What I Learned About Housekeeping This Summer

I don't like to deep-clean anything. I like things to look picked-up and put-together, but I hate moving furniture and scrubbing things. It's exhausting. Once I arrange a room I don't like to move anything. My house is especially unkempt during gardening season (basically May through July).

Unfortunately this summer my house has become infested with fleas. I have three beloved, adorable cats. See for yourself - Rudy, Lucy and Carly. The fleas were everywhere. It was most horrifying. Sickening. Depressing. Frustrating. I vacuumed, cleaned, bombed, sprayed, gave pills and lotions to the cats. I still see them and my cats are still scratching. I guess I'll have to call in an exterminator and spend money I don't have.

Anyway, I've now become obsessed with cleaning. Which products are best, most efficient, smell the nicest? I'm really liking a Lysol spray I bought that smells so heavenly I'd like to dab it behind my ears.

I've had to store my sisal rugs, since the fleas really seemed to like them. I'm also storing radiator covers so I can more easily get underneath for vacuuming and spraying poison. I've done load after load of laundry, being careful not to put it in areas where the fleas are. Vacuuming every square inch of a 1560-square-foot house all the time is exhausting. This ordeal is also emotionally exhausting as I'm constantly checking myself for fleas and inspecting everything for evidence. It gets depressing when I read that a flea can produce thousands of eggs, and they hatch every two weeks. The eggs are too small to see so I'm battling an invisible enemy for the most part.

I finally finished a thorough cleaning of the bathroom, including cleaning and organizing the medicine cabinet. Have you ever found pills that you have no idea what they're for? I've been known to ask my brother the nurse what the pills are for, since I have an insuppressible need to know stupid details like what horrible ailment I had that required these unidentifiable medications.

I hate cleaning bathrooms. Perhaps if I did it more often it wouldn't be such a bear of a job when I finally get around to it. This particular bathroom is horrific because in my c. 1875 home, the previous owner did a cheap, slap-dash job of renovating it so I have a hokey, homemade vanity, corner shelves and bath surround. It also has a vinyl floor with an imprint design so the dirt hides nicely in all the nooks and crannies.

So I found that in an area where the vinyl floor cracked, water has gotten in and caused the subfloor to start rotting. My ceilings on the first floor are almost nine feet high, so I never had a shower curtain that was long enough, causing water to continuously fall on the floor. I broke down and ordered an 84" long curtain. Hopefully that will stop further deterioration.

I dream of the day when I can finally install a bathroom upstairs and can renovate this bath. I dream of a clawfoot tub, little white hexagonal floor tiles, beadboard part way up the walls and a pedestal sink. Maybe I'll win one of those contests I keep entering at magazine websites.

Here's what I've learned from the Great Flea Infestation of 2011:

1. I have too much stuff! I thought I'd done well at de-cluttering, too.
2. My furniture is too big for my small rooms. I thought I was maximizing the space by super-sizing the furniture.
3. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance! It's so important to stay on top of housecleaning. It's amazing how quickly things get dirty with three cats in an old, drafty house.
   

My neat-freak mother always tells me that I should pick up after myself immediately. "Do it now" was one of my father's mantras. But after a hard day's work who wants to come home and clean? I just want to plop down on the couch, relax and zone out. Forget obligations and responsibilities.

What about you? What are your housekeeping habits?