Learning to Like Housework

Housekeeping is not a skill that comes easily to me. In fact, it is only since I married my husband, a pretty tidy person, that I stopped putting housework on the back burner and have been buckling down on getting the place cleaned up on a regular basis.
I've written before that in order to get your children to enjoy housework, you've first got to show them that you enjoy it. While housework is still not my favorite activity, I've started to enjoy it more and more lately. Here's how.

Learning to Like Housework

Attitude Adjustment

Learning to like housework takes an attitude adjustment, one that I'd fought for so long. Instead of considering it drudgery, actively try a shift in your mindset. Focus on the positive aspects of housework. By looking at all the great things housework offers you, you might even learn to like it. I know I have, and that definitely says a lot!

Great Things about Housework

• Sense of Accomplishment. It is not often that we see tangible results to our hard work. Housework is one of the few things we work at, and then see such a drastic change immediately. Housework gives such a sense of accomplishment; you can clearly see that you actually achieved something.
• A Free Gift. Without much money going around, gift exchanges don't happen to frequently in our household. Keeping house allows my husband to come home to a place that is relaxed and orderly. I view my housekeeping as a gift of appreciation, an easy way for me to show my husband how much I love him and appreciate his working long hours to support the family. Keeping in mind that this is a gift of love gives me the push to clean even when I might otherwise be doing different things.
• End Result. Once finished cleaning, your home is relaxed. Things are orderly and you're able to find what you need without feeling overwhelmed. A cleanliness and tidiness brings serenity to the household. 
• Free Workout. Physical labor of any kind burns calories. Think of all the calories being burned while doing that housework. Free gym- what's not to like?

Making Changes to Enjoy Housework

While working on changing your attitude accomplishes a great deal when learning to like housework, there are a few more tangible things that can be done differently which help housework become more enjoyable.
Listen to Music. Clean to the beat of drums, dance to the music while tidying up. Use music to make housekeeping more enjoyable.
Watch TV or Movies. If you anyhow will be catching up on the soaps, take advantage of that time to fold and sort your laundry, iron your clothes, or sweep the floor. The entertainment will make the cleaning go faster, and you will have ensured that you did not waste too much time glued to the boob tube.
Meditate. Cleaning is an activity that uses relatively little brain power. I clean on autopilot and use my cleaning time as a chance to meditate and to think about anything and everything. Cleaning is my quiet time to reflect on life and ponder solutions to whatever may be ailing me. I love the fact that cleaning is mindless work. Many of my blog posts have actually been written in my head while working at my cleaning job.
Double Up. Cleaning up with someone else halves the work and is quite enjoyable. I actually look forward to those evenings where my husband and I are washing up, side by side. I even consider it a date of sorts. (A little pathetic, I know.)
Clean With Your Kids. Nothing cuter than watching little children sort laundry or wash your dishes. At first, they may be more of a hindrance than help, but with enough practice, they'll soon want to take over your job, easing your burden of household chores. In the meantime, they'll add some spunk to the housework.
Clean at a Convenient Time. Don't clean up right before you're about to mess up. Seeing your hard work go down the drain instantly is a surefire way to disappoint yourself. Clean at a quiet time of day, a time that your work won't be quickly undone. I clean up the bedroom in the morning, so it can go as many hours as possible before getting messed up; kitchen clean up happens only after supper has been prepared. Chose a time to make sense so your hard work lasts.
Clean Often. The longer you wait between cleaning, the more overwhelming the job becomes. By keeping on top of the housework, you're able to accomplish the work in more manageable chunks as opposed to feeling hopeless when you see you have hours worth of work to do.