The Sins Of My Ambition

(Or: How my house got ugly while I canned everything under the sun.)

I want to say that this mess only occurs during my weeks of frantic harvest activities, but you'll discover the truth sooner or later so I may as well tell you that my laundry is ALWAYS in a state of shameful disarray. This is clean laundry.

I am not the kind of person who picks up after myself frequently. I have nothing but admiration for people who do this, but I am not tidy. My energy goes to other things for about six days before I suddenly become aware that my head will explode if I don't clean my house in five seconds. Cleaning is a religious experience for me. Every single item I put away is a messy thought in my head that gets put back in it's box; every room I sweep is like my spirit having the dust shaken from it; every surface I scrub is some corner of my soul getting the scum removed. When I'm done I feel as though I have been baptised with a fresh life. Though it's a mystery how I think I know how that feels since I've never been baptised. I imagine you feel clean, fresh, and infused with a new flush of appreciation for all the blessing that already exist in your life. That's how cleaning makes me feel. Tidying up just makes me feel fussy.

I can't cook when my kitchen looks like this. I actually clean my kitchen every single day except for when I'm canning or doing some other major project. I actually get panicky when I see my kitchen like this. As I jetted off to Lisa's to can those bartletts I had no chance to clean. So this is two days worth of kitchen grunge.

I will never be a tidy person. Because that's not in my nature. I love my house when it's clean and flylady would certainly like to convince me that I merely need to tackle the mess for fifteen minutes a day and always clean my sink. (I actually joined flylady for a couple of days until I realized that the fifty obsessive e-mails I was recieving from them a day wasn't a fluke, it was a flylady way of life.) The truth is, I don't have any desire to change the kind of person I am. So the best way to combat mess without changing who I am is to find places for everything so that everything is easier to put away. My goal is to have my house really rigged out within six months...with great organization. I want my walls painted, my carpet all ripped out, and my laundry closet made nicer than the little rat-hole it currently appears to be. I have plans. Yes, lots of plans.

I am now going to excuse myself for a few extra minutes of music blasting before I have to pick Max up from school. If you aren't enjoying cleaning your house then you should probably stop playing Lawrence Welke and get yourself something that makes you move like fire across a dry forest.