by Rebecca Mikulin

Created on: March 20, 2009

I'm thinking of a word that elicits more groans than almost any other word in the English language...housework. I bet right now you're thinking about all the things you should be doing instead of sitting in front of your computer screen, yet just thinking about that pile of work is discouraging you from getting up and tackling it head-on. I've heard people tell me again and again that anyone who has kids will never be caught up with their housework. While it may be true that the house may never be truly spotless with kids (and husbands!) running along behind to mess it up, I had to believe that I could be a lot more caught up than I was.

Here's me not so long ago: I did laundry on a daily basis, I picked up the living room five times a day, I washed dishes until I had no more room to put them to dry and I washed and vacuumed like nobody's business. At the end of the day I'd gotten none of my home business work done and the house looked just as bad as it had that morning. My other half would come home and look at the freshly-strewn toys all over the living room and still more dirty dishes in the sink and deduce that I hadn't been doing anything all day.

Gets pretty disheartening, huh? Imagine how I felt when I was still working a full-time job outside the home and trying to get all this done while squandering away what little time I had with my son over a sink of dirty dishes. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the greatest housekeeper...I was raised in cramped and cluttered houses and it simply doesn't bother me that much. Sure it feels a lot better when it's NOT cramped and cluttered, but I definitely have a lack of motivation when it comes to cleaning all day for something that's just going to have to be done again tomorrow (if not this evening!). Does this sound familiar to anyone? I figured there has to be a way to get a little more caught up and there absolutely must be a way that I can get enough done that I don't feel guilty every time I try to relax.

Finally, I sat down and came up with a strategy for getting this house CLEAN and minimizing the frustrations. I've got to tell you that with a two-year-old, three dogs, a cat, and a significant other who works with concrete all day, the frustrations in cleaning are many, especially when I have my own business to run on top of it all. My biggest quirk is that I have to feel like I actually accomplished something in my day. If I can't see a difference, I fall into a nasty cycle of depression that is only

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