I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Work on the hands and knees with a scrub pad a bucket of cleanser — not to mention a whole lotta time and patience!
The kitchen linoleum floor in the new place is, what’s the word? Hideous. Years of ground in from the soles of only the lord knows how many tenants have discolored the floor’s color. It’s presently a baked eggshell shade. Its true color is to be revealed! Expect pics down the road.
Yesterday I spent a couple hours scrubbing and wiping all surfaces and inside cupboards and drawers at the new place. Their numbers are impressive for a small studio. I hardly know what I’m gonna do with all the space! Guess I’m gonna need to take college courses on how to collect clutter! hahah
When I clean, I clean. I remove all drawers to scrub their insides and sides.
Cupboards, ditto. With the corner of a sponge or rag and a fingernail, I get dust, dirt or gunk outta the corners and any decorative carvings. No surface goes untouched by my hand.
Ditto on, around and under knobs and handles; the undersides of metal handles where hands grip are especially susceptible to buildup and neglected, if not indeed entirely ignored, in cleanings by both tenants and professional teams.
So even a small kitchen, if loaded with cupboards and drawers, can be rather time-consuming to deep-clean. The clean team did an unimpressive mediocre job at best, so there’s plenty for me to do.
Fortunately, they did an OK job inside the fridge and microwave, sparing me from that tedium of removing every shelf and drawer and carving gunk or frozen spills outta the freezer crevices with a fingernail, toothpick or pocketknife.
Been there done that, believe me!
But back to the floor. It’s hideous. Along with the dirt in the floor and its decorative details, the baseboards and corners too are in a sad state of neglect. Scrubbing those surfaces and narrow tops is an estimated day’s work.
Plus all walls need a good wipedown.
Again, my work’s cut out for me.
But here’s the thing.
First, I’m the person to do it. When any living space — be it mine or another’s — needs attention, meticulous and detailed attention — I’m the girl! It’s not only because I’m unafraid of very hard work, I’m also unbelievably patient in home cleanings, particularly projects rich with detail and requiring finesse.
I’ve long said that had I become a doctor, I would’ve been a heart surgeon because I not only LOOOOOOOOOVE those tiny details that require a laser focus and steady hand but I’m at my best in that type of work. It’s my Virgo moon. 🙂
Well, I’m a surgeon of sorts. Not in a hospital but in homes. Because a lot of my deep cleaning isn’t just about the obvious (cleaning), it’s about healing a place.
Spaces and places, it’s what I do best. I like ’em better than I like people for sure! And I’m so highly sensitive and attuned to spaces and places that cleaning is holistically therapeutic. Therapeutic for me and therapeutic for the place.
Also, spaces communicate to me. They talk and I listen and act accordingly. My new studio is a sad space. At the moment. No doubt once I start living there, it’ll reveal itself, tell me its stories. For now, however, its sadness and feeling of neglect is all I need to know. It needs nourishment and appreciation, just as I do. The new apartment and I are in sync after all!
Anyways, I diverge into esoterics. The deep-cleaning is underway and I’m saving – quote – the best for last – unquote. For one simple reason: I simply don’t have the time or energy at the moment to do the work required by the floor.
But soon, oh so soon! Like perhaps Monday, when full-on residency begins.
I sometimes quip that landlords should be paying me for my work! I always leave a place cleaner than when I moved in AND in such pristine condition that their cleaners have got nothing to do after I depart!
That’s who I am and how I roll. I wouldn’t know how to be or do any differently.
For now, on this eve of Thanksgiving, I’ve got things to do while I let that dirty floor wait. Today, I plan to complete all the heavy lifting remaining with my current apartment and get nearly everything out so I may relax and enjoy tomorrow’s holiday festivities.
On that note, I bid ye adieu until we meet again. Prob’ly in the morrow with a bounty of Thanksgiving wishes & gratitude in hand. Perhaps a turkey drumstick too. 🙂
Allelujah, Arizona! 