Clever Escape

One thing I absolutely hate doing is having to say something over and over again, day after day.

It is one thing at school - I have to get them used to how I do things in the first couple of weeks, then I usually start stepping back and expect them just to remember what it is they are supposed to be doing with a few reminders here and there. They are pretty good at it.

But then, they are in high school, and shouldn’t need to be reminded to put their stuff away every…single…day…

Every time Sunshine comes to see us, we have to reteach her everything we had just retaught her the trip before. I know, she is 8 and not 15, but what I expect from her is quite a bit easier than what I expect out of my students.

Like, saying please and thank you. Apparently this doesn’t happen at her mother’s house.

Or getting dressed in the morning without being told to.

Or clearing her dishes from the table.

Or putting her dirty laundry in her basket.

Things like this make me wonder what her mother’s house looks like on a daily basis. I have been there before - it didn’t seem so bad. There was laundry absolutely everywhere, and her little brother’s toys were all over, but Sunshine’s stuff didn’t seem to engulf the house, and there wasn’t dirty dishes everywhere, and they all seemed to have changed out of their pajamas.

The beginning of every trip here is spent reinforcing the habits we had taught her the previous trip. It gets quite old.

This time I brought her over to my computer, picked out a cool font and made two lists.

The “When I wake up I…” list, and the “Before I go to bed I…” list. She helped fill in the lists. Mostly consisted of, get dressed, make bed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, clean one spot in my room, etc.

Then I made my morning list so she could see that while her list may look long to her, it really wasn’t. And we talked about responsibility and how as she got older, her lists would get longer.

And it has worked marvelously.

The first thing she does every morning is check out her list and get that stuff done. I haven’t had to say one single thing to her about any of it!

She gets herself dressed without me saying anything! Before noon!

And puts her laundry away!

And makes her bed!

And gets her breakfast! And then…loads her dishes in the dishwasher!

And every night it is the same thing…she gets ready all on her own, with no reminders.

Small victories.

I don’t know how all you people do at keeping your houses clean, since I can’t really see you or your houses through the internet (wouldn’t it be cool to spy on that too? instead of just each others blogs? Go in and check out other people’s houses too? Hmm. Kind of creepy, but interesting all the same…).

My housekeeping comes in waves. The clean waves are usually much shorter than the messy waves. And most of it revolves around the time of year.

For instance, I usually start out the beginning of the school year with a pretty clean house that was the result of a summer of absolute boredom. Then I get super busy and cleaning my home is the first thing that goes.

By the end of the school year, I am barely at home for sleeping much less cleaning. So my house is total chaos.

Then everything in between is the clean-messy-clean-messy waves that last days, weeks or months, depending on, well, I suppose my level of laziness or business at work. And whether we are having anyone over. And how motivated I can get my husband. But that usually doesn’t work.

Give me a couple of weeks in the summer, though, and it is pristine. Not only does it take me less than two weeks of not working to drive me nutso with boredom (after being so ridiculously busy during the end of the year) but I am at home, looking at the mess, all the time.

Thus far this summer I have cleaned up and out most of the apartment. The outside parts anyhow. Haven’t really gotten into cupboards and drawers…oh wait I completely emptied, cleaned, and reorganized the pantry the other day. Guess I have started the insides.

Yesterday I decided to clean my sink.

Turns out, it was much, much dirtier than I had first thought.

Cleaning my sink:

• Emptied it all, washed the dishes, ran the dishwasher
• Filled up each side with hot, hot water and bleach
• Left for a long time, like an hour or something
• Water was still ridiculously hot, and it was bleach water, so I used tongs to take the stoppers out
• Broke out the Barkeeper’s Friend and scrubbed the bitch till it shined
• Wasn’t shiny enough so I rinsed it all off and wiped it down with Windex

Damn if that thing doesn’t practically glow. My husband got home and was messing around in the kitchen and I just stood there, looking at him, waiting for him to notice the new light that we had in our kitchen.

He didn’t.

The man is distracted by any shiny object in five miles of him, but he doesn’t notice the new reflectant light source in our kitchen?

WTF.

Anyhow, he was like, yep, that’s shiny all right.

And went on with life.

Not nearly as excited as me.

Well, I like my shiny sink and it is going to stay that way. Shiny and empty. He tried to put a spoon in it this morning and I stood there until he moved it the two feet required to place it into the dishwasher.

He ran water into the sink (gasp!) and I had to wipe it all out with a towel so it wouldn’t get water spots.

I have the feeling that I am going to be going through lots of towels because of this sink.

I looked at the sink in our new apartment, and it needs some more shininess.

Task number one, when we move in…clean the sink.

And this is what summers off get me. An obsession with my sink being shiny. I think I need a new hobby.