Major accomplishment today: #cleaning the house
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I was too sick to work today, but my cleaner is gone for 3 weeks, and I have 2 teens at home, in addition to all of their friends, and that means lots of dishes, lots of laundry, and lots of cleaning.
I absolutely love cleaning, it is so satisfying, and I love how the house looks after I clean it (I must have been a cleaner in another life), but I have to admit, I don’t do it often.
Let me explain: It takes me 3 hours every day to clean my house and do the laundry. It’s not that our house is that big, we have a normal 4 bedroom house, but it’s that when I clean, I am possessed. I need to have everything sparkling and so organized even a stranger could find everything easily. It is a bit excessive. I love doing laundry, ironing, scrubbing, washing, well everything. There are things I don’t like (picking up the dishes after dinner, and taking the recycling out), but in general, I am obsessed with cleaning.
I also love my sons, and after work, I want to spend time with them. I want to be there and share their day. I leave work at 3pm just to be able to pick them up from school. I also love my work, and I could work all day! I feel there are not enough hours to do everything I dream of doing! On top of that, I love my husband, so I want to spend time with him, and him alone, once the boys go to bed at 10pm. I also love my family, and my friends, so my time goes by pretty fast.
When my first son was born, one of the parents from my CEFA school where I was the principal at the time, invited us for dinner (sans the 1 week old), and gave us the phone number for their cleaner. I remember thinking at the time “what are they going to clean? Everything is always clean” and it was. I was so used to my home routines that nothing ever got the chance to get dirty. After much insistence from them, we called their cleaner, who came every Friday. For a whole 6 months, I really didn’t see the point of having a cleaner, so I finally gave up on having one, and went back to doing everything myself. It wasn’t until many years that the thought occurred to me: “I am spending 3 hours a day cleaning. What if I had 3 those hours for other things, what would I do?” and I hired a cleaner. It cost me, back then, 30 dollars each time she came.
Since I made that decision, I advanced so much at work, had much more time with my family, and even had the time to work out, and read a book or two. I realized then that it’s not so much about what we are able to do, but about deciding to spend our time on the things that only we can do: spend time with our own children, do what we were born to do at work, have an amazing relationship with our families, friends, and especially our spouse, and taking time for ourselves.
Since then, I have always had someone come to my house for 3 hours Monday to Friday. She is amazing, she gets the boys ready for school, makes their breakfast and lunch, my breakfast and lunch, and my hubby’s breakfast and lunch. We all leave, and she stays behind, cleans the house, does the laundry, and leaves. When I come home, I have all day free. I love to cook, so I make dinner for my family (and my husband does as well some days), but I do little else.
I adopted the same attitude at work. I only do the things no one else could do. The rest, someone else will do. This is the only way I can get everything done, and even then, I have years of work ahead of me!
I have to admit, when my mini cleaner/nanny is on vacation, I looooooove cleaning the house! That’s all I want to do! But other thing are left behind (yes, running/exercise is one of them, and work). It is better like this: I get a treat for a few weeks, and clean my house, and then I go back to my normal routine. Plus, when you are sick, you still have to clean, and that’s no fun!
I am staring at a huge bin full of paperwork I have to complete, and I have not even wanted to open my e-mail today. I slept a lot, drank water, spent very chilled time with the boys, and cleaned. I remembered today why I decided to have help in the first place, and I think that this is why I feel I have amazing work-life balance. I have help.