Category Archives: clean

My Garage Drives Me Crazy

My garage drives me nuts. I mean, it has been bugging since we moved in, but now I find myself almost obsessing over it. As I take my kids for a walk in the mornings, there is a house, two doors down from ours, that has the most immaculate, perfect garage I have ever seen. And I want it.
I have always been on the neat side. Ok, who am I kidding, I am a complete clean freak, and have a very strong urge to maintain things like that. I clean my house several times a week. I clean the kitchen while I cook, and while my hubby cooks (which annoys him unbelievably, so I have been trying to work on that). My house has floors you could eat off of. Which is why the garage bothers me so much.
I have tried to rationalize that no one ever sees my garage, and that is not part of the house. It is a storage space for my car, and a lot of other stuff. Except now that the weather is getting nicer, I have been finding myself keeping the garage door open more, and that totally goes against the first thing I just said, because now all the neighbors see my garage. And what if they think the rest of my house is like that? They will think I am a complete filthy slob. Maybe I should put a giant sign on my garage door: THIS GARAGE IS IN NO WAY INDICATIVE OF THE STATE OF MY HOUSE. I SWEAR.
I know by now you are picturing a complete pig sty. But that is not actually the issue. The garage itself is in order. Everything is boxed and labeled, and put up on shelves according to category. My husband has all of his tools arranged in order (whatever order tools go in). Our laundry stuff is set up in a corner. The floor is swept. But despite all of this, it looks filthy.
When we first moved in, for whatever reason, the person before us painted the garage bright blue. But not all the way to the top. And not every wall. And he put some holes in some of the walls. And carpeting. And built shelves that are uneven. And unfinished. So, you see, despite the fact that all our stuff is neat, and placed where it belongs, the actual aesthetics of the garage prevent it from looking good.
So, when I say I need to clean the garage, I don’t mean our junk, er, um, holiday decorations, etc. but the actual space. I need to repaint. I need to redo the shelving. I need to get that stuff on the floor that makes your garage look clean and sparkly. I don’t know what it is called, but the lady two doors down has it on her garage floor. And I should wash my car again. It can’t hurt.
So, even though the garage is not really part of the house, I still feel like it should look better. Knowing that it is there, connected to my house, and in its current condition, drives me just a bit nutty. Maybe I will start on it this summer. One Friday at a time.
Is there a room in your house that drives you crazy? What would you like to have done?

How Many Clorox Wipes Do You Need?

I was dropping my daughter off at day care the other day when I ran into one of the other moms. She set her child’s carrier next to my daughter’s, unfastened her daughter and proceeded to put away all of her things. A few moments later as I am kissing my daughter good-bye I notice the other mom sanitizing her daughter’s hands. Apparently she had crawled around for a few minutes and now it was time to put her in her high chair to have some finger foods. I honestly felt like blurting out “you know, we let our kids eat off the floor…”
It took every ounce of self control not to start laughing. I wonder how this woman thinks her daughter’s body will be able to take care of itself if she continues to sanitize everything. I can only imagine the sterility that child lives in at home.
Of course I am not judging her solely on this incident. I have witnessed her depleting her daughter’s immune system on multiple occasions over the past couple of months. Sadly, she is not the only one. I know several parents who do this, and unfortunately I am the product of such behavior.
Growing up almost entirely unexposed to the elements I did not stand a chance once I started kindergarten. If a kid sneezed within a hundred yards of me I would be in bed feverish and miserable for weeks on end. Bronchitis could be scheduled with the seasons each year.
Cleanliness is one thing, but living in a sterilized bubble is completely different. It makes me wonder, when did we become such a sanitary society?