More on Cleaning!

I hate housework. You make the beds, you wash the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.

~ Joan Rivers~

The weather here in Illinois has been pretty crappy. Our spring never really came, although we did get a peek at summer this weekend. We got to 80 degrees yesterday. Today, we'll be lucky if we hit 55. Argh!

So I decided to clean. Too cold to go out. (Ok, I realize 55 isn't cold, but I am meant to live in Florida. I don't how I ended up having to spend my life in Illinois!)

So, yes, me, I decided to clean. I did say earlier that I do finally get to the point where even I can't stand something. Today it was my tub. I have 2 daughters, plus me, that makes 3 women in this house. All with different types of hair and body needs. So we have a multitude of shampoos, conditioners, body washes, face soaps, razors, loofah thingies, etc, etc. all over the tub. I needed to control the mating that seemed to be going on in the tub. Not only did the body needs "thingies" seems to by multiplying, but so did the mold, mildew and soap scum.

First I consolidated all the bottles I could. Why my daughters cannot finish a bottle of shampoo or conditioner before starting another is beyond me. Youngest told me yesterday she was out of conditioner. Well, today, after consolidating 3 almost empty bottles I have made her 1/2 a bottle of conditioner. And I have decided the only way to stop the multiplying madness is if I refuse to buy anymore until they are completely out. Otherwise I'll need to hide the new bottles under my bed until I know they have scraped out every last glob of beauty goo.

After feeling successful with the bottle control, the tub was empty and now was the time to attack the other things multiplying in my tub. I got my handy sprayer of Lysol mold and mildew cleaner and went to town. It smelled just like a bleach based cleaner at first. Then I got a sponge and started scrubbing. That's when I noticed a really foul odor beginning to emanate from the tub. I thought this was the same sponge I used last time I cleaned the tub. There must have been some other kind of cleaner left on the sponge from another inspired cleaning moment. I began to gag. Great, I thought to myself as I fled the bathroom, I am going to die cleaning! See, I was right, cleaning can kill you. So, even though it is only 55 degrees out, and I am cold, I had to open all my windows. My entire house stinks. I knew the only way I was going to be able to get the smell out was to go back in there and rise the damn thing. So with a damp paper towel over my face, I proceeded back to the toxic tub of doom. I did manage to get the whole thing sprayed down with only two breaths. Maybe I haven't killed too many brain cells yet. I hope not, after my youth, I don't think I have too many left as it is.

So now it is 1/2 an hour later. Despite the open windows, my house still stinks. And I still feel a bit sick to my stomach. I had such great hopes for today. I did manage to get some laundry done before my tub attacked, but the way I feel now, I'm not sure I am up to anything else. Another inspired cleaning moment has come and gone. I tried, I really did.

Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.

~ Simone de Beauvoir~

The scorn men express for a male who does housework is exceeded only by their aversion to a woman who doesn’t.

~ Penny Kome~