Sometimes life doesn’t change very much.

I’m finding this out in the grand scheme of keeping my house clean.  There’s an ebb and flow to life, no doubt; however, day to day, not much changes.  The kitchen still needs to be cleaned.  The dishes still have to be washed and put away.  And somewhere in the monotony, the floor should be mopped and the spare bathroom spruced up.

I spent a week in Delaware for a work training and discovered the beauty of my new routine when I came home to a clean bed with fresh sheets, laundry that was already put away and ready for the week, and a counter free of clutter and dirty dishes.  So after a long week of training and discombobulating travel schedules, stepping into my home was relaxing.  How wonderful is that?

This past week I’ve realized the beauty of keeping the house smelling fresh and clean.

My house is usually cleaner than it smells.  I have two cats (used to have three) and the smell gets to people.  I am completely un-sensitive to the smell, but was encouraged by my mother to plug in some smelly-thingy-ma-jiggers.  In fact, she actually showed up at my house with a package of them that she bought for me herself!  So as not to disrespect the fact that she spent money on me, I plugged them in.  Lo and behold, the derogatory comments on the cat-smell that apparently permeates my house dwindled.

God has a million and one ways to humble the proud.

The result from this situation for me is that I’m learning to be a little more willing to dish out a few extra pennies for the sake of the company that I so enjoy having over.  In fact, while learning to be stricter on my budget and not allow random and truly unneeded (but definitely wanted) items into my grocery cart, I’m spending some of that money, that could have been wasted on selfish things, on other things that improve the quality of life in some way.

For instance I keep the house smelling nice and cover the hint of litter-box that bothers everyone but me.  And I keep pods for the dishwasher now, because it doesn’t waste nearly as much money or water as I originally thought it did.

Thus concludes the four week experiment of radicalizing my cleaning mindset.

I hope you’ve been able to learn a few things as you’ve read about my past few weeks in the kitchen and around the house.  It’s been a neat experience, though certainly not one I necessarily was super thrilled about at first.  Nothing that is worth doing is going to be easy, as the saying goes.