Stuff

When I was pregnant with Brayden, I asked my doting husband not to buy me a "push present" when the baby was born. I did not want another piece of jewelry; I wanted a cleaning lady! For me, one of the hardest things about having young children is having little to no control over the cleanliness of my house. I have always been anal-retentive. I know this. However, I had no idea how anxious I would feel with little people and the amount of stuff that accumulates in my house. It makes me cr-a-zy!

I have used a cleaning crew for almost a year now. Once a month, Maria and three of her buddies come over and deep-clean my house. The four of them will spend three hours cleaning every corner of my house, and I LOVE them. It lessens my control-freak anxieties knowing that my toilets are cleaned and my hardwood floors are mopped at least once a month.

You may wonder why I do not have this cleaning crew come on a bi-weekly basis, like most cleaning ladies/crews. Well, it is because of the amount of work that is required before they arrive. I spend hours picking up toys, sorting through artwork, going through mail that has piled up, putting laundry away, etc. the night before the cleaning ladies come. There is no way I could do this on a bi-weekly basis. Again, maybe it is my type-A tendencies, but I want my house picked up so that the cleaning ladies can do their job better. I am in the best mood mentally when I walk into my house after the cleaning ladies have been here.

Tomorrow is a cleaning day. Start time is 8:00 AM. I have been picking up my house ALL DAY today, and I swear that two of my children are packrats (jury is still out on #3). Taylor has backpacks, purses, gift bags, boxes, suitcases, and other random containers filled with junk. I will open one backpack and find a hair ribbon, a few crayons, a flashlight, a Barbie doll, a half-eaten lollipop, and then I will open another backpack and find another assortment of sh*t. I wish I could just leave all this stuff alone, but I can't. So, I have spent the better part of my day going through Taylor's bags upon bags (and while I was going through bags, Taylor was making other messes). Taylor is also a budding artist and loves to make creations. With these creations, comes shards of paper, glue, tape, markers and crayons all over the place. Today, I attempted to throw some of these creations away while Taylor was at summer camp. However, Taylor found them in the garbage this afternoon and called me out. Busted! So, now I need to find a place to "store" more artwork until my next opportunity to purge.

It is 10:00 PM, and I still have to pick up the playroom. Better get going...