Finding the floor
fabricdragon has been posting regularly about the progress of the cleaning effort in our house. Here's my side of it.
For me, the story began on Monday, December 8, 2008.
Kirsten had an appointment in town, and had tasked me to clean up whatever trash I could before the trash was collected later that morning. Being my usual self, I dithered a bit and then set to work. In the course of collecting trash, I decided that sweeping the bird room (wherein dwelt Kirsten's Scarlet Macaw, Blake) would be a helpful thing.
What started as a sweeping job ended up with my bagging at least 25 pounds of debris which came from the base of the bird's cage, the floor in front of and beneath it, as well as a great deal of empty bird food containers, bags, and irrelevant papers, all in the space of about an hour.
All of this effort resulted in a suitably impressed Kirsten. It also resulted in a collapsed Wayne. The peanut dust, household dust, and bird dander, along with the assorted fungi growing thereupon, had all taken up residence in my lungs, and brought about a long-term asthma attack that was indistinguishable from full-blown bronchitis. I went through most of an emergency inhaler keeping my lungs open until I was finally able to visit my doctor on Friday the 19th, whereupon he prescribed an inhaled steroid to get my lungs to settle down. This fortunately worked, and by the following Monday I was mostly recovered.
Sometime during the next few days after the 8th, Kirsten took the 25% cleared floor in the bird room as an opening in enemy lines, and attacked the rest of the debris therein with vigor. A day of vigorous (and ruthless) work yielded another 50%(!) of the available floor space. It was now actually possible to walk into the bird room and not only see the floor, but to actually walk across the room to the other side! (Understand that this had not been possible for at least the last 5 years). I was duly impressed (and, if I did not say so adequately then, I say so now without hesitation). I had thought that digging out that much cruft and crap would take at least a week, but she did it in less than a day!
Somewhere in there, either before or shortly after the bird room floor re-appeared from wherever it had hiding all this time, Kirsten discovered the FlyLady. FlyLady is a southern housewife who realized that conquering cruft and crap is not just a matter of how you clean, it's why you clean. Rather than being a chore, housecleaning should be a reflexive part of your lifestyle. Once you develop a habit of cleanliness (after, of course, shoveling your way clear of your long-term detritus), you'll keep your house clean as a matter of course, rather than as an imposition on your time. I'll leave further insights into the matter for the FlyLady (and Kirsten) to discuss.
Every day after that, Kirsten cleaned the house. 35-gallon contractor bags full of trash, debris, and irrelevant antiquities began lining up in the living room prior to her taking them to the local city dump. On trash days (Mondays), we were careful set out as many bags as we could without drawing the attention of the Streets Department (who officially frown upon more than 6 bags per household, but haven't complained about one-time appearances of nearly a dozen). Every other weekday (and Saturday when possible), Kirsten would load up the previous day's bags of trash and haul them to the local dump. This went on to the point that the local city dump forbade us to return until the next week, as we were showing up too often (sometimes twice a day)! Since there was another city dump only about 5 miles north of that one, we just went there instead.
The net effect of all of this?
- The living room floor has re-appeared. It is no longer necessary to maneuver a winding path through the piled-up stuff to get into the house or upstairs.
- The kitchen counters are all visible and accessible.
- The range is clean, both on and around the cooking surface as well as the front, sides, and digital clock/timer.
- The breakfast nook is now completely accessible. We can walk right up to the microwave and use it; the back shelves can now be reached without climbing over anything; and the automatic kitty litter box can now be accessed and cleaned without any grief.
- The dining room floor is mostly visible. There is still some work to do in there. Even so, the 55-gallon goldfish tank can be accessed completely, and the area leading up to the window in the room has been cleaned sufficient to set up a second automatic litter box there.
- The bathroom sink, tub, tile, and toilet are all shining and white.
- The bird room floor is almost completely clear, and all of the storage therein is completely accessible.
- The front bed room (which has no bed) can now be entered without skipping over junk, and all the closets and drawers can be accessed and made proper use of.
(and last, but certainly not least)
- The house no longer smells.
While I put in a good bit of work, the majority of the effort, along with the credit, belongs to Kirsten. If she hadn't started in with a will to de-clutter our house, I would not have subsequently been inspired to follow her example.
Thanks to Kirsten, our entire house (at least, the 1st and 2nd floors; the basement is another matter) is now fit to have both service people and health inspectors visit.
Next step: clean enough for Kirsten's Mom!
Kudos to fabricdragon!
For me, the story began on Monday, December 8, 2008.
Kirsten had an appointment in town, and had tasked me to clean up whatever trash I could before the trash was collected later that morning. Being my usual self, I dithered a bit and then set to work. In the course of collecting trash, I decided that sweeping the bird room (wherein dwelt Kirsten's Scarlet Macaw, Blake) would be a helpful thing.
What started as a sweeping job ended up with my bagging at least 25 pounds of debris which came from the base of the bird's cage, the floor in front of and beneath it, as well as a great deal of empty bird food containers, bags, and irrelevant papers, all in the space of about an hour.
All of this effort resulted in a suitably impressed Kirsten. It also resulted in a collapsed Wayne. The peanut dust, household dust, and bird dander, along with the assorted fungi growing thereupon, had all taken up residence in my lungs, and brought about a long-term asthma attack that was indistinguishable from full-blown bronchitis. I went through most of an emergency inhaler keeping my lungs open until I was finally able to visit my doctor on Friday the 19th, whereupon he prescribed an inhaled steroid to get my lungs to settle down. This fortunately worked, and by the following Monday I was mostly recovered.
Sometime during the next few days after the 8th, Kirsten took the 25% cleared floor in the bird room as an opening in enemy lines, and attacked the rest of the debris therein with vigor. A day of vigorous (and ruthless) work yielded another 50%(!) of the available floor space. It was now actually possible to walk into the bird room and not only see the floor, but to actually walk across the room to the other side! (Understand that this had not been possible for at least the last 5 years). I was duly impressed (and, if I did not say so adequately then, I say so now without hesitation). I had thought that digging out that much cruft and crap would take at least a week, but she did it in less than a day!
Somewhere in there, either before or shortly after the bird room floor re-appeared from wherever it had hiding all this time, Kirsten discovered the FlyLady. FlyLady is a southern housewife who realized that conquering cruft and crap is not just a matter of how you clean, it's why you clean. Rather than being a chore, housecleaning should be a reflexive part of your lifestyle. Once you develop a habit of cleanliness (after, of course, shoveling your way clear of your long-term detritus), you'll keep your house clean as a matter of course, rather than as an imposition on your time. I'll leave further insights into the matter for the FlyLady (and Kirsten) to discuss.
Every day after that, Kirsten cleaned the house. 35-gallon contractor bags full of trash, debris, and irrelevant antiquities began lining up in the living room prior to her taking them to the local city dump. On trash days (Mondays), we were careful set out as many bags as we could without drawing the attention of the Streets Department (who officially frown upon more than 6 bags per household, but haven't complained about one-time appearances of nearly a dozen). Every other weekday (and Saturday when possible), Kirsten would load up the previous day's bags of trash and haul them to the local dump. This went on to the point that the local city dump forbade us to return until the next week, as we were showing up too often (sometimes twice a day)! Since there was another city dump only about 5 miles north of that one, we just went there instead.
The net effect of all of this?
- The living room floor has re-appeared. It is no longer necessary to maneuver a winding path through the piled-up stuff to get into the house or upstairs.
- The kitchen counters are all visible and accessible.
- The range is clean, both on and around the cooking surface as well as the front, sides, and digital clock/timer.
- The breakfast nook is now completely accessible. We can walk right up to the microwave and use it; the back shelves can now be reached without climbing over anything; and the automatic kitty litter box can now be accessed and cleaned without any grief.
- The dining room floor is mostly visible. There is still some work to do in there. Even so, the 55-gallon goldfish tank can be accessed completely, and the area leading up to the window in the room has been cleaned sufficient to set up a second automatic litter box there.
- The bathroom sink, tub, tile, and toilet are all shining and white.
- The bird room floor is almost completely clear, and all of the storage therein is completely accessible.
- The front bed room (which has no bed) can now be entered without skipping over junk, and all the closets and drawers can be accessed and made proper use of.
(and last, but certainly not least)
- The house no longer smells.
While I put in a good bit of work, the majority of the effort, along with the credit, belongs to Kirsten. If she hadn't started in with a will to de-clutter our house, I would not have subsequently been inspired to follow her example.
Thanks to Kirsten, our entire house (at least, the 1st and 2nd floors; the basement is another matter) is now fit to have both service people and health inspectors visit.
Next step: clean enough for Kirsten's Mom!
Kudos to fabricdragon!