So the pre ‘last-dump-of-snow-which-surprises-everyone-in-April-every-year’ Spring has sprung here in Bavaria; The weekend topped 18 degrees, the snowdrops and crocuses are out … and, ahem, Twitter is full of the springclean hashtag. Don’t get me wrong, I love, love Twitter and the bloggers and tweeters I have met over the past two years have kept me going and given me motivation in many, many different ways, but this week I was overwhelmed – in that *stands in the middle of the room with shoulders hunched up to the ears and a bubble rising from top of head containing “What? … how … ?? when … ?? … b-b-b-bu … ?!!” thing going on.
Saturday morning, (yesterday) … the house is silent – Little One’s away with his Dad and ear-achy Surrogate#1 has been returned to her mother and a hot-water bottle. I’m standing at the kitchen door with a cup of coffee, idly watching my son kicking a ball around the back field with his Papa and feeling really rough. Months of him coughing in my face have finally caught up and I have a throat full of razor blades. I look around in disgust at the state of my place, still not sorted after a week of chasing deadlines and think of all the other things stacking up on my to-do list. After a generally horrible month so far, I feel frustrated, fed-up and totally lacking in motivation for anything.
Backing up to wander into the bathroom, the sun moves around slightly, catching the window. I draw breath at how beautiful the day actually is and I dump my cup with alarming force …
*
That’s all it took. The window was ridiculously grimy and my reaction to it had been the same as it had been every day for about the last 6 months – annoyance pure, but despite considering for a millisecond all the other things I had to do, this time I headed for the cupboard with a resolve I hadn’t felt for ages.
A couple of hours later, I had cleaned all the windows in the flat and, although the rest of the place still looked like a bomb-site, I, myself, felt like a million dollars.
It was like a revelation … suddenly seeing sun streaming through gleaming glass in every room was like I had scrubbed at something in my head and found gold – the listless, lonely, black feeling of despondency that had grounded me for the last few days was on its way out and I felt a new fire in my belly – the go-go which was telling me to shake myself up again and get stuff done.
Army-Major style, I then restricted myself to one room and one activity at a time for the rest of the day and cleared more washing, clutter, toys and general “stuff” than I had cleared in weeks.
For an innate multi-tasker and, despite years as an industry project manager, I’m still a rubbish Hausfrau and am actually generally useless at ‘finishing’ anything! so for me, although the flat is still far from being how I want it, yesterday was a real achievement. I’m guessing I’m not actually alone in these traits, so this is a call to anyone who bounces enthusiastically into Spring to be met with the brick wall of a springclean hashtag and finds themselves pinned against it, at a loss as to where to start …. my tip, as a working mum who is rather hugely lacking in self-organisational skills:
Start with the windows! :-)
MJM.
In search of the perfect triangle 
You know how much I love housework! Bleurgh. The top tip I offered in the #springclean was ‘If your children’s rooms have gone beyond them, put a hoop on the floor and encourage them to sort it one hoop at a time’. Small steps and, yes, cleaning the windows and letting the spring in is my one concession to serious spring cleaning. I end up in the garden instead, much more satisfying!
We’ve been driven to develop some housekeeping habits by the estate agents. Hate it, though. Except when it’s finished.
Of course, small children render it a kind of cyclical, existential, purgatorial trial…
“It was like a revelation … suddenly seeing sun streaming through gleaming glass in every room was like I had scrubbed at something in my head and found gold – the listless, lonely, black feeling of despondency that had grounded me for the last few days was on its way out and I felt a new fire in my belly”
Oh, I know this feeling! That is why the floor gets cleaned (whether it needs it or not) when I am writing an essay. It seriously cleans my mind and allows me to think again.
Boom! I feel motivated just reading that. *goes to put a load of washing on*
I think when things get overwhelming you just have to start, do a little bit, then a bit more, and eventually you’ll get where you want to be (so I keep telling myself – one day my house will be tidy!).