Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. I’m planning to celebrate the equinox in a way that honors the memory of my grandmother, by Spring cleaning. I’m a neat freak by nature and upbringing. I have a cleaning schedule that I follow religiously. But it’s been a minute since I did a Nonna level deep clean. I’ll start in the kitchen, taking everything out of the cabinets, wiping them out, and washing the items that don’t get regular use. After everything is replaced, I’ll clean the cabinet doors. Then, do the same with the refrigerator. I think Spring cleaning is an outdated concept. It’s so much easier to do the big tasks nowadays that they can be done more frequently. Ovens are self-cleaning, and refrigerators don’t need to be defrosted. But I like how a room feels after a good top-to-bottom clean.
Do you have a cleaning routine, DeadSplinters?
I did that to my kitchen yesterday after I got home visiting the parents. Then went to my parents house and cleaned out the main bathroom.
I don’t wanna clean no more.
I think your Nonna would have smacked me for being lazy.
She thought anyone who didn’t work most of the day was lazy. She started after breakfast until her story came on at 1. Took a short nap around 2, then back at it until after dinner. Then she usually crocheted or mended clothes while she watched TV until bed.
I love the feeling after cleaning, but hate the actual process, and therefore, put it off all the time.
I don’t really mind cleaning. As long as I don’t have to take care of other things at the same time.
…a routine…not really…but…a cycle…sort of?
…there’s a lady I’ve known since I was a teen…& in all that time she’s cleaned for a host of people that include some that I know…she’s from the caribbean & she’s one of the nicest people I know…for a variety of reasons I won’t bore you with there have been periods where she & I would wind up doing different things for the same person on the same day…& to be completely frank the disparity between how they treated her & how they treated me was…inversely proportional to the gratitude they ought to have been feeling to the pair of us…whether that’s a latent racist thing or a perceived class thing or part of some more complicated psychological stuff going on with that particular individual…who is…as they say…not easy to get along with…who knows…but over the years we’ve gotten along pretty well & for a while now there’ll be a time when one of her usual clients is out of town for a bit & doesn’t need her & she’ll come to mine & poke fun at the disparity between my standards of housework & hers while we natter & I try not to get in the way…then I try to get her to let me pay her & she makes it difficult enough I fail more often than not & descend into barter…rum, some cakes & certain pastries I can usually press on her…but…beyond a certain point I know better than to argue with her…& at this point I’ve just about made my peace with the extent to which my best efforts falling laughably short of her baseline tend to make me feel like a child
…as it happens she’s also the only person I know who was sufficiently averse to getting a COVID vaccine that she was willing to shift her employment away from places where it was mandatory…which I ended up talking about at some length with her…& honestly…to hear her tell it…when it came to implementation of stuff like PPE in the care facilities she worked in before either the virus or the vaccine were on the horizon…it was pretty clear that it tilted into security-theater harder than protecting either the patients or the carers…& the reasons given for this or that aspect would logically have required measures that were explicitly not taken in order for them to be effective…add that to the kind of community-level distrust of that sort of medicine that comes of a litany of mistreatment by any number of entities in the name of medical benefit…& it was more than I could do to persuade her to get the jab
…still might in a lot of ways be one of the most fundamentally altruistic people I know, though…treats all manner of people better than they treat her for a lot less reward than she deserves…so outside the vaccine thing I don’t know that I could think of a single thing where I could claim the moral high ground between us…with the exception of reactions to some of the punchlines/underlying assumptions to meme-type stuff she sometimes forwards me, I suppose
…so…in as much as that’s how the cycle works…generally my place is at its cleanest when I reach peak levels of chagrin
…still…could have been worse…if I’d lived within visiting distance of one of my grandmothers…that part would have happened more often, with less good humor & a lot more hasty elbow grease on my part…that lady had a schedule for everything that I never could keep up with
…I don’t think I’ve ever hung anything up on a wall that I needed to take down & polish from time to time but she had silver & brass & leather (old tack from farm-horses) & ceramics & glass &…all sorts of little bits & pieces…there was a row of pretty plates that sat on whatever you call that little ledge up almost to the ceiling all the way around the sitting room, for example
…I don’t think I can claim to being much of a minimalist…but I think it’s probably that influence that makes me find the approach appealing…my guess is it probably involves a surprisingly similar amount of constant labor to achieve, though…so I’ll most likely keep muddling through feeling like there’s always more that needs doing than a competent person would put up with…apparently that’s my speed?
generally my place is at its cleanest when I reach peak levels of chagrin
This describes my childhood. Our house was rarely less than immaculate but to hear my Nonna tell it we were slobs. So I totally understand the whole shame and cleaning cycle, lol.
I can also understand why certain communities would be apprehensive about trusting the medical and pharmaceutical companies given their treatment by them. She sounds like a good person to know. 🙂
Damn autocorrect must be Catholic. Immaculent!
I tend to be good with regular cleaning, but things like baseboards or windows do not get cleaned often at all.
I used to be fanatical about stuff like that but have lapsed in the last few years. Baseboards are on my list though.
“generally my place is at its cleanest when I reach peak levels of chagrin” – I am very envious and would gladly suffer that level of chagrin. My cleaning schedule is based on “before”. Before holidays, before company, before whatever. I also have a random “this is an untenable way to live” schedule. For example, this weekend the double set of three-tiered drop-down spice racks and the shelf above them were culled, alphabetized, and wiped down. As far as polishing . . . are you sure that tarnished silver doesn’t add character to a china closet?
this is an untenable way to live” schedule.
I like this though. I’m far too rigid about my schedule. I have a daily to do list. A therapist once recommended that I not use it one day a week. I chose Sunday. Then worked twice as hard on Saturday so I would have all my Sunday stuff done too, lol. Not the spirit of the exercise.
…I’m with @hannibal…I am definitely adopting “this is an untenable way to live” as a heading for at least sub-sections of my never-ending list of must-get-around-to-that-s…henceforth & in perpetuity?
That is my sentiment. BH and the Faithful Hound (who’s not a 750-lb. blind alligator) and I can clean up after ourselves, but we used to entertain so often and I had so much social anxiety we used to bring in the cleaning crew more often than was probably necessary.
One of the big reasons I try and do spring cleaning is that’s when it’s OK to open the windows. Using a lot of cleansers during heating and AC seasons is unpleasant.
Good point
My wife and I typically pick one weekend a month to go full HAM cleaning on one room. Neither of us totally mind and now that my son is old enough to entertain himself for a while, it’s a lot easier than it was!
I remember trying to clean with a toddler around. 😖 It’s much easier when they can play alone.
This is a selfie of me celebrating Spring.
😂
Good for you, Pan!
I used to be very good at cleaning. Had a regular day and did tasks in order. Then when Gus (my kidney cat, you fellow long-timers may remember) passed away, I was kinda like “why vacuum? why dust?” and stopped for a while. A combination of grief and a practical lack of cat dirt. It takes about 0.005 seconds to undo a habit and (looks at calendar) 7 years and counting to get it back again. I now do housework when the wild hair strikes me. I also doubled my sq ftage when moving into the condo. And Boggs is a long haired cat whose hair seems to be made of static electricity and cotton candy, which DEFIES the vacuum. I am contemplating buying an actual carpet cleaner (ideal world me would get rid of carpet for some type of flooring but that sounds like An Endeavour).
I remember Gus and how devastated you were when you lost him. I’m glad to hear Boggs is still around. 🙂
Boggs is going to be 10 this year and doing great!
I don’t mind cleaning but have problems with getting rid of clutter. I hate to throw away perfectly good things that are of value to someone. My wife has no problem throwing away those things.
I have zero problem getting rid of stuff. My daughter is a pack rat and it drives me crazy!
Sometimes I make up recipients for shit that my parents wouldn’t throw away and then I just take it to my own trash can instead.
I’ve been known to do that too.
my schedule is generally i’ll do it later….till eventually later becomes oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck i need this done yesterday PANIC!
with the exception of the kitchen….where i typically clean as i cook…is a habbit i picked up working…but i like it…and piles of dishes make me very unhappy…
I clean as I cook too. I can’t stand an untidy workplace.
I’ve always had very small kitchens so if I don’t clean as I go, I run out of work space very quickly!
Speaking of cleaning.
Why does Alex Jones always want to eat leftist ass? Why does he want to eat ass in general?
Is this what Alex Jones consider salad?
I love the thrashing he took over that comment 😂
Oh he took that thrashing hard.
as a side note…i actually made bobotie today…i mean…i cheated and used a sauce pack….
seems i still have a creme fraiche blindness
like without fail…everytime i cook with the stuff…i get everything in the oven and go…huh…whats that little plastic tub left on the side
oh fuck!
anyways…. one burnt hand and emergency late addittion of creme fraiche later……
turned out fine….didnt even need to add water to the sauce pack courtesy of supermarket meat today (honestly….didnt expect minced meat to be that soupy…even from a supermarket)