Clean enough

Clean enough

I can always tell when I am almost well after an illness my house that had seemed ok, suddenly looks terribly dirty and messy. Though I believe that an immaculate home is a sign of a misspent life, I do love a clean and neat house. Today as I finally took the huge bag of puppy food to the garage from where it had been sitting on the entryway dresser. I remembered lovely Cindy, one of my roommates from Old Farm my first semester at USU. She had a tendency to let the half of her bedroom become a complete tip. I remember one time when her bed and floor were covered with various projects she was working on. (She was a senior in the middle of her student teaching.) Her roommate offered her the use of her sleeping bag so that she could go sleep in the living room. When I asked Cindy why she kept letting her bedroom get so dirty she replied that she liked sharp contrast. If she kept her room always clean it got boring, she loved the thrill of accomplishing the mighty task of turning complete disorder into cleanliness.

I realize I am a bit like Cindy. The feeling of turning a messy kitchen in shambles to a sterilized pristine work space is glorious. Perhaps that is another reason why though I hate moving, I am able to go help friends move. I enjoy the process of helping them through the mess of change.

A BYU education week teacher said that the reason why most closets are messy is that homemakers are hit with the energy and desire to clean out the closet. They pull everything out intending to reorganize the space. Then little Johnny needs a ride to little league and dinner needs to be fixed and countless interruptions call her attention away. After stepping over and around the piles the homemaker, usually in desperation, stuffs everything back into the closet with the closet looking worse than it began.

She said the key to orderly closets was staring at the space, measuring, purchasing organizers or extra shelves or whatever is needed. Then making a plan on paper, and finally when you are convinced that your plan is workable and feasible then and only then taking everything out of the closet and executing the plan.

This advice has kept one of my pantries in my kitchen in a state of embarrassing disarray. I have no idea how to make it better. I keep the door closed. I know where everything is in the closet. It just doesn’t look nice. And whenever the desire to take everything out and start over hits I just go do pushups until the desire goes away reminding myself that it is “clean enough”.