I was thinking about what is considered “clean” this weekend, while attempting to tidy up a bit before having friends over for dinner. “Clean” seems to vary depending on who is doing the cleaning and what the occasion is.
Cleaning the stove for me means wiping off all the gunk and maybe pulling out the fancy stove top cleaner gunk made by elves in the Forest of Naboo. For my husband it means pulling out a razor blade and some elbow grease. For my children? hahahahahahahahahahahahha
Vacuuming to my seven year old means picking up all the cheerios on the floor and making a halfhearted pass of the kitchen with our stick vac. To me, it usually means cleaning the edges of every room where most of the dirt migrates and moving the dogs crate to make sure all the hair gets picked up. To my husband, I vacuum like a girl and “should get out the actual vacuum and stop bending over with the hand vac to clean the house.”
And if company is coming over? The rules all change – toilets get scrubbed, towels get washed early and I suddenly notice a million dirty nooks and crannies that hadn’t been visible before. And if it’s someone like a mother in law or that friend whose house never looks as dirty as ours ever? See the graphic above and maybe buy a second bottle.
What does clean mean to you?
Mommablogsalot 
4 responses to “CLEAN: a look at what exactly defines clean and tidy.”
Ha! Love this! I did something similar a year (or two, who knows?) ago and the top of my chart was the dreaded mother-in-law visit level too. Funny, sad and true all at the same time!
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Reblogged this on Adventuring into Motherhood and commented:
I love this! #truth
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It’s awesome that your kids help around the house, even if it is some cursory vacuuming. My snubnose starts dreaming in between cleaning, finds a book to read, or some other distraction and stops in-between. Drives me up the wall to get her to do them.
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I try to encourage them to help out – at least my seven year old anyway, my 4 year old is still largely useless for much beyond “throw that paper away” and “put your cup in the sink” – it’s hard to even ask them to help though when I know they won’t live up to my standards and I’ll end up cleaning it again anyway…. butttttt…. it’s good practice for them.
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