Sprung Clean

Half an hour after getting up this morning I knew my agenda for today had gone out the window. Chucked a load of washing on, got in the shower, quite a normal practice as it means the washing will be nearly ready by the time I’m shiny bright and brand new, clothed and in my right mind.

Not to be. Heard the garbage truck go by, bit earlier than usual, so missed getting the rubbish out. Not a problem, but disaster was waiting a few seconds later when I walked past the laundry. Water was not only pouring over the top of the washing machine, but a mini flood had already made its way through the laundry, the loo, and had infiltrated a few inches on to the carpet in the hallway. If it hadn’t been for the rug on the floor soaking up the bulk of it which covers the cracked lino, the flood would probably have made it into the kitchen.

Paddling around in cold water in bare feet on a chilly morning is not exactly what I had in mind for the start of the day. Removing everything from the laundry to clean up the mess, plus the rug to the back yard, goodness knows how long that’s going to take to dry out, it was obvious it was going to need more than just a mop, though I guess it was one way of making me wash the floor. Due to the lino being old and cracked, the water had also gone underneath it, so out came the fan heater and here’s hoping it will dry out before developing a musty mouldy pong.

While waiting for it to dry, I went into a cleaning frenzy, heading to work and cleaning the office, sorting bits and pieces and throwing them out, then repeating the whole process when I came home. Not content to just vacuum and tidy up a bit, I kept going off on a tangent, sorting and cleaning shelves, drawers and cupboards, creating piles of miscellaneous excess stuff destined for the op shop or the bin, plus somewhere in there even a few windows were cleaned and the shower ceiling demoulded, as well as a few succulents being transferred from inside to an outside planter. Hope I haven’t sealed their fate.

Finally, after seven hours of mayhem and disorder, I sat down for a break. My house doesn’t necessarily look any different than normal, but I certainly know it’s a whole lot cleaner and my body is feeling the effects. Don’t know what got into me, though I do tend to go a bit overboard when I start what should be a simple straightforward job. I guess I’ll have to blame it on the Spring cleaning bug, though I would have preferred my washing machine hadn’t started the ball rolling by going ‘sproing’ and having an internal haemorrhage.

Lots more jobs to do, still a long way to go. Wonder how long it will be before the outside windows get their spruce up. They haven’t been done for years, so here’s hoping they make it into this round of frenetic energy before my batteries run out. Then again, I do have to scrub the pile of muddy bricks to complete my little paving job for the wheelie bins started yesterday, finish shovelling the pile of mulch on to the garden, spray the weeds that are starting to put in an appearance, hmmm, it’s never ending isn’t it.

The windows will have to wait their turn.

Spring cleaning whirlwind

sudden burst of energy

job satisfaction