Spring Cleaning

When I was growing up my mother had this thing about cleaning. In fact, we always had to scrub the house thoroughly before anyone was allowed to come over for a visit. This included out of town family and friends from work, but also people like my 5th grade best friend. Anytime we had plans, I found myself dusting windowsills and scrubbing baseboards, we're talking deep cleaning. It got to the point where I never invited friends over because it was just too much work beforehand.

As I mentioned, I have been busy with a little cleaning myself over the last few weeks. The windows had a film on them so thick that it looked like we might have had them tinted, so I washed the windows. The ceiling fans, which I am starting to use again, all needed dusted. While on the ladder, I noticed the kitchen light had a blanket of grime on top of it too, so I washed it. The shower needed an extra scrub to get that pink filmy stuff off of the rims around the glass doors. I dusted all of the paintings, and tops of cabinets, something I often ignore during my regular routine. I worked on all of this stuff, because, of course, it is spring and it really needed to be done anyway. A little spring cleaning.

Finally, last week I called a company to steam the carpets. They were pretty grimy from the kids and the dog and I had been putting it off until now. I figured with all of the dust I had unearthed they were probably especially dirty. Today I was vacuuming and noticed that the steamer must have caused a build up of dirt and hair to stick to the baseboards, which is why, I found myself on the floor two hours before my mother in law would arrive, washing the baseboards. I did it because the steamer had made them gross.

And not at all because I am anything like my mother.