(no subject)
May. 30th, 2009 01:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickY'know, I like when my house is clean. I really do like the clean. The problem, though, is that no matter how much I like the clean, I don't do well at maintaining the clean.
Brother-the-elder is neat. He keeps things tidy. He probably dusts. I have no idea how he does it. Putting Things Away is probably part of it. I am not a putter-awayer of things.
Brother-the-younger also has a tidier house than I do but I don't think it's from his innate neatness. I believe he has hired help for that -- he's not innately neat. Despite a lack of innate neatness, Brother-the-younger is still neater than I am. (Many, many people are neater than I am.)
I pile up flat surfaces. I do not dust. I don't mind grit underfoot. I do not put things away. Cobwebs are decorative. Things have permanence once I set them down. An item from Xmas can still be where I set it down even unto June of the following year. I keep things I do not need to keep. I make excuses to keep things around even if I don't ever intend to do anything with them ever again. Without massive effort on my part, my house would be totally full of things to where there would not be room for me or the cats.
I should get applause for throwing stuff out, really.
Now, when I clean, things actually get clean. I put stuff away. I throw things out en masse. I take down the cobwebs and clean off the flat surfaces and get the grit off the floor. Things don't *stay* clean, though. They get yucked up again. There is no ongoing effort to keep things clean and without an ongoing effort, entropy takes over and I am living in the untidy again. I can live in the untidy happily and (surprisingly) healthily for a long time.
It's that little bit of ongoing effort that I have trouble with. How do people do that? How do they clean things before they're an absolute cesspool? Who has time for crap like straightening up when things aren't really that bad yet? It mystifies me.
Brother-the-elder is neat. He keeps things tidy. He probably dusts. I have no idea how he does it. Putting Things Away is probably part of it. I am not a putter-awayer of things.
Brother-the-younger also has a tidier house than I do but I don't think it's from his innate neatness. I believe he has hired help for that -- he's not innately neat. Despite a lack of innate neatness, Brother-the-younger is still neater than I am. (Many, many people are neater than I am.)
I pile up flat surfaces. I do not dust. I don't mind grit underfoot. I do not put things away. Cobwebs are decorative. Things have permanence once I set them down. An item from Xmas can still be where I set it down even unto June of the following year. I keep things I do not need to keep. I make excuses to keep things around even if I don't ever intend to do anything with them ever again. Without massive effort on my part, my house would be totally full of things to where there would not be room for me or the cats.
I should get applause for throwing stuff out, really.
Now, when I clean, things actually get clean. I put stuff away. I throw things out en masse. I take down the cobwebs and clean off the flat surfaces and get the grit off the floor. Things don't *stay* clean, though. They get yucked up again. There is no ongoing effort to keep things clean and without an ongoing effort, entropy takes over and I am living in the untidy again. I can live in the untidy happily and (surprisingly) healthily for a long time.
It's that little bit of ongoing effort that I have trouble with. How do people do that? How do they clean things before they're an absolute cesspool? Who has time for crap like straightening up when things aren't really that bad yet? It mystifies me.
