Yesterday I finished my spring cleaning. It is, admittedly, a bit early for that kind of thing. I had originally planned to do it over my spring break, which begins today at 3 p.m. (Good god, I can hardly wait!) But there came a moment last weekend when I simply couldn't endure it any more; I had to vacuum my basement stairs and scrub my toilets right that second. Unfortunately, that second hit when I had lots of other things to do as well, so while I managed to attend to the basement stairs and the toilets, I had to postpone for a few days tasks like polishing the toaster, or sweeping and mopping under the beds.
But at 3:59 yesterday afternoon, it was all done: every last dish was clean, the ones I'd washed most recently drying in a newly scrubbed dish drainer; all the clothes but the ones I had on were laundered and neatly put away; and except for fur clinging to the exact spot where my cat was sleeping, every bit of cat hair in the house had been vacuumed up. (She's a smart kitty and retreated to the basement where she was out of my way.) It felt good. And even though I took care of one major task a bit early, my spring break to-do list is still going to keep me well and truly busy--but at least I'll be working in a thoroughly clean house.
I love to-do lists, and I feel strongly that the more detailed the list, the better. There are two reasons for this: 1) The more detailed you make it, the less likely you are to forget some important task. 2) The more detailed you make it, the more things you get to cross off, and most of the pleasure of a to-do list comes in crossing items off.
For instance, when I cleaned my house, I didn't just write "Clean house" on my list. No, I wrote:
Clean house
dust
scrub bathroom
scrub kitchen
sweep floors
mop floors
vacuum carpets
That way I still got to feel I was making progress even if all I did one day was the dusting. (I hate dusting. It's my least favorite housekeeping chore. I'd rather take out the trash than dust. I hate that you don't have to do anything except breathe in order to need to dust, because skin cells you've shed constitute a significant part of what mucks up your furniture. I hate picking up tchotchkes and putting them back in exactly the same spot, except without any dust underneath them. If I could get some magic fairy to relieve me of one particular chore, it would be dusting.)
I was going to post my to-do list, but somehow, that seemed more personal and revealing than anything else I've written. I guess it's not surprising, given that the list references all in one place my most quotidian tasks, my professional obligations, my artistic aspirations and even a few social engagements. Instead I'll tell you that high on my to-do list is attending to some blog entries I've been meaning to write for weeks but have postponed because they seemed involved and difficult. Hopefully I will get to them early in the week.
If I don't, I'll end up providing you with accounts of how I polished all my shoes.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone! I intend to enjoy mine.
Oooh! I am all about to-do lists. Sometimes when I sorting through old papers, I'll find a list from a year or two ago, and it shows what priorities have stayed the same, and what have changed. I can see that I was training for a marathon, that I needed to clean the toilet, that I was working on my relationship with Jana in some way--the mundane and the sublime, little snapshots of life.
"Write Holly" is a common item on many of my lists...
I read this with envy in my heart. It's not that I like house cleaning so much, or even that I enjoy making lists. Right now, about two thirds of my books are stacked on floors and another third are still in boxes; there are boxes of clothing and wrapped pictures in various rooms; nothing is in its place and even the vacuum cleaner needs to be cleaned before I can use it again.
I make to-do lists compulsively. Because I am doing too much at one time now, I even have lists of to-do lists that I need to write. But I don't like the lists and the only joy I get out of finding old ones is the reassurance of realizing that the things that never got done might not have been so important in the end.
So I envy you your tidy space and I congratulate you on accomplishing what for me would be a real dragon-slaying: getting through a list.
I can't imagine a to-do list right now. But just reading about how thoroughly clean your house is sounds wonderful. Odd how someone else's clean house is appealing, isn't it?
Found you via BlogHer & am glad I did.
I _wish_ I could be so organized Holly! My home is sort of perpetually messy. Not really dirty (tho every once in awhile it is that, too), but just cluttered with lots of in-the-middle-of projects. I think it's the burden of having 4 ppl, 2 cats, 2K books, and so forth, in about 750 sq ft of apartment.