my coat is not hung up or the laundry is not put away. But it bothers me all the same.

As much as I greatly dislike cleaning, I manage to find significant amounts of AHA in the act itself, and the outcome. Last night, at 9:15pm, I decided (and I'm still not really sure why) to clean out a couple of kitchen cabinets. One of the biggest problems I have with cleaning anything is that the act of cleaning is never contained to the one designated area. In order to clean out the microwave cart, I had to move some things into the cupboard over the counter. In order to clean out the cupboard over the counter, I had to purge some things that were already in there and move some other things into the pantry. In order to put things on the shelf in the pantry... well, you get the point. Thus, when I have the intention to clean one room, or one area of my house, half the house ends up getting rearranged. And I always -ALWAYS- make a bigger mess cleaning than what was there when I started. Most of the time, I can dissipate the mess in a day or two. Other times... well, let's just say other times I'm not so lucky.

I made myself go to bed just after 11pm yesterday, with the microwave cart (which holds many of my Tupperware-type storage containers) in complete disarray, and the counter covered in mugs and glassware. Yep. That's how I went to bed. Had to. Otherwise I would have stayed up all night cleaning (remember, OCD) and my boss wouldn't have appreciated that too much this morning. However, when I arrived home from work this evening, I had the house to myself and I knew it was the perfect opportunity to finish (most of) what I had started.

I cleaned off a spot on the counter next to the stove, where my laptop sat, playing Pandora so I could stay motivated and moving. I can't do much of anything (with the exception of writing this blog) without listening to music. I surveyed my mess, what had to go where, what my rules for disposal were, and got crackin'. I started at 6.

By 9pm, I had purged out all the unmatched Tupperware tops and bottoms and set them in a pile on the floor. I had neatly stacked up all the bottoms in piles of squares, rectangles and circles (hooray OCD). They all went in the bottom of the microwave cart. I had cleaned out the microwave cart drawer that was stuffed full of old cooking magazines and bibs. The tops that coordinated with the bottoms were stacked neatly in piles and placed in the drawer, along with the best of the dishtowels. I wiped down the countertop on the other side of the kitchen and organized the toaster over, the Keurig, and the EasyBake oven to fit along the wall under the cupboard. I organized the cupboard below the counter to better fit the cooking pans.

 While sitting on the floor rearranging the appliances and pans in the cupboard, I scrubbed the cupboard doors and the back door, to discover that they are white, not gray! I removed every last piece of glassware from the cupboard above the counter and packed some of them in a box. I rearranged the kitchen appliances on the top shelf of the cupboard and took a couple coffee makers out to be put in the basement for now. (I had 3 coffee makers! What does one need with 3 different coffee makers?!) I rearranged the plates, bowls, mugs, plastic cups and glassware to be more efficient in the space used. In the newly empty space, I put a stack of mixing bowls, my basket of coffee and accessories, and the sugar container. I cleaned out some random things on the floor of the pantry, and moved some things around to clear off a shelf, which now houses some of my biggest plastic storage containers. With the floor cleaner, I can now actually step into the pantry instead of having to lean all the way in to reach for what I want.

 I dusted off the top of the microwave cart, and threw out a bunch of random junk that had accumulated there. I found a nice mug tree that I've always liked but never had a place for and put it on the top of the microwave cart, along with the new blender Santa got me for Christmas and some cute snowman mugs. I straightened up and dusted off the cookbooks that are where the microwave is suppose to be. Voila! The microwave cart is clean! The counter is clean! The cupboard is tidy! And there's a whole pile of stuff to go in the recycle bin and trash can!

It's only one very small portion of my house, but it felt good to really clean. I have a lot more ahead of me, but little by little I can handle it, and almost enjoy it. It's sort of therapeutic to purge and clean out. And, as I said, the end result makes it all worth it. The AHA of having a clean space by far outweighs the annoyance of actually cleaning it!