A popular song among the “under five crowd” contains the lyrics “clean up, clean up, everybody do your share/clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere.” Hmm … I’m married and for some reason my husband just doesn’t seem to take the first part of that song to heart. Thus, I, like many women, get stuck with the bulk of the housecleaning responsibilities. Like everyone over the age of five, that song does nothing to motivate me to pick up a sponge and attack that green stuff growing around the bathroom faucet.
Now, irony of all ironies, my mother-in-law owns and operates a very successful cleaning business. Some may find the fact that their mother-in-law can clean the grime off of anything that is within reach, intimidating. I, however, find it to be a blessing. Just when I need it the most, she will appear with all her rags, buckets, and mysterious cleaning products in hand to tackle our house. She is always so gracious; she smiles and says that I’m doing a good job keeping up with everything. But, we both know that reality screams, “I stink at cleaning.” She has introduced me to a whole new world, albeit one, that I’m happy to escape from as soon as she’s gone. I never would have thought to clean the blades on our ceiling fan. I just assumed the dirt would all blow off if I left it run on high for two hours. Also, you should dust the layers of accumulated dirt off the bathroom vanity lights (until I have to squint to see my reflection, the light fixtures seem perfectly clean). And, oh, the day she decided to clean our windows will be a day my husband and I will both remember for it was the first and last time we looked out and didn’t think we lived in a perpetual state of fog.
Although my dear mother-in-law has tried to introduce me to the joys of cleaning, I continue to believe that the only joy in cleaning is the joy of watching someone else do it. Let me share a few other thoughts on this whole concept of cleaning.
