Spring cleaning twitterpation

I am a bit twitterpated with spring cleaning. Things just get so dirty with living on the first floor apartment with messy jobs and lives. So much of it is stuff we don't see day to day, or if you do it just doesn't register with the ol' brain and say 'clean me' or maybe I just don't want to notice it so I don't feel like I have to clean yet another thing. Roll out the daily to do list and add the unseen to it and tackle it on top of all of the normal items that are scribbled on the note pad.

I am a bit obsessed with clean, if not really obsessed I am borderline. I have difficulty at times just sitting down and taking a breather. I don't know if it was the beyond-normal-guy roommate that left me traumatized with the piles of dirty clothes that hide the paper plates with moldy food underneath. One day it became so bad that the ants were even in the bed. I really do not know how I survived all of this.

Then maybe it could be the trauma of working at a child care center, the dirty things that so many of them did not see and yet kids were crawling on the floors and putting things in their mouths, bleck. Every summer there was this 'Fall in to Preschool' thing and we would have to clean the rooms top to bottom. Yep. Everything that everyone forgot about all the other days of the year needed to be cleaned and I have my doubts that it was accomplished in all of the rooms, but we will leave all of my suspicions behind.

So now, traumatized, I have a child of my own and provide child care in my home and what am I doing? Cleaning all the crap that you don't see. The walls are stripped, furniture moved, I sweep the walls and ceilings. Wipe clean those surfaces and the baseboards then vacuum like a madwoman. I have cleaned under and backwards and sideways in all of the rooms. The refrigerator and oven are not safe from my attack and I am disgusted by what I find. Surely not all the is from just us and then I feel a little sick knowing I am cleaning someone else's grime. Yuck! I thought apartments were supposed to be cleaned before new residents moved in.

I must say that someone will never know the cleaning I have done and the time and the effort that goes into it. Maybe they only notice the fresh scent of Pine Sol and dinner warm on the table as they walk in the door. They will never notice how white the paint is, the clean door jams, closet doors. The fan is free of dust and the baseboards are pretty darn bright. But I see it. I feel greatly accomplished and productive from getting 'down and dirty'. I know that tomorrow my hands will be extremely dry and hating me for cleaning so much. I just can't get things really clean while wearing gloves, another trauma from back in the day I am sure.

At times, I feel a little under-appreciated. How can someone really appreciate all that I have done if they don't 'see' it? They weren't here to see me huff and puff around. The only way they will know is if I tell them and then I wouldn't feel as proud pointing it out as a child would their block building or scribbles on the paper. Such is the life of a working mother. One who is on the edge fighting back the odors and dirt.


{ By the way, Pine Sol has a pretty cool coupon for $1.00 off any scent of 28oz to 48 oz bottles that now feature easy pour tops and a few new scents (you can print this 2 times) } I know I will go buy lots more now that Spring is here.