The neccesary evil

Cleaning is boring, yes boring.
I feel like a petulant child when I say that, I want to stamp my foot and whine a bit - just, you know to really get the sentiment across. But really - I mean can anyone else think of something that takes up some much time and provides so little a reward..? (Except maybe make-up and hair do's and such)

Now I didn't always feel this way. Let's skip back a year before the house of burning bras even existed. I lived back then with the Ex. He was I have to say (and still is) a bit of a clean freak. He liked everything all tidy and in its place 'everything belongs somewhere Emma' Grrrr. Washing up left in the sink? Oh the horror. Floor not swept? A disaster. Clothes not washed??!!!! The world may actually have ended... you see where I'm going with this.

So seeing as how I spent pretty much all my adult life with him up until a year ago he somehow managed to turn me into a bit of a clean freak too. I was happy enough to spend a fair bit of time cleaning and organising and such. I didn't even realise back then how much of my time I spent on household maintenance or how much I hated it. I did it because it was expected and to be honest the arguments over mess just weren't worth having - yeah I wimped out but on the plus side, damn did my bathroom sparkle.

When the house of burning bras was born I just sort of carried on, washing and scrubbing and polishing and all that nonsense. A sort of pre-programmed compliance... until one day it dawned on me - clear and obvious and wonderful. I realised I don't actually have to clean if I don't want to. Oh the Eureka moment, the dawning understanding - it was wonderous.

I sat down and really considered it and came to the following conclusion. There is no reason at all that I can't leave a sink full of washing up for a week. No problem with not doing the washing until we run out of clothes. No issue at all with ever cleaning the fridge (they're self cleaning aren't they...?). Polishing seems pointless. Scrubbing is senseless - it just gets messy again. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying I'm never cleaning again, I'm just saying that it's perfectly acceptable to leave it until the point of neccesity. I have back-up here in the form of my princesses. The girls have NO interest in cleaning at all and they heartily encourage me not to either. Vix has some sort of weird phobia about washing up (I can't, the water, the bits of food... ewwww Mom no, it's disgusting). Her feeling is that we should simply have paper utensils that we can dispose of once used. Bear gives me a blank 'eh what' look whenever I even say the word 'clean'.
'It's boring mom who cares if there's washing up.'
'We've got enough clothes to last at least another week.'
'Weirdos clean ovens.'
'Just clean the bits we can see mom.'
Etc etc.

It is so liberating. I love it. Yes, ok as I said - eventually I give in and do it (for health reasons) but it's just the fact that if I don't want to I don't have to - the girls are right. it's boring and a total waste to time. I could be writing or reading or playing connect4 or chess or any number of fantastic things that don't involve a sponge and a broom.

What's that saying, show me a clean house and I'll show you a boring womam... spot on.