Just in case you’re spending the weekend cleaning house, we wanted to give you a writing assignment that might make all that dusting and sweeping and scrubbing and vacuuming feel more like research than time wasted. Or maybe you’re the kind of person who never feels that cleaning is time wasted.
Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.
~Christopher Morley
What exactly are your cleaning habits? Do you make your bed every morning? Does laundry pile up until you’re out of clean underwear? Is your nickname Neat Nick or Sloppy Joe? Do you make a conscious choice not to clean, ever, or do you delegate the cleaning to others — a kind and loving partner, your roommate, the kids, Mini Maids?
Cleanliness is almost as bad as godliness.
~Samuel Butler
For this writing practice, do a slow walk along the perimeter of the room in which you spend most your time. Start with your right foot. Walk slowly. You’re not in a rush to get anywhere. Let your eyes move around the room but don’t grab what’s in front of you. See it, let it go. Try not to mentally note what you see. Instead, take it in the way you might take in air. Breathe in, breathe out.
Cleanliness is next to impossible.
~Author unknown
Then go sit down and do a ten-minute practice on the topic “Everything I know about cleanliness…” Talk about where your notions of cleanliness came from. Talk about the products you use. Describe your grit in as much detail as you can. Air that dirty laundry.
Now go!
A band called The Smashing Pumpkins once said “Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness
And cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty…”
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Hey, a meditation on cleaning and cleanliness. I love it!! Finding the sublime in the mundane. I especially like walking around and feeling it. As I work with my imagination I find that I can expand my understanding with the imagination of touch. Thanks!
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Thanks for giving me the nudge to write about how I learned to clean house from watching television commercials, a story idea I’ve been storing for years. Not that my mother was a slob — far from it. I just came of age at a time when new products were proliferating, and moved from a very clean environment to a part of Boston where …
Okay. I’ll stop now and write this for real. Stay tuned. It may appear in my blog.
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Let us know if you do write about it on your blog/s. It’s interesting to see what topics bring up for different people. Something about cleaning seems connected to family, rituals passed on from parents and grandparents, imagery from TV (as you mention, Ritergal), feelings of control/out-of-control. It’s an oddly intimate and emotion-laden thing, cleaning.
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Pencil leaves the Dark track on a paper, but the viewers rejoice over the artistic stroke, and we talk about the color of LIGFT – what’s that?
The dirt is our attitude towards the life. The sunbeam enlightens the road we take and the dust reflects the light.
I rejoice over your blog and was happy to vote for you. I am going to add you to my blogroll and would greatly appreciate your reciprocal link.
Have a look at my pictures that indwell in my archives. You will have a good time there and I am eagerly looking for your comments and remarks.
Thank you
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I grew up in a messy house but then so did all my friends. When I moved into my first apartment at 20, I’d never been taught what cleaning products were used where… so I improvised.
Money was tight so I decided on one all purpose cleaner. My choice was Windex. I wasn’t allergic to it… and hey…it worked great on the glass, counters, floor, toilet, refrigerator and even as a wonderful insect eliminator.
In my early 30’s a product named “Fantastic” came out and I added it to my repertoire because I thought it was indeed “fantastic” finding something else I wasn’t allergic to.
In my mid 30’s…I was so pleased when the makers of “Fantastic” decide to expand their horizon and offer it in “Purple”. Of course, wanting to stay with up the times, I too switched to purple.
In my 40’s my job required me to work 60 plus hours. I had to hang up my paper towels and call in for back up. I hired “The Polish People”. I know that’s not the name of the company…but it’s a good description of the worker bees…and it’s the only one I can give.
In all these years I’ve actually never seen them. They come in on Fridays, do whatever it is they do…and leave. Oh, every once in a while I get a note about something being accidentally broken in the mad dash of dusting…and a Christmas Card with their signatures at the conclusion of every year.
Once, on a Friday, when I was sick in my bedroom, I thought aha! Today will be the day…I will finally meet “The Polish People”. Even though I was sick, I did shower and make myself presentable because I wanted to represent the house well. Alas, they saw my car in the driveway and didn’t want to disturb me…I caught a glimpse of a bumper as they pulled away…
Recently, I made changes to my life style and had to let my “Polish People” go. I will work less hours and therefore be able to do my own chores once again…but it was with a bittersweetness that I said good by… never knowing.
Today I bought Windex and Purple Fantastic.
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How’s a person supposed to get any cleaning done when they are laughing at the 3 quotes?
“cleanliness is indeed next to godliness”
“cleanliness is almost as bad as godliness”
“cleanliness is next to impossible”
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lone beader, I never knew the Smashing Pumpkins had a public commentary on cleanliness. 8)
Heather, it’s great how you broke the way you cleaned down into decades. Something I wouldn’t have thought of!
Leslie, I had the same reaction to the way ybonesy skillfully wove the quotes into the Topic post. I guess there is no one opinion on what it means to clean!
Thanks to everyone for your comments on this post. Can’t wait to see what else people write about cleaning!
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My mother was a pretty good housekeeper, chief cook and bottle washer type, but the repetitive nature of the beast got to her, I know. She decided, and lobbied for, all carpet to be created “dirt color”, and that houses should be built with all floors having a pitch to a center drain for easy hosing down.
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I love this idea of at last being able to see the people who clean your house and then they turn around when they see the car in the driveway. Probably without realizing it, they perpetuated the notion that the house is magically cleaned — you leave a wrecked house in the morning, then wa-la, it’s perfect when you return in the day.
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I noticed yesterday at the grocery store deli that they have exactly the same kind of quarry tile that I have in parts of my home. One of the deli workers was soaping up the floor with a suds-spurting hose. For I moment I thought, Hmmm, maybe I should try that at home.
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Tomas, thank you for voting for us on Fuel My Blog. Very kind of you.
I just today visited your blog, and I am inspired by your work and your story. Your interpretations, for example of dust and light, are enlightening. Ah, light. So much light.
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[…] Maybe that’s why this particular memory of folding clothes while watching TV comes to me again and again. And this, always this: She asks me to go get her a glass of water. I jump up and run to the kitchen. There on the counter is an open package of windmill cookies with almond slivers. I take a piece of a broken cookie, put it my mouth and let it melt while I fill up her glass. It is quiet in the house for once, just the sound of breathy voices coming from the television, and that stark sensation that daytime TV produces. While the the rest of the world is out doing what they do and Mom is here with me, doing what it is she does. -Based on a ten-minute practice from Topic Post, Cleanliness. […]
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