The sweet smell of success

Well, good news. According to a recent piece in Time magazine, scientists have decided that clean smells can make you behave in a more virtuous way. Apparently, the smell of citrus window cleaner, the product used in the study, prompted subjects to be more generous and giving. This is interesting, given what is going on around my house. The house, which for a place that has only three residents and sure sees a lot of foot traffic, was making me unhappy. With two dogs, a cat, and grown children coming in and out, things were piling up. Having returned to freelancing, which is another way to say having returned to working at home while simultaneously feeling very guilty about not getting any work done around the house, I was frustrated. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. So, I made a phone call. One of those ask-forgiveness-later, didn’t-I-tell-you -I-was-going-to-do-it? phone calls. I called Maid Naturally for help. Maid Naturally is a Spokane house cleaning company started in 2006 by two stay-at-home mothers, Heather Brown and Ruthanne Eberly. When they couldn’t find natural cleaning products, they made their own. The business grew and their products have been very successful. When Heather Brown came to meet with me, I showed her around my house. We talked about what I needed and what her company could do and agreed on a schedule. Then, she pulled three spray bottles out of a paper bag and asked me to choose the scent that her cleaning crew would leave behind in my house. I could choose between Lavender, Clary Sage and Vanilla and Orange & Cinnamon. It was a hard choice. I love all three fragrances. I finally selected the Orange & Cinnamon. I liked the way it smelled so. well, clean. Now, each week two of Heather and Ruthanne’s crew breeze into my house, go through it like a whirlwind and leave everything smelling sweet. And clean. I don’t know if there is a connection, if what the scientists say is true, but I have noticed that my family notices the fresh scent - much better than an artificially scented spray - when they walk in the door. It might be my imagination, but it seems like they are more likely to help out around the house, now, too. And, I’ve noticed that I’m a lot less irritable. (I’m sure those two things are connected!) I still feel a little guilty that I just can’t get it all done by myself, but I feel good about the work Heather and Ruthanne do. And that beats artificial ingredients any day.