In case you didn’t notice, I have two children who are not yet school aged. Two small children plus a house equals disasters. Constant spills. Dumped bins of toys. Urine accidentally shooting out of toilets. Fingers covered in marker that trace their little way up the white banister. These are the marks of my home.
Years ago, when I used to babysit for people in THEIR homes (I rarely do this now, because I am not thirteen and I do not charge people to watch their children, but Heavens to Betsy those kiddos are going to mold into our schedule instead of me molding into a different one [otherwise known as my “Free Isn’t Flexible” plan]), I remember being particularly scheeved out about how sticky their high chairs were and how odd their cars smelled. The basic tell-tail signs that children were living in a place made me feel queasy. I almost never ate a meal while babysitting in someone’s home because I am neurotic like that. I also avoided using their toilet and answering the telephone. There were exceptions to these rules (in homes that I deemed clean enough and of course, your house was one of those! I am obviously not talking about you!), but not too many.
Now that I have one of those homes, I wonder how good of a job I am doing at keeping this place in order. I am sure there are things I am missing when I clean, the things you just don’t see because you see it all the time. I don’t always get the backs of their chairs wiped down after a meal or a snack. I don’t mop more than once per week, unless the spills are milk and happen more than once during the day. I don’t dust unless I have to.
And that is the secret — to make yourself HAVE TO. We have a small group of people into our home at least once a week and it forces me to break out the Swiffer Dust wand, grab my Pledge MultiSurface (aka Magic) and get my clean on. We aren’t meeting this week, which is perhaps why there is still paperwork scattered throughout the family room and the light switches are all smudgy.
BUT
I just booked babysitters for this weekend and I want them to feel free to eat here. Time to bust out that mop.
Magic.
You know it.