Today's Women of Age

I love a clean house, but as I’ve gotten older my motivation to clean has waned so my house is not spotless. I’ve flirted with the idea of hiring help again, but every time I’ve tried it has never worked well. (One gal, bless her heart, was just a terrible cleaner. She insisted on using her vacuum cleaner that belched out dust and our bathtub was never properly cleaned. I literally had to clean it after she left. After four visits I knew I had to fire her.)

All this to say, I know I could do better. Be more consistent in my weekly cleaning. Do more deep cleaning. Be more disciplined like my mom. She kept our home in tip-top shape. Every Saturday our bathroom was scrubbed head to toe and our combs and brushes were soaked in soapy water. Every week. Without fail. In the spring various curtains were taken down and washed, kitchen cupboards emptied and scrubbed down, smaller rugs beaten on a clothesline, mattresses flipped, wood floors waxed. I have never lived up to her standard.

It’s almost summer and I finally got around to a bit of spring cleaning in our living room. I pulled my end tables and sofa away from the front window to clean behind them. (Oh gosh there was so much dust, hair and cobwebs!) And I vacuumed the nastiness underneath the couch cushions which included a few bits of food! And I can say it’s a relief to have this done. It feels good.

I went one step further this year and used a lovely product (Dixie Belle Mama’s Butta) to condition our leather couch. It was labor intensive spreading it all on and later buffing it off, but worth it. 

We’ve enjoyed this couch for over 25 years and though it has signs of wear and a patina of scratches, we still like it and it’s comfortable and sturdy. So making the extra effort to preserve the leather (and improve its appearance) was the right thing to do. (An article in House Beautiful recommends conditioning vintage leather furniture every week—which seems overkill to me. I could see every year, but every week??! This is only my second time in 25 years.) 

As a side note when I look at some of my fav Brit shows, including documentaries with centuries-old manors, the folks living there do not divest of their worn leather furniture. They use and treasure these pieces. And if they do get rid of a piece it’s not bound for the skip but for a thriving, secondhand market where it gets sold.

But back to spring cleaning. I’m really wondering how many folks actually do it, particularly of the younger generations. There are certainly plenty of checklists available online. When I reviewed the one below I realized that I do a lot of the tasks, but scattered throughout the year. And that’s what works for me. Not a frenzied weekend (or month of weekends) of constant cleaning. I do them when I’m “in the  mood”—which is of course no way to do it properly. How often is one in the mood to wipe down light switches or clean out medicine cabinets?!

Still, it is what it is. I will never be as disciplined or as energetic about cleaning as my mother was, but in the end most things eventually get done. Next on my spring cleaning list is to steam clean our carpets. This hasn’t been done in years and is overdue. And though we have a self-cleaning oven, the glass window never gets clean in the process and remains streaked with baked-on grime. Darn. Need to figure out how to tackle that. So I will plod along with doing a task here and there.

Would love to hear if you or your partner have a spring cleaning routine or if you are more laissez faire. And what is most important for you to clean?