A friend of mine recently moved in down the street. I’m excited to wander over and visit and go to the park with her and her daughter. Even better? She’s having a baby in a couple of months, which means baby holding will soon be less than a five minute walk away!
I visited yesterday for lunch, playing and a tour. I peeked into her master bedroom after she said, “just don’t pay attention to the mess.” No biggie, it looks just like my bedroom – clean laundry everywhere, dirty laundry everywhere, random stuff on the dressers, unmade bed, pretty much the last room you ever think to clean. We chatted for a bit about how this is true for both of us: we clean our bedrooms so much less frequently than the rest of our house because we can shut the door and no one has to see our mess.
She said something I’ve been pondering ever since: “isn’t it sad that’s what we do? I mean, that should really be the first room we clean.”
I’d never thought of it that way before, but now I think I agree. Shouldn’t I value myself, my husband and our marriage enough to want to keep our room not just tidy, but clean? I don’t want Colton to think he’s the most important thing in my life or the only thing that’s a priority, but his room is much more clutter and dust-free than mine is, and I always put his clothes away.
So yesterday I cleaned my bedroom.
All the laundry is put away, random junk from the dressers found a new home (the trash!), I changed our sheets and made the bed, dusted all the furniture, swiffered cobwebs off the ceiling and vacuumed the floors. And it felt so great that night to get into bed, sit and read and relax.
And, I’ve decided that if I think my room is in a state I would find unacceptable for my child to live in, than it’s unacceptable for me to live in it too. And honestly, I just want our bedroom to be nice. I want it to feel relaxing and that it reflects us, not our child.
Do any of you have this problem? If you don’t, do you have some wonderful secret you can tell me to have a great master bedroom? I’m thinking of taking January to really focus on our bedroom, and maybe changing my “touch-up” day on my cleaning schedule to master bedroom day to make sure the room continues to get the attention it deserves.
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November 22, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Caroline
I have this problem. To the EXTREME! (Picture me yelling that last sentence dramatically.) I’m glad you brought it up.
When it comes to washing and folding laundry, I’m a champ… When it comes to putting said laundry away, I might as well be an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. And when I go to bed at night, I don’t put my clothes in a hamper. I just take them off where I stand and they stay there in a heaped pile until I gather them up to do the laundry. My closet door is always open. The whole room is usually a giant mess, but when I do take the time to clean it and put away all of the clothes, I feel so much better about spending time in there.
I’ve had the same thoughts lately and have decided that I will try to achieve my Mom’s level of room maintenance. Her room is always clean, neat, and nicely decorated. My room isn’t even remotely decorated. In reality, Stephen and our room should be a haven. A place we can spend time in and relax. Part of the problem is that the room is a suite of two rooms and the second room is the nursery. My primary cleaning time (nap time) is never applied to the suite of rooms because that’s where Joseph is napping. I’m in the process of changing this and making it Stephen and my bedroom/office suite. I’m actually rearranging the entire upstairs for the arrival of the new baby. I have long term decorating plans for the suite to make the two rooms unified. I’m focusing on making the space into something I can enjoy.
Tell me about your cleaning schedule. Do you just do a different room everyday? I should do something like this. I usually just make sure the downstairs is mostly suitable for guests, but it bugs me that the rest of the house is still messy by the end of the day.
And, um, wow. Longest. Comment. Ever. Sorry about that.
November 22, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Emily
I love this post! Our bedroom totally ends up being the laundry zone, and I despise that. I did make it a priority in the decor department for the sake of our relationship – I wanted it to be a place that we were excited to end the day in. But I’m going to keep it cleaner – thanks!!!
November 22, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Erin
I’d like to know about your cleaning schedule too. Because try as I might, I can’t seem to stick to one.