The Oreos

I stumbled across this quote during the first leg of sheltering – 10 wild months ago...

"Cleaning with kids in the house is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos."

It cracked me up. With two full-grown boys, my husband, two dogs and myself, cleaning my house felt like a losing battle. But I tried.

With my life turned upside down, I inadvertently did the same to my house. In April, I had to move all my commercial kitchen supplies into my basement, which required me to move other boxes to storage, but only after I moved storage spaces.

I shredded files, swept the garage, donated bags and bags, and picked weeds out of my patio. I vacuumed crumbs from drawers, degreased my oven filters, and drove my styrofoam and old receivers to Abt Electronics to recycle. I also literally took apart my refrigerator, scoured it and put it back together. When I fully dismantled my stove down to the gas tubes, my son finally asked, "What are you going to do when there's nothing left to clean?" "Oh, there's always something to clean," I assured him – and myself.

Eventually, I made my way through the big jobs and found a rhythm with this new everyday mess. Anyway, despite all of that, my file cabinet got stuffed again, my storage closet filled back up, my garage re-cluttered with new things I moved out. My Container Store dream of a home just doesn't exist. And I don't want that house anyway.

Like your brick-and-mortar house, the real house you live in – your body – holds stuff. They say the hips are the junk drawer of our body – things you didn't even know you had settle there. Junk in the trunk. Pain in the back body is symbolic of stuff we push to the back of our drawers – if you can't see it, it's not there, right? We humans like to stuff stuff back. Your shoulders and arms represent love – they are the extension of your heart. A little hug, a little love. Hamstrings hold fear – tight hamstrings prevent us from fully bowing into faith. Letting go can be uncomfortable.

When you set out to clean up YOUR house, you might go for the overhaul. People may offer you this ideal, and wanting that, you sign up. Rip out everything that isn't serving you – but put it where? You might clean up one room, drop that stuff in another, only to find it months later shoved under a bed. You get the point. You can't strip your house clean while you're living in it. I'm not able to move out of MY house, so this mess is mine. Learning to flow from room to room, cleaning up what I can, is the practice. Overhauls only last for a little while. Things move out, things move in. My house is lived in. Eventually, we just need to learn how to manage the mess.

Join me to discover how THIS Sunday for my Online 5-Day Deep Cleanse, 1/17-1/22, $125. This is honestly my favorite thing to do. I hope you'll join me for this relatable and realistic approach to living a healthy life. Sign up by Saturday to get your shopping list in time!