Last week I housecleaned in this column using my mom’s style. Well, today I’m cleaning house again, my style. Are you a person who doesn’t want to invite guests to your home?
Chances are, it is for one of three reasons. You’re too busy, you hate to cook or else you hate to clean. For some of us it might be all of the above.
I’m not the world’s best entertainer, but I know my husband and I thoroughly enjoy visitors and invitations to other homes. Entertaining also can be work. Yet our doors are always open and if the house isn’t spic and span, it’s OK with me and hopefully, our guests. Perfect isn’t one of my favorite words.
There are times when cleaning really needs to be done. You know the saying that hangs framed in many a home, "My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy."
Well, there are times when I think ours is borderline! I don’t neglect daily cleaning. Mail is put in a neat pile because it normally is scattered everywhere (and I’m not the one who does it). Floors are vacuumed and any thing that meetd the eye when someone first enters is taken care of.
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I get careless about deepcleaning. The underneath; the in-the-corners; the high places that short folks like me can’t see. I forget some people are taller. The spots on the wall that one doesn’t readily observe but know are there. I’d have to say that when company comes, cleaning is the worst job for me. And that’s not all bad.
Many times — when I know guests were coming — I spend extra time cleaning. The microwave, which holds fragments of the last 30 meals, is wiped down; The doors underneath the toaster is opened. There are enough crumbs to make the stuffing to put in next year’s turkey at Thanksgiving. The half-inch space between the cupboard and stove is cleaned.
That’s when my husband often would say, "Well, it’s only Grandma and Grandpa coming." My answer was always the same. "I’m not cleaning it because someone is coming. Lord only knows, I’m cleaning it because it surely needs it!"
Housecleaning never has been and likely will never be a job done all at once by me, like my mom used to do. When it needs it, it gets done. If I’m in the right mood, I do it. If a lightbulb burns out, chances are the light fixture will be washed and the bugs swished away. When little people come who have to stand on tippy toes to see out our windows and leave little finger prints on them, I wash that window plus a few more. When I can’t find something, every drawer I rummage through will probably get straightened out.
I might also add a few tips for anyone with extra time on their hands. Have you removed the knives from your butcher block lately and taken a good look? Dusty, huh? Have you emptied the silverware drawer? How do those crumbs get in there anyway? Have you looked in a desk drawer or under a bed? Have you dusted between spokes on a chair or polished a wood table? How about those enclosed glass hutches? Aren’t the windows supposed to keep the dust out?
Amazing what you find, isn’t it? So if you’re like me and don’t care much for cleaning, invite someone over who is rather fancy. It’s the perfect solution to killing two birds with one stone.
Your house will sparkle like never before. Of course, you may have to redo it a little after they leave!
