"When the Sparks Fly"
Housecleaning

Well, it is time to start looking at the house that we will soon be spending more time in than we really want to. No more escaping to the garden. There are cobwebs in the corners, dustbunnies under the bed, and egads! dirty windowsills!

Now, I am not the world's best housekeeper, but I am not the worst, either. My problem is that I spend a lot of time planning and discussing how to do housework better, rather than just doing it. Procrastination is my middle name.

The only way I get things done these days is to make a list on the chalkboard we have on our kitchen wall of 3 or 4 things I'd like to do that day. Then make myself do them. Writing them up there and checking them off gives me a sense of accomplishment and occasionally drops a heavy hint to my husband. This list is for me only, but hey, if he wants to be the good housekeeping fairy, I have no problem with that! I used to have a detailed weekly chore sheet, and 'assignments' for my husband and I, but this did not work. We became resentful or confused and just didn't do the jobs. So now I just try and do a few simple things and every now and then I do a major assault mission on the grime. My 12 month old son makes hours of cleaning impossible, darn it, so I just have to settle for doing things a piece at a time. Gosh, I sure miss that all day cleaning experience. Shoot.

My chore list for today was 1) sweep/mop the kitchen, 2) vacuum 3) wash a load of diapers 4)clean the bathroom. Dishes and mundane cleaning up after ourselves tasks are not on this list. There are some chores that appear on my list with annoying frequency - like dusting, or washing diapers, and then there are things that only make themselves known to my cleaning consciousness once in a while, such as the dustbunnies hiding out behind the dressers in our room. I discovered this colony when the phone repairman had to access the jack located back there. I was mortified when he told me that dust was in the jack, thus preventing it from working. However, this was not the case, but it was an understandable mistake considering he practically had to sandblast his way in. I must not have rearranged the heavy oak furniture in there as much as usual last year, thus allowing those dustcritters to multiply without compunction.

My least favorite room to clean is the bathroom, but since I am at home all the time now, it really wouldn't be fair to expect my hubby to do it... A great tip I got from a fellow mom on the Net was to clean the bathroom while my son is taking a bath. While he's splashing away happily in the tub, I clean the bathroom, then, after he's out and drying off and trying to destroy what I just cleaned, I scrub the tub. I also browbeat my husband into wiping the tiles and fixtures down with a handtowel after he showers in the morning. This helps immensely, and doesn't take long. I can save mopping the floor for another day, or, since our bathroom is tiny, use a rag to scrub it. My son takes loooong baths on those days.

Brenda is in the process of moving. She's promised us more from her unique perspective in future issues.

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