Clean Enough

I have to laugh when I think of my housecleaning schedule before having two children. When we first moved into this house I had everything planned out for what I would do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and semi-annually. Things like blinds, baseboards, windows, and sweeping the front walk were on this schedule. I got this semi-obsessive-compulsive cleaning checklist from a book about organizing your life, written by a person who must not have a life. Back in those days Katie was napping 2-3 hours every afternoon and would happily play by herself for another couple of hours throughout the day. How was I ever tricked into spending that time doing crazy things like deodorizing the microwave? Now, don't get me wrong...I love a clean house....I don't even mind housework. I love the feeling of putting away clean laundry and finishing the dishes and yes...even though I hate getting started I do like it when the bathroom is all sparkly and sanitized. But there is a point when obsession overtakes sufficiency. That obsession could have lead to insanity if I thought I had to maintain that schedule while taking care of my two girls at the same time. Thankfully, I have a husband who pitches in and helps a lot around the house. If it wasn't for him the vacuum might have thought it was on the semi-annual list along with dusting the light fixtures and wiping out the dishwasher. The bottom line of all this is that being twice as busy with children has left me half the amount of time to spend on housework and yet I find that to be sufficient most of the time and so I feel a little jipped for all the hours I spent on this silly schedule because what difference does it make if I dust the top of the refrigerator weekly, monthly or only when I grow tall enough to actually see it? Sure, there are times when I need a bulldozer to clear enough toys off the couch to actually sit down and sometimes enough food collects under the table to make a small casserole but for the most part the house is sufficiently clean even though I'm no longer following that schedule...especially now that we consider dust bunnies our family pets.