#20 - Quit Something.

Do you know what I hate more than having to get up every morning to go sit in front of a computer for Eight hours slowly rotting away my youth for a pay check? I hate having to spend whatever free time I do get on evenings and weekends cleaning. So I’m quitting cleaning. Cleaning and I are over.


Every night after work the conversations with myself (crazy, yes I know) go something like “should I cook dinner and run 5 km’s or clean the bathrooms?” Exercise wins. Or, how about “should I stay in the city and visit friends or go home and vacuum?” Friends win. Cleaning NEVER wins.

There are women out there that find cleaning therapeutic but I am not one of those women. If you are one of those women please explain to me exactly how that works?! Also, if you’d like some extra money – maybe we could arrange a deal that would help both of us out!!!

T’s sensor for ‘dirty’ doesn’t exist. He claims to never know when something needs cleaning (bullshit) and is so laid back that this house could fall down around him and he’d just watch. So I’ve got no help there. This house is much larger than the last, and my days have become an hour shorter due to the commute. I also now have a lawn with all this crazy landscaping that I know nothing about. You will read more about this in #3’s ‘Grow Something’ at a later date.

I’ve still got another 91 things left to accomplish on my list and only 404 days left to do them all. Not that I’m complaining as its making life far more than just interesting. On any given day I’ve been attempting to run/read/grow something/learn a foreign language/research religions and plan other things on the list and keep up the blog, oh and add work in there too. I absolutely love doing these things because it’s plenty of organizing and that’s what I do best.

Actually, organizing is what I do best, but it also causes me the most stress. I am so organized that I can tell you on any given day what we are eating that night, or any night that week, and what I will be wearing each day etc. I keep a spreadsheet that tracks meals, outfits, appointments, finances, gift buying etc. It’s crazy - I’m crazy, and I know this. But if one thing happens to throw the entire week off course it makes me a little uneasy. It’s this weird need to be prepared for everything that is a trait passed down from my father.

Take a look at my closet (well not a great look as closet picture taking is hard). My clothes are hung colour co-ordinated with tops on the left and skirts/capri’s/dresses on the right. What you can’t see is a shelving unit full of shoes organized by colour and heel height, and my five outfits that are already picked out for each day of the upcoming week and hung in accordance to the weather forecast. Ok, so I have an illness, and my closet is just one example.

T saw that my need to be organized, as well as having everything clean, was stressing me out. With our nights and weekends full with social commitments, we’ve opted to hire a cleaning service so that I can just focus on organizing. You know, why not feed the illness? Did I pre-clean before the cleaning service came for our initial visit this morning? Why of course. I also spent the entire afternoon yesterday organizing the garage. I could tell you more about the illness but it would only scare you away.

Do I feel bad because I’m hiring someone else to clean my house when I don’t even have children to mess it up? Yes, kind of like a failure, but T classifies as a child on most days. Plus, if it’s going to give me more time to do the things I enjoy, thus making the most out of my youth, and saving my sanity all for the low price of $65 - T says it’s a bargain.