Cleaning for the cleaner

I've given in. I am not a person who enjoys cleaning. I never have. So I don't really do any more of it than I have to. I am content to live in clutter and dust, as long as bugs and rodents don't pitch a tent. And while I'm not a hoarder, I do tend to collect things. I tell myself that someday I'll want these things for something, but I never do. They will find their place of prominence and then sit there unnoticed and untouched until I accidentally bump them a year later and see the dust that has collected, which horrifies me. I then quickly move them someplace else so they can sit for another year until the cycle repeats.

The problem was compounded here in my house in England. Very little in this house is mine. My things are all in storage, or rather transitioning from one storage to another right now, but still...they're in Minnesota where I cannot access them. All the furniture and furnishings to speak of in this house are either my landlords, or they have been cast off by tenants past. Even Kat, my temporary roommate, left things here that she didn't really want anymore. My house is very very cluttered. And the carpets and the curtains and the baseboards and pretty much every inch of this house could use a clean. Tenants only keep things at a livable state. They don't really dig in and make things excessive.

It's been starting to get on my nerves...and then about three weeks ago, I was having a conversation with one of the nice ladies that cleans our offices after hours and one thing led to another and now I've hired a cleaner to straighten me up.

She stopped by on Sunday, and I think she was horrified. People who clean for a living tend to like things neat. She commented several times on the amount of crap sitting around. It's not mine, I said. She didn't care. She's going to stop by for three hours every week for the next two months to get this place tidied, and then we'll slow down to three hours every other week once things are in order and she just has to touch things up. I am so relieved I can hardly stand it.

Basically, for the cost of one nice dinner out (or two not so nice ones,) I will have a neat, tidy house.

But in order for her to start, I have to remove the clutter. Tonight I did the kitchen. I have somehow managed to remove all traces of clutter from the counters. That has never happened, ever. I still need to go through the cupboards and remove all of the crap that is unnecessary to an efficient kitchen, but for now I've removed enough of it that I can see the counter tops. Tomorrow I will deal with the clutter in the lounge. That will take awhile...books to sort, Cd's to file, junk that I don't know what to do that will need to find a home. But Wednesday she'll be here to do the kitchen and the living room.

I'm so excited.