Clean freak
Along with iVillage Live, I host a show called Clean This House that is on A&E every Saturday at 5PM eastern time….sooooo I thought I would talk a little about my love of cleaning and organizing. I moved to New York City when I was 23 years old and grew accustomed to living in very small spaces. My friends in Florida always look at me in shock when I say that all my Christmas decorations fit into a large square hat box. The wonderful thing about living in small apartments is that it forces you not to become too attached to “stuff”. This frightens my husband to no end because he lives in fear that I will throw away some beloved rowing souvenir or ancient newspaper that he is saving to read when he has some extra time. This is obviously a source of contention between us because I like things neat and tidy. Most evenings he checks the garbage just to make sure nothing sacred has been tossed.
Interestingly, my 5 year old started doing the same thing when she was 3. She would find some drawings of hers in the trash and question me sharply about why I wasn’t saving it. Now please don’t think I am some evil mother who doesn’t cherish her child’s artwork, I do … to a certain extent. It is just that if I saved everything, pretty soon we would have to move to a larger place. I try to keep one picture representative of what she is doing through each phase. Explaining this to a small child is a little difficult. Let’s just say I started cleaning both her and my husband’s stuff when they weren’t home.
I like my desk and work spaces to be completely clear save for a few framed photos and carefully placed knick knacks. My husband, on the other hand, likes to see everything he is working on…. And I mean EVERYTHING. His desk is a cluttered mess of bits of paper, saved paper clips he is going to re-bend into the right shape, and old faxes that he wants to use as scratch paper. My bills are neatly stacked in a little basket waiting to be paid and filed. My husband’s are placed strategically around the desk so he can remember to pay them… well, that is until they are covered up by some of the “scratch sheets”. Do you note a tone of sarcasm as I write this???? In my husband’s defense, my own Mother says she would rather live with Michael than me. She said this after I re-aligned some books in my living room to “just the right angle” after she had kindly dusted for me.
On Clean This House, I show families how to get organized by getting rid of the things they don’t need and cleaning up the things they want to keep. My favorite moments are digging into rooms that are completely filthy and bringing some kind of order to the chaos. We make big stacks of things to throw away, things to donate and things to keep and organize. Once everything is out of the room, we deep clean then put everything back in an orderly fashion. Most of the families let things get out of hand and then they got overwhelmed. I am always amazed that many of the people have all the shelves, crates and baskets they need to get organized, they just don’t know how to use them.
The families are all incredibly grateful and so pleased with my help. Sadly my own family just thinks I am a clean freak. They are probably right but at least I am using my own psychosis to help others.
Comments
I keep an expandable folder file box for the artwork the boys bring home. Worksheets get tossed, but artwork stays. I gave one to their dad too. Best 12 bucks I've ever spent at an office supply store. Plus they come in really cute designs too.
I too keep a few of my favorite art pieces for my daughters scrapbook along with some writing samples and a few tests or assignments. I always try to look at things from a future perspective. "How much of this do I really want to see in ten years?" A box stuffed full that lives in the attic or a few very cherised examples, proudly displayed in her school memories scrapbook.
Tape the artwork to the refrigerator.
When it's full, take a group photo of all pieces.
You can then discard the originals and still have a much smaller copy of them.
