Deep cleaning sucks

Couch & love seat are taken care of. Plastic bin is FULL of toys. Have another canister of dirt to get dumped. Knifed all the nastiness out of the ridge around our coffee table and filled it in with glue to prevent further nastification.

Fry: [discussing Fry being his own grandfather as a result of going back in time and getting with his grandmother] I did do the nasty in the past-y.
Nibbler: Verily. And that past nastification is what shields you from the brains!


I like clean. But I don't like cleaning. Because there are times when it feels like a switch has gone off in my head and I become so focused on cleaning that I neglect other things to the point that the kids are NOT allowed to touch anything lest they make a mess of what I've just cleaned.

And it's hard to turn that switch off so I'm capable of living again. That same switch comes on when we move and I usually end up filling an entire 1-subject notebook full of lists and notes of what needs done, what needs packed, what needs taken to Goodwill, etc. It's rough.

I also absolutely cannot stand other people in my space and touching my things. You want to help me clean? That would be amazing! You can hang out on the couch or at the table and mind the kids while I get cleaning.

I've just finally gotten to where I'll let Mikey help me. While pregnant with Jason, we lived in South Carolina and had a large hurricane closet where all our excess boxes went. I cleaned it by myself and organized it to where there were only a few boxes in there of holiday things and the like. It took the majority of my pregnancy to do because it was just me but I got it done.

Mikey's major job in cleaning is carrying the boxes/bags of trash out to the dumpster and keeping the kids in check while I clean. I get so angry when he sits down and things need done but at the same time, there's no task I feel comfortable giving him. So, he plays with the kids, clears the trash, and does the heavy lifting/moving and I'm the one that winds up head-to-toe in dirt at the end.

It's that switch again that makes me upset when he touches my things or wants to help but I can't communicate what I want done for some reason. It's also the same switch that makes me write so many lists that I understand are unnecessary but I have to write them once that switch turns on or else I start to itch.

That same switch makes me get up 5+ times a night to actually re-lock all 3 doors into the house and check to ensure random windows are locked. I wake up to the smalled noises and will mull over them to determine whether or not the cats or the kids moving in bed made that noise. If neither of those possibilities seem likely, then I have to investigate. Usually with a flashlight in hand.

I gues Psychotherapy can help but at the same time, that won't work unless I acknowledge that I have a problem that can be fixed. It's not a problem so much as a quirk. Things have gotten better over the years. I'm not as obsessive during flu season and I don't stop halfway to my destination to turn around because "Did I leave the toaster plugged in? What if the cats jump onto the counter and turn it on and knock something into it and the house catches fire?"

I kinda like being part of that 1%. Also, I hate cleaning.

Cleaning

Just got a wild hair and decided to vacuum the rug & clean under the sofa, loveseat, and TV stand.

I hate toys. Or, rather, toys small enough to get shoved/kicked/rolled/thrown under the livingroom furniture. Yeah.

So far, I've only cleaned under the couch (it's a pull-out bed so that's easier) and the front half of the TV stand. That leaves the stuff that got shoved back against the wall under the TV stand when I was reaching and under the loveseat that requires being moved.

I've found:

7 books, more dirty husband socks than I care to think about, about 9qts of toys (in a 19qt plastic bin), and have emptied 3 canisters of dirt. Not to mention a diaper box full of too-big-for-the-vacuum trash and a plate I haven't seen since January.

And, I still have more left. This is ridiculus. But all the stuff is pre "KEEP YOUR TOYS IN YOUR DAMN ROOMS OR I'M TAKING THEM ALL TO GOODWILL!!!" meltdown so it's understandable. Now, the kids are doing considerably well at keeping everything in their rooms where it needs to stay.

Plus, there's the upside of having all these "new" toys that Mr. Man has been climbing all over things to try to get out of the bin. lol

It's break time for my cleaning binge since I started to sweat (hot flashes don't help either). My goal is to clean (and possibly scrub down the floor) in the living/dining room today. The hallway laundry is going but dishes are still waiting on me.

I've been reading The Help by Kathryn (hey, nice name!) Stockett. Why yes! It is also a movie! One that I'd really like to see, I might add, as the book is fantastic! Then again, I love books like this for some unexplainable reason. Like Sula and A Mercy and practically anything by Toni Morrison.

I figure I'll get the house cleaner than it has been in the past year (we've lived here a FULL YEAR! Our first place we've lived that long! Wow!) and really surprise Mikey when he gets home.

...Unless he reads this and isn't surprised. Then I might kick him in the shins unless he acts surprised. Hint. lol