Monday, May 4, 2009

You Creative Types

Every Monday my teenage sister comes over and cleans my house. Scrubs the kitchen and the toilet, mops the floors, dusts. The whole nine yards. I pay her when I can but usually she accepts goodies from my shop, time with my camera...things like that. And she's very good. Up until a year ago my mother had her own business cleaning homes and my sister worked with her for a few years. Now, me? I really abhor house work. Not necessarily the process, but the time it takes away from all the other things I'd rather be doing. So you stick to the floors a little. So the laundry is overflowing. So there is dust and crumbs and dirty socks everywhere. So what? Not that I don't want the house to be clean. Some days it makes me crazy and if there comes a week that my sister is not interested in my bribes I do indeed break down and clean the blasted thing myself. One way or another it is clean for at least one day a week. But most of the time I spend very little time cleaning, lots of time crafting and with the girls .
I've actually never really thought about any of this but today my sister said to me as waded through dirty dishes and sticky counters in the kitchen, "You know, you creative types just never want to take the time time to clean. All you wanna do is knit and make stuff. I've cleaned for people like you you before. You're all the same." OK, so she has a point. I really don't want to take time out from the good stuff to clean or do laundry and yes, sometimes this means you have to dig through a laundry basket full of (clean) clothes and sometimes you hear the crunch, crunch of cereal underfoot.
But I do try to do a whirlwind pick up right before bed and the dishes are washed after supper about 90% of the time. But then you find us spinning around the living room dancing like a whirling dervish, trying not to trip over toys. Or you may find me digging through piles and piles (and piles and piles) of yarn all over my desk and everywhere else. But.....that's OK. I do wish I had more hours in the day so I didn't have to choose what's more important to me. But I don't and laughing with my girls and having picnics everyday and dreaming and creating...that's the important stuff...to me.
Sigh. No one ever said a creative life was a tidy life.

10 comments:

sarasophia said...

Where is your sister and how do I get her to teach MY sisters this lovely hobby of hers:)


I would DIE to have a sibling come and whisk away my dirt.....

Alisa said...

HaHa!!! That is SO true! I have to make myself set one day of the week aside to clean, or else forget about it... it just doesn't get done.

BellaPepper said...

My clean freak sister moved to Colorado and now I have to do it all myself! I do admit though that my husband has to do a lot of the deep cleaning though, like bathroom showers and cabinet scrubbing. I am a tidier (not sure if that's a word on not)though, I go around cleaning off horizontal surfaces, picking up toys and vacuuming, but always ignore that my window haven't been cleaned in 2 months!

My secret weapon is to have my 11 year old sister come over twice a week and play with the girls so I can clean up, bake something, and hopefully get some crafting done.

AMIdesigns said...

I have neighbours that are so houseproud it makes me ashamed when they visit. but then again, why clean when there's so much crafting to do :)

Julie said...

AMI, my thoughts exactly!

Piggy said...

That's so ME! :) I am so going to send this article to my hubby! I am quite an untidy person and when I start crafting, my work area will become a mess but it's the kinda of mess that only you will be able to find your items as where you left them :D keke.. organised mess as I would call it :)

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

I want a sister like that, she sounds wonderful!

Rachel Kovaciny said...

I read somewhere that true creativity demands a certain amount of chaos. I know my various creative pursuits sure do! Anyway, I'm a terrible housekeeper too. I haven't dusted in months. I do clean the bathroom regularly, and the dishes get washed/kitchen counters get cleaned every day. But Larry's actually started helping sweep the floors lately, because I stopped doing it every week and yeah... that wasn't good. I wish I had a sister like that! (What I really need is a house elf like in Harry Potter, lol.)

Julie said...

Well, Rachel, if that bit about the chaos is true....we must have creativity just oozing out of this place. :)

KnitterMama said...

I want your sister too!!!!

I too feel cereal crunch underneath my feet ALL of the time. And I function best in chaos... What a great picture!!

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