While I don’t really make new year resolutions, one of the causes of stress for me was the clutter/untidiness of the house. A home with two young kids will probably never be neat and tidy, but what was eating me was the state of the kitchen. Since the beginning of the year, I have been making a conscious effort to put pots and pans back in cabinets and keep the counters clear of clutter and I’m happy to report that I’m doing surprisingly well. Yeah, I know it’s probably a no-brainer, but it was “Eureka” for me, when I discovered the secret was really to spend 15-30 minutes every night to straighten it out instead of letting it all pile up until my fortnightly cleaning before the cleaning lady’s visit. For the floor mess (kids’ gold fish, cereals, cracker and cookie crumbs etc), we bought the Roomba and it has helped a lot. Just switch it on and walk away and it does a fairly decent job. It has also been very helpful for clean-ups after we have had guests, especially with young kids. Now, I’m not nearly as mortified of occasional pop-ins by some friends in the neighborhood. There are still days when I just chill out with a drink and let it all lie around, but overall I think I’m on track.
Now, if only I had such positive news on the diet and exercise bit …
Good luck on your adventures in cleanliness. I can only imagine how chaotic it could be trying to keep a neat and orderly house with two young’ens around without going OCD-level neatfreakish.
I really want to get a Roomba one of these days. I’m lazy by nature, so I’d love to cross vacuuming off the list. Next, you you need to get the Toro robotic mower for the lawn. More time to chill out with your drink!
Bryan,
My husband is also eying the Scooba, but I’m vetoing it. I can’t justify 100s of $$ for these on top of what I already pay the cleaning service. IRobot should be paying us for all the product demos that we are doing for friends …