Day Nine

Wow. Only day nine?

It's not that it seems like a particularly difficult project, but it just seems like so much more time has gone by. I think maybe I have been slightly lenient on myself this month, in terms of what counts as cleaning. The thing is, even the smallest efforts of cleanliness are significantly more than my typical efforts.

For example: the other day I came home and the dogs had gotten into some rotten plums off the counter (okay, so the rotten plums are the first problem...) and consequently, there was squished plum meat and juice all over the kitchen and dining room, along with the remaining plum. Usually, I would probably pick up the plum, but then move on....leaving the sticky mess to gather dog fur, dust, and shoe gunk. This can attract ants ("ants! why the hell do we have ants?" I might cry) and/or create a large, oddly shaped, black, sticky, blob on the floor. SO, instead of letting all this, somewhat knowingly, happen...I picked up the plum. I wiped up the floor, with water. I cleaned the mess, I didn't just pick it up. That is a big deal for me!

Another example: I am the brand of lady that takes off her clothes in the bathroom to take a shower and leaves them on the bathroom floor indefinitely. Like, until the next time I do laundry or maybe I need to wear something again. I have been very conscious of this lately and have made a point to remove my clothing from the bathroom floor each day. Again, I realize that to many people, this is ridiculous...but these are that patterns I find myself in. I spend weeks accumulating piles of stuff, dirty clothes, dirty dishes, and a collection of random objects that belong in the garage only to spend a weekend deep cleaning it all. This is exhausting, and truthfully, it doesn't all get cleaned.  Generally, it is just the areas that guests may wander through.

So, there have been some days where I have am engrossed in deep cleaning and others are where I complete the day-to-day necessities that I pointedly ignore. They both count, according to me, because the latter is a true necessity while the former is just good practice.

P.S.
Our next house is going to have a dishwasher.