Busy...busy...shockingly busy

It's now been 17 days -- over two weeks -- since I decided I'd start spring cleaning my home.  Just that statement alone really discourages me.  More than two weeks to clean a house?  What kind of person can't manage to clean a house in less than two weeks?  When I began, I envisioned one "quadrant" per day, resting on Sundays, which would mean that the entire house should take, tops, 14 days to complete.  I thought that was completely doable.

But it's obviously not.  I feel like I simply forgot a great many considerations.  Among them, that three kids aren't going to sit placidly around while I clean the house; I've been busy taking them to the park and to doctor and dentist appointments, fixing meals, grocery shopping, and changing diapers.  Add to that the fact that housekeeping isn't my only job; I work part-time in the evenings, and that means I'm gone after the kids are asleep (prime cleaning time).

And finally...I forgot household maintenance.  It was nice to clean my kitchen, step back, and smile happily at the pristine order I had created.  That cleanliness, though, lasted just over 24 hours, and that rule applies to every other room as well.  I find myself doing repetitive chores, like sweeping the floor, vacuuming, doing laundry, and wiping the table, on an almost daily basis.  The more of the house I GET clean, the more of the house I have to KEEP clean.  I have a choice; I can either maintain, or I can allow it to sink back into disarray and then start all over again.  I haven't yet decided which is the better option.  What I have realized is that it's completely impractical to assume that I can deep-clean one room in my house every day.  When I add maintenance to the mix, I think I can realistically plan on two to three rooms a week (and this week I didn't even get that).

The good news:  all you faithful readers (I think there are two of you) get to enjoy the exciting saga of my housekeeping failures and victories for at least two more weeks.  (Still to come:  the girls' room, Baby Boy's room, the front bathroom, the laundry room, the master bath, and the master bedroom.)

The bad news:  I don't think there's any point in getting a manicure anytime in the foreseeable future.