Big Weekend Plans

I can tell I'm getting older when my big weekend plans look like this:

Saturday
8:00AM - Pilate's Class (I missed Monday's class due to the aforementioned procedure)
9:30AM - Trip to Cabinet Shop to look at Stains and Hardware for custom bookshelf units
10AM 'til I drop - Thoroughly clean the house. To include as listed below...
-Kitchen: clean off counters, straighten drawers and cabinets, wipe down appliances, clean out fridge and freezer. Also, run the self-clean feature on the oven. Love.
-Bathroom: do the normal stuff plus take off the shower drain cover and clean out that area. That's always good for a nice gag or two.
-Pantry: finish organization project started Wednesday night.
-Dust: all wood surfaces including wood blinds. Hope that I don't trip and fall (like I ALWAYS do) exiting the master tub after dusting those blinds. It's a corner tub and I have to use a step stool set in the tub. To misquote the knight in Indiana Jone's Last Crusade "I chose poorly." Word of advice - avoid corner tubs if you have a choice!
-Vacuum: furniture, floors, & fabric blinds. That cat and dog fur really gets spread around.
-Damp Mop: wood floors.
-Hand scrub: tile floors.
-Laundry: our clothes, sheets, towels, upstairs dog bed.
-At some point remember to clean the litter box and feed the cats. I anticipate that this will occur shortly after they track litter over my freshly cleaned floors.

Sunday
All Day - Attempt to finish list from Saturday. Plus make pot roast for dinner.

I'm thinking that I'm going to tackle some of these area's in 15 minute segments, as suggested by the Fly Lady. Or whatever her name is. It really makes sense. Especially if you have such a huge list of things to accomplish.

I have to confess, I'm not obsessed with cleaning. Frankly, it's not even at the top of my list of priorities. Luckily, DH is also not obsessed with things being perfect, but we both have our limits at which point we demand the other cleans up his or her mess. And with going up to Wintergreen on the weekends, things have slipped even more than the normal level.

This is something I have thought recently. How is it that some people can live with a low-level amount of grunge (I'm not talking my great-aunts wing chair fabric which was greasy and black from years of accumulated grime; I'm talking the house being a little dusty or whatever), and there are other people who can't go to bed without everything being put back into place, put away, etc.? I know this is a spectrum, not a black-white issue, because there are certainly things each of us can live with that someone else can't live with, but in general there seem to be clean-freaks and non-clean-freaks.

I'm curious, where everyone else falls on this spectrum. How many of you feel like your house is always ready for an unexpected visitor? Like me, do you need 10 minutes notice to pick up/put away the clutter of daily living? Or, do you think I need to pay more attention to cleaning my house on a regular basis?

Also, I've been thinking about this in regards to babies/children. Once I have a baby will I get obsessed with things being clean on their behalf? Has anyone had or seen this happen? I know childrearing theories can certainly change once one becomes a parent, but I really hope to be the parent whose child remembers her for her fullness of love and not because I'm obsessed with everything being perfectly clean and organized all the time.

(ahem, like my MIL - good lord that woman is obsessed with putting things away. I like to reuse a glass over the course of the day, one small effort towards not using excess water, etc. There have been times when I've been at their house, emptied the glass, and not immediately refilled it, leaving it on the kitchen counter for my next drink. Next thing I know, I look for the glass and it's been put in the dishwasher. I've also had to be quite firm that at MY house we ALL enjoy each other's company at the table - the dinner place and serving dishes can wait on the counter until we finish dessert.)