OCD and Housework

There are a few house-work items that I know I obsess about to the point of it being clinical. I really hate dirty floors. I do not know why, I think partially because I like to go around barefoot, but it is more than that too. I really hate floors that look dirty too. Currently, we have a white wood laminate kitchen floor. So if anything is on the floor, including a spot of water, the floor looks dirty. I used to do a hands and knees scrub of our kitchen and dining room floors weekly and religiously back in Wichita. That seemed to keep the floor pretty clean. I did not feel anxious about it until six days after I had washed it. With a white floor, that is not the case. It looks dirty almost all of the time. So I bought a wet-jet mop. I now do a hands and knees scrub weekly, plus, I mop the floor an additional once or twice a day. I am trying to forgo mopping on Sundays, but that has been hard for me.

On the other hand, in Wichita, we had whitish carpets. I would vacuum the high traffic areas daily. Here we have gray carpets in the upstairs bedrooms, and a shag every color of dirt carpet through out the down stairs. You just cannot tell when those carpets need vacuuming. I love that. I still vacuum them on schedule, so I know they are clean. But it doesn't stress me out so much to be a day late on vacuuming.

I also cannot stand dirty bathrooms. The other night I scrubbed our bathtub three times in a row before I felt like it was shiny and clean enough. I do not let John clean the bathrooms at all, and I check up on Ruth, Kate, and Johnny to see if they have cleaned them to my satisfaction before letting them off the hook. In fact, I still have not let any of my kids clean inside the toilets or the bathtubs. I know that I need to let this go some, so my kids can learn to clean and take care of things. But I think that will be hard for me to do. I can see myself telling the kids to clean the bathroom and then redoing it when they are not here and not telling them. (Is that okay?)

I do allow for some clutter. I do not like it, but I like the battles even less. I am also really bad at keeping my refrigerator clean. I hate that chore enough that I find a messy refrigerator more tolerable to a point. I know you are really suppose to clean those once a month, but I think I make it only 4 times a year. I actually have to do that chore now. I do not think it can be put off for another whole week.

Still concerning housework, I often find myself sighing and thinking, "I need a vacation from housework." But that never happens. I still have to clean and do laundry and dishes, and make food, etc.. even when we are on vacation. It never goes away. The floors and toilets still get dirty, the laundry and dishes pile up quickly, the house gets dusty and cluttered. It just keeps going and going and going...so I guess I will keep obsessing over the floors and bathrooms and grumbling about the dishes and the fact the refrigerator is dirty already, and even though I just did 7 loads of laundry I already have three more.