entropy 1, housecleaning 1, embly 0

[sigerson]

Dust.

For most of my life, my housekeeping style has been at best 'relaxed'. I tend to clutter rather than anything else, and an hour of "put this stuff where it needs to go" every couple of weeks clears my head. I vacuum, I clean the counters, I scrub the tub, and so on.

But dusting has always seemed to me to be an unnecessary step. Dusting was what snooty butlers wearing white gloves did. Dusting was a concern of frou-frou'd 50s housewives with plastic on the furniture and an obsession with disinfectant. Dusting just wasn't part of my cleaning regimen, and I felt perfectly justified in that. I mean, who dusts? Lemon Pledge fell squarely into the category of polished cutlery, starched napkins, and ironed t-shirts; a portion of cleaning that only Martha Stewart-grade homekeeping used.

Then I came to live with my beloved sen_no_ongaku, and our small (ish) qat Oob. And for the first time since I was sixteen, I lived in one home for more than two years. And our housekeeping oscillated till it found a comfortable constant; vacuum, sweep, clean the kitchen, scrub the tub...

...Then recently, I was staring at a portion of our home, and thought, "How did parts of this apartment come to look so abysmally filthy?" And it hit me.

We haven't dusted in a very. long. time.

Part of my soul still whimpers, for I have become that frou-frou'd housewife, and gone out and bought the Lemon Pledge. The rest of my soul is actively going "EWWW! ICK! YUK!" as I have started the long, frightening process of dusting the apartment.

I can hear my mother saying "I told you so" from here.

Comments

[ellinor.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you.

By the way, I've lately learned that Swiffer is the way to go with these things. It doesn't smell nasty like Pledge or Endust and it does the job. I don't even think it ends up costing more. Now does that mean I actuall *dust* very often? Notsomuch. But more than I would otherwise . . .

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I dust about every 3 months or so...

[ppaladin.livejournal.com]

I wish things like cleaning would just go away.

I also wish my roomba would dust. And cook dinner.

Alas.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm a little screwed up in the head, then. I like dusting. I like the smell of lemon pledge, and I like seeing shiny wood appear from under the dust. I loved to dust the piano at home.

Vaccuming, I abhor. So I dust and the Muzh vaccums.

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

No, you're normal. I'm only just now catching up to normal housekeeping. And as you'll see below, Sal loves the same reward...

I like vacuums. RrrrRRRRRrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrr....

[sal-sal.livejournal.com]

I found it very interesting that at Christmas, when we had to clean the house before Christmas, you and stealthmuffin being absolutely clueless when it came to dusting. I had to monitor you guys and show you what to dust.

Dusting was the one household chore that I liked. Nothing wrong with the smell of Pledge, and seeing everything shiny afterwards makes it worth it. It's not like emptying the dishwasher or scrubbing the toilet, there's no reward there. But seeing the sunlight gleam off of the cherry table--that makes it worth it.

[sigerson.livejournal.com]

Yeah--when we cleaned when we lived at home, we never did the dusting. I don't think Mom trusted us with it. Nine years later, she knows she can hand breakable things over to her daughters and not worry. I don't think Mom ever asked us to dust before that day!

It has just always seemed pointless to me--the dust comes right back almost immediately, and there never seemed to be much gain, whereas with the dishwasher there's the immediacy of organization. But you're right; the cherry table in the sunlight has no peer.

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Oy! I was not clueless about dusting! I dusted quite well, in fact!

Granted, I don't do it here as much as I should. But I do know how to do it.