Friday, January 27, 2012

Clean Kitchens and Laundry

I loathe cleaning my kitchen. But I adore a clean one. I don't know why, it's not like it's crazy  huge so it takes a long time to clean or something. It takes everything I have to make sure it's cleaned up after dinner (and I sometimes fail at this) so that it's clean when we come down for breakfast in the morning. I love coming downstairs to a clean kitchen in the early  morning - it totally starts my day off right not having to reach over glasses and mugs to make coffee.

But the night before, when the dinner pots and pans need washing and the island needs de-junking? I can talk myself out of cleaning it faster than a blink: I'm too tired. I've been working on the house all day. I'll do it in a minute. I'll get up extra early and do it before I get the kids up. My feet hurt. I deserve to relax. Maybe my husband will do it (and he often does).

Good excuses, huh?

Except that then I come downstairs at 7 a.m and it's a wreck and I get all tense. I can't just reach for a bowl for some cereal. I have to get it out of the dishwasher - which I better not have forgotten to turn on. So I clean it, and tonight I'll have the same inner fight.

Laundry. I did eight loads one day last week. Eight. In one day. I'd slacked on it for two days and that's what happened. So all this week I've been on it. On it. And today I've washed, dried and folded four loads. How is that even possible? But I love clean clothes - who doesn't? And I love empty laundry baskets. I can't actually use them, mind you. If I put clothes in a basket? There they will stay. If I fold the clothes and carry them upstairs they get put away immediately. Ask me what is sitting at the top of my stairs right now. You got it. A half full basket of clean clothes that I sat there on Tuesday. It's Thursday. I've put, what? Eight more loads away since then, yet I cannot empty that basket.

*sigh* Cleaning the kitchen and laundry. Such a pain, and yes, I'm fully aware, a First World Problem. I've got a great washer and dryer. A dishwasher. Environmentally friendly cleaners. I've got a kitchen.Completely a First World Problem.

16 comments:

  1. You have no idea how much I can relate. To all of it. I currently have clean clothes in the dryer and in at least three different basket throughout the house. Not to mention the dirty ones!

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  2. I long to have a washer and dryer that I don't have to share with an entire neighborhood! But you're right, FWP ... at least I have a place to wash my clothes.

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  3. Yep! After dinner I just want to snuggle up on the couch with some hot tea. No such luck!! We take turns and one of us cleans the kitchen and the other gives the baby a bath.

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  4. A first world problem that I know only too well!

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  5. First world problem, but one that's shared by many in the first world.

    I cannot stand a messy kitchen . . . my definition of "a clean kitchen" isn't up-to-par with many others, but I have a "minimally acceptable" level, which, if it's not met, means that I either need to clean the kitchen or leave the room, right then.

    Laundry is funny - I don't mind washing it, or even folding it . . . but, somehow, putting away the clean clothes seems to be too big of a burden sometimes. I don't know why.

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  6. I have the EXACT same issue with laundry!! If I stay on top of it, which means putting it away as soon as it's folded, I'm good. If I let it slip, I slip down into an ugly laundry spiral.

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  7. I am the same way about the kitchen! Now are you ready to hate me? My mom currently does all our laundry! haha. Although I will admit, our broken washer is inconvenient often enough that not doing my own laundry almost isn't worth it, lol.

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  8. It is amazing how slacking one day on laundry means a mountain of work the next day. Like it multiplies exponentially like amoebas in a petri dish.

    I have put my foot down that I a *not* allowed to go to bed with a clean kitchen. Knowing that it is not an option to leave it makes it easier to get started, which is often the hardest part.

    Definitely a first world problem - but a pervasive one!

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  9. That's probably a good rule. Do you follow it, or break it? I'm afraid I'd break it! Maybe it just needs to be a house rule, so one of us will do it no matter what. And the laundry thing - so glad to know I'm not alone in the 'I just skipped one day and now it's huge' deal!

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  10. No washer? Gaaaahhh. We had that in October and it.was.awful. The back up . . . but if your mom is helping, hey, good things girl, good things!

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  11. 'Ugly laundry spiral' Yup! Excellent description!

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  12. I think men, in general, have a different definition of what a clean kitchen is b/c we want it all pretty and displayed in order to call it clean. At least I do, and my husband most definitly does not feel the need for the pretty-ing up part. I have the exact same problem with the laundry- getting it into the drawers is the hardest part!

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  13. I'm happy to say that this problem seems to be universal among Baby Feet readers! Yay for us!

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  14. That's a great idea- taking turns. Maybe that would make it easier if I knew I'd get a night off!

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  15. I so remember the days of laundry-mats (is that even how it's spelled??) Paying to wash your clothes is definatley a pain!

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  16. That basket in my hallway, well, I'm just living out of it now, until it empties. Then I'll banish it again. SO glad to know I'm not alone in this whole basket issue!

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