November 7, 2011

Cleaning is an Entirely Futile Effort

Don't let this fool you- they don't clean.
Today, I realized that it had been weeks since I cleaned my living room.

I now remember why.  Cleaning my house is an entirely futile enterprise.

I spend forty minutes picking up toys and putting them away, the girls are in the next room pulling all their picture books off the shelves.

I put books onto the shelves, the girls spend the time dumping their blocks all over the floor where I just picked up all their toys.

I kick the girls out of the living room (to play with their awesome toy kitchen in the dining room) so I can put all the blocks away again and clear off the couch, and every single piece of toy food finds its way onto the dining room floor.
I came in JUST BEFORE that baking soda ended up all over the floor.
It's hopeless.  Utterly hopeless.

And that is why I hadn't done it in weeks.  Because I was tired of never getting anywhere.

The fact of the matter is that they are faster than me.  They have more stamina than me.  They have more motivation than me.  And I have other crap I've got to do too.

Yes, that's every piece of clothing from their dresser.  On the floor.  It took less than five minutes.

So rather than wait until they're in bed and then put everything away, I wait until they're in bed, and then I make dinner, eat dinner, do my homework...

Am I a failure?  Absolutely not.  But I do feel the need to apologize every time somebody comes into my house.  And maybe... just maybe... some day they'll learn to pick up their own dumb toys.

"We love you, Mommy, but today is not that day."

6 comments:

  1. I could have written this post! Before I had the twins, my house was spotless. Admittedly, I am a bit OCD when it comes to having things "in their place". One day I asked myself, "Is it more important to have a clean house or to spend the time with your kids"? Now I've learned to "let it go" and I clean when the dust gets to be 1/4 inch instead of 1/8 inch. Ha! :)

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  2. Now that we have the new house, I do make more of an effort to clean up after Peyton.
    I can't imagine cleaning up after two!
    I basically have to clean, every.single.day.

    You could barely see our living room floor yesterday, including the food she purposely stomped into the carpet.

    Sigh.

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  3. As long as there is not somthing growing on, under or in it I say relax and enjoy your kids.

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  4. Thanks for coming into my brain and writing about my house :) On another note...please do tell where the brooms came from. My kids would LOVE those. They FIGHT (literally) over my broom all the time. They think it is the best toy in the house...would LOVE to get them those for Christmas :) Maybe they would actually clean..ha ha ha!

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  5. @Life with Gemelos I got them on Amazon! And they were about $8 apiece!

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  6. brilliant, that just sounds like my house with my twins.... how relieved am I that it's not just me :-)

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