Housecleaning

Deep Cleaning

Some time ago I did my quarterly … ~~semi-annual~~ … okay, annual (if I’m lucky) full-house carpet cleaning. I’m talking pulling out beds, moving dressers, and rearranging furniture. Oh, sure, I use it here and there to spot clean, but this was different. I focused on a different room each day, and by the end of the week, the carpets were squeaky clean, and I was feeling pretty happy about my progress, so I decided to use the upholstery tool to clean the couch and armchair as well. Looking at our couch beforehand, it didn’t look especially disgusting. It’s beige, so it showed a few discolorations, sure, where the kids spilled something or other. But I had the false impression that it was fairly clean overall. Boy, was I wrong. Continue reading “Deep Cleaning” →

November 7, 2016

Keeping House

Just once I’d like to prove myself wrong. I have this theory that housecleaning is always a humbling and usually disgusting experience. And I have yet to disprove that by my own experiences. With five children and two dogs, my house certainly won’t pass any white glove inspections. I steam-mopped the house this weekend, and even though I had done so the previous week, I went through multiple mop pads in the process this time, and every one of them was black afterwards. The stuff I swept up beforehand was nothing to sneeze at, either. And my baby crawls on this every day? Disgusting! I could clean my bathrooms three times a day and they’d still have toothpaste on the counters and who-knows-what on the floor. No matter how I try to keep a counter clear of clutter, it seems like I turn around and there’s a mound of stuff. Sigh. Just once, can’t I prove myself wrong?

Continue reading “Keeping House” →

February 8, 2016

My floors are clean right now. I am really proud of this fact, because it’s terribly rare that I can make such a claim. In an unusual bout of ambition over the weekend, I finally pulled out the carpet cleaning machine I borrowed from my mom three weeks ago and cleaned the living room and dining room carpets. I even used the upholstery tool for the couch and recliner for good measure. Then I swept and steam mopped the kitchen floor so we wouldn’t be dragging its dirt onto the clean carpet. It’s a lovely feeling to walk barefoot through the house and feel the squeaky clean kitchen floor and the like-new living room carpet. But I know it won’t last. The kids aren’t awake yet. Once they wake up and daily life begins, there will be milk spilled or Cheerios dropped and crushed, my baby will find a marker and decide the carpet needs a little more color, and the kids will rush in with muddy shoes to tell me it’s raining. Sigh. It’s almost a lost cause. So why even bother?

Continue reading “Cleaning House” →

TruthNotes

Timeless truth in a changing world

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Deep Cleaning

Keeping House

Cleaning House