The penultimate day of the challenge is here! Because of that, it really feels like it should’ve been more dramatic than it was, but today has been fairly boring. Not that I’m complaining–I feel like boring days are grossly underrated. Boring, uneventful days mean that my son is doing well, that I’m not getting a call about my dad’s health taking a turn for the worse, and that everyone else I love is safe. Over the last year and a half, I’ve lost so many people, whether it’s a friend or two of my uncles or my sister-in-law. Sometimes, no news is really good news and those uneventful days give me room to breathe.
Neat Freak
Even when I feel too exhausted to see straight (hello, insomnia, my old nemesis), I find I really enjoy starting my day by doing the daily cleaning tasks. After only thirteen days, it just feels wrong to sit on the couch in my living room without dusting first. I honestly never thought I’d say this–and it’s still entirely possible this is a temporary insanity–but it’s true.
I thought I was going to be anxiously awaiting the end of the challenge, but I find I’m not. Jon asked me today if I planned to keep doing any of the elements of the challenge once I finished, and I think I want to. I’m probably not going to wash my bedroom curtains every week (especially if my dryer continues to revolt), but I like doing the daily chores and I think I want to maintain some of the weekly tasks. However, that being said, doing an intensive cleaning regime like this as it currently stands is not realistic or feasible for my life. Honestly, I think part of why this hasn’t been as big of a deal for me as I thought is because we’re in no-contact quarantine. If I was taking Kiddo to his appointments and classes in person, I wouldn’t be able to do everything on the list, even when you take into consideration that I don’t sleep as much as I’d like.
The same is true for work; I still do some freelance work towards the end of the month and if I’d tried to do this challenge at the same time, I might’ve lost my mind. I also haven’t had time to work on any of my personal writing projects, but I’ve still been blogging every day which is more than my mental health has allowed me to do over the last couple of months. I also thought this challenge was going to be next to impossible to actually complete, so who knows? Maybe all I needed was to start cultivating a new habit that didn’t involve eating cheesy poofs and watching endless reruns of America’s Next Top Model.
Everyone Wants to Be Seen
“I know you’ve been doing all this cleaning for the challenge, but I want you to know how much I appreciate the work you’ve been doing,” Jon said to me this afternoon. “The house is so much nicer now and that’s because of you, so thank you.”
Despite the fact that I’ve been blogging every day about this challenge, I haven’t been doing it for the validation. I set out to try something I’d never done before to challenge myself and hopefully end up with a cleaner house, and that’s still true as this experiment draws to a close. However, it’s still nice to feel visible and appreciated.
Tomorrow is the final day of this 1950s Housewife Challenge and I am going to prepare by watching a movie with Jon and eating junk food. It’s going to be a completely boring, uneventful, and perfect evening.
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Emily Regan 