We dream of having a clean house – but who dreams of actually doing the cleaning?
— Marcus Buckingham
It should come as a shock to no one that being happy your bathroom is clean is very different from being happy while cleaning your bathroom. It should be equally unsurprising that I didn’t get around to this “happiness task” until about a day after the last possible moment.
Origin Story
I first encountered our bathroom in the fall of 2017. I was a newlywed, fresh off the plane from our honeymoon in Portugal, and my new husband and I were (unbeknownst to us) nearing the end of our first foray into the housing market. We had been casually working with a real estate agent (Hi Brenda!) for almost a year, dipping our toes into an absolutely scalding housing market. We had just raised our maximum price for the third time because, while a “cute little starter home” sounds nice, we are the least handy people we know and the term “fixer-upper” gave me heart palpitations. One day around this time, Tyler sent me a listing along with the words “HA can you imagine? There’s no way it looks like this in real life.”
You see, like many other folks in our price range, we had been cleverly “catfished” by listing photos more times than I can count, so by month six we were well on our way to becoming hardened skeptics. This particular house was only slightly out of our price range and looked so good in the photos that we arranged a viewing, mostly as a joke (sorry Brenda). To tell a long and predictable story short, the house ended up being exactly like the pictures and, after shockingly little deliberation, we put an offer in.
What, you may ask, were the major selling points? In order:
- Recently and beautifully renovated (read: we didn’t have to be handy)
- The upstairs bathroom
- The kitchen
- The upstairs bathroom
We loved the staging photos so much (clearly) that we downloaded them off the real estate website before the sale closed, partly to show people a clean version of our new house, and partly to remind us why we walked through the door in the first place.
Ode to Toilette
As strange as it sounds, the bathroom (this specific bathroom) is one of my favourite rooms in the house. Not only is it wonderfully functional – double sinks, updated fixtures, you can fit about six people in the shower (if that’s your thing) – it is also aesthetically pleasing. It is one of the first and last things I see every day (literally, it’s where I put on and remove my glasses). It also represents calm, clean, and the start of a new day. It is also full of hotel toiletries and expired products, but that’s another whole thing…
While the room was indeed beautiful the way we found it, my twice-daily rituels de toilette are made even better by the small elements we brought with us. I love the monogrammed hand towels (“F” for me, “M” for him) that we got as a wedding present; I love the little counter-top fern; I love the museum-mounted World War Two propaganda poster; I love the eucalyptus spray bottle in the shower; I love the hand-made soap dish by the sink.
It may sound strange, but I love my bathroom.
More Sinks More Problems
I’m not sure who I was kidding when I imagined myself spending hours every day this week cleaning different parts of my bathroom. Years ago I could picture myself as a hyper-vigilant cleaner (I even bought a book about it shortly after moving into my first apartment), but now, deep-cleaning the bathroom is one of those chores that I just seem to put off.
I thought about cleaning the bathroom every day this week but insteading of motivating me, it just bummed me out. On Saturday morning, after days of telling myself that today is the day, I looked at my husband and said “I know I’ll be happier when the bathroom is clean, but I really don’t want to clean it right now”. He then said something that really shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did: “Don’t worry about it, I’ll help you clean the bathroom later”.
Maybe it’s because I’m the one doing this self-directed “How to be Happy” project or maybe it’s another reason entirely, but for some reason it had never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be the only one cleaning the bathroom this week. After all, I’m rarely the only one who cleans our bathroom (taking a bath doesn’t count as cleaning the tub, right?). As soon as I had help it became much easier. After dinner (and a couple of drinks) I put on the music at full volume and grabbed the cleaning supplies. It turns out that many hands and party tunes make light work.
Close Enough?
Have I found the key to Happiness? While the whole world was meditating, doing charity work, and hugging each other, it turns out you just have to put your hand in the toilet. * eye roll*. But seriously, my biggest takeaway this week? A clean bathroom makes me “little h” happy but it turns out I don’t have to be the one cleaning it. The happiness, in this particular room, does not come from the toil(et). Yes it’s a job well done, but honestly I’d rather spend the time doing almost anything else (you know, a dance party without the toilet brush). Maybe the secret to Happiness here is in keeping the bathroom clean, but knowing me I’m sure I’ll never find out! (But seriously I doubt it).
In the meantime I’ll look in my recently-cleaned mirror, take a deep breath, and keep trying!
Sources
45 Things You Can Do to Get Happy No Matter Where You Are
Courtney Johnston | @CourtRJ | ( http://www.rulebreakersclub.com/) on Lifehack.org
Soap Dish from Sarah’s Soaps, made by Kayla Marie Ceramics
How to Be Happy 