Thursday, May 22, 2008

Chain Reaction of Chores


Cleaning house is evil. That's why I avoid it so much lately. How come when I set out to do something simple like mop my 1,000 square feet of wood floors (ha, ha) it turns into a 2 hour cleaning escapade? Case in point--I needed to mop yesterday. But to mop I need to pick up all the garbage the little creatures who live in this home leave scattered all over the place.....then I have to move all 10 chairs and barstools to the area rug in the family room.....then I have to vacuum sweep my floors.....then I can finally mop. It's a chain reaction of chores just to get to the task at hand. I know, whine whine whine. (Marcia, marcia marcia!)

Not too long ago, I was talking to my mom on the phone:

Me: Ugh, I need to mop these floors mom. The sticky spots have now been covered by dust so they are hard mud-caked black spots now.

Mom: Oh Cynthia, don't be so hard on yourself. Spend time with your kids, don't worry so much about cleaning. They grow up so fast. (This is always my mom's pep talk to me when I complain about all my chores.)

Me: Mom, it's bad. I haven't mopped in 2 months.

Mom: Oh...welll...hmmm....now that is bad. (chuckle, chuckle) Go mop.

See? My mom is a kind soul and really chooses to think the best of me as a homemaker until I flat out tell her how dirty I let my floors get before I mop. You'd think I told her I took up smoking. Maybe I would mop more often if it didn't take 2 hours. Nah, maybe not.
(Yea, I know if you zoom in on the photo you can see my roman shade are all falling apart. You know the phrase--the cobbler's children don't have any shoes.)

9 comments:

Ilene said...

Oh, I LOATHE mopping. I totally go a couple of months in between sessions. However, I'm finding wood floors are pretty unforgiving at showing dirt. Dang it. It is either clean or never invite anyone over to my house.

Casey said...

Oh! I can totally relate. Our wood floors flow through the house from the dining room, entry to the kitchen - so there is no stopping point. I have to move both sets of chairs from the tables, and the stools, the trash (in the kitchen and the 1/2 bath since it too has the same floor). It takes me forever also and I hate to get into it. I'm just glad I'm not the only one with the same frustration - now I know I'm not slow, thanks for posting. BTW, love your house, love the pillows, the kitchen, everything.

Anonymous said...

two words: Spot Mopping. I can put off the dreaded full floor mop just spot mopping the bad areas or wiping spots as they happen for a while. But I hear ya, on that downward spiral of stuff that has to get done, so you can do this, so then you can do that, so you can do this. What a pain.
Carolyn#2

Cynthia said...

carolyn-- spot mopping/wiping only gets me along for two months, if that! we're pigs apparently

colleeeen said...

you cannot possibly be as bad a housekeeper as i am. i find all housework to be intellectually un-stimulating, so i mostly boycott it. i am especially bad at washing dishes - there is NEVER a time when there aren't some dirty ones piled up.

The Coolest Allen Family said...

You have no idea how much you just helped me. I have been feeling like such a homemaking loser lately! It is nice to know I am not the only one who lets plenty of time pass in between cleanings. I think you might have even given me the oomph to go and mop my own floors. Whoa...I had better slow down! :)

SilverLining Designs said...

That was me until I hired a maid..lol

SilverLining Designs said...

That was me until I hired a maid..lol

Anonymous said...

I just mopped my floors Saturday for the 2nd time since I moved into this house. But to be fair to me, that's because Mom has been AWESOME and has come and mopped my floors for me often. She is a SAINT.

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