04 May The Approximate House-Cleaning Model

Our house could be situated somewhere mid-spectrum between the uttainable standard of spick and span and downright messy. More than anything else, this epitomizes my innate tendency to make a merry mess wherever I go, a tendency coupled with my love for sorting and cleaning later. These two seemingly contradictory tendencies coexist within me and there’s little to be done about it (I have tried). It is a dynamic model.

While working with this model, my aim consists in attaining a satisfactory level of order (more-or-less order, or approximate) while being rather indulgent towards unruly details. Anyone who has ever been to my house knows perfectly well what I mean: the general look and feel of the interior is neat and not cluttered, but things stick out of drawers, toys are scattered, and clothes are not always folded, hung up or put away. What is more, only five minutes is enough for a guest to witness a complete transformation from this relative and volatile order into a messy aftermath of children’s activity.

Since we moved to our home three years ago, the challenge has become crystal-clear. How do I make sure that I do not overwork myself trying to keep the home in reasonable order while steering clear of feeling guilty because our dwelling is far from impeccable and there are things that need to get done in so many areas of the house? With our three lively children, we hardly ever have time to clean everything and, to be completely honest, both of us feel like cleaning is not something we would like to spend most of our time doing. Still, we have a house and we are responsible for it. It is our duty to manage it wisely.  We need a strategy to keep it clean even if we do not feel like running around with a vacuum  or a mop 24/7 because life is too short.

So, I came up with a plan. I resolved to design a cleaning lottery. I write the names of different rooms/areas, form a pile and pick one piece of paper. It becomes my assignment for a given day. Having drawn that one piece of paper, I no longer worry about other places. After several weeks of implementing this strategy, I was happy overall, but I still did not know what to do with the kitchen. This is where I am most of the time and, although I literally wash and clean things there all the time, the kitchen is also mysteriously prone to accumulating dirt and limescale when no one is looking.  So I have improved the weekly strategy by adding one permanent element: I pick various rooms at random four days a week, while Fridays are my kitchen cleaning days. This is a great day for the kitchen given that there are fewer products in the fridge after a whole week of feeding the hungry. It is easy to sort these remaining products out and look at their expiry date before the Saturday leftover specials and grocery shopping. On Saturday, if we do not have much time (we tend not to) we simply vacuum the house and clean the bathrooms. Hooray! We’re done with housework for the week.

What exactly do I do when I pick my daily assignment? I take a quick look and decide what this particular room or area needs. Sometimes I need to sort out a pile of papers or go through desk clutter, put winter or holiday apparel away, wipe a shelf down, sometimes change and wash the bedthrow, the curtains or the sheets.  If I have time, I wash the windows and the doors of this particular room. I typically try to throw away, recycle or donate at least one little thing.

Thanks to my approximate cleaning system, I am not totally behind with cleaning and I do not dread the moment I open a closet or a drawer because I sort of know what to expect. Although we still live in an environment that is relatively messy (I cannot help it, I contribute to it myself), I believe that it is not the end of the world and I am confident that before the next holidays roll around, my family will not have to go through the disaster of desperate and long-overdue seasonal cleaning.