Sometimes, I think I make cleaning harder by thinking of it as yucky, time-consuming, and boring, and so it was no small stroke of luck that I happened upon Martha Stewart on the Oprah Winfrey Show last week. Her job when she was in prison was cleaning carpets and waxing floors. "It was so dirty!" she exclaimed. "But you know, that place was sparkling when I left." It was the first time I actually envied prisoners.
Forget the elaborate cakes and hand-made crafts; what I really want to know is how, exactly, Martha Stewart came to have such a good attitude about what any sane person would find intolerably menial. "I had the best time!" she said when describing how she learned to run an industrial rug cleaner.
This weekend, I tried a little of Martha's attitude on for size. Instead of draaaaaaging myself up and lamenting every minute spent wiping the counters and mopping the floor, I said to myself: I'm having the best time! I didn't entirely fool myself, but it did make it a little easier.