31 Day To Clean: Why Clean?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about cleaning. And making plans for cleaning. And reading books and blogs about how to clean, because I never figured it out on my own. But one thing I hadn’t thought about in all that time was why I wanted my house to be clean. And none of the rest of it makes any difference until you know the why.

One of the first challenges in 31 Days to Clean is to sit down and figure out your why. Then you type it up and hang it somewhere you’ll see it. Mine hangs in my bathroom on the mirror. My mission statement is:

A cluttered house creates a cluttered mind creates a cluttered house.

A clean house creates peace, calm, and relaxation. A clean house allows love and fun to be enjoyed without distraction. A clean house saves time spent looking for items that are not in their place. A clean house saves money spent on items that are not in their place. A clean house shows that the beasts of laziness and procrastination have been conquered, leaving something better in their place.

 

I absolutely think that everyone needs to make their own mission statement, but I made a PDF version with a nice picture in the background, so I’m going to make that available to anyone who’s interested. You can download it here.

 

I also promised Before pictures. My biggest issue is clutter, as you’ll see very quickly. Anything from mail to toys to the milk jugs my husband was saving so he could use the flat plastic from the sides, is sitting everywhere. What I probably need is a babysitter for a whole day so I can just go around the house and clean out all the junk. That’s not going to happen anytime soon, so I’m doing 31 Days to Clean instead. And we’ll see what gets done. Without further ado, my embarrassing Before pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing to keep in mind is that I have a very curious 9-month old. The ring of large objects around my living room is designed to keep him from getting into things we don’t want him getting into. Other than that, it’s all on the to-do list this month.