Some Laws of the Universe

1.           The more stuff you have, the more time it takes to clean, and the more money you need to live. 

Go in the most used room of your house (unless it’s your kitchen. Then go to the second most used). Imagine what the room would look like if all the decorations, knick knacks, keepsakes, projects not currently being worked on, and any other extra stuff were removed from the room, leaving only those things your family actually uses every day. 

How long would it take you to clean that room? 10-15 minutes, including vacuuming? How long does it take you to clean it now? 30-45 minutes?

Imagine I offer to pay off your mortgage if you will live in a log cabin for one year. You may bring only things you actually use on a regular basis with you; no decorations, extra projects, keepsakes, etc. What would you pack? Once you were settled into your cabin how long would it take you to clean it each day? Would you really miss all the stuff in your house? I know after a few days I would seldom even remember anything I left behind.

I’m not saying you have to get rid of all you decorations and keepsakes. I am saying you need to know how much time and energy all those things cost you. And each extra item you own costs you money to pay for room for it to sit, too. How many hours per week do members of you family work to support your stuff?

An example: my mother gave me a figurine that sits on the table by my chair in the living room as an inspiration to a dream for my life I had shared with her. When I look at this piece, I feel love and hope and a bitter sweet happiness (my Mom has since passed away.) I find it well worth the “cost” to pick that item up and dust it and its table each week.

On the other hand, there is this polished stone pyramid on Hubby’s computer that I don’t even remember where it came from. Souvenir? Yard sale? Just don’t know. I feel nothing when I look at it, if I even notice it sitting there. But it has to be picked up and dusted each week, too. Is it worth the work, even though it is pretty? No, not at all. So why is it still sitting there?! (Just a minute….) OK, now it’s in the bag of stuff to donate to charity.  I will never have to clean it again. And someone else at the charity’s thrift store will fall in love with it and it will enrich their lives because I parted with it.

If you look at an item and can’t honestly say “Thank you, God, for allowing me to have this.” Or “This makes me feel loved.” It probably isn’t worth the work to add its maintenance to your dance.

2.   Life is full of trade offs.

I hate chemicals. Some of them set of asthma attacks in me, give Hubby or a child hives, cause my oldest to itch. And they just aren’t good for us. On the other hand, neither is grime.

I have experimented with using homemade cleaners, and for some things, they work ok. 

For some things, I use hypoallergenic versions (Tide Free laundry soap and Palmolive’s hypoallergenic dish soap, which doesn’t actually cost any more than their normal stuff but doesn’t set hives off). 

For other things, I bite the bullet and use “normal” chemical cleaners. Here’s what I’ve learned:

a.   Homemade cleaners are good if you understand chemistry so you don’t kill yourself or use two chemicals that cancel each other out (soap and vinegar, for example). I think they also work better if you have softer water than I do. I have noticed those who swear they work the best live in areas known for soft water.

b.   Do NOT use dollar store cleaners. They appear to be watered down with color and fragrance added to hide the fact. They don’t work even as well as the homemade cleaners, and set off allergies badly. And the squirt bottles are cheaper and don’t work right.

c.   On the other hand, store brand versions of name brand cleaners at my local grocery store appear to be the same thing as the name brand. The smell much better, don’t affect the various allergies much as the dollar store types, and work wonderfully while being a good deal cheaper than the name brand.

So, ideally, I wouldn’t use chemicals at all. But that just isn’t working for us, so I use store brands for a few things, and name brands for others, where the main brands either do seem to work better or the scents are more tolerable to our household. Still others I still make myself. I’ll let you know what works for me and what hasn’t. 

Unfortunately, each family has to discover what works for them through their own trial and error.