Is your house clean during military deployments? Or do you wait for PCS cleaning?

Confession time… I’m not very good at cleaning. It could be because I have 5 crazy kids, so the house is never clean for more than a few minutes. Sure, I clean my kitchen daily, and vacuum a few times a week, and clean bathrooms every week or so. But I never really get everything clean. All the little details like dusting picture frames and washing curtains and cleaning baseboards are just never really on my to-do list.

The good news for me is that–as a military family– we never live in a house for very long. So I figure that even if there are some nooks and crannies that never got a good scrubbing… it’s ok, because we will get them when all the furniture is gone, on check out day. PCS cleaning is better than spring cleaning, Right?

In true military fashion, I don’t always observe holidays at the correct time of year, because sometimes my service member is deployed during holidays. (Christmas in February? Yep, we’ve done that!) So I have to admit that spring cleaning is not likely to happen during this current deployment. But luckily there ARE some events that cause me to jump up and do a really complete cleaning of all. the. things. So even if I don’t do a great job of spring cleaning, here are all the times when I do a VERY good job of cleaning:

● The end of deployment! Right before Homecoming, I feel the need to go through the house and organize or clean everything. Because of course the husband might notice dust on a ceiling fan after spending 7 months in the Afghan desert! Haha, not really. But I clean it anyway. It lets me take more time to relax during reintegration after deployment.

● PCS cleaning. A PCS move, or Permanent Change of Station has happened every 2-3 years for us so far, and we have learned that dust on furniture doesn’t vanish in the moving process. So preparing to PCS means I clean out and clean up everything. I even wash and scrub all the outdoor furniture. Every time, it’s refreshing to move the furniture and get rid of all the dust bunnies. And every move, I tell myself I should do this more often. But… I don’t. I wonder if I’ll need to set a reminder to do “PCS cleaning” every few years after military retirement?

● Before I have a baby. Nesting is a real pregnancy symptom, when you feel the urge to organize the whole house, and clean underneath the fridge, so you can have some order before the chaos begins! Luckily for me, I had 4 babies in 6 years. So lots of houses got cleaned. Especially when I had a baby during deployment while preparing to PCS.

● A visit from my Mom. My Mom is like a cleaning guru. I learn so much from her. She reminds me to restock cleaning supplies that I had at the last duty station, but don’t have now. She reminds me of all the nooks and crannies that haven’t had a good scrubbing since our last PCS cleaning session. And she can make a kitchen sparkle, even in base housing!

So please, someone tell me that I am not alone! Do you forget to deep clean your house sometimes? What are the big events that kick you into gear? Please share!