A Housework Holiday!

Housework is something you do that nobody notices until you don't do it. ~Author Unknown~

Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy. ~Author Unknown~


“Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece.” ~Nadia Boulanger~

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~ Phyllis Diller~


Guess what today is? Today is NO HOUSE WORK DAY!!
Finally a day that I will be happy to celebrate. Tickled to death in fact. I don't have to buy a gift or wear a funny hat. I don't have to bring any special food or wear a shirt of any particular color. This is a day to celebrate!One of my favorite days. A holiday from housework.


Years ago when my kids were small I developed a plan for housework. It came right in the middle between I'm busy with a child and I'll finish this later. That's the way it worked for me.I always managed to keep the dishes all washed and the floors clean. Everything else got done when I found a spare moment. If you have small kids you will understand that spare minutes are very rare. If you ever find one an emergency will immediately arrive to gobble it up.

I personally know women who drives themselves nuts trying to keep their house spotlessly clean. They sweep or dust every single day. They carry a cloth and polish of some kind with them every where seeking out and destroying every speck of dust of dirt. Making themselves and their families miserable. Dust happens, dirt happens, even spills happen. Sometimes I want to say to them. " Girl, put your feet up and relax. Take a day off. Give a cobweb a chance to start. It won't destroy your life, It might even enrich it.

I see tips and hints on-line all the time. I read most of them because if I can get a job done faster I'm all for that! I honestly hate most house work. It's not the job itself that I hate. It's the loss of the time it takes.Time that I could spend writing or reading a good book. Time that I could spend With my husband or children or My sweet Grand-children.. I hate to give valuable time to cleaning. I know cleaning is important but it shouldn't always be the most important. I always read over the hints and tips but I have never found a wonderful easy way to clean a house. It takes work and a plan to get that work accomplished. Once you have a plan you execute it in what ever way works for you and your house. Maybe you have time in the afternoon or maybe your time is at midnight. No two of us can follow the same plan. No two of our lives are exact.


When my children were small I did floors on Monday and laundry on Tuesday. Dusting on Wednesday and on Thursday I did a little of everything. I Did what ever I had to on the other days to keep everything in good shape. It was right then when I got a routine established that I decided to get married again and I doubled my household size instantly. Let me assure you that eight people use an awful lot of towels . I needed one whole day each week just to wash bath towels. Then there were sheets and blankets and rugs.. Not to mention clothes for all those people. So for many years every days plan included laundry. Every days plan included washing bath towels!

I now live in the smallest household I have ever in my life lived. Dave and I make very little mess. We do live in an old home on a dirt road so dust will always be an issue here. I really could skip days and days here and there and simply ignore all house keeping and get away with it. No one would notice. The truth is that I don't really need a holiday from housekeeping. I have been taking those holidays with-out permission for years and years. When I missed a day of house cleaning, no one cared. If the children wanted to go fishing or on a picnic at the lake, the floors would still be needing a sweeping when we got back. The dishes would wait to be washed after the bedtime stories were told and retold and the songs sang a thousand times and then once more. I always managed to get it all done.. eventually.

We lived in our house and it reflected that fact. I always cleaned the kitchen every night before I went to bed myself.. I have a thing about dirty dishes. I'm not going to bed with them in my house. Another trick I had was to get up a few minutes early and do laundry before the rest of the house was awake. I could get a load started while my coffee made. Them move on to something else while it washed. I also gave the older kids an extra amount of allowance for any chores they did.. You would be surprised at how much it helps when someone else folds a load of towels or dusts the bookshelves. I always welcomed their help and they always loved the extra money they got for doing chores. When you have eight people in your house, you have no choice but to figure out a way to get it all done. We had a lot of chores but we took days off for relaxing and play. We took whole weeks off for camping trips or trips to the beach. If you have children, remember that housework will wait. Nothing is as important as children. Not the load of dirty clothes, the breakfast dishes, or the cobweb hiding behind the screen porch door. Give your self a NO HOUSEWORK Holiday often. Put down that broom and have a great day!
Patsy.