Last summer, I read Rachel Hollis' book, "Girl, Stop Apologizing." I believe I have written about this book before, because I really liked the book. One of the chapters that caught me off guard and was rather surprising to me was "Girl, Clean Your House." The reason that surprised me was because the book was about empowering women and teaching them to be leaders. At first, I wondered what cleaning your house had to do with leadership. Rachel Hollis did a fairly decent job describing why having a clean house helps you become a leader.
Recently, I went to visit a family member, and they told me, "My house isn't as clean as your mom's house." Well, I am here to tell you, not that many people's houses are clean as my mom's house was when I was growing up -- except maybe my sister-in-law's. But, I will talk more about that later. My own house isn't even as clean as my mom's house. It is what I call "company-ready-in-an-hour." That means, if someone tells me they want to come visit me, the house will be ready for their visit within an hour of cleaning up, if everyone helps.
Since I brought up everyone helping, that is one of the reasons my mom's house was clean. She may not have admitted this then, but my sister and I did a lot of house cleaning. Every Saturday afternoon my chores were to dust the furniture, vacuum the carpet, and clean the bathrooms. My sister's chores were to sweep and mop the kitchen floor and to clean the kitchen. Every night, right after dinner, my sister or I had to do the dishes. I washed dishes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and my sister washed dishes on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My mom usually cooked big meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday growing up, and we usually had some light meal on Saturday evenings. Doing the dishes also meant making sure everything was put away properly with lids or covered in the refrigerator, as well as cleaning up the kitchen, wiping down the counters, wiping off the table, that sort of thing -- every night. In high school, we also were responsible for doing our own laundry on Sunday afternoons. During the summer, we did the laundry and other household chores twice a week instead of once a week, in addition to whatever other chores our mom had for us.
Therefore, the reason my mom's house was clean, was because she had help. My sister-in-law, who does admittedly have a somewhat smaller house than my mom, boasted that she doesn't clean her house by herself, either. She solicited the assistance of the male members of her household. They are Latino, so anyone who has a misconception that Latinos believe that the women are solely responsible for cleaning the house is completely off the mark. They all cleaned the house, and their home looked (and still looks) very nice.
In our house, I used to do all of the cleaning myself. It was exhausting, to say the least. I used to get up between 5:00 and 5:30 am, get the coffee ready, make breakfast (yes, I actually made breakfast every day, and still do make breakfast many days), eat breakfast with my family, wash the dishes from breakfast, clean the whole house (I had a daily cleaning list), take my shower, do grocery shopping, eat lunch and do the dishes from lunch. In the afternoons, I would work on prepping for my classes in the evening or I had some other side hustles that I did to earn money. In the evenings, I made dinner and another member of my household set the table, cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. Everything else was my responsibility at home. I can tell you that I never had any trouble falling asleep at night, because I was tired.
When we moved to a larger home, I quit doing my daily cleaning list all day because that's frankly all I would get accomplished every day. And, I simply couldn't do that to myself. I felt like I had more value than that and that I was operating at a loss every day. The cost-benefit ratio for cleaning the house was far lower than it would be if I was operating my own business or using skills that I had developed over the years through my education and professional experience. As a result, everyone in our house started pitching in to help clean the house. Like I said, our house is still "company-ready-in-an-hour."
Of course, ideally, I would like to hire someone to come clean our home on a regular basis. However, that isn't possible for us right now. I was promised, though, at one point that if I earned enough to hire a housekeeper, then we could have one. So, that is on my horizon and a motivational tool for myself. To me, having a clean house is also important because it reduces clutter which I think is distracting. Moreover, having a clean house can improve your health. I will talk more about these factors in the coming days as I continue my series on cleaning.
Recently, I went to visit a family member, and they told me, "My house isn't as clean as your mom's house." Well, I am here to tell you, not that many people's houses are clean as my mom's house was when I was growing up -- except maybe my sister-in-law's. But, I will talk more about that later. My own house isn't even as clean as my mom's house. It is what I call "company-ready-in-an-hour." That means, if someone tells me they want to come visit me, the house will be ready for their visit within an hour of cleaning up, if everyone helps.
Since I brought up everyone helping, that is one of the reasons my mom's house was clean. She may not have admitted this then, but my sister and I did a lot of house cleaning. Every Saturday afternoon my chores were to dust the furniture, vacuum the carpet, and clean the bathrooms. My sister's chores were to sweep and mop the kitchen floor and to clean the kitchen. Every night, right after dinner, my sister or I had to do the dishes. I washed dishes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and my sister washed dishes on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My mom usually cooked big meals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday growing up, and we usually had some light meal on Saturday evenings. Doing the dishes also meant making sure everything was put away properly with lids or covered in the refrigerator, as well as cleaning up the kitchen, wiping down the counters, wiping off the table, that sort of thing -- every night. In high school, we also were responsible for doing our own laundry on Sunday afternoons. During the summer, we did the laundry and other household chores twice a week instead of once a week, in addition to whatever other chores our mom had for us.
Therefore, the reason my mom's house was clean, was because she had help. My sister-in-law, who does admittedly have a somewhat smaller house than my mom, boasted that she doesn't clean her house by herself, either. She solicited the assistance of the male members of her household. They are Latino, so anyone who has a misconception that Latinos believe that the women are solely responsible for cleaning the house is completely off the mark. They all cleaned the house, and their home looked (and still looks) very nice.
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| Photo by Jeanette R. Harrison |
In our house, I used to do all of the cleaning myself. It was exhausting, to say the least. I used to get up between 5:00 and 5:30 am, get the coffee ready, make breakfast (yes, I actually made breakfast every day, and still do make breakfast many days), eat breakfast with my family, wash the dishes from breakfast, clean the whole house (I had a daily cleaning list), take my shower, do grocery shopping, eat lunch and do the dishes from lunch. In the afternoons, I would work on prepping for my classes in the evening or I had some other side hustles that I did to earn money. In the evenings, I made dinner and another member of my household set the table, cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. Everything else was my responsibility at home. I can tell you that I never had any trouble falling asleep at night, because I was tired.
When we moved to a larger home, I quit doing my daily cleaning list all day because that's frankly all I would get accomplished every day. And, I simply couldn't do that to myself. I felt like I had more value than that and that I was operating at a loss every day. The cost-benefit ratio for cleaning the house was far lower than it would be if I was operating my own business or using skills that I had developed over the years through my education and professional experience. As a result, everyone in our house started pitching in to help clean the house. Like I said, our house is still "company-ready-in-an-hour."
Of course, ideally, I would like to hire someone to come clean our home on a regular basis. However, that isn't possible for us right now. I was promised, though, at one point that if I earned enough to hire a housekeeper, then we could have one. So, that is on my horizon and a motivational tool for myself. To me, having a clean house is also important because it reduces clutter which I think is distracting. Moreover, having a clean house can improve your health. I will talk more about these factors in the coming days as I continue my series on cleaning.
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