If...Then

For a long time now I’ve held the theory that if I keep my house clean then all other aspects of my life will fall into place. If my house is clean then I’ll have time for creativity; time to write, time to finish that story I’ve been working on, time for photography, time for knitting. If my house is clean then I’ll have time to learn the piano or Spanish or both. If my house is clean then I’ll have time to exercise. If my house is clean then I’ll be happy, fulfilled and rich beyond my wildest dreams (or something along those lines). But, I’ve never had the opportunity to prove this theory. My house is never clean. At least not all at once. When the kitchen is clean the bedroom is dirty. If I tackle the living room then kid’s rooms get out of control. And, really, what do I expect? I live with three kids, three dogs, two cats, two tanks of fish and a husband. My house will never be clean.

And there’s another component to cleaning. The more you clean the more cleaning there is to do. It’s something akin to Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. If you do the dishes you’ll notice the window sill is dirty. You’ll get some Pledge to clean the sill. While cleaning the sill you’ll decide to clean all the window sill’s in your house. You’ll start in the living room. Walking to the living room you’ll bump into a basket of laundry. You’ll remember you are out of towels and need to wash some. You go to the bedroom for dirty towels. In the bedroom you notice the carpet is filthy. You decide to vacuum. While vacuuming you notice the floorboards are dusty. You go to the laundry room for Pledge. While in the laundry room you remember you need to wash a load of towels ... etc, etc.

So, what to do? Why not marry chores and artistic desire? Housework and creativity are, after all, are not mutually exclusive. I’ve pledged (ha, ha, get it? pledge?) to write daily. And I like to have my own photographs accompanying my blog. But, in order to take these photographs, I need a space to shoot. Therefore I must clean. Today’s photograph is the perfect example (inspiration by the way from the lovely Maya at Springtree Road). It was shot on the butcher block in the kitchen which was, until recently, covered in junk; mail, recycling and dirty dishes. I cleaned off the butcher block and took my photos. While downloading them onto the computer I decided I might as well get a load of dishes done. I put on some music and tackled the the rest of the kitchen; all the while thinking about what to write today. And now, my kitchen is clean, photos taken and blog complete.

But wait. I’m not finished. There’s a photo I want to take for Shutter Sisters - an image inspired by a favorite song. I chose Tank Park Salute by Billy Bragg. I need to put a light on at the top of the stairs and photograph it. Only, first, I need to clean the stairs...