Overlooked Orchid

Growing up cleaning wasn’t a thing we did most often. I don’t remember our house as being completely aweful as some that I’ve seen, but it wasn’t clean for sure. There are also things that I remember as being really aweful. When I grew up I knew I wanted to be different, and yet the first time I was out on my own, well not really on my own as I lived with the girls’ father, I was pregnant, working full time, and later I had a baby to care for. It never seemed that I had time to clean, and I hated cleaning anyway, so didn’t spend much time doing it. My house or apartment was consistantly better than the houses I grew up in, but looking back I can still see things I could have done differently.

Even a year ago I can’t say that the house was as clean as I wanted it.

I can remember when my Dad would go on cleaning binges. He rarely was upset when he did these, he just got tired of things being that way and set about changing them, however my Mom never kept up with it, and we girls weren’t taught to, so things just slipped. I don’t know if it was the way he grew up, his military background, or just Dad in general, but he always liked a neat and clean house. He’s not a clean freak, but does like a decent looking house.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed a big change in myself. I have become either like my Dad, or OCD about having a clean neat house. I still have days where I have a load of dishes that doesn’t get run immediately, or the floor needs swept and mopped but it just doesn’t get done. I’m not a clean freak where a speck of dust is the enemy, but I have realized what a joy it is to have a neat clean house. I’m not afraid to have someone come and visit unexpectedly, I’m not afraid to have Dad come home during the week.

I’ve been working on steam cleaning the carpets as they badly needed done. I have been so happy with the results! I still don’t like cleaning really, and yet I get satisfaction and joy out of the end result.

My house will always looked lived in, not like some freakishly clean museum house, but I can be and am proud of the example I am setting for the girls.