Tell us a story: my beautiful laundrette

What is the most exotic or far-flung place where you've done laundry?

Life together (3)

How is your life together organized? Do you have specific chores for which you are each responsible, or do you just get around to things when they become an issue?  Are your two styles compatible in this regard?

Neglected

What is the area of your home that you always avoid tidying or cleaning?  Does this part of your home correlate with a neglected part of your inner life?  How might that be improved by a cleanup of the physical space?

Secret cleaning agent

What are the cleaning experiences that you've never told anyone about? Are there things that you clean in secret, when no one else is looking? Or do you have a cleaning secret, your own clever technique that makes cleaning up easier?

This week's theme is dirty and clean.

Now I feel dirty

Some things just feel dirty, even when they're not actually dirty or infectious. Is there something that makes you feel the need for hand washing (or some other form of cleaning), even though you'll admit it's not logically necessary?

This week's theme is dirty and clean.

Mt. Washmore

The ancient hero Hercules proved his strength by singlehandedly cleaning up some notoriously filthy stables. What is your claim to fame in the annals of cleaning? What monumental cleaning task did you take part in? What impossible stain did you expunge? What epic mess did you clean up?

This week's theme is dirty and clean.

Dirty and clean

What the dirtiest or messiest room in your home right now? And what's the cleanest or tidiest room?

This week's theme is dirty and clean.

In sharp contrast

What's an example of something in your life that's clean, organized, in good order, and well cared for? And what's something that's a mess, not quite working, and in desperate need of attention?

Goofus or Gallant?

Do you keep up with your routine tasks? Or are you the person who doesn't do the wash until you have a mountain of dirty laundry in every color of the rainbow, or who waits until you have a year's worth of bank statements to balance your checkbook?

This week's theme is routine tasks.

The white glove test

When you're having people over — say for a party, or a houseguest — and you need to clean up but are short on time, what do you feel is the most important thing you can do to make your space welcoming?

This week's theme is important things.

Instead of

When you have something unexciting to do — say, balancing your checkbook or cleaning the cat litter — do you waste time to avoid getting to the tedious task? What kinds of ways do you waste time to avoid things like that?

This week's theme is wasting time.

Right in front of you

Look around, wherever you are right now. What's the first thing that catches your eye — big or small, significant or trivial — that represents a sign of neglect, something that clearly could benefit from some energy, care, and attention?

Top Ten: household chores

What are ten things that seem to constantly need doing in your home, the ten chores that never end?

How clean is your house?

What messes are you reluctant to clean up?

What would you find if you opened up your closets?

What is hiding at the back of your drawers?

Would you be surprised by what is buried in your car's glove compartment?

How many books have you started reading that you intend to finish — eventually, when you have time?

When is the last time you vacuumed?

How many repair or home improvement tasks are waiting half-finished?

For deeper insights into the meaning of clutter, along with powerful strategies for cleaning up your life, read Rick Aster's book Fear of Nothing.

This week's theme is unfinished business.

That mess you dread

What mess are you most reluctant to face cleaning up? What makes it so hard to face?

Suppose that there was a miraculous intervention that would take care of the mess for you. What might that look like? What could the miracle-makers do that you couldn't?

Clean Count

How many different of kinds of cleaning did you do yesterday? Don't forget to include things like flossing your teeth, doing dishes, laundry, cat litter, emptying your e-mail's trash, and any realm where you scrubbed, straightened, or polished.