What a difference a day makes …..

Being creative and running a business isn’t all about spending time quietly in the Sheshed doing what I want to do. I had set aside today to make a difference in the gite d’etape, to clean, to tidy and to organise.  In a few hours we have made changes that will help in the future.

It is fair to say that we opened our gite d’etape before we were completely ready and fully organised. So today was about becoming organised. On the ground floor is a very small room where it is actually possible to keep many of the things that are needed for running the business. However it had not been cleaned or organised since some of the new pipe work for the plumbing for the additional bathrooms went through. There was also a wardrobe in there, along with a sack of cement and a sack of tiling adhesive. Anyone who knows my husband and I will not be entirely surprised! However these items are not usually stored alongside bedding and dried food stuffs, which is what I need to use the room for. So today was about removing the inappropriate items, giving the space a thorough clean and then organising the space in order that it can be used effectively.

Keeping bedding immaculately clean is essential when running any form of hospitality business. To aid with this, we decided that actually putting clean sets of bedding in plastic tubs would ensure dust cannot settle on anything. At the same time I have organised each set of bedding into a pillow case so that when I take one to make up a bed I am ensured that I will have everything I need to make a bed. This is a trick that a cleaner I employed years ago taught me.

I know that had you told me twelve months ago that I would feel satisfied having spent a day cleaning and tidying I would not have believed you. Whilst I worked full-time I felt that having to do housework after the day job was infuriating on two levels, firstly I didn’t want to spend my precious free time doing it. Secondly and in some ways this was the more problematic for me; housework is often seen as the work of women. It was this framing of such work that often left me feeling demeaned. This is complex because there are women who work as cleaners and I certainly do not see them as being a lesser person. However it was how I felt about having to do it and I was aware that there were convoluted issues of how I identified myself as a woman.

Running a business appears to make me feel entirely different. I am running a hospitality business and first and foremost I want my guests to feel that they are entering a place in which someone has taken pride and care in making it fresh and welcoming for them. It seems that there is something truly satisfying about having everything organised in such a way that when you need it, it will be there and there will not be hours of trailing about looking for the odd missing pillowcase! There is an almost meditative quality to having everything organised so that I know that when I next need things, I can be relaxed about knowing where they are.

I am interested in whether there are things that previously made you feel miserable but now make you feel good. Are there issues about being a woman that you feel are enmeshed within this? Oh and on a final honest note, the gite d’etape is immaculate and well organised, my home is not quite the same!