My mom reminded me recently of one of those things I really miss about Alaska.  I mean, I miss a lot of things about my life in Alaska, but this one in particular.  I had a cleaning lady.  Every two weeks, on the Thursday before my regularly scheduled Friday off, she would come through and do a whirlwind clean-up of my house.  When I set it up, I still remember her teasing me that she was giving me the Bachelor’s Special meaning I’d still get to be too lazy to clean up after myself, but at least the place will be in order enough to not be embarrassed if someone came over.  She really did a great job, and it became this cool thing to start a long weekend with a clean house.

These days, that doesn’t happen.  Mostly because money for a cleaning lady goes to things like paying the mortgage.  My Alaska house was nearly double the size of my current one, but it’s still a luxury I’m not one for.  So the task of cleaning has fallen onto my shoulders … and you can guess how good of a job I do at it.  Oh, the house isn’t in complete shambles, but as an amateur housekeeper it takes me a long time (and a lot of motivation) to really put things together.  Mostly it is floors that need cleaning – a house of cheap wooden flooring does great to show it’s messy colors from tracked in dirt, dog fur, and the occasional spilled wine.  The fires around the area also was kind enough to waft through a layer of dust and soot just thick enough to be annoying.  Windows have nose smears, especially at Auggie-level.  Not to mention, it seems most of the last couple of months, I’ve spent that time emptying boxes just to know where everything is at (and tossing what I don’t need) from all the moves that I have done.  So by the time the end of the holidays rolled around and the great ‘Ass-Sitting 2017’ was coming to a close; I had the need to get things a little more spic-and-span.

Motivation is always the key thing.  Most the time, my motivation is that I have someone coming over.  When I lived in Kansas, my house was a little rough and rarely presentable.  Then again, I rarely had visitors.  I told most my family (and had for years even before that) that I have a 2 week rule, meaning I needed two weeks notice to clean the house.  But it honestly had nothing to do with who was coming over — if I had a messy house, I didn’t want anyone inside or around it.  Best example was that Alaskan house.  It was the cleanest house I owned as much because I had a cleaning lady coming over every 2 weeks, but because I knew a cleaning lady would be there every 2 weeks.  I typically spent the night before she came to clean the house cleaning the house.  Did I mention I have a dog sitter coming over this week for a visit?

I had seven of the last eleven days off of work, and usually that would mean the place would be a pig style – not just on my own doing, the pup’s free roaming would had left hairballs and chew toys everywhere.  Though after the last couple of days, it’s in better shape than it has been in months.  There’s more I need to do, but that’s more about organization than de-cruding the place.  It’s about getting things into some kind of order so I can have a real plan of attack for the work ahead.

In short, I cleaned house best I could.  Working hard to throw out what I don’t need, get the stuff that messes up the place out of the way, and organize enough to have a real plan going forward.  That’s why we do it, don’t we?  To enjoy what we have, and be excited about what’s ahead.

… there seems to be a metaphor in there for something …

Anyway, Happy New Year, and Welcome to 2018.