Cleaning the Bathrooms – Why I’m Not Complaining About It

Motherhood and marriage have been one big adjustment for me, and even though I have been a full-time stay-at-home mom for over 2 and a half years now, I am still trying to wrap my hands all the way around it.

I, of course, understood that when I quit my job I would be taking on a new job–the house and the kids.  

And I do very much feel like what I do here is work, and for the most part, I love it, and I am so happy to have this opportunity, but…

I have been known to complain.  

Especially about cleaning the bathrooms.

My husband and I bought our house a couple of years ago.  

It was a buyers market at the time and we got a much bigger house than we would have been able to get in a different market.  

I love my house, but there are 4 bathrooms (I mean, yay, 4 bathrooms!…).  

It was a big plus when we bought the house, but it doesn’t thrill me now.  

4 bathrooms make for a lot of cleaning.

But, I’m not going to complain here.  

In fact, I have decided not to complain about this anymore.  

I’m done with that.  

Instead, I am going to be thoughtful and logical.

There are 10 very good reasons why I am not going to complain about cleaning the bathrooms anymore, and here they are:

1. I love the feeling of satisfaction I get after I have cleaned all of the bathrooms.  

I am a do-list maker mostly because I am addicted to that feeling of accomplishment that comes with crossing something off of the list.  And, there is no task that it feels better to cross off than getting those bathrooms clean.

2. I get more done around the house just knowing that the bathrooms are clean.  

Silly, but true.  When I am putting off, or avoiding a task like cleaning the bathrooms I feel like I have a monkey on my back and I end up sort of wandering through other tasks, half distracted, not really getting very much done.  It is better to just get the bathrooms clean and then move onto other things.

3. I sleep better knowing that that job is done.  

Unfortunately, I am like my mom (or are all moms like this?)  I remember as a kid she’d talk about laying awake and thinking about something four hours at night.  Dirty bathrooms won’t keep me up all night, but I relax much better when I know that I have done all that was asked of me and that I did it well.

4. I’m more creative in a clean and well-ordered house.  

If you’ve read much of this little blog, it’s probably clear that being creative is important to me.  But, in order to be creative, I need to be relaxed and happy.  A younger version of myself might find this strange, but in order to be happy and relaxed, I need to be working in a clean, organized home.  And, the only one that is going to make it (and keep it) clean and organized is me.

5. With bathrooms that are always clean, we are always open for visitors.  

I love visitors, and so does my husband.  Now that we have young kids, and most of our friends have young kids as well, the only way we can get together is at someone’s house.  Going to a restaurant is a nightmare.  I love hosting and I never want to be in a situation where I can’t invite people over because I have put off or avoided cleaning the bathrooms.

6. This is our house, we own it and love it, and taking pride in it means keeping it clean.  

I rented for a long long time before I got married.  As all of my former roommates can attest, I was no clean-freak.  Not a slob, but if someone else was going to do the cleaning, I let them.  But, things are different now.  My husband and I own this home.  It is important that we keep it up because chances are, we will be selling it at some point.  Also, this is our home, and it’s an extension of us.  If we want our lives and family to be well-ordered our house must be too.

7. My kids deserve a clean house.  

I grew up in a clean house and my kids deserve nothing less.  Also, although my children are still small I am already molding them through example.  I remember watching and then helping, my mom clean the house.  And I learned how to clean by watching her and then helping her.  I need to do the same thing for my kids.

8. It makes my husband happy.  

And, when my husband is happy, I’m happy too.  Everything is better when the house and the bathrooms are clean.  Even if he doesn’t notice I know that having things clean and picked up takes a bit of the stress off of him and allows us to just enjoy each other and our children in the evenings.

9. It’s my job.  

I am a stay-at-home mom and this is what I signed up for.  There are days that I hate it and feel like a maid, but I know that even though cleaning the bathrooms, or doing laundry, or scrubbing the kitchen floor isn’t grand earth-shattering work, I know that it is good to work.  With every job, there are parts that we like better than others.  When I was working as a teacher there were certain things I would put off and put off and yet I knew they had to get done.  Because it was my job to do them.  It’s very much the same as being a stay-at-home mom.

10. It’s important to me that I am good at my job.  

Mothering is so much more important than any other job that I have ever had…and it is also so much harder!  I desperately want to be an amazing mother, and keeping the house clean is part of that.  I want to show my children how to work, and teach them to take pride in who they are, where they live, and what we do.  What is more, I want them to be joyful and happy with whatever life might hand them–and in order to make them joyful and happy, I must be that way myself.  Like I said, cleaning the bathrooms is the work of little people, and I am so happy to be belittled and humbled before the Lord in my work at home.

So, there you have it.  No more complaining–just clean bathrooms!

Better stop procrastinating by writing this post…and actually get them clean…

Thanks for being here,