inventory

I spent the whole day inside my house yesterday (except for driving Fiona to rehearsal, and going out for supper with Andy after staying inside the house all day). I had not cleaned the house in probably 3 weeks. Sure, I did the bathrooms last weekend, and vacuumed the floor the weekend before, and I'd kept the dishes turning around in the dishwasher so we could eat, but that was about it. Nobody here is a clean freak. I'm ambivalent about clean (some say borderline split personality), so most of the time, if it gets done, great! If not, so what?

Sometimes though, it just feels good to muck out. The place feels so much better after I do it, and the doing of it is therapeutic: look, I can impose order on something, even if it's temporary and trivial. Yesterday was such a day. I made a big list on a small piece of paper, sorting tasks by room, and I cleaned and crossed out, cleaned and crossed out.

Now I'm finishing my coffee, getting ready to go to church, and I'm thinking about what got done and what's left to do in the cleaning the house department:

• The laundry is clean and ready to wear, just so long as you don't mind finding it in the basket and getting dressed in the laundry room.
• The carpets have been deodorized and vacuumed and the hard floors washed. Look out for the rice krispies on the kitchen floor (a recent addition) while you enjoy your rice krispie square.
• The stairways are free of clutter. Please look out for the small pile of former clutter at the foot of each person's bed.
• The sheets have been changed. And there's no deficit or downside to that. Clean sheets are just mmmmmmmm!
• I didn't clean the bathrooms yet. I think I will do that while Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sashay around tonight in designer wear at the Oscars. I will wave to them with a toilet brush.
• The kitchen counters have been cleaned. I am considering making a seed and pasta collage with the stuff I found behind the toaster oven, coffee maker and utensil jar. (by the way, did you notice that we have barely any kitchen counters?)
• I put new arrangements of bowls and candles and rocks and such out on the coffee table and dining room table. If anyone notices and compliments these, I will kiss him or her.
• I emptied and cleaned the cat litter box and cleaned up the back yard after the dog and took a big heavy bag of "animal waste" up to the dumpster. Thank you everyone, for not running screaming from the basement while I did this job. Thank you also for not advising me that the odour of cat litter was clinging to my sweater. I have since showered and put the scented clothing through the wash, so it's all good again.
• I uncluttered the computer desks. Please don't ask me where your cd is, or your connector cord. Maybe it's in that pile of stuff at the foot of your bed.
• I did not cook anything for anyone all day. Okay, I made egg in a hole for Alex for breakfast, but that's because he's been sick all weekend. Otherwise it was "fend for yourself while I clean." Thank you Andy, for taking me out for supper. It was especially nice to come home to a clean house and light the candles in the lovely new artistic arrangement on the coffee table (hint hint).
• I just realised how dirty the windows are. This is the only bad thing I can think of that comes with a sunny day. I think I will begin writing a new list.

So there it is. My house is (temporarily) (almost) clean. Today I will not clean it - except for the Angelina toilet scrub some time this evening. I'm off to church and shopping for a light fixture for our downstairs bathroom reno (coming up) then to actually cook Sunday supper.

I will probably clean the house again some time in March, whether it needs it or not.

question: are you a clean machine? a laissez-faire homemaker? or something in between?

mompoet - never quite sure which one I'll be until I wake up and smell the Vim