In my final installment of the Adulting is Hard series, I would like to talk about cleaning. I love planners and being organized with my time, but when it comes to cleaning and organizing my apartment well…I’m a bit of a hot mess. Don’t get me wrong, the city won’t be coming by anytime soon to shut me down for being a health hazard (no bugs or other creepy crawlers) but it’s not company drop in ready. And I believe there are a few reasons for this:
Toys, toys and more toys
As most of you know, I have a little kid – to be more specific, a six-year-old boy who loves Legos, trains, empty cardboard boxes, and stuffed animals – our floors are covered in toys constantly. We have bins and boxes and other storage for these toys, but they always wind up on the floor. I gave up picking things up to just have them find their way back to the floor every day. We have a lovely green rug over beautiful hardwood floors, but alas – you can’t see them.
The crap is taking over
We also just have too much crap. I know it, my husband knows it, I think even my kid knows it but do we actually do anything about it? No, we don’t. We are somewhat good about getting rid of some stuff before new stuff comes in, but we still have TOO MUCH CRAP. Some of our crap I love – CDs and DVDs are treasured items. Certain books will always have a place on our shelves. Board games and Xbox games, musical instruments and knick-knacks that are used and adored sit around the apartment. Some of our crap I don’t love – papers everywhere, old greeting cards, random things picked up from Chuck E Cheese, crafts my kid was totally into one rainy Saturday. It’s like Where’s Waldo in here some days.
The couch is so comfy
I’m lazy. I’m always busy – writing sessions, day job, going to my son’s school for meetings, making and eating food, getting in some exercise, and reading – but when it comes to down time well….I just don’t want to spend time cleaning. I’d rather watch The Handmaid’s Tale, Superstore, or an old episode of Psych than dust, sweep, or organize a bookshelf. We don’t have a dishwasher so I do those pretty much every day (although I’m pretty lazy about that too and take off at least once a week) but once I’m done with dishes, I just don’t feel like doing anything else – because I’m lazy like that.
The hot mess is just too overwhelming
And the final reason, I don’t know where to start…seriously, when your apartment looks like a tornado went through a toy factory it’s just all too much to take in. I was organizing one thing and one thing only but we went out of town for a week back in April and I just never picked that habit back up…probably because I got overwhelmed with which ONE thing to pick. I’m a complete mess people.
How do you manage cleaning? How do you start organizing when it’s all just too much? Like I said, I love planners and organizing my time for maximum productivity but cleaning is hard for me. For now, I’ll go drink another cup of coffee, write another chapter in my book, and forget it about….again, that’s how I’ve been handling this problem because Adulting is Hard!
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Let it go!!! What’s important is safety. You can’t have a neat house until everything has a place and you’re the only one making the mess. Dishes need to be cleaned to avoid creepy things and food has to be back in the fridge. The rest is okay wherever it is. Spend your time creatively. . Create the space you need to do your work well. That’s it. Thanks for sharing once again!!! ?
Thank you Vicki! At some point though, we are going to get this mess cleaned up. HA