As you probably already know, January 5 of this year we sold the cleaning part of our business to DA Burns of Seattle. After 25 years of being a professional cleaner-among other things-I'm now a retired cleaner. Laughing hysterically!! There is no such thing as a retired cleaner. Every morning I get up and brush my teeth, take a shower, clean my clothes, wash dishes, clean house, clean out the car, clean out my files, clean out my to-do list and my in box. Actually the only thing I have stopped when in comes to cleaning is getting paid to clean!!! Now any cleaning I do is for free. I'm a volunteer cleaner.
Does anyone besides me see the irony in this?
Tonight after cleaning out files all day, I cleaned my office. After "stopping" my cleaning profession, I took a bit of a vacation from my normal everyday cleaning. After all, I'm done cleaning, right? If only!!!! Life goes on and someone forgot to tell the dust bunnies I don't clean anymore.
Here is the thing. Cleaning is good for the soul. No matter how much you would love to give away your to-do list of cleaning. Cleaning makes your life feel better. It freshen up your space and therefore it freshens up your spirit. Cleaning brings clarity to your life and helps life make sense.
For most of my life cleaning seems to have followed me around. No matter how hard I have tried to ignore her, forget about her, turn my back on her and even despise her, she is always there for me. She is forever gently prodding me and offering me her wisdom.
As a girl on the farm, cleaning was on the very bottom of the totem pole. It was the last thing I wanted to do when there were fences to build and cows to feed. But somehow almost magically, I became a professional cleaner. Can you imagine that? Now after 25 years as a professional cleaner I have officially given up cleaning as my profession. And yet as I put thoughts to paper, it is pretty clear, cleaning is going to continue to be part of my life.
As I write this I remember when my grandma Lois was in her 90's, she told me "Denise, when it comes to cleaning, you might as well make the best of your time because it isn't going anywhere".
Now that I don't get paid to actually clean, maybe I can become a cleaning philosopher? A cleaning writer. Maybe a writer that tells good clean jokes!! I don't know, but I'm guessing my life as a cleaner is not complete, I am not retired. I just moved my stuff around so I could look at cleaning from yet another angle.
From my cleaning closet to yours, I wish your path of life's little chores to be one of friendship and not dread.
Denise
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