Cleaning doesn’t have to be a time-consuming chore. This is the tantalising first line to Wirecutter‘s introduction to its Cleaning posts. I subscribe to their newsletter and usually come away with a renewed sense of purpose when it comes to tackling an area of the house I have neglected.
I don’t enjoy cleaning per se but the end result is usually a sense of satisfaction. However it is also slightly demoralising as the same cleaning needs to happen everyday. Unlike brushing my teeth and using face moisturiser, I do find that cleaning is a time-consuming chore. Chore being the operative word, meaning ‘a job or piece of work that is often boring or unpleasant but needs to be done regularly’ (Cambridge Dictionary).
After a very busy weekend continuing with my Project Monopoly (the purple properties) and seeing the children and grand-twins, there was no option but to go headlong into some essential deep cleaning. Sadly, cleaning is cleaning. I have no enthusiasm for it and no synonyms either to soften the dullness of the word.
My new robomop is settling nicely into its routine, but it has been a cause of consternation for our guest cat Elva. It is actually Elva’s shedded hair, plus the daily dust that blows itself in when we open our windows/ doors, that needs a lot of picking and clearing up.
Citric acid is useful to clean the limescale from the washing machine, dishwasher and 4-litre water hotpot. The hotpot has been in cold storage since mid-June as the weather has been too hot for regular hot drinks (for now, we use a kettle) but the cold weather will soon be upon us. This is England after all.
I have not changed the cleaning tools from my student days, with only the e-cloth something that I adopted with great keenness in the past 20 years. I never leave the country with some of their general purpose cloths in my suitcase.
One area that needed a lot of attention today was the grooves to the patio door. To help protect the pressure on my knees when cleaning skirting boards and sliding door grooves I bought a second Niwaki (Camo) kneeler. The first one is solely for garden use. Every household should have one.
I wasn’t sure whether to be fascinated or disgusted by what was lodged in the sliding door grooves. In the end I decided it was a challenge and had to think hard about how to remove a dead fly and a piece of nut. Honestly, vacuum cleaners have their suction limits. In the end I used a pair of slim metal chopsticks to pick up the said offending items, before running an e-cloth into the groove for concentrated wiping.
Looking back on nearly 40 years of domestic life, I have had little help with the house cleaning. It would be a waste of time recollecting the disappointments with the cleaners I had. Most people don’t like cleaning, whether incentivised by money or not. The best, nicest and most reliable cleaner I had, for a few years, was from a former East European communist country. The regime was harsh and so their citizens took all tasks seriously, for fear of falling foul of state regulations. That work ethic survived when she came to start a new life here in London. Due to the Covid pandemic and a loss of her husband’s construction job, she returned to her home country.
I did have a cleaner four years ago (a friend said her cleaner needed more working hours and could I help) but that was a disaster and she lasted three months. Since then I have decided to go solo and do what I can, when I can. The bright days of summer are a real help when it comes to spotting dust and the long daylight hours means the work can stretch over a few more hours. Still, it’s probably healthy not to get too enthusiastic about cleaning.