Kon Marie Method

Every Monday, Carrie comes to help me clean my house. And for a brief moment in time -- everything is in order...and all is right with the world.

Now, that doesn't mean I do NOTHING. Quite the opposite. Everybody who has a cleaning lady knows that you must CLEAN BEFORE THEY COME. For crying out loud, if Carrie saw how this house looked on a typical Sunday night -- she would never come within ten miles of the place!!

Before she walks in my door, I've already picked up the kids toys, stripped the beds and washed all the dishes. None of that is a good use of my precious Carrie Time...

Last week, I had to kill a gigantic spider who was building a village in my bathroom window. Carrie has quite a spider phobia, and if she saw the size of that thing, she'd never come back...!!

Every Monday, Carrie runs through my house like Grant took Richmond...She scrubs the bathroom and kitchen floors, puts away a ton of dishes, hangs clothes up, vacuums, makes the beds and dusts every room. She knows where everything goes...and she puts the hair brushes under the vanity in the sink, and stacks the jigsaw puzzle boxes in a chair near the puzzle table.

But it's the EXTRA jobs Carrie does that make my life worth living. If I have a trip, Carrie helps me to pack or unpack, as needed.  And all the seasonal jobs that are SO MUCH WORK -- it would be overwhelming. I don't know what I'd do without her help.

Next week, she'll pack my summer clothes in tubs and bring my winter clothes up from the basement. She will fold and color code my winter tops. In the spring, she power washes the porch and brings up the cushions for the porch furniture. One day soon -- she'll reverse that process, wrap those colorful cushions in cotton sheets and pack them away in storage as we button up the porch for winter. When it's needed, Carrie cleans the refrigerator or the oven. Every now and then, she even helps me clean out the trunk of my car...or deliver bags of outgrown clothes and toys along with overflowing books BACK to the Goodwill store.

Most of the time, I'm here on Monday when Carrie comes. We have a system...whereby I get out of her way. I go to the basement and sort through the week's worth of laundry. I'll fold a basket full of towels, and John's many golf shirts. I don't bother folding the underwear or pairing the socks (the secret is to ALWAYS BUY THE SAME BRAND of socks)...I stay in the basement, listening to a book on tape, folding clothes while Carrie puts my house in order. I might do a little sewing or mending, but when I hear the vacuum running, I know she's almost done...and she'll be coming down the steps to help me bring up the last basket of clothes.

And I am grateful.   Everybody needs a little help now and then, I'm just sayin'...

Speaking of folding clothes -- have you seen this?  Apparently, it's ALL THE RAGE...and I might add this to my Monday routine...