Trying to tame the house

Tags

cooking, housecleaning, postaday2015

  

I spent the day playing catchup with the housecleaning; the laundry, cleaning the toilets and the sinks, dusting and in between walking the dogs several times, making broccoli soup and roasting chickens and potatoes.

I am pooped, so pooped that when my ever not trusty vacuum died as it always does, I said “well if you’re calling it quits, then I am too” I can vacuum the rest of the house tomorrow.

The kitchen and the rest of the house smell really good, a combination of savory, slight caramelization of potatoes and hearty broccoli, it smells like a smorgasbord that keeps on giving.

I think that part of the reason that I love cooking and baking so much is that both give results that don’t go away immediately without any appreciation like housecleaning does, no one ever says “boy are you the best toilet bowl cleaner ever” no; instead everyone just treats the toilet bowl like a toilet bowl and you have to clean it, ick, same goes with vacuuming, dusting and etc, etc.

Daily prompt: Back on the Chain Gang

Tags

duty, housecleaning, postaday2014

We all have jobs, tasks, and chores that we dislike doing. Tell us all about the least favorite job/task/chore that you get stuck doing routinely. What is it about this duty that you can’t stand?

Back on the Chain Gang,what a great song.http://youtu.be/CK3uf5V0pDA

Whenever I think of spring cleaning, dusting and polishing every thing in this house, I get that icky feeling of being on a chain gang. If the fruits of my labors remained all shiny and clean, I wouldn’t mind it so much. I just get frustrated that no matter how much elbow grease is employed, it all vanishes so quickly. Hard work doesn’t bother me at all, I love getting dirty in the soil where I see the results of my hard work, the plants that grow and flourish. I never mind the garden keeping because once it is done, then it doesn’t have to be done again, aside from weeding and that, when done correctly, becomes less of an issue. I like doing projects, I like taking care of others, that is never toil nor trouble. I love baking and cooking, no matter how much work, preparation and cleaning up, it is a joy for me to do these things. I think that what I like is seeing results.

It is only housekeeping that makes me grumpy. I know full well that it has to be done, that it needs to be done, but when I’m tired or sometimes exhausted, the mere idea of pushing a vacuum cleaner, especially my useless one, is enough to make me want to hide under the covers and wish for a band of gnomes to surprise me with a sparkling clean house when I emerge from my hiding place.

I dislike doing things just for the sake of doing them repetitively, never ever really being finished with it, and that is how I view housekeeping, pure drudgery. I wish that I had an ounce of what others have when they see housecleaning as a project, as something that gives them pride or just love it for what it is, solid honest work in their eyes. I truly wish that I could feel that way, but I don’t. I really, seriously dislike it to the nth power and I don’t ever think that it will change.

Sometimes, when my mind wanders, I think of one of the stories of Hercules trials, he was ordered to clean out King Augeus” stables, they were filled with his herd’s manure and were abominably filthy, Hercules only had a short amount of time to fulfill his duty, he brilliantly took the river flowing next to the stables and forced it off its course into the stables and cleaned them out until they were spotless. I sometimes wish that there was a river handy to flush out the dust from the house. Nowhere am I intimating that my house is that dirty, it is more metaphorical than literal, my little fantasy.

There, I have complained and belly-ached about something enough for today. I’m good for a while now.