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Adventures in Domesticity

We all complain about housework. There are a few rare birds out there who love to clean. I admit that this is a huge weakness of mine. 

It's not like I don't know how to keep house. I like to be organized. I know how to clean. There are some aspects of cleaning that I don't even mind.  It just doesn't seem to happen.  

Cleaning just constantly sinks to the low place on the totem pole.  


Here are a few of my stumbling blocks:

  • My husband and I both work. A lot.  Roger's jobs have him running around, away from the house, 45-50 hours a week, including evenings and weekends. My primary job has me working 40 hours as well.  On top of that, I usually come home and tackle CJSTUF duties in my spare time. By the time 9 PM rolls around, I'm not in the mood to clean the bathroom. When I have a free day on the weekend and nothing else is scheduled, I can get a lot of cleaning accomplished.  Those days are few and far between.  I frequently quote Miss Scarlett and declare, "Tomorrow is another day."  
  • It's just the two of us. Supposedly, that would minimize the mess that we make.  You'd be surprised. We do fairly well keeping up with the dishes and the laundry and the trash but my prime nemesis is paper.  Junk mail, bills, magazines, newsletters, info to keep, info to toss...it's constant.  Even though I have a good system of chucking the junk mail as soon as it comes in the door, I still feel like I'm constantly sorting information from one pile to another.  Where does it all come from? Also, the fact that it's just the two of us makes it easier to let it go. While I like order, Roger is more lax about things. He doesn't mind the chaos quite so much.  Since we don't have anyone else to impress, chaos it is.  I clean my house when we have company. 
  • Our house is too big. There was a time when it was just the right size. Now we have too much stuff. There's too much space in which stuff can just sit.  I have friends and family who have been incredibly successful in the area of downsizing and minimizing.  I admire these people and seek to emulate them. I constantly feel the need for less but I need to divest myself of the excess systematically.  I can't just chuck it all in the trash (or even just dump it all at Goodwill).  I have aspirations to do some major cleaning in December but I need days off work and extended time without extra distractions to make it happen.  I love our house and I'm not leaving it any time soon but sometimes I wish I could just board up a few rooms. I could live out of our bedroom, the kitchen, and the family room without any problems.  
What are your magic secrets for keeping the mass entropy of your household under control?  What are your stumbling blocks? I'd love to hear other ideas on the subject.
Meanwhile, the process continues. I'll have to update you in December when I dive into my organizational projects.  

PS If you haven't had a chance to check out my latest distraction from domestic duties, you should look at my new website.  I have a dedicated domain and everything! You can access the blog through the website but the blogspot site will stay live as well.  Look for news about the book as well as links to other websites where I write on occasion.  
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