Wednesday, March 21, 2012

I still spring clean

Do you do spring cleaning in your home?

Are you a working career gal who doesn’t have the time to do anything like that?

In today’s modern age, people don’t do spring or fall cleaning like they used to 20 or 30 years ago.

Some tell me (if I ask) I only do something like that when a room needs to be “done over;” that would be called spring cleaning in their sense. In other words, when the walls need redoing, floors, baseboards, etc. The windows might get cleaned once or twice a year, but otherwise the room isn’t redone until the lady of the house thinks it’s needed or it’s time. Perhaps that is the best way and you can save a lot of time, which many women who work don’t have and also energy in just keeping up with the everyday things.
Then there are those who still make the practice of going through the house and giving it a thorough cleaning, like their mothers did before them and now with a home of their own they do the same thing. It’s what they do.

Every room has to be torn up, curtains washed, drapes cleaned, windows given a once-over both inside and out, the walls wiped down, baseboard washed and the floor or carpeting having a “going over.”

The bedding is taken care of each week, but the mattress and springs only receive a good cleaning once or twice a year. Then when it’s all done, everything is put back in its place, you survey the work you have accomplished and you are both pleased and proud.

Now, you multiply this by how many rooms you have in your house and it takes courage, ambition, patience and energy to get it all done. Some might only do a few rooms that year and then the other ones you alternate with either in the fall or the following year. It’s up to you.

Years ago this housecleaning was mandatory. Times have changed. Modern vacuum sweepers can be used weekly to keep thins clean. There aren’t the wood and coal stoves with their ashes and smoke that made cleaning necessary. Miracle fibers in today’s carpeting and curtains clean easier.

Remember when window shades were two-faced? One side was cream colored and the other side that was towards the street was dark green? And whatever they were made of, they didn’t wipe clean or really weren’t supposed to be cleaned with water.
Today’s window dressings are available in so many different shapes, designs, colors and more as well as their fittings. What would our grandmas think of them?

And windows. They come in a zillion shapes, patterned, hardware convenient to opening and closing as well as cleaning. Sliding glass doors. Imagine what grandma would have thought of them. Wouldn’t housecleaning have been a breeze for her and her helpers?

Whether you do spring or fall housecleaning or neither, take heart; you’re living in the 21st century

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