Clean enough is the place between clean that brings you joy and dirty that makes to sullen.
I'm content in the clean enough. I really am, and in a way that seems like a very bad thing. I like things picked up. I like the floors swept and carpets vacuumed. I like the laundry mostly done and put away(who can ever get it all done?) I like my kitchen sink empty, although it rarely is except for a couple hours a day.
I can live with a pretty healthy amount of clutter around. Paper on flat surfaces. Things not quite put away. That one last game piece. A pencil not quite in the pencil can. The newspaper left on the table. The chair left pulled out.
Here's the rub though, when something happens or is going to happen and I really get cleaning down deep for real, I love the result. I even love the effort.
What?
So today I got on with the job of cleaning my fridge. It's a job I don't love, who does? Those smelly leftovers that everyone said they were going to eat last week and so on. I do clean out the "junk" pretty often so it's not horrible and totally gross, but it does every once in a while reach that point, you know the one, where you think I just have to do it. I have to buck up and do the dirty job.
It doesn't take long for me to have the shelves out and suds everywhere and the inside getting scrubbed down.
I end up loving even the cleaning. There is something so utterly satisfying in taking something dirty and washing it clean. I'll spend the rest of today and probably even part of tomorrow opening up the door just to look inside at my clean shelves and drawers.
When I was done, I asked my friend, how come I slide into that in between of clean enough? Why can't I stay on the "high" that comes after a deep clean and keep it that clean all the time? Why do I let myself slide into the "easy" clean enough-you know the one that grabs and tosses that single yucky thing and gives the shelf a quick Clorox wipe wipe-down instead of yank the shelves out and scrub it down?
Where are you on the clean it up scale? Are you a "super cleaner" always going in for the deep clean? Are you a slider like me, do the deep clean and slip slowly into clean enough? Or are you a "dirty girl" and you just don't care if your fridge is coated in that "black stuff" or your bathroom is kind of "fuzzy"?
Spill the "dirt" in the comments, will ya?
