Cleaning As Therapy?

Today at 9 AM I began a thorough cleaning of my house. I do this every third week, and have for years. Although many will tell you that I am a neat freak, which is true, I loathe cleaning my house. It is tiring, boring, takes too much time if you do everything, including dusting, and just plain unpleasant. Or at least that’s how it feels to me when I’m doing it. After I’m done, however, I always feel a sense of exhileration. The entire house smells great, table tops shine, the kitchen looks used but spotless, and the shelves behind the bed have no dust balls on them, merely books. I take pride in how well I clean, even if I don’t enjoy the process when I’m in the middle of it. So every three weeks I keep on keeping on. This morning while I was slaving away a woman I don’t know very well stopped by with some papers for me to sign. She seemed a mused when I answered the door mop in hand. I told her I hated doing it, but thought it was silly to hire someone as I’m still fully capable. If my partner wasn’t tending our garden on a weekly basis, which is quite large and take hours of his time, I would ask him to clean with me, rather than hire someone. Maybe when I’m seventy I will decide to change my tune. Do I feel I’m not entitled to the help? I don’t know. When my kids were little, I did hire someone, and advised my younger daughter to do the same a couple of years ago. Taking care of two toddlers is work enough. I don’t know how you could even clean with them underfoot. I loved having someone else do the heavy lifting, as it were, although I also felt kind of guilty I had handed off ‘my’ job to another woman. Which didn’t stop me. What surprised me was what this woman said with a big smile: “I really like to clean.” She continued, “If I can’t clear my mind, and meditation doesn’t even work, I clean.” By the time she’s done, she explained, whatever was bothering her is a thing of the past. And then she repeated, “I actually like to clean.” I will try to take her words to heart in three weeks, though I think I will still find the three-hour chore unpleasant. I would rather take a walk through the fort near my house to clear my mind! Even on a gray day! But as I’m vacuuming next time I’ll at least ponder her words, and try to clear my mind as I work. Maybe it will make it feel less unpleasant. It’s worth a try. How about you? Do you clean your own house? Do you let ‘mess’ accumulate? Do you enjoy the task, or hire someone else to take care of it? Even in this mundane realm I’m reminded that we’re all different, and there is no ‘right’ way.