entropy 1, housecleaning 1, embly 0
Feb. 20th, 2005 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
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
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...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.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 10:38 pm (UTC)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 . . .
no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 02:09 am (UTC)I also wish my roomba would dust. And cook dinner.
Alas.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 04:44 am (UTC)Vaccuming, I abhor. So I dust and the Muzh vaccums.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 05:10 am (UTC)I like vacuums. RrrrRRRRRrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrr....
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 04:52 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 05:08 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-21 02:39 pm (UTC)Granted, I don't do it here as much as I should. But I do know how to do it.