My Attitude to Cleaning

Posted by Helena Smole in Relationships on Nov 21st, 2016

Now, when I am over 40 already, I think I have finally embraced cleaning as it is. I am writing right after 3 hours of cleaning doors and doorframes in our apartment. A thing not everybody cleans. It is a specialty for the assiduous. Yes, that must be it, I have finally embraced cleaning. I do not even feel exhausted. I do not think “Oh, what a waste of time.” I actually sense pleasure and accomplishment.

This feeling is new to me for I have always hated cleaning. I found it boring at the least and, to some extent, unnecessary at the worst. Today, I am aware that an apartment or a house is in fact a temple of a temple. How so? You must have read repeatedly about our body being a temple for our soul and thus demanding our care and attention. In my opinion we can classify an apartment or a house similarly. It is a temple of our body. Thus it needs our care and attention too.

I have no problem tidying it up regarding things lying all over the apartment, because my husband and I put them in place as we go. Cleaning, though, is something unavoidable. I found it tedious as a teenager and way beyond. I also found it to some degree degrading, for I thought I was supposed to focus on a career not cleaning. Today, I must say I am finally free from the urge to make a career and I can enjoy cleaning, which I find rewarding instead.

In addition to all that, cleaning reminds us of ephemerality of life and us in it. We will not last forever and the life of a clean kitchen is even shorter. It lasts till the next cooking. Thus, in the end, or better put in my forties, I realize that cleaning is not only necessary and useful, it even possesses a meditative function.

Take care,

Helena Smole, author of:

– a fantasy novel with romance Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships

– Balancing the Beast, a book offering a bright view of schizoaffective disorder ˗ bipolar or manic-depressive type