Preventative measures

Like most people, I hate cleaning. Unlike most people who hate cleaning, I enjoy having a clean apartment. I am not a fan of sh*t covered toilets or stoves with old crusty pancake batter glued to the surface (surprise!)

When a mess presents itself, it's best to clean them up immediately. Earlier today I had a pot of tomato sauce burp up all over my stove and the surrounding walls and a little bit on me, too. Grabbing a wet dishcloth and wiping it up immediately saved me a lot of scrubbing and possibly repainting later (hey, tomato sauce can stain!). Taking a few seconds to clean up in the moment saves a lot of work later on.

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George Carlin did a great bit about stuff, and about how we have to much of it.

Getting rid of clutter makes cleaning much easier, I promise. I'm not a Tchotchke type of person I have enough stuff that I actually use to keep on the tops of my bookshelves and dressers that I don't need useless stuff sitting around and looking cute. All this stuff does is create a place for dust to collect, seriously.

I'm a big fan of organized chaos. As in, all the plastic containers go on this shelf, but not in any real order. It's quick, it's easy, and most important, I still know where everything is and where everything goes.

While nothing takes away the need for a good deep cleaning here and there, a few good preventative measures increases the amount of time between such cleanings and makes them less invasive.

Happy scrubbing!