Housecleaning 101 - The Job That Never Goes Away

Despite the many hours of cleaning that I was able to squeeze in before Mom's bus arrived last night ... she did not walk in the door and exclaim, "Oh! What a delightfully clean house you have!!" In fact, her first comment was "Where is everyone?" She came to see the people who live here ... not the house. The second comment in reference to the cleanliness was, "Did you have a chance to wash off your cupboards ... or are we having breakfast on the deck?" (she had read my blog post pertaining to the dirt and grime that appeared when the sun shone through the back door)  ... "I really like the idea of eating on the deck!" (slightly paraphrased but that was the gist of her lack of obsession about the dirt and grime around here).

I was dismayed when at first, it seemed that perhaps it was the dirt that was holding everything together around here.

When I took down the 'swag' that I have over the shower curtain, a piece of the wall came down along with the tension shower curtain rod. Oh no! Being unable to use the bathroom fan over the course of most of the winter (because it melted the snow on the roof and created an ice dam in the shingles and it was 'raining' through the light fixture in the front entrance) has created moisture issues of its own. This is only just the beginning. Mike Holmes! I need help...

Then ... when I went to put the same tension rod back up later, I stepped on the toilet so that I could reach high enough. And the toilet seat came off. Aaaack!!! Luckily my handy dandy fix-it skills are not lost to me. I did fix that without wanting to call on someone from the Home & Garden Network (though I do have a list started if Mike Holmes is wanting to know).

The blinds in the kitchen were amazingly clean in appearance which I found amazing because it took all of the elbow grease that I had in me, to scrub the grease off. I broke two slats on the blind when the job was near completion. Thankfully they are near the top and you don't notice (I tried taping one of them back together and that was a big fail ... I woke up in the middle of the night with the 'great idea' of stapling it instead).

So much, so very, very much has fallen into a state of disrepair around here. The walls need a fresh coat of paint. The paint on the cupboards, doors and baseboards has chipped in so many places I don't even know where to begin. The paint on the casings around the living room windows came off when I swiped it with my cleaning rag.

All I can do right now is clean. I put a dent on the endless list of things-to-do. I would be lying if I said I wasn't just a little bit happy with what I managed to accomplish yesterday. As Mom sat at the other end of the kitchen table oblivious to the 'before' look (in all honesty, things really don't look all that different), and telling me that she would rather spend the morning on the deck anyway ... my glance kept going toward the cleaned up areas of the kitchen. It felt better already.

My Youngest was quite unencouraging as I muttered about how I was 'wasting a perfectly good Saturday cleaning' when I wandered into his room. He approached me later and said when eventually he has a place of his own, he is only going to clean the parts that show when company comes over. That is exactly what I've been doing for the past four years. It is all that doesn't show that starts to take on a life of its own. Eventually.

Home maintenance and house cleaning are both best handled in small, regular doses. The list of things to fix, replace or maintain is growing by the minute (another disadvantage of housecleaning is that it brings to light all-things-in-a-state-of-disrepair). The list of things to clean is yet another Pandora's Box.

I was feeling pretty good about myself until I woke up this morning and opened a drawer in the bathroom. Ugh!! There are many more drawers and cupboards just like it. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.

I am grateful to be back in a spot where I see our home as something more than a place of refuge after a hard day working at a job outside these doors. When hunkering down and gathering up your energy to face yet another day out in the trenches of life-outside-your-home, you (sometimes) simply don't have the energy to care about minor things such as the cobwebs that are hanging by your back door. Let alone the desire to waste your precious at-home-hours cleaning those cobwebs and other assorted nooks and crannies.

It feels good to care again. The energy is coming ...