Finally Giving Up and Admitting the Maid Just Isn't Going to Show

On Monday, I took the day off...to clean the house. Worse, I looked forward to that day with excitement. It had gotten so out of control that I couldn't relax at home. Everywhere I looked there was some chore staring back at me, judging me for not completing it. It's very difficult to clean with kids around. While I'm picking up one mess, there is always at least one of them right on my heels, creating another. It's like some Vaudevillian nightmare.

So, Monday morning, I began at 6AM. I knew it was going to be a beautiful day and I was thrilled at the prospect of throwing every window in the house open wide. I began by stripping all the beds and the disgusting slipcover from the couch in the TV room and gathering up all the bath mats for some serious laundering. I never stopped doing laundry. Then, the cleaning of the rooms commenced. I hit the playroom first. I know, it seems odd maybe, but you wouldn't believe what was lurking in there. So much doll and Barbie hair we could have supplied a Barbie Locks of Love for an entire year. Various bits of playdough and other scented modeling clay. Paint. Dead dandelions. Apple cores. That room alone took me nearly 3 hours to complete, though, admittedly, I interrupted that work to do the grocery shopping. Check this out.

Before:


After:


Suck it, Mary Poppins. My reward for my hard work in the playroom was Kate's unsolicited awe at the sight of it. "Wooooow!" she said that afternoon when she wandered in "I've never seen it this clean before!" That, I felt, was a good time for the "We're darn well going to keep it like this too, sister" speech. Neither kid has noticed yet that I gathered up 2 giant leaf bags full of toys and gave them away to Goodwill.

I spent the remainder of the day scouring, vacuuming, dusting and mopping. I am proud to report, in keeping with my New Year's Resolution (Item 2), that every cleaning agent I employed during this time was homemade and non-toxic, even my laundry detergent. The house smells so delightfully clean now. It took me 11.5 hours to get as much done as I did and I could use a second day. The windows are still horrific and none of that laundry I did has been folded. I had to fetch the wee ones, though, which brought an end to all cleaning efforts.

They enjoyed blowing bubbles outside (sorry, no photos of that) as well inside that afternoon.