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It was a Wednesday afternoon and I had just finished up lunch. I sat back down at my desk and opened tabs for Twitter, Reddit, PGP, and Redraidersports.com to prepare myself for the doldrums of the afternoon. I had my Gmail open but the chat I keep rolling with two of my friends had gone dead and I was looking down the barrel of a long, dry afternoon at the office. All the work that needed to be done for the week was already completed and there wasn’t anything to really *do*. I looked back at the clock and ten minutes had gone by. I couldn’t help be come back to the thought that “it was only Wednesday…..I have two more days of this?”
Little voice in my head goes: “but what if I didn’t?”
I immediately checked the PTO available to me and I had time to burn. “Why do I even need to be here?” I thought to myself. “Everything is done, and I’m caught up for the entire week?” I didn’t have argue with myself. I went ahead and mashed that request for a personal day on Friday and started to plot out my activities for my surprise day off.
My day was supposed to go something like this:
• Wake up
• Throw the weights around a bit and get a nice work out in
• Make a solid breakfast, something with eggs and sausage
• Head out to see Black Panther
• Come back
• Take a nap
• Get the kid from day care.
What a nice day! A damn near perfect day of solo activities and with a light touch of “Treat Cho’ Self!”
As you’re probably gathering already, this is not what happened. Though what actually took place turned out to be a whole lot better. I learned fist hand the value of taking a day off from work to clean your filthy, disorganized, messy house.
Friends, I experienced bliss. Better than any drug, illegal or prescribed, could provide. After my morning workout and some peaceful PS4 time, I began in the kitchen. As I removed my wife’s trinkets and nic nacs from the kitchen counters to spray and clean under them, I felt my entire world coming together in a nice, clean, and orderly fashion. The laundry chugged its way through the washer and dryer and each batch of fresh clothing brought me closer to inner peace. I picked up my son’s toys and meticulously placed them back to where they belong and each time I did, I felt any sense of anxiety, doubt, and fear melt from my mind. The dishwasher was loaded and rolling and provided the soundtrack to my home therapy session as I dusted the shelves and cleaned the floors. Overlapping the dishwasher was the familiar voice of Michael Scott and the Dunder Mifflin Crew playing through Netflix reruns.
This was my babbling brook. My ocean tide crashing and receding. I found my source of peace and oneness. I even got around to cleaning the bedroom bathroom, the one no one ever sees and afterwards I felt lighter as if this sense of dread had been removed from my life entirely.
The entire cleaning process probably took 4-5 hours and what I learned was well worth it. From this point moving forward, I’m going to take a mental health day every 6-8 weeks to stay home and get absolutely obsessive over the cleanliness of my home. There is tremendous value in this and if you’re someone who has their fair share of stress, anxiety, fear, and doubt then I’d highly recommend taking some PTO to get your living space clean and looking show worthy. With your living space clean and in order, you’ll experience a similar feeling of orderly calm peace within yourself.
It should be noted that my son did not care for my efforts. All of toys were back out in the span of an hour. Oh well, kitchen still clean AF..
Image via Shutterstock
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I work in Logistics. I am a dad I like the Gym. I like Texas Tech Football. I like San Antonio Basketball. I like Brunch,Biscuits, and Breakfast Tacos Living and dying in the DFW.
@WildWildChase
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Relief washes over me in an awesome wave when I’m standing in the kitchen with the sunshine through and hear the washer, dryer, and dishwasher all running in unison.
Mental health days are the GOAT
I woke up about 2 hours early on Saturday and crushed cleaning the house. It’s pretty easy with the one bedroom apartment in D.C. But once it was done, I was still on schedule for a day of debauchery, but with an ironclad excuse to do so guilt free.
This usually happens when I have something else I should be doing.
“I didn’t file my taxes or go to the gym like I was supposed to but my house is spotless so I feel pretty good about it. I deserve a beer.”
I’ve been known to schedule fake out of the office meetings on occasion.
I have a surprisingly high amount of meetings at 4:30pm.
Whoever schedules them is a sociopath
Wait are do people often tell me their going on a sales call and just going somewhere else? Not cool CrabCakes and Homebrew. Not cool.
I might be in a minority, but I would never use PTO to clean. PTO is sacred time meant to be used to relax and cleaning is the total opposite for me.
Same. And once every 6-8 weeks?! That’s like an entire week of vacation time every year just spent cleaning.
I do this once a month. Can confirm it feels great!
How many PTO days do you get? Burning 12 specifically for this would put a yuge dent in my days.
My company has separate sick days and PTO days.. We get 15 sick days that don’t roll over, so it makes it much easier to do
I envy you. I get 12 days total.
So you have sick days and vacation days …?
That’s what we have. 5 sick days (can accrue more) & 20 PTO days.
Did this yesterday and gotta say it felt awesome and still kind of does feel awesome knowing maintenance will roll through my apartment today and not be horrified by the disaster I regularly leave my place in.
If most of my Sundays weren’t consumed with me nursing a hangover with a touch of crippling anxiety, I could see myself making a Sunday cleaning day routine a thing.
Finally suckered up and started reserving an hour or two every Sunday for cleaning. There’s nothing better than treating the Scaries in a clean home.
This is exactly the kind of unhinged behavior I would expect from a Tech fan
I use a nice older Polish lady, but I guess this works too. Seriously, look into a cleaning lady, they are at cheaper than you’d expect and buying back all of that free time is priceless. It literally costs me less than 1 nice dinner per month.