Monday Motion

My husband usually takes Mondays off, and consequently our day usually gets off to a leisurely start.  But this week he was up and out of the house early, and so I could set my own agenda.  (I don't know if it's just me or what, but I have trouble focusing on my tasks if there is anyone else around.)  I've definitely been feeling the need to revamp my housecleaning routines, so I decided to use this Monday to do an all around straightening up, and then the rest of the week focus on bedrooms (this week is zone 4-- Master Bedroom on the Flylady system).

I love Flylady, I just need to tweak her system a little to fit my needs.  So I swished and swiped my bathroom, made my bed, did a five minute tidy in my bedroom, and threw some laundry in (with seven people in the household laundry gets backed up if I skip even one day).

I spent yesterday doing some of this:

And I whisked my way around the house with this:

The purple feather shows it is a Flylady duster

I windexed everything that could get windexed:

And I took my trusty central vacuum on a tour of the house:

When we moved into this house I didn't even own a vacuum.  All the floors were either tile or laminate and I thought I would just sweep them.  Which I did, for two years.  Sweeping is quiet and uses no electricity -- two things it's got going for it.  But it's hard to get ALL the dirt up, and I started to crave the satisfaction of watching a vacuum simply -- if loudly -- suck the dirt away.

I was on the lookout for a vacuum -- one that could handle dog hair -- when I remembered that our house had actually come with a central vacuum.  I just had never used it and we didn't have it hooked up.  Why buy a vacuum when there is already an expensive one attached to the house?  We found someone to inspect it and give it a tune-up, and we (my husband)  had to do some minor attic work, and then we were in business.

The central vacuum does a great job and it's only loud out in the garage where the motor is, but you have to be careful, because it has a LOONG hose.  Last year I was happily vacuuming away and had (unwisely) taken the attachment off the end to reach into a tight space by my bed, when SOMETHING got sucked into the hose and got stuck.  I tried for several weeks to unclog the hose, to no avail, so I finally had to confess to the vacuum cleaner repairman what had happened.  He came out to the house (yes, they are a wonderful company -- they make house calls:), and he's probably around my age, very dapper, and very formal.  I explained to him what happened, but the worst part was I didn't really know what had gotten sucked up.  I knew it was some kind of fabric -- my worst fear was that it was a pair of my underwear (YIKES) -- so I told him I couldn't guarantee what was in that hose.  I was trying to make jovial banter, but he took it all with a straight face, bless his heart.  I don't think he quite knew how to respond to that kind of information.

He -- kind of like the Grinch -- said he would take the hose THERE (to his shop) and fix it, and then bring it back HERE (to my house), which he did.  Thankfully, it ended up being a bandana, of all things, and the whole thing ended up costing me somewhere around $20.  So, I am their loyal customer, and I also try very hard not to suck up Unidentified Objects.

My plan -- for now -- is to try to make Mondays an all-around cleaning day, and save more specialized jobs for later in the week.  But housekeeping is not my forte -- if I were a servant I would have to be a laundress or a cook instead -- so we will see how it goes.  The main thing is I have to keep at it because I don't want the dust bunnies -- or in this case the dog hair -- to completely take over my house.