Cleaning up

Baking soda, hot H2O, Simple Green, and elbow grease. Those are the ingredients of the week.

Yep. That is what we are doing around here. Not just the routine cleaning either. Nope, this is the kind of cleaning that only gets done once, maybe twice a year. The standard things get cleaned, but this time it goes deeper. Instead of just wiping out the microwave, the rotating plate gets pulled out, and the toothbrush goes in to get the little things out of the corners. Then the whole thing is removed from the counter so the crumbs that have somehow migrated under there can be rounded up. I even wiped the dust off of the intake fan grille. (That may have been the second time that has happened since I owned the thing, and last time was because we were moving.)

We are having a house full of people over Labor Day weekend. I am looking forward to having them. They are friends, family, and friends who are considered family. I do this for them. I know they would still come if we were living in the barn, but I can’t help it. I can’t stand to have the house in less than it’s best shape. (I have no idea what I am going to do with the sewing room.)

This kind of house cleaning is not my favorite thing to do. I do it because I would die of embarrassment if somebody noticed these things. Although I do have a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment when I am through. Even if no one else seems to notice that the stove gleams, the counters are clear and free of dust, the furniture actually has flat surfaces (no more papers or magazines) that glow from the liberal use of lemon furniture oil; and for a few days, there are no threads or nipped corners of fabric trailing through the house marking my path from the sewing room to where ever I was headed.

Well, I had better get back to it. I have many more nooks and crannies that need to be cleaned out before I can call it quits. Thank goodness I still have a few weeks to manage it all.