Cinderella?

I scrubbed the walls today.

Not all of them, just the ones in the entryway.
Yesterday I scrubbed the wall next to the stairs where the dog supports himself to walk upstairs. It was filthy, as were the entryway halls. Maybe later (or maybe tomorrow or some other day) I'll get to the other dirty walls. Between the dog and the toddler those walls sure can build up nastiness fast.

It's those things I don't normally do that make me feel like my house is so much cleaner.. like washing the windows and scrubbing the walls, the sink, the toilet. All those things got left for far too long when both Garrett and I were working. I just didn't want to spend my time at home cleaning, ever. I've probably only mopped the floor a handful of times. Which is gross, because a lot of stuff gets stuck to that floor. I realized how bad it was when I mopped yesterday and it took me twice as long because I had to get down on my hands and knees and scrub some spots with a sponge. But now its shiny! At least for a few more hours.

I had just finished mopping yesterday when I heard, "Oh no! There's water everywhere!" and I turn around to Jack standing there staring at the wet kitchen floor, shocked.

Now that I actually do housework, I notice things that are gross and instead of thinking, "yeck." and moving on, I think, "oh that can be tomorrow's project" and it doesn't seem daunting or exhausting. Even though it's usually exhausting. I tried taking down the window blinds in the kitchen today and nearly died of over-exertion. For some reason my arms and legs get worn out so darn fast.

Those blinds, by the way, were a train wreck. Between Jack and the cat they had been mutilated beyond recognition. Every time I looked at them from the outside of the house I just thought how white-trash it made us look with those nasty broken blinds. So today when I washed the windows I said adios and threw 'em out! Why did it take me so long? Probably same reason I hadn't mopped or dusted cobwebs for so long.

I have to get the house overhauled before Max gets here, so the cleaning routine doesn't have to be so intense to maintain. It's just going to take awhile to get a good clean foundation. Back to square one, if you will. It's like spring cleaning, except that no one had ever spring cleaned before that.

And maybe one of these days I won't be embarrassed to have my friends come over. :)