Get in a spring clean mindset

SPRING CLEAN

I can feel it coming. Slowly, but surely. The grass starts to grow, and I get excited for new beginnings. And with that comes the urge to clean, organize, and get my house out of hibernation. Let it feel the sunshine. Spring clean. But the list of cleaning tasks is quite daunting, and I’m the type of person who wants to do it all, right this second. Dusting places that never get dusted, washing windows, and filling

Alana flowerpots. It’s a lot. But because I have two little humans to care for

Smith and a job that makes me leave the house, I’ll just have to tackle this list a little at a time. These days, checking chores off my list is often hard to do, especially with kiddos running around. I love a clean house, but I tend to have some sort of cleaning attention deficit.

I’ll start one thing, and then start another, and another. Because I want everything squeaky clean at once. Then I’ll find myself knee-deep in a basket of toys, trying to find Mr. Potato Head’s ear. It goes something like this: • Start vacuuming… • vacuum one room… • forget to start the washer… • go get laundry… • wash clothes… • wonder how so much lint can accumulate in one place… • worry lint will start a house fire… • clean lint… • kill a few ants… • go write a note to call the bug man… • notice the state of the junk drawer… • start organizing the tape and screw drivers • agonize over keeping or tossing some old super glue… • decide to keep it in case of a super glue emergency…notice spaghetti sauce on a cabinet… • wonder how we haven’t seen week old spaghetti spillage… • start Magic Eraser-ing the cabinet… • then the walls… • forget all about vacuuming until someone asks for a snack, and then spills it in the floor.

Holy moly.

On that note, happy spring cleaning to you all! Godspeed.

Alana Smith is a boy mom (ages 7 and 2), nurse anesthetist, and writer in Birmingham. She shares her writing at Holy Moly Motherhood (on Facebook and Instagram), where she tackles all things motherhood and marriage.