Cleaning Lady

I was not a clean child. Ever. My room was constantly a mess and on more than one occasion my mom would have to go through my entire room and get rid of "stuff" because I was too attached to do it on my own. I have always been a bit of a hoarder (not enough to deserve a TV show but I definitely like to hold on to things longer than I need to) and probably always will be. I also come by it honestly (looking at you, Dad). My 9th birthday party was almost cancelled because my room wasn't clean and I was taking my dear sweet time to get it to acceptable. It didn't go over very well. I also told my mom once, "Black is the new clean!" to describe why I wasn't cleaning the bathroom. In my defense there was no visible mold but it did need to be cleaned, that's for sure. While I was not terribly good at cleaning, I developed some OCD tendencies (courtesy of the Pierce family). If I was going to clean, by golly the thing was going to be perfect and we were not stopping until things were spotless.

Fast forward to young adulthood (still living at home, but capable of taking care of myself) and I have cleaner habits than childhood. I put my clothes in rainbow order in my closet sometime in middle school and they have been that way ever since. I've lived with a few people that have made fun of it but I don't really care. It makes me feel better and know what's missing. It also is helpful when I'm out shopping: I have a lot of pink and blue shirts so by necklaces or scarves with those colors is a wise investment. I don't own much yellow or green so I don't gravitate toward those colors for accessories or staple pieces.

Also during young adulthood I developed my "pile habit." In my mind everything has a place, even if that means it is in a pile. Piles are this-or-that: clean/dirty clothes, stay in this room/go to another, recycle/throw away, etc. It probably drove my parents crazy but I knew exactly where everything was (even if it was hard to see the floor).

The pile habit came with me to college. I had one roommate that was equal parts messy as me and it was a great living situation. I made a pile by my closet and she made a pile by her desk. We were each a little messy but kept it very contained in a single area. Come senior year I lived with two girls I knew were clean. I was faced with the challenge of having a closet in our apartment living room. I was forced to keep it clean or my roommates and guests would have to see my dirty clothes. However, I had a fair amount of free time at night senior year and tidying up became a form of therapy for me. I also did a lot of stress cleaning: I'm talking a spotless bathroom toilet and sink and vacuuming every inch of carpet about twice. It relieved stress and was a nice form of procrastination because it was productive too. College was also where I really realized I'm bad at doing dishes. Nothing was ever growing in them but I put off doing dishes way longer than I should have.

Now in an adult apartment many of my previous habits have come with me. I am still really bad at dishes and have a boyfriend that reminds me every other day the importance of our dishwasher and wants the ability to use the sink. I'm working on it. I promise. My rainbow closet is still there. If I ever end up in a nursing home I will probably demand my clothes be hung in rainbow order and the poor nurses will have to draw straws to see who has to put my clothes in order. I still believe in nightly tidying, as my dog has no sense of clean and takes all her toys out of her toybox and drops them wherever she pleases. I clean them up each night, along with straightening pillows and blankets (disheveled by the dog too). It makes me feel good and I know I won't trip on something during the night or early in the morning when I have to take my dog out. I have made Sundays designated cleaning days. I vacuum nearly every weekend because of the constant stream of doghair and dust. Bathrooms get cleaned about every other weekend (lately because my dog thinks they are cool to explore and there is dog hair in there now too) but also because toothpaste in sinks is gross to me now. My dog also has no concept of keeping water in the bowl and tends to drool all over the kitchen floor and leave food crumbs everywhere too.

I think the moral of this post is if you are really bad at cleaning get a dog because it forces you to clean up everything all the time. And they're pretty cute even if they make mess doing about anything.

This is my dog Pretzel. Don't let the cute face fool you. She can make a room go from spotless to spotted in less than a second.