Saturday, 3 September 2011
That cleaning thing . . .
There is a difference between clean and tidy you know. Tidy means all the toys are put away. All the laundry is in the laundry room, and the dishes are in the dishwasher. Tidy means the appearance of clean. Clean, however . . . clean takes some real work. Clean means the floors are scrubbed. The toilet too. Clean means laundry and dishes are DONE. Clean means it's okay if Boober decides today's adventure is licking the floors and giggling. Clean means smelling fresh, and maybe even sparkling a bit.
For anyone who's interested, the cleaning of our home is still coming along. I got derailed over the course of last weekend - looks like it's best to consider this a Monday - Friday venture.
Today we're expecting an old friend of Mr. Wonderful's to visit, along with her 10 month old daughter. For once, there was no panic, no fight, no hurt feelings the night before a visit. Our home is presentable. Not fantastic, not lovely, not perfect by any stretch. But now it looks like it's lived in by a busy family of 4 -- not a family of squirrels.
Cleaning the kitchen was definitely an excercise in frustration. It took me three tries to mop the floor. First attempt - me on my hands and knees with a scrub brush. I got the deep dirt out, but the floor didn't look very clean . . .
Second attempt - mop. I mopped up the ick from attempt #1. It looked AWESOME! Until Sweet Pea wondered through with her dirty feet and my wet floor. And then Boober followed her. And . . . fuck.
Third attempt - I tried to wait until they were both napping, but it just wasn't a simul-nap kind of a day. So I stacked all the 'stuff'' from the kitchen in the doorways to prevent entry. Sweet Pea complained bitterly, but her whining fell on deaf ears. Then I threatened the two of them with SEVERE CONSEQUENCES!! if they went in the kitchen before the floor dried. And. It. Worked! Today my kitchen floor is amazing! Well, it has some breakfast on it. And a touch of last night's dinner too . . . but it's still smooth and nice to walk on.
I'm finding that there are chores I'm adding to the checklist these days. I'm learing enough about my routine and lack thereof to know what needs to be added. It's a pretty good feeling, actually. I like not having to wrestle the baby for items of an icky nature several times daily. I'm down to just a few times a day now -- it's a work in progress. It's going to take time to make it REALLY clean . . . but I'm still doing it, and that's what counts!
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4 comments:
It's so hard to keep a clean place with little ones! We try to do a full house clean every week and within hours it's like it never happened. I like that it's part of our routine though and I look forward to making use of free child labour once the babes are older! Clutter and finding spaces and places for stuff and things is the biggest challenge around here. BTW I think you guys have and keep a lovely home :)
I think it was really brave to post about this, especially your previous "cleaning" post. It's a thing I always struggle with... I tend to be such a slob, so I purposely invite people over regularly to motivate myself to clean. (I'm finding this easier to manage with the apartment -- it's a lot smaller, there's no senile cat peeing everywhere, and things are newer and not so grubby to begin with.) I do find it easier to be neat than to be clean... One thing I am pretty good about is clearing out the clutter regularly, so with a little care I manage to have "a place for everything and everything in its place." (Speaking of things that need to be cleared out, I have another bagful of clothes for Boober.) But man, washing the dishes, emptying the cat litter, cleaning the bathroom, changing the sheets, doing the floors... I hear ya. Ugh.
Oh, I meant to add: the one nice thing about cleaning, though, is once it's done, you fall in love with your place all over again (for the 5 minutes that it lasts, anyway). :)
Oh so true!! I really agree with Lisa...once it's all been cleaned I'm not so determined to "move to another house"...somehow the old place doesn't look so bad!! And yes!! inviting people to come for a visit is a great incentive...if they're little it has to be clean so they can lick the floor and if they're adult...it has to be clean so we don't look like major slobs. Add to that the fun of having someone to talk to and share a meal with and life is great!! Keep up the great work...you're no slob...just a busy Mom who sometimes gets sidetracked,
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