My Dirty Little Secret

Okay, this likely isn't much of a secret for anyone who has ever lived with me or has visited my house... I really dislike cleaning.

I get no joy out of the task. It seems like you exert all of this energy and the house ends up looking just as dirty within the next 24 hours. So, I typically wait to do most of the cleaning until I know someone is coming over. And when doing so, I throw a bunch of items in the various closets of our house and make sure to close the door to our bedroom.

Because of this laziness, our bedroom gets neglected big time. I do vacuum in there (you kind of have to when you have a dark, long-haired dog!), and our clean clothing gets put away fairly promptly (I like the general public to believe I'm a tidy, put together mama), but it never feels fully clean or organized. And this makes it a less than relaxing environment for poor Carl who works extremely hard every single day and is not the person in the family who has cleaning issues.

So, two Friday's ago, I finally got motivated to clean our room. Well, specifically, I got motivated to clean my closet and dresser, the two biggest disaster zones in our room. I wish I would have taken some before pictures (not really because I would be ashamed for you to see the piles of maternity clothing that had been sitting in space saver bags waiting to be sealed, vacuumed and stored away for the past five months) but, alas, I did not; so you will have to use your imagination.

However, I was so proud of the job that I did, that I have taken some after pictures (see the end of the post). It's really quite silly, but over the weekend, I found myself standing in front of my closet staring in amazement at how beautiful it is. This project has really motivated me to improve my cleaning skills. If I can be this excited about my closet and dresser, think about how excited I could be about the entire house if it was organized and tidy.

Of course, I am typing this while sitting on my couch and staring at the stacks of junk on our family room coffee table... obviously I'm in need of a little more motivation! What type of cleaning schedule do you have for your house and how do you stay motivated to clean??