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The Cleaning Mood Struck!
Yep, it's been a couple of months since the last good clean and as I looked around at the buildup of stuff in the kids rooms and the dirt in the corners, the mood struck last night. It was all I could do to keep myself from starting cleaing right then and there, but I have learned that the rest of the family doesn't appreciate it when I am vacuuming and cleaning under furtniture at 2 in the morning.
So I...what? What did you say? You are still trying to cope with the fact that I only clean once every couple of months? Well, let me tell you, it has taken me my life time and a total of 3 generations for me to get to this point.
My grandmother was a neat freak. The woman literally cleaned (or had my mom clean) up their house every day. Mopping the floors, vacuuming, etc. This was in a house with three people where two worked and one went to school every day. Gee...how dirty could it get? And grandma never stopped. My grandfather passed away on my mother's 20th birthday. I was born a month later and my grandma was alone in her home. Yet, she still cleaned daily.
My mom eased up from that. She only cleaned once a week, but still our house was always pretty spotless. It was mom, dad and I. My lucked out (or else trained me well), but I was always the kind of kid that picked up after myself. I got a toy out, I put it back when I was done (boy, do I wish someone else in my home now was like that...but not even my husband is). Anyway, back to my story. Mom cleaned every Saturday morning. Dad would offer to do it so she could have some Saturdays off, but she refused because she felt it was her job. And she didn't ask me to help because her mom had always made her, so she didn't want to do the same to me.
Again, I was an odd child and when I was old enough, I started helping her by cleaning the family room and bathroom downstairs while she cleaned upstairs and in later years, I would clean the house on Friday afternoons after I got home from school and before she got home from work. That way she wouldn't have to work Saturday mornings too. Honest, I am not making this up.
When I got my own home, I did the once a week thing too. Then kids came along and it went more to once every couple of weeks. Then to once a month and now once every two months (which interestingly enough, usually coincides with company coming for a meal! I vacuum once a week, and will wipe up spills and straighten up when I have time, but otherwise, I just don't stress about it. I only have my kids once and I only get to go through this life one time. As long as our house isn't so dirty that we have critters living in here with us and we are all healthy, I am happy. In fact, I think that because I don't keep the house so very, very clean, we may have less illnesses, but that is just my theory.
So now that I have given you way more information that you were wondering, I'll fill you in on what I did today. I got up at about 4:15 to say good-bye to Daniel as he headed back to Illinois. After he left, I did some work on a business project he and I are working on. I played on my DS some (I am so addicted to Pokemon Diamond - I have collected 360 Pokemon since February!) While I did that, I watched the second part of the movie Henry VIII. It was a miniseries. Excellent! Then I watched the first part of a miniseries about Victoria and Albert. I love Netflix.
During that time, I took a few moments to feed Katrina and get her some medicines (she's a bit congested and has a sore throat) and I fed the cats. Then I fed the dogs. Then I began. I spent an hour or so on Jack's room. Changed sheets, picked up, rearranged a few things, then dusted, vacuumed and then shampooed the carpet. That carpet was installed in 1997. I bought a carpet cleaner a couple of months ago and I was tickled to use it. I was surprised that the water wasn't black when I was done. It was more of a light grey color. And I was glad to get a bag of clothes out of his room so his drawers shut. We donated them to the battered women's shelter.
Then I cleaned up the kids bathroom and started laundry. I have done four loads of laundry today in between everything else. Then it was time for lunch and a few rounds of Hangman with Katrina. Then I took the trash and recycling to the recycling center/dump. WE got back just in time to watch it pour down rain. I studied my Spanish (I am learning from Rosetta Stone) for an hour, read from my SCUBA training book for an hour, and then started on Katrina's room. Three hours later (my daugher is a messy packrat), her room was picked up, dusted, vacuumed, sheets changed and carpet shampooed. We are waiting for it to finish drying now. Then I did dishes and now I am blogging and watching The Cat Returns with Katrina.
I love days like this. Looking forward to another tomorrow. Next on the cleaning list, the play room. The rest of the house after that won't be near as involved.
And when my in-laws come to visit in a couple of weeks, everything will be spic and span!
Adios!
