Refresh

April 30 – Refresh

When our apartment is dirty it stresses me out.

It stresses me out a lot – even when I am not home. When everything is messy and out of order it makes me feel like my brain is messy and out of order.

That doesn’t mean that our apartment is always clean. It’s clean a lot, but it’s also not clean a lot. And it doesn’t mean I have always been a clean person either. There is an embarrassing story about peanut butter on one of my textbooks my freshman year of college that makes me cringe now. But it makes me feel so much better to have everything clean and somewhat organized.

Our apartment was not clean and organized yesterday. But then I kind of attacked it with a sponge and a sink full of water. That’s how I spent my night, and I feel a lot better and really refreshed. (And I only feel slightly lame that I am 22, and this is the second post in a week about cleaning.)

The weekend, holiday argument

I had a seemingly constant argument with my dad when I was growing up.

In my pre-teen mind, weekends and holidays were for sleeping late, playing games, and watching TV.

In his farmer and father-of-three mind, weekends and holidays were for catching up on household chores.

My opinion on the subject never went unheard.

Dad, I can’t do this laundry now. It’s a weekend.

Or,

I can’t clean my room today; I’m on Christmas break. 

He would smile and make his point clear just before he walked out the door to check on the farm animals.

You’ll find out when you’re older, you work for your boss during the week, and you work for yourself on weekends. 

I was certain he was wrong. My 12-year-old self new better. I knew for a fact that if you used your time wisely you wouldn’t have to do housework and laundry on weekends.

And yet every weekend it seemed I was back at square one, with a messy room and dirty clothes, protesting Saturday chores.

Fast forward through high school and college.

Here I am, a little less than a year after my college graduation. This weekend was the first weekend I’d had to myself in quite some time.

Dustin was working. I had no obligations. My opportunities were endless. There were DIY projects waiting to be made, blog posts to get ahead on, books to be read.

And, I spent my weekend cleaning and catching up on laundry.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

 

Enjoy my photos from the weekend. 

April 20 – work environment

I needed a short break from transcribing notes and editing legal articles, so I took a few minutes to capture my work environment. This photo shows the bulletin board next to my desk.

April 21 – Unfinished

I had several DIY projects in mind for the weekend. I was going to transform a cardboard “B” into a chevron door decoration and a cardboard box into a pretty box for storing makeup. I got one white coat of paint on each in between cleaning and laundry. Maybe I’ll have time to finish them later in the week.

April 22 – Finished

With the exception of load that’s in the dryer waiting to be put away, all of our laundry is completely finished. It’s a good feeling.