Every year “spring cleaning” happens. I’ve had an ongoing draft of a spring cleaning story for years and just never published it. Today I will tackle it again.
I wrote this last spring:
One should not always wait until spring to clean, seriously. Sometimes I’m scared to do spring cleaning. I’m scared of what I’ll find. And after this week I know why I’m scared. For a few days it’s been spring cleaning at my house. You know, little by little, bit by bit, or something like that.
It seems every day I find something new to clean or that I forgot to clean. I’m not exactly sure how that happens but it does. I was vacuuming the living room just a few minutes ago and realized I have got to move all the furniture and get the hose out, the dust bunnies have nestled up close to the wall hiding from the vacuum. The dust bunnies are now made up not only of dust but of dog hair as well. It’s at the stage I could make a complete new dog.
I wrote this 2 springs ago:
Even after cleaning the bathroom…..bathrooms makes me throw up……that’s not a job I want to do. I now see that the walls should actually be scrubbed down, hairspray and condensation have caused havoc. One more thing to add to the list, which is longer now than when I started getting stuff done.
I wrote this 4 springs ago:
What I really want to talk about though is the refrigerator. I’m a pretty clean person, my house is usually in order and I do things like vacuum, dust, throw out leftovers and do floors often. Today I realize one thing I don’t do enough is give the fridge a good cleaning. I mean, take the shelves out and scrub everything down. Apparently just wiping down the shelves when you notice it needs it, isn’t enough. After we tag-teamed the fridge today I was very disappointed in my housekeeping abilities, I’m not a good housekeeper at all, I think I need therapy.
There was so much stuff in my fridge that shouldn’t have been there, including nine bottles of miscellaneous condiments, etc. from the door that were expired. Now, when I say expired I mean EXPIRED. Who has stuff in their fridge from 2009? I do, pick me. When I threw all those things away and moved all the other stuff that was left on the bottom shelf made me question every cleaning bone in my body. It was disgusting. When I handed them off to my roomie she even said “holy crap”. I said “just shut up and clean it before I throw up”. We laughed about it but I’m taking a serious time out here to think about some things.
What kind of person am I that has caked on ketchup, BBQ sauce from 2009 and a furry something or another in a dish? The fridge is going to be on my to do list every week from here on out. What’s worse is I just did this same thing prior to Christmas and it wasn’t nearly this bad. Oh hey, maybe I should be blaming the roomie…yeah, that’s it, it’s her fault, she moved in not long after Christmas. Nah, I’m kidding, I take full responsibility.
As I’m writing I’ve thought of five more things to add to my list, I wonder if we should just call it cleaning instead of spring cleaning because it’s such an ongoing thing. My advice, don’t wait until the spring, you will find something from last spring.
How have I improved?
I haven’t. This is my confession. I haven’t. Here comes spring and I realize I really need to dig in and give my house a good cleaning. Which is actually not the house I wrote about last year, or 4 years ago. So this is house #3 I am apparently struggling to keep in order. All I can hear is Al Pacino saying “you’re out of order!”.
In my defense I have two dogs, my other half, a homeless friend (who in August was going to stay for a few days) and a 14-year-old (actually she helps quite a bit with trying to clean and then gives up) who contribute to the outoforderness of the house. The breakfast bar is a puzzle holder, tool box, mail center, dinner table and all around shit collector. The stove looks like I boiled over 13 dinners and didn’t once clean it up. I have, it just looks like I haven’t. We have a shower that looks like it’s an orange color from the 70’s when it’s actually off-white and just rust coated. I clean it but not with rust remover. That’s now added to the list.
I have people over for dinner and Dog Hair is a menu item. I can’t stop it, I can only hope to contain it. I feel like I am failing in the “homemaker” category every day. And I realize something this year: I DON’T CARE!
Why don’t I care? Because my home is welcoming, it’s warm, it’s safe, there’s always something to eat and drink and it’s held together with love. Something has to give and on the nights I don’t have prior plans I come home, work on a puzzle, snuggle with my dogs, snuggle with the other half and watch something tantalizing on Netflix like the Great British Baking Show! The house gives, it’s clean, it’s just not CLEAN.
I will do my spring cleaning to get rid of the deep down things we don’t see every day, do the projects that need doing and start the nice weather off with a really good feeling. I will falter again. I do every year. I will forgive myself. I will deep clean again in the fall. And I will do it all again next year. I refuse to spend my time worrying about what people will think of my house if they come over, I will not spend my time that way.
Spend time with those you love and don’t worry about cleaning all the time!!
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