101 Ways to Avoid REAL Cleaning

And by REAL cleaning, I mean having your entire house clean at once. Having everything organized and tidy. Having NICE things displayed around your house. REAL cleaning.

1-10. start a blog. This counts for the first ten of the 101 reasons because you then need to: think of a topic each day, take pictures, sort the pictures, resize the pictures, edit the pictures, load the pictures, copy/paste code for the pictures, add captions to the pictures, edit typing, preview/post)

11-30. Have three kids. This has to count for at least 20 of the 101 reasons because there's the laundry, laundry, laundry, LAUNDRY, cleaning up toys, toys, toys, and MORE TOYS, milk spills, yogurt smears, PB&J disasters, cereal crumbs, broken items, poopy diapers, runny noses, lost shoes, knotted shoes, unsnapped pants, bedtime routines, and play-doh.

31-40. Enroll your children in activities. Between driving to the bus stop for Emily, preschool for Jared, and ballet for Emily (and soon to be Storytime for Connor), most of our morning is totally shot. Driving BACK to get Jared from preschool, BACK to the bus stop for Emily, and home from ballet (and soon to be home from storytime for Connor), most of our afternoon is shot as well. Oh, and get for get the drive to pick Emily up from art class and bring her back home. And Jared will be starting SOMETHING soon (gymnastics?).

41-45. Take up knitting. Between browsing the internet for free patterns and ideas, shopping for yarn, purchasing the appropriate style and size of needles, doing a swatch, then actually working on a project (which can take several hours of several days/weeks depending on what you work on!), you can really "waste" a lot of time. Knitted items are great gifts (can't tell you how many baby hats I've done over the last 11 months since I learned to knit!)

45-50. Have three kids. They get to count for some more, because it never fails that I've nicely cleaned up the floors, and someone comes along and spills something, tracks in dirt, etc. And it never fails that I've neatly organized all the toys and suddenly everything is stuffed up on the shelves and into random bins. And I'm forever soothing sad children about the missing truck, hair clip, sippy cup, etc that was RIGHT THERE the last time they looked. LOL

51-60. Get married (I didn't say these were in any actual particular order)... It never fails that I find whiskers in the sink after he shaves, shoes, wallet, and hats and socks wherever he chooses to leave them, dirty dishes on the coffee table, dining table, counter, or sink (when the dishwasher is full of dirty dishes), and he never makes his side of the bed.

61-75. Have an INHERITED clutter problem. I'm blaming this entirely on my mother. LOL Give me a flat surface and I will figure out a way to cover it. Craft desk? Too covered in card stock, ribbon, fancy scissors, glue dots, etc to actually SIT AND DO CRAFTS. Computer desk? littered with scraps of paper containing important notes, reminders, "to do" lists, drawings from the kids, CD's of digital pictures, preschool STUFF (since I'm in charge of the monthly working schedule). Kitchen counter? School projects, school reminders, pictures waiting to be mailed out, bills, coupons, etc.

75-80. Learn to sew. Buying patterns, material, embellishments, cutting/pinning, and actually sewing can take YEARS of your life (I should know, I just spent a total of about 30 hours working on Em's Little Bo Peep costume for Halloween once all was said and done). This almost NEVER saves you money, but it's something fun to do.

81-90. Make your own cards. You might save yourself a lot of money over time, but the time spent choosing card stock colors, cutting out several different things on the Cricut machine to test out on the card, coordinating ribbon, flowers, accent colors, getting it all laid out, reorganized, glued down, delivered, you can easily have spent a full hour (or more!) creating just the perfect card. And very often you have a grand idea and after an hour of going crazy trying to make that idea work out, you give up and move onto idea #2. (that's part of the fun for me, is having an idea and making it work, or seeing it morph into something entirely different than what I'd sat down to do). This is a worth-while way to spend your time because everyone appreciates the effort that goes into a home-made card, plus it's very satisfying to creat SOMETHING from NOTHING.

91-95. Own a computer. The possibilites are endless, but I can easily find time to check my email, update my blog, read several other blogs I've bookmarked, check in with my mommy websites/support groups, and look-up just about ANYTHING (I'm currently scoping out Halloween costume ideas ON CLEARANCE on several websites to get a jump start CHEAPLY for next year!)

96-100. Own a phone. By the time you coordinate playdates, schedule doctor appointments, call preschool families with reminders, talk with out of town friends and family, and call around for this and that, you've lost valuable time of your cleaning day that way as well.

101. Be good at making excuses. I'm totally NOT one of those people! LOL