A Level One day

I had a Level One day.
What is Level One, you ask?

For some reason, I categorize levels of housecleaning in my head, and always know what "level" I'm at.

So, to me, Level One accomplishments are this:

1. All dishes done
2. All laundry done
3. Floors swept

When I have these three things accomplished, I feel like my house is pretty clean. I feel organized and in charge. I can walk freely about my house without a whole meal sticking to the bottoms of my feet.

Level Two is not as often achieved. Maybe more like once every 3-4 weeks. Level Two would include the above cleaning, PLUS:

1. Vacuuming
2. Mopping
3. All bathrooms cleaned

This happens if I have lots of extra time on my hands, and maybe some friends are coming in from out of town. Or, if my house just smells like pee so fiercely I can't stand it.

Finally, there's Level Three. This one adds:

1. Dusting
2. Windexing of visibly smeared up windows, glass tables, etc..

This one is usually reserved for visits from the Pope or Elton John. When I hit Level Three clean, I'm untouchable. Am I a perfect mother and wife? YES! Check! My kids have clean faces and are sitting nicely with their hands folded, a roast is in the oven, and my husband is sitting in a recliner with his feet up, a newspaper, and a scotch on ice, while I'm wearing a tidy housedress, apron and heels.

Don't get me wrong.
I love a clean house as much as the next fella.
I know my husband feels much more relaxed when he comes home to a clean house.
But it just takes SOOO MUCH TIME to keep it that way, and it feels like all I do is clean.
So, I do my best. I try to maintain at Level One as much as possible, and do the quick 5 pm hustle pickup to make it look as acceptable as possible before Rob gets home from work.

Rob said I'm either feast or famine with this, and then asked, Why is that? And I answered, I don't know. Either it's all nice and picked up, or it looks like my house has been ransacked for jewels and electronics while we were out. I'm not sure why. My motivations levels just vary wildly from day to day.

So, we'll see what today brings. Maybe Level Two is in my Tuesday future. Wish me luck!