This post is sponsored by Clorox and The Motherhood.
I just don’t understand. I wait and I wait. I leave food out. I even ask nicely. And still, the cleaning fairies don’t come to my house.
They don’t visit. They don’t call. And they certainly don’t empty my dishwasher or fold my laundry.
It doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen those commercials – the ones with the bubbles? The bubbles that talk AND CLEAN YOUR BATHTUB WHILE YOU’RE GONE? It turns out those animated bubbles aren’t real. Yeah. I know. The shock, it is unbearable.
I’ve tried some fancy cleaning products. You know what happens when I spray my bathtub and walk away? White streaks appear in my otherwise Not White tub. Granted, the bathroom briefly smells lovely, but my porcelain (and plastic) is certainly not sparkling.
So, in case you’re just now joining us, my house is being visited by neither cleaning fairies nor magical cartoon bubbles. And since that leaves the cleaning business to me, my house is kind of filthy.
Not messy. At least, not always. I can usually keep the clutter at least tamed, if not permanently eliminated. But actual cleaning? The kind that requires spray bottles and sponges and rags and brooms? Yeahhhh, I hate it. And so I haven’t been doing it.
Last fall, I thought I had a solution. A friend told me about the woman who cleaned her house, and I decided that I could scrape enough money out of our budget to have her clean my house, too.
Unfortunately, the woman who cleaned my friend’s house is allergic to cats. Which is kind of ironic – or annoying; I always question my use of the word “ironic,” thank you Alanis Morrissette – considering my cats create a solid majority of the dirt in my house.
Not to worry, she recommended another cleaning lady, who I promptly called and scheduled. She was super duper nice, but alas, didn’t clean my house the way I wanted.
Which is ironic – or ridiculous [side note: I really need to learn the proper usage of the word “ironic.”] – considering I’M not cleaning my house the way I want, either.
So, now I’m back to cleaning my own house (or not cleaning it…).
I’m not happy about that, but I will tell you one thing: Cleaning products that actually do what they promise – especially if they make cleaning easier! – help me hate this situation a little bit less.
Enter: Clorox and SMART TUBE® TECHNOLOGY.
The new SMART TUBE® TECHNOLOGY is a built-in tube that reaches all the way to the bottom of the bottle, putting an end to the frustration of wasting the last little bit of cleaning product you paid good money for! Clorox also points out that this technology gives consumers the satisfaction of spraying every last drop.
Well, I cannot argue with that! If I ever get to the end of a bottle of cleaning product (especially one like Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner + Bleach or Formula 409 Cleaner that actually gets my house CLEAN), I will definitely feel satisfied. And, you know, like I finally conquered my aversion to cleaning!
The new Clorox spray bottles equipped with SMART TUBE® TECHNOLOGY also feature a new and improved trigger that makes it easier to spray to your heart’s content.
Here’s the real good news. [No, I’m not sending actual cleaning fairies your way. Sorry.] Clorox is giving away five bottles of cleaning product with this fancy, handy new technology to one lucky Giving Up on Perfect reader.
To enter the giveaway: Leave a comment telling me one thing that would make cleaning easier for you. And do it now, because this giveaway will close at midnight (CST) on Tuesday, April 9.
This post is brought to you by Clorox and The Motherhood, and I’ve been compensated for my time. However, all opinions [and aversions to cleaning] are my own.
Uninterrupted time and enormous amounts of coffee would help me with keeping up with cleaning!
I think winning some sort of an award would make cleaning easier for me! Woo-hoo, did you see how she totally knocked out that entire counter of dirty dishes in less than 15 minutes? (Applause , hooting and hollering!) And THEN she went on to wipe down the inside of her microwave and the top of the stove? (Bells ringing, signs flashing…) 500 points for Gryffindor!
The one thing that would make cleaning EASIER would be to get rid of the boys… but reality says they are going to be with me another 8-10 years, so that probably won’t work! *grin* What has really worked for me in the past has been to have a consistent schedule & then stick to it.
what would make cleaning easier for me? a schedule that actually worked and MOTIVATION!
More time would help. Oh and these kids. I’m holding out hope they’ll help as they get older, which would help the lack of time issue.
Time & most importantly energy. That is the biggest thing that I’ve noticed since I’ve been pregnant. I don’t have the time or energy to get the cleaning done. Apparently I’m going to have to stock up on both this week and suck it up because my family and my in-laws will be at my house before we head to my baby shower! (And for the record, I don’t have any illusions of regaining that time or energy in 2 months once my little boy arrives!)
Cleaning would be easier for me if I didn’t know it was going to get dirty again in T minus thirty seconds! That makes it hard to get motivated!
SO TRUE!!
Maybe no fairies, but what about a non-harmful, legal energy pill that would have no side effects and give me about sixty minutes of energy in the evening. By then, I’m so tired, I don’t even bother. Or, maybe the pill could have two parts, one that goes to my toddler to help her think that only one bedtime story is enough, stuffed animals don’t have to watch her brush her teeth, I don’t have to sing certain songs in certain order while I tuck her in and “leave door open”. Heck, maybe just one pill if I didn’t have to do the rest, I’d still have some energy left :)
Somehow I clean best when I know company is coming. If only there was a way to fool my mind into thinking they were coming, get the house cleaned, and then maybe found out they couldn’t make it.
Having enough products to put in all the places I need/use them would make cleaning easier. And, really? You’d think it’d be simple enough to do that. But, somehow, I have yet to get that system in place…
Hmmm…the ONE thing would honestly be if my kids would quit taking things out of the cabinets and quit dropping food under the table. Kids. They sure are messy, but I do love them :)
If it didn’t get dirty again so fast that would make cleaning easier for sure! And I would also say products that actually do what they say they do!!
monk5 at charter dot net
I purposefully waited to comment until after the contest because I am not actually a fan of their products because the fumes alone make me sick (pregnancy nose aside)… but I wanted to comment. Because as always, your honesty & humor get to me every time – I love it! Thank you for being so real here. Also, I just plain hate cleaning too. But in EVERY way. Even the keeping it non-messy side. I just can’t keep up. I don’t know how people do it. How the heck am I going to do it when I have a baby if I can’t even do it now?!?! Yipes. Terrified. No one is ever going to want to visit my house again. Ever. :( Blarg.