love2read Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Occasionally someone mentions that they like to clean, that it's fun or satisfying. I want to be that person, but I just find it tedious and boring despite knowing that it is good for the family. If you enjoy cleaning, can you explain what is going through your mind so that I can be just like you :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Really? These people weren't joking???:lol: :bigear: I'm very interrested as I HATE to clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdroberts1998 Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I love cleaning!!! I think I may have a touch of OCD.. LOL To me it's like therapy. I turn on some music and go at it. I love the feeling of my house being clean. I love that my husband comes home from work and tells me the house looks good. I do most of my thinking and planing when i'm cleaning. Plus when I mention the word cleaning in my house everybody splits. Then I get the whole house to myself and thats a BIG plus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Ok, I don't enjoy cleaning, but I enjoy a clean house. I love when things look neat, and it smells clean, and I no longer see the dust on the T.V. I dont enjoy the process. I do enjoy the finished product. Maybe you could compromise like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoforjoy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I don't enjoy cleaning. I do find, though, that listening to something interesting on my iPod--a lecture, an audiobook, a sermon--makes it go much, much faster and more enjoyably. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Ok, I don't enjoy cleaning, but I enjoy a clean house. I love when things look neat, and it smells clean, and I no longer see the dust on the T.V. I dont enjoy the process. I do enjoy the finished product. Maybe you could compromise like that? This is me. I also like being able to find things, and to honor the items I inherited from my parents. Also, if I paid good money for a desk, I feel funny about letting it fall into disorder/disrepair. Good luck. It is hard changing habits. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I don't enjoy cleaning. I do find, though, that listening to something interesting on my iPod--a lecture, an audiobook, a sermon--makes it go much, much faster and more enjoyably. I put on old Britcoms, like RYBS or Yes, Minister or Keeping up Appearances. SInce it is the only TV/movies I watch, it is a treat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 If you enjoy cleaning, can you explain what is going through your mind so that I can be just like you :) Thank you for posting this! I, too, suffer from the same hatred of cleaning. I love the feeling of my house being clean. I love that my husband comes home from work and tells me the house looks good. I love those things, too, but not so much that it makes the actual cleaning enjoyable. My house isn't exactly clean (I have dust, fingerprints, and such), but it is organized, decluttered, and picked-up. I guess I get the wonderful feeling from decluttering and organizing that others get from cleaning? I just can't connect those feelings to the physical act of cleaning. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I enjoy the outcome as well. I feel much less stress in a clean house. I just wish getting there wasn't so boring! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I love cleaning! In fact, I was excited today because my boys are going to be at a day camp and I get to clean my house all I want. I know that sounds weird. I also clean 3 other houses a week. I love being a homemaker. I'm sad that I have to work outside the house now. At least I feel good that I'm helping other people keep their places clean. I also clean when I'm upset (showers and floor boards) or angry. It helps me control my anger and funnel my sadness into something useful. I like a clean house. My boys appreciate a clean house. They've watched Hoarders and How Clean is Your House? with me and they know that not everyone is like me. My dh always tells me how nice the house looks and it's something I'm really good at. Cleaning gave me money when dh was out of work and we were struggling. So that's also positive reinforcement. Of course, I'm a touch OCD as well so that helps.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I love to clean! I just don't have the time... I like the physical exercise of it. I love the smell of Pledge. I enjoy watching dust bunnies scurry away in fright. I like seeing progress made. I delight in seeing change. There is a great pleasure in organizing and putting things to rights that is...addicting. I think it involves endorphins or something. Maybe my body releases them at odd moments.:001_huh::lol::D I particularly enjoy cleaning things that are really dirty. I don't enjoy picking up. I don't like cleaning a room that is already clean. Must go paint a a wall!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Maybe I need to ask - what do others consider cleaning? Is it the process of washing away dirt or does it include organizing, straitening, etc? If it includes both things, then maybe I DO enjoy cleaning. Oh, my. This may be a shock to my system. :001_huh: Is it possible to have a love/hate relationship with cleaning? I love to do the easy, surface tasks but not the messy, grimy, labor-filled tasks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom in High Heels Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 (edited) My dad loves to clean. Weirdly so. He's got serious OCD though and cleaning is the thing he must do He was a medic in the Navy for 29 years and had the cleanest sick bay you've ever seen. He actually gets up early on the weekends so he can clean. When I was a teenager, he used to give me $20 to go to the mall so he could clean my room. :confused: I happily went. I didn't care what he saw (sadly, I had nothing to hide). Three of his sisters are the same as well as a few of my cousins. My one cousin pulls her refrigerator and stove out every other day to clean under them. I don't think I've ever pulled our current fridge or stove out to clean under them. No, wait, we had to get a new fridge last year, so I cleaned under it then. Clearly the cleaning gene skipped me. :D I want to want to clean, I just don't. I love a clean house, but my biggest problem is that James Bond is very, very, very messy. He grew up in a very messy house (it icks me out when we go there, which is thankfully very rarely), so it doesn't bother him when things are messy. To me, it's hard to concentrate among clutter. Every time I clean up, he comes behind me and makes a mess again (he doesn't even realize he's doing it) and it makes me crazy to the point I never want to do it again (I do of course, I just don't want to). He simply doesn't see the mess. I've ponted it out to him a million times, but it doesn't do any good. He can tell when I've cleaned up, and makes a point of saying that it looks nice, but then comes through it like a tornado. Interestingly, he has his own man cave in our maid's quarters (on the 4th floor of our building-we don't have a maid, but people used to, the lucky ducks) and he keeps that pretty clean. :glare: Indy is quite clean, but only because he knows I'll come into his room with a trash bag if he doesn't put stuff away. He likes a clean space to play in. I also have him vacuum and dust his own room, and do his laundry (I help with the washer, but he puts them in the dryer, folds and puts them away). I'm determined not to raise a slob. Someday some woman will thank me (I hope). Edited August 19, 2011 by Mom in High Heels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Oh, I do the scrubbing the tub when I am worried or upset too! If I am stressed, and can't control the situation (job situation, or family drama, or whatever) I feel like I can do something productive instead of just sitting waiting on news. I will get aggressive on the little things that have been bugging me, but I hadn't had the time or energy to get to. I was upset about something dh's boss said to him last week, and worried about the outcome. I did more in that two hours that he was in a meeting than I had done in a week! Also, having people over is a good thing. It makes me want to clean too. I had a church meeting here last night, instead of at the church where we usually have it. I sent the girls to a neighbor's house for an hour and a half and I got to the usual stuff: mopping, dusting, vacuuming, etc. And then I took the time to bust out the Mr. Clean magic eraser and do some of the little places like the fingerprints on the light switches and around them that the girls leave. The people never even went in any room but the living room. But I felt good knowing that if they did venture into the kitchen or bath or look at my switches, they would be presentable. Now we get to enjoy it today :) So maybe invite people over more often? Works for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I hate cleaning, I love how it makes me feel, how it organizes my life, how it reduces my workload. So yeah, in a way, I love cleaning. OF COURSE I want to do something else with my time, but that's not what's going to keep my life running smoothly. :D I'm also another one that cleans when upset. Get me mad and my house will sparkle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I used to hate it. I discovered Flylady and learned to get it done. I got addicted to decluttering, and I learned to be houseproud- to enjoy having my home tidy (I am not OCD at all and my home is not immaculate- it is lived in but reasonably tidy and reasonably clean). I can highly recommend starting to declutter. Try a drawer, or a kitchen cupboard. Put a timer on for 15 minutes- no more. Even 5 minutes. Race yourself- see how much you can do in that time and give yourself permission to stop when the timer is done. Once I was addicted to decluttering, cleaning became easy and fun. But some of the Flylady tricks are: using a timer (and really giving yourself permission to stop when it goes off), putting colourful stickers on the calendar, phrases like "babysteps" and "a house cleaned imperfectly is better than not cleaned at all! " and putting on your favourite motivational music while you clean. For me it was breaking out of perfectionism and a feeling that I had to clean perfectly or not at all. Now- I celebrate when I vacuum, even if its once a month sometimes- rather than berate myself for what I haven't done. Flylady is about Finally Loving Yourself. However....I will say...I never "make" myself clean if I dont want to. If I dont feel like it, I dont do it. I might encourage myself to do the dishes, but nothing more. I wait till I WANT to see my loungeroom tidy, or my bathroom mouldfree, or my kitchen cupboards in order. THen I do it and enjoy it. Decluttering is motivational to me but I dont make myself do it. Usually, I will do it if I have some strong emotions going on- its a great outlet. Then, it feels great! A reward for feeling bad- a clean cupboard! It relaly is an emotional high. I took all those horrible "shoulds" off of myself and replaced them with a trusting that I would want my home to be tidy- I didn't have to "make" myself pr put other peoples' standards onto myself Then it was easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I always hate getting started, but don't mind it so much once I'm on a roll. This isn't a natural habit engrained as a child for me, so I have to make an active decision to go against my natural inclination to do something creative...and get started on the mundane (see above). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginevra Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Occasionally someone mentions that they like to clean, that it's fun or satisfying. I want to be that person, but I just find it tedious and boring despite knowing that it is good for the family. If you enjoy cleaning, can you explain what is going through your mind so that I can be just like you :) Well, I do think it's somewhat an inborn trait, but this is what goes through my mind: This is beautiful. This looks orderly now, I can relax. It makes me happy when dh is going to use a sink and thinks, "This looks nice." It makes me calm to think that if somebody dropped by, I would be comfortable with how they would see the house. Those are the things I think while I clean, if I think at all. I mostly just get in the zone and clean. I just do not like to look at a sink that has scum in it, or shower in a shower that has dirt rings in it or walk on a sticky kitchen floor. It also disturbs me if a room is messy (not the same as dirty), so to me it is so calming and satisfying when it's orderly again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Sure fire motivator for me is to watch about 5 minutes of hoarders on youtube and I'm off and flying with yellow gloves n bleach. :) It makes all the scary stuff surface for me mentally and off I go. :) But, a single spider has the same effect on me as well. Go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofede Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I love to purge "junk" from the kids rooms while they are away from the house....you can only keep so many happy meal toys, sonic toys, trinkets, etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginevra Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Sure fire motivator for me is to watch about 5 minutes of hoarders on youtube and I'm off and flying with yellow gloves n bleach. :) It makes all the scary stuff surface for me mentally and off I go. :) But, a single spider has the same effect on me as well. Go figure. :iagree: I come from people who are in the Hoarder direction (not as bad as the show, though) and watching an episode will seriously get me on my way. I will declutter everything that isn't made of solid gold or breathing! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvasMom Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Occasionally someone mentions that they like to clean, that it's fun or satisfying. I want to be that person, but I just find it tedious and boring despite knowing that it is good for the family. If you enjoy cleaning, can you explain what is going through your mind so that I can be just like you :) Find some products you are addicted to. :D I LOOOOOVE anything Gain-scented and anything Swiffer makes. I just bought the new Gain scented Mr Clean and couldn't wait to get home and try it out. To me, it's like getting a new shampoo you can't wait to use. If you get products that work really well and smell great then you get hooked on that fresh, cleanness of whatever it is you are cleaning. YUM!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted August 20, 2011 Author Share Posted August 20, 2011 Great ideas, I'm going to try the music right now and will integrate some of the other ideas next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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