Cleaning II
Jan. 22nd, 2017 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gravityeyelidsvia http://ift.tt/2jGheSy:
robotsandfrippary:
Look you wouldn’t decide to run a marathon spur of the moment without training first, right? I mean, that’s universally accepted as a bad idea. So why would you decide that in order to go from having a messy home to a clean one you would start by cleaning the entire house, top to bottom till it shines like Barbie’s dream house… and then expect to do that every fucking weekend. You’re going to burn out and exhaust yourself really, really quickly.
For anyone who’s chronically messy, it’s extremely hard to form new, good habits. Here’s the secret of cleaning- it doesn’t have to be spotless show room quality. You don’t have to move the furniture every time you vacuum. You don’t have to scour the bathroom and kitchen every weekend. It would be great if you did, but if you never did before that’s at tall order to fill and keep up.
Start small. Really, really small. This year my goal is to clean the bathroom every saturday. And I’m going easy on myself. I don’t clean the shower every time, and if the sink doesn’t need to be scoured I’ll just wipe it down. Same with the toilet. I do clean the bowl and sweep the floor and throw any old towels and wash cloths into the hamper. The mirrors are fine, who cares if they’ve got a few spots, I’ll do it next time. it still looks a hundred times better than it did.
Now if I do that every saturday, and really force myself to stick to it, it will become a habit. By summer I should be able to actually scrub the entire bathroom every saturday because it will be “normal” to do it, it’s routine.
And if I’m sick? Or not home for the weekend? Oh well, it doesn’t get done and that’s okay. In fitness terms it’s a cheat day I guess.
Don’t let people guilt you into feeling like you need to do the most extreme clean constantly. That’ll just make you shut down and quit. Start with what you can handle. Start with less than that. Start easy and stop beating yourself up for having to practice something before you’re good at it.
robotsandfrippary:
Look you wouldn’t decide to run a marathon spur of the moment without training first, right? I mean, that’s universally accepted as a bad idea. So why would you decide that in order to go from having a messy home to a clean one you would start by cleaning the entire house, top to bottom till it shines like Barbie’s dream house… and then expect to do that every fucking weekend. You’re going to burn out and exhaust yourself really, really quickly.
For anyone who’s chronically messy, it’s extremely hard to form new, good habits. Here’s the secret of cleaning- it doesn’t have to be spotless show room quality. You don’t have to move the furniture every time you vacuum. You don’t have to scour the bathroom and kitchen every weekend. It would be great if you did, but if you never did before that’s at tall order to fill and keep up.
Start small. Really, really small. This year my goal is to clean the bathroom every saturday. And I’m going easy on myself. I don’t clean the shower every time, and if the sink doesn’t need to be scoured I’ll just wipe it down. Same with the toilet. I do clean the bowl and sweep the floor and throw any old towels and wash cloths into the hamper. The mirrors are fine, who cares if they’ve got a few spots, I’ll do it next time. it still looks a hundred times better than it did.
Now if I do that every saturday, and really force myself to stick to it, it will become a habit. By summer I should be able to actually scrub the entire bathroom every saturday because it will be “normal” to do it, it’s routine.
And if I’m sick? Or not home for the weekend? Oh well, it doesn’t get done and that’s okay. In fitness terms it’s a cheat day I guess.
Don’t let people guilt you into feeling like you need to do the most extreme clean constantly. That’ll just make you shut down and quit. Start with what you can handle. Start with less than that. Start easy and stop beating yourself up for having to practice something before you’re good at it.
