Projects and Housekeeping

Projects and housekeeping don't live well together.

Not in my house.

One crowds the other out. It shouldn't. But it does.

It's weird.

The bathroom is still chaos. We're just about done...but not. I've no idea how much longer it will take.

The chaos was supposed to be contained to this area outside the bathroom (and my son's room, where my husband did some work) but it spread...

to the living room,


to the dining room,


to the kitchen, oh the kitchen!


and to my bedroom.

After the first couple of days, I stopped doing housework. Completely. I didn't wash a dish, I didn't sweep the floor, I did nothing.

But today, there's a lull in the project. My husband has returned to work and there's not much I can do. So, I decided to clean the house.

A logical move, you'd say. The right thing to do, even.

Regardless, even if I wanted to do something else (like work on the Christmas newsletter) I couldn't. I couldn't focus on anything.

All I could see in front of me--everywhere I looked--was the chaos. It was the only thing I could do today.

But still.

Still, there was this voice in my head, saying:

Why are you cleaning up? It's just going to get messy again. You should be working on the project. You need to get that done. All this can wait. It's not important.What are you doing this for?

I just let it natter on....

• I made the bed and picked up the master bedroom.
• I did some laundry (though I can't find the bottle of bleach.)
• I tidied and picked up and put away--with the timer.
• I tidied and picked up and put away--without the timer.
• I washed the fixtures--and the downstairs bathroom floor. (You should have heard the clamour in my head--and yet--the satisfaction when I was done was deafening.)
• I did dishes and swept, and swept, and swept.
• My son vacuumed.
• I washed the kitchen floor.

And, now, at the end of a most excellent day, I present to you...

The living room:



The kitchen:

(Don't mind the extension cord. There are no three prong plugs in the dining room and we needed to plug in the laptop.)

The dining room.


Now, I can think about other things.

Like those dratted newsletters.