Ahh, Clean feels so good!

I can't say enough about cleaning up my house. When the house is all cleaned up and I have spent about 4 hours making it look, smell, and feel clean I get such a sense of satisfaction. I really feel tremendous afterward. Then comes the family. The girls get home, Melody wakes up, and DH arrives home from work. Then all is trashed and I get such a down feeling. I just want to scream. Pick up your crap! So is it better to leave the house messy and not get all ticked when they mess it up, or should I just learn to deal and push them to be better?

I love having all the laundry cleaned and put away, but seriously with the amount I have, if I let it slip just one day without a load I can fall seriously behind. At times it takes as long as three or four weeks to get caught back up. It is nice that I directly can limit the amount of laundry I have simply by boycotting buying any clothes for myself. Oh wait, that isn't a boycott, I just don't have the time or money with all the buying for others.

Then on to flat surfaces. UGH! I can't say much more, even when my house is clean, smelling, feeling, and looking, doesn't mean that the flat surfaces are cleared. Take my mantel for instance, currently it has all the crap that my decorating challenged DH thinks looks good there, in addition to the name plaque he hasn't hung outside yet, and the Hannah Montana wig that Maddie keeps playing with when she shouldn't. I just wanted my unity candle from our wedding ceremony there, and a bible and a nice crystal candy jar, that's it, but no, clutter is better. Of course he is not the one doing the dusting so he thinks it is grand. The trash is calling for his things soon. On to the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Well forget it, everytime I get it clear it gets cluttered immediately. With either mail, pictures the girls have made, the girls homework from the week, mail, miscellaneous pieces of paper towel, large sums of bread(DH is a bread man, go figure), or mail. Did I mention mail? Yeah, it is a mess.

AHHHH! But it does not matter because in the past four hours I have cleaned all that up, and no one will be home for atleast an hour, so I am happy for an hour. That's enough for me.