Think of something that you really, really don’t like doing. But not just anything: something that is, despite it’s horribleness, an unfortunate necessity and therefore sometimes just has to be done.

It might be that you hate giving that presentation to your colleagues at your office. It might be that you dread having that first date with that person whom you’re not sure you like or not yet. It might be that you loathe meeting up with your family in the coming Holiday season. Or it might be that you detest archiving those piles of papers that have covered your coffee table.

Luckily, I happen to quite enjoy presenting in front of a crowd. I am more comfortable with having a date with someone I’m not sure about yet, than someone I already dislike or adore. Both my and Matt’s family are gifts from heaven and I’m totally looking forward to next month’s festivities. And I quite like putting the right pieces of paper in the right binders.

My own personal horrific necessity is: cleaning the house.

Sadly enough it appears to be one of Matt’s horrors of life as well. Thus, we usually live in considerable chaos. Not worthy one of those reality shows that comes around to clean your house with two cleaning ladies and ten cameras that find rats and pieces of two year old pizza lying around. But still not as clean as most would have it.

Nevertheless, we do feel we need to clean up everything every once in a while. Otherwise in the end those two cleaning ladies and ten cameras might be the only ones willing to come to our house left. But it isn’t easy. In order to get things done we have to make some temporary chances in our minds. We have to make ourselves believe cleaning isn’t so bad at all. In fact, we need to create a little bubble to live in: the bubble inside which tidying up our house is actually quite fun.

All we have to do to create this bubble of fun, is follow our own special recipe: we pick a day, the day that will be our cleaning day. This is usually a Sunday. After a nice breakfast, for example pancakes, fresh orange juice and coffee, we start the cleaning ritual. One of us picks a cd, and while the music plays we clean, sing along and chat. When the cd is over we might do something else for a few minutes: drink some lemonade, pet the cat, some gaming on the playstation, kiss and cuddle, things like that. Then the other one picks a cd and we start cleaning again. Until the music ends and we take another break. Right after which the next cd is picked. And so on, and so on. Before we know it, it’s time to have dinner in our truly clean home.

Weirdly enough and despite the fact it’s hardly anything else but cleaning, having such a Sunday is definitely one of my favourite “Matt and I quality time” moments. It’s the best thing I’ve ever found out: you sometimes just have to fake yourself into believing that something stupid is actually quite fun.

If you dislike tidying up your house as well, I really recommend this ritual. Pick a day for it. Think of some fuel that will help you, music for instance, but maybe there’s something else you could use. Build in rewards for when you’ve achieved certain goals, like having put away all the stuff that had been lying around or having cleaned your toilet. A reward might be something to eat, or reading an article in your favourite magazine. Little things like that. Make it fun.

In my opinion, it’s the best way possible to make sure my home is neat enough to live in, even though I sincerely hate cleaning. And now I kinda wonder whether this would be a good way for people to fake themselves into enjoying presentations, archiving, first dates and families in the Holiday season as well…

Column published by Cecile on Monday, November 12th, 2007.

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