Clean v. Tidy

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I've always been good at picking up after myself.  I hate getting into an unmade bed, I almost always put my clothes away after I've taken them off, and my dirty dishes are thrown straight into the sink to soak after a meal.  When I lived in dorms in college, it seemed easy to keep things clean.  However, when I was in Paris, where one of my flatmates was a lovely girl who (we think) developed a debilitating case of OCD while studying abroad, I learned that there's a big difference between being tidy and being clean.

The difference was highlighted when I lived with Jon: I'm tidy, but he's clean.  I can't stand remnants of onion skin scattered around the kitchen floor or a crumpled piece of paper sitting right next to the bin. Jon... isn't bothered by any of that.  He'll leave half-empty glasses on the windowsill for a week and washed but unfolded laundry in the hamper until it's all been worn again and needs to go back into the machine.  Jon will probably disagree* with me on this, but he's not tidy.  It just doesn't come naturally to him.

Thank goodness Jon shines where I fall short.  I hate cleaning.  I will spend an hour arranging the books on my bookshelves and making sure the dishwasher is stacked to maximize space and straightening out my closet.  However, I cannot come up with enough excuses to avoid actually scrubbing and vacuuming and mopping.  I mean, sure, I'll wipe up spills in the kitchen and brush crumbs from the table into a napkin, but I find deep cleaning incredibly stressful and I avoid it whenever I can.  Jon, on the other hand, takes enormous pride in his cleaning skills.

Every few weeks, Jon will take an entire weekend afternoon to clean - and I mean really clean.  He'll be on his hands and knees in the tub, he'll angle himself for the most hidden corners in the kitchen, and he'll dive into every crevasse in the couch.  The man can't fold a shirt to save his life, but boy can he make an apartment sparkle!

Hopefully, when we live together again as husband and wife, our skills will complement each other; I won't mind tidying up after him on a daily basis and he won't mind being in charge of regular deep cleans. In the meantime, I've caved and hired help for my apartment - cleaners came last Saturday afternoon and will be coming back once a month every month until Jon arrives.  In my defense, it's really hard to do a proper job with Charlie around, wanting to be entertained. Fingers crossed that we won't need professionals anymore once there are two of us here!  But who knows?  The one piece of advice that young wives with full-time jobs consistently give me about my impending marriage is to hire a cleaner occasionally!

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*I'm really good about sending posts like this to Jon before I publish them to make sure he doesn't mind, but he hasn't seen this one yet.  It's okay, though, because I say nice things about him - right?  Eek.