I've mentioned over the past few years how I haven't been so gung ho about cleaning. Anything. Fortunately, I keep up with the laundry. Thinking back to the mess the extra room was, with clean laundry piled high from years of not feeling like putting it away "just now". (I have kept that room neat since the big cleanup.)
For a while, I tried running two botvacs (one for one side of the house with the dining room, family room, and living room, and one for the bedroom, bathrooms, and office) for the floors, but due to our floor configuration, they weren't any more human efficient than just pulling out the vacuum. Cords, throw rugs, cat toys, chairs had to be moved because the vacuums would get stuck between the legs...may as well vacuum you know? My old vacuum was an old-style upright, heavy and the brush area was pretty wide. Last year I got a Shark Rotator Pet Plus Upright from Meh (refurbished) for $99.00. I used it once in the office, then just put it in the closet. But I started using it again and I love it (as far as I could love anything that involves cleaning, which is absolutely NOT my favorite thing in the world to do). It's amazingly lightweight and does a bang up job of cleaning. For some reason, we get a lot of dusty dirt and then there's the stuff the critters bring in on their fur. Because it's so light, it doesn't kill my lower back. I can get the entire house (well, not counting the office) in under an hour.
Thursday, I dusted and vacuumed. And cleaned one section of a kitchen counter.
Our counters are white tile with (*koff*) white grout. Well, they're supposed to have white grout. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was brown grout. A few weeks ago I read of a really super easy way to clean them. Baking soda and peroxide. So, I ordered a gallon of peroxide, ask Brian to buy me a large sized baking soda container next time he shopped and some brushes to scrub with. And I did a small area Thursday afternoon.
Oh, my gosh! So clean! I was so happy with the result, that I got to work yesterday morning on more counters. I got most of them done yesterday, and today I will finish. And I'm going to see how well soaking parts of the stove come clean soaking in peroxide. It will be nice to have a clean counter and stove. Which won't last long with Brian, for sure. I don't know how he does it, but he can sure get those counters sticky.
I like that I'm feeling more like cleaning. I think maybe with the bad hip for so long, I got depressed about not being able to walk and just kind of descended into not giving a 
. I hope that will all be behind me.
Really looking forward to a clean house.
