Clean House = Clean Mind | In the Middle of Nowhere - Blog of contemporary erotic romance author Karen Erickson

June 12, 2007

2:23 pm • Filed under: Writing

So I’d been stressing out last week. I wasn’t motivated, couldn’t write, didn’t want to clean. I’d look around the house and think, “Nah.” I’d sit down at my computer, open up a Word doc and think, “Nah.” I’d go into the kitchen and look in the pantry and say out loud, “Hey kids you want cereal for dinner?”

Yeah, I sucked. Big time.

So Friday night it hit me. I was all keyed up and anxious - and I couldn’t even pinpoint what it was. I glanced around, caught sight of the scattered toys all over the floor, the jumble of crap on my desk and I realized…

I seriously needed to clean house.

My messy house was making me anxious. Cluttering up my brain so I could barely see straight! Saturday morning I woke up bright and early, ate breakfast, checked my email, IM’d with friends for a few scant minutes and then off I went. On a crazed cleaning binge.

I tossed toys, rearranged my kids’ stuff, purged the living room, and basically cleaned everything for a solid eight hours. Eight hours! I only took a half hour for lunch. I was exhausted by the end of the day and of course I couldn’t write but let me tell you this. I felt a thousand times better. A million times better.

Now I have to admit that with two children under the age of four and a husband and teenage son with lacking pick-up skills, the house isn’t in the best shape but it’s all surface. I can clean it up in a few minutes. And I feel at peace. “Serenity now!” is with me (thank you Seinfeld - well really George’s dad but that’s beside the point).

Let’s see how long this lasts…