Revelation

Wow, what a revelation: even though I vacuum every week and have a housekeeper come in every other week for the heavy lifting, I live in a pigsty! Yes, indeed, I do, in spite of what seems like constant cleaning.

I store extra boxes of beverages under the bench seats of my kitchen set, out of sight until I need to refill the bev ‘fridge. The other day, I dragged out a couple of boxes and was astounded at how filthy dirty the boxes were. Guess they haven’t been cleaned since the day they came home from the market and hid under the bench. The good news is that the cans inside the box were clean, so those went directly into the ‘fridge, but the bad news is that the cans/bottles in the open boxes of beverages had to be cleaned individually before they could be stowed in the ‘fridge. Lots of work for little reward because I was NOT going to toss them out just because they were dirty!

Then, I leaned down to look at the floor under the bench. Believe me, there are no words to describe that dirty floor. Curious, I next picked up the dog assist, the step that allows the dogs can go through the doggie door; yeah, really, really dirty underneath that, too, including a couple of outdoor bugs and some landscape rocks. I discovered the dirty strip of carpet behind the door into the office, a door that is always open, so the dirt had months to accumulate. And the actual office is going to be cleaned, including either tossing away or donating, years of stuff with which I simply cannot part, including the cardboard dividers that form the open boxes in which my favorite yogurt is packaged. The size and shape is perfect for … something; I simply have not figured out what—yet.

The list goes on because I bought yet another new vacuum cleaner, one that apparently picks up dog hair by the pound, evidenced by how often I had to dump the easy-open dirt bin. Disgusting. The thought of all the mites, bacteria, and other dangerous foreign substances inhabiting my decades’ old mattress can turn my stomach, but adding to it the deep-down filth of the carpeting throughout the house leads me to consider issuing haz mat suits and posting health warnings at the outside doors. My house will never be the one where the family sprawls on the living room carpeting for family game night without first ascertaining that everyone is up-to-date on vaccinations.

I have a container with every known cleaning product, but my house is still filthy dirty with regular cleaning. Imagine what must lie beneath a hoarder’s stash! No wonder so many people develop respiratory diseases and weird bacterial infections. Rather than prescribing endless antibiotics, we probably should issue housekeepers to the patients in the ER.

I probably need to step up the cleaning, but part of me is saying, "Screw it. Just move and start fresh."