Confession of a lapsed domestic goddess

I have aspirations to be a domestic goddess, but judging by the state of my house at the moment, I think aspirations are the closest I'm ever going to get! Where do people find the time?

For me, a tidy house definitely means a tidy mind. Mess makes me feel anxious and I'm one of those people who will procrastinate by tidying my desk before actually getting on with meeting that important impending deadline. Mess is like a buzzing in my ears - it stops me from being able to fully relax. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no clean-freak - by mess I'm referring not to dirt, but general clutter and untidiness. And I don't lust after a minimal look either. I have plenty of stuff, I just like it to be neat and arranged nicely (the stylist in me is never off duty).

But life gets in the way, doesn't it? And I either need to get over my need for order, and find a way to relax despite the mess, or I need to use my very precious free time to tidy it up.

Before Christmas I decided to apply my obsessive considerable organisational skills to finding a solution to the problem and I devised a cleaning rota (got to love Excel Spreadsheets) so I spread all the cleaning tasks out over the week to make it more manageable. I followed it for about a week (there were even boxes so I could tick off each task as I did it) and felt very virtuous and in-control and then... well.... I stopped. I went on an unofficial and indefinite cleaning strike, started blogging in earnest, discovered Twitter, and got sucked into a black hole of internet addiction.

Spring has awoken my slumbering standards, and I've realised that I'll feel a whole lot better if I keep on top of the housework (or at least make some sort of effort). Last weekend Young Daddy took the babies off for a bit and did I put my feet up and relax? Not me! I was a flurry of tidying and sorting. Because I know that it is one thing that I can have control over, and will ultimately make me feel less stressed. My aim is to try to blitz the house over the next couple of days, so that I can try to reinstate the rota.

We're also stuck in a food rut, but I'll save that for another post! How do you manage to keep on top of it all? What are you neurotic about? Or should I just save pennies somewhere else and get myself a cleaner?