And the Better Homes and Garden Award Goes to...

Not me, that's for sure.  The only certificate that I might get for my housekeeping skills would come from the health department, a warning or something.  I was just noticing last night the dust that has accumulated on our dining room table.  How does that happen so fast?  I swear I just dusted...two weeks ago.  It doesn't help that most of our dust-able surfaces are very dark.

A friend once told me when selecting colors for home decor, you have two choices.  Light colors

show every stain; dark colors show every speck of dust.  So I have a little of everything happening here.  The darling accent pillows really lightened up the dark leather sofa, but unfortunately, Marley's hairs seem to be magnetized to the creamy color of the fabric.

There is no rhyme or reason to how we go about cleaning house around here.  Some days we're like two tornadoes getting after chores, and some days we're like sloths.  Summer has always been like that for me.  My energy levels fluctuate from high to low.

We have a few more weeks of summer, and then, seriously, I HAVE to make myself some kind of schedule.  Currently, my schedule is wake up some time between 5:30 and 8:00.  Blog, Pinterest, and Facebook for 2-3 hours, and then the rest of the day is kind of loose.  Extremely loose.  We eat lunch, or breakfast sometimes, by 11:30.  Dinner is between 4:00 and 8:00.  This summer we've managed to go to the gym once.  I think we took Marley to the park about four times.  Our bikes sit in the garage gathering dust.  After my doctor scared me off from hiking, my back pack has stayed on its hook since the beginning of June.  I excuse myself from this current state of affairs with a gentle, "You're enjoying your last official summer."  From August 21 on...the eternal summer vacation starts for me.  AND THEN WHAT?

I've decided I've always been a creature of habit, so perhaps I could write down a weekly schedule of things I should do, and things I would enjoy doing. After looking at printable house cleaning schedules on Pinterest, I'm so overwhelmed by everything I don't clean on a regular basis, I think I'll go take a nap. Seriously, it's so depressing to come to the realization I'm content with being a slob.  Once when I stopped by a friend's house to pick up her son, she was cleaning her walls with a mop.  Really?  Hmmm...that particular chore had never occurred to me.

I may be the worst housekeeper on the planet.  And yet, I'm pretty happy.  I don't live in squalor, per se. The health department has never condemned any of the houses in which I lived.  Our toilets are cleaned pretty often, and linens are changed a few times a month.  My kitchen sink and counters are tidy, and wiped down daily.  I stay on top of laundry because it's one of my selective OCD tendencies.  I LOVE me some Tide and Downy fragrances mingling in my laundry basket. I just must have a very high tolerance for dust.  That must be it.  So why do I feel so GUILTY all of a sudden?

Well, if I am completely honest...it's not just dust that I tolerate.  There is a litany of offenses I commit in the name of housekeeping.  My toaster is grimy.  The oven has burnt cheese drippings from a pizza we ate in 2011.  The stuff in my bathroom junk drawer is multiplying, instead of getting organized.  My closets are filled with clothes facing the "wrong" way.  (Yeah, I'm kind of Mommy Dearest about hangers and closets, but I've been a little lax lately.  The hangers have to be white, and the clothes should all face ME when I'm standing in front of the closet.  But they don't.)
There is a pile of papers and books growing into two piles on my dresser.  You get the picture.  It's not Public Health Condemnation worthy, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

This week we've had a burst of energy.  I should say that MY HUSBAND has had a burst of energy, and out of guilt, I've pulled myself away from the couch long enough to look active and productive.  Mark has washed all of the cars and cleaned the engines.  (Who DOES that? I had never heard of such a thing, but he did it.  Sprayed our engines, let the solvent work, then rinsed and wiped them.  Who knew?)  He has gone through all of his mail and paid his bills.  He just hung a rack for all of our long-handled tools in the garage.  He mopped every piece of tile in the house.  SOMEBODY had to do it.

When we went to Sam's Club yesterday, in a fit of motivation, I loaded our cart with a 3-pack of Pledge and a 4-pack of disinfecting wipes.  I am going to CLEAN STUFF.  Sometime.  Seriously.  I don't have to have a SCHEDULE, but the next time the dust is visible, I will add it to my list of things to do, and I will DO it.  Very soon.  This is my new plan...to notice stuff, add it to my list, and do it.  Soon-ish rather than late-ish.  Works for me.