I hate cleaning!

Cleaning Lady
Originally uploaded by bulent_yusuf

Back before I had a kid, when I was working full time and only had myself and my partner (and two cats) to care for, keeping the house reasonably clean seemed like no big deal. I marveled at the stay-at-home mothers who complained about not having time to clean. What the hell were they doing all day?! How long does it take to wash the damn floor?

And in the beginning of motherhood, even though I had an infant who really didn't enjoy being put down, I managed to keep the house reasonably clean and cook dinner most nights. I had a little schedule I kept to on what rooms/chores to tackle each day. Well, in the last several months I have ditched that schedule and have a more "relaxed" housekeeping regimen. I still cook dinner most week nights, maybe we do take-out one night. And that only really gets done because I have been meal planning (well, I've kind of ditched that too, but that's another story). But you know what, I'm not cleaning like I used to.

And you know what else? The house isn't ready to be condemned and no one is dying from some flesh-eating bacteria. I have been sticking to the bathroom cleaning regimens, but trust me that probably isn't often enough for some standards (powder room at least once a week and the other two get done when they get done, about once a month). I clean the kitchen and other floors when they are dirty and sweep a few times a week. We only really sleep upstairs, so that gets cleaned monthly. I was hesitant to commit those things to the written (online) word, but I'm not going to be ashamed because I don't meet some imagined standard. The only people who come to my house are the people who live here plus a grandparent or two. And they are blind except for the boy.

And do you know what I blame for my slacker status? This blog and all the other blogs out there. Now I spend naptime reading and writing and thinking, instead of scrubbing and sweeping. Not so bad of a trade off, huh?

Now I wonder what's going to happen when I go back to work. If we can afford it, I hope to hire some cleaning help for once a month. After talking to some friends I have found that its pretty common for families to have a cleaning person come in once a month or every two weeks. Well, common for my circles anyway.

So, do you have a cleaning or slacker confession? Or do you actually like to clean?