Blogger Meredith Ethington was sick of all those crazy cleaning guides on Pinterest — you know, the ones that assume women have nothing better to do with their lives than tidy up their houses with military precision. Who has the time?
So the mother of three designed her own Pinterest chart, called "A Real Mom's Guide To A Clean House." Her tips? On a daily basis, you should try to "pick up all stuff on floors and shove them in a closet." Weekly, you can "consider dusting, but just laugh." And monthly? "Consider burning house down because you're too far behind." (Check, check, and check.)
"I find myself overwhelmed with the daily tasks of just keeping the house picked up and staying on top of the laundry," Ethington told Woman's Day. "Yet I kept seeing all these guides on Pinterest that talk about how you can keep your house looking spotless in an hour or less per day."
Ethington hopes this guide will help moms put things in perspective. "I hope that moms will just take away that they don't have to be perfect," she said. "Yes, we need to clean our houses! But do they need to look like a magazine? No way. We do live here, after all."
While we think her guide is delightful — finally, a cleaning schedule we can get behind! — can we take it one step further next time and call it a "family's guide," not a "mom's" guide? Let's recognize that there are plenty of stay-at-home dads, as well as moms who work all day and have no time for any of this nonsense. Women may still do a disproportionate amount of housework compared to men, and many of us do it on top of our regular jobs — so it's time to share the responsibilities.
Check out the guide below: