a sink full of dirty dishes

Since I have become a work-at-home mom and have been living on our own, I do all of the household chores except for the laundry and ironing. So when I met up with some of my mommy friends, Jacq and I had a chat about doing household chores and I mentioned about washing the dishes even at 1 a.m. She was bewildered and it is simply because I can't stand a sink full of dirty dishes, pots and pans. So no matter how tired I am at night, I will not go to sleep without washing those and keeping the sink and kitchen spick and span. Hubby helps me during the weekends and when my mom stays with us, she does the dish washing. But what they don't know is that after they have done washing, I still clean the sink. It's one of the things I'm OC about. I'm sure all of us have one or few things as our pet peeves, and mine is the sink and the kitchen.  It is not that I am not happy with their job, it is just that I am not at ease when somebody else washes our dishes.

Another thing I'm OC about is the bathroom. Cleaning the bathroom is therapeutic for me. When I have a lot going in my mind, I clean the bathroom. Sometimes when I am sad or depressed, I clean the whole house! I am no domestic goddess, but I like to put negative energy into good use. And now I realized that it is no use for us to get house help because I have already established a personal system of doing household chores on my own. Besides, it is an advantage to live in a small space. Our condo unit is easy to maintain because I surely don't have a large space to take care of. The challenge is keeping everything neat and organized because of the limited space we have.

I wish that being a work-at-home mom means spending a little time in front of the computer, watching TV or movie, cooking leisurely and sleeping early, but I can't pretend and it's not even close to that. Working from home meeting deadlines, taking care of a very energetic 5-year-old boy and keeping my husband happy are some things that I have managed quite well through the years. I am not complaining and in fact I am thankful that I am able to do all of these without having to go out of the house to work. It's just that I can't stand a dirty sink--it's one thing I will definitely always be OC about.