I’m going to admit it. I hate spring cleaning. OK. Hate might not be the correct word, because if my father were here, he would want me to say ‘dislike intensely’. He didn’t like the word hate. Either way, I look forward to spring, but not the cleaning. When I look around my house and feel like the clutter is causing me to become a bit claustrophobic, I know it’s time. But I know what that means.
Entering..dun dun dun…. my children’s bedrooms!
It’s not that I don’t clean any other time of year. In fact, my husband and I happen to be pretty OCD about keeping our getting smaller by the day house, clean. I just don’t look forward to seeing what is behind dressers and under beds and tiny corners of the house that might have gotten missed during the course of the year. It never fails. I pull a dresser away or the bed from the wall and I always hear, “Oh! I’ve been looking for that for so long!” Can you relate?
My children are 6 and 8 and while they are definitely better at cleaning their rooms now than they used to be, there are certain jobs that are just for me-like moving furniture and thoroughly cleaning the windows. Right now I am praising God that they have finally learned to put their clothes away properly after I wash and dry them. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for that. Every little bit helps!
So what did I decide to do today? Start the spring cleaning in my son’s room. I never played with Legos when I was younger, so I had no idea how they can somehow manage to end up in every nook and cranny of a bedroom. And as always happens, one ends up stuck in my foot in the middle of the night as I go to check on the children. If you have never stepped on a Lego, I can only liken it to labor pains, without the joy at the end! 🙂
I do dislike spring cleaning intensely, but I did realize something today as I attempted to make headway in his room. My children don’t care if I am cleaning or playing with them. They want to be near me. Instead of leaving the chaos in the room and going into another, they stayed. They wanted to help and as we worked together, we talked and laughed, and laughed some more. It was uninterrupted time. No phone calls, no blogs, no Facebook. It was just us. And it was awesome.
I’m left with one thought.
I kind of like spring cleaning now.
