After a long week alone, I wake up and realize today’s the day, and my husband will be home in about 8 hours. As I lie in bed and think about all the things that need to be done before he gets home, I curse myself for putting so many things off until the last minute. EIGHT HOURS!
Why do I wait until the day he’s coming home to get the house in shape? Better yet, why do I let it go to hell while he’s gone?
I know you’ve been there, and I can see you nodding your head.
There are piles of laundry, the kids’ room looks like a tornado hit it, the fridge is full of questionable stuff that’s been marinating for weeks, the yard is knee-high, and I haven’t shaved my legs in over a week. I have 8 hours to right all the wrongs, PLUS do all the normal crap each and every day calls for. Can I pull it off?
Of course I can, and I will, and I always do. Why am I so confident? Because it’s my life, I’ve been doing it for 6 years, and my routine is like a well-oiled (snort) machine.
Out of bed I leap, shower and shave, get the kids up, dressed, lunches, drive to school and back. Then like the Tasmanian devil on 5-Hour Energy, I whip through my house tossing clothes into the wash, wiping down blinds, tossing unidentifiable food in the garbage. In the blink of an eye, it’s time to get the kids from school, and continue with the daily routine – homework, dinner, dishes, baths, books, and bed. Then a second quick pass through the house to tidy anything I’ve missed, and I fall into a heap on the couch waiting for him to pull up. He walks in, surveys the house, and I lie on the couch and look beautiful while I act like it always looks this way, taking no credit for the mountains I’ve moved that day. After all, I can’t let him know all of my secrets.
When it comes time for him to leave again, I swear to myself I’m not going to let it all go again. That I’ll stay on top of things, and keep the house clean so I don’t have to kill myself. And then I laugh because I know I’m only kidding myself.
So tell us, do you wait until right before your husband is due home to clean? Or do you clean? Why or why not?
I think one major reason I wait until the last minute is so it’s ‘fresh’ when he gets home!