Cleaning Revisited

Kind of like "Brideshead Revisited"...
(OK, maybe not.)

Once Upon a Time....
I was the cleaning lady for my office. The building I work in is pretty substantial and I was the only one cleaning it. It took me about 6 hours each week to clean it (working really, really fast) and still I was getting home pretty late at night, so I asked them to find someone else for that task. Not only was it getting in the way of family life, I was exhausted! They found a new person, but now, that person has moved on and I, seeing that things were starting to get out of control again, stupidly volunteered for part of the job again.

I hate to clean. It is, in fact, the thing-most-likely-to-stick-my-butt-to-a-chair. If I even think of cleaning, I will become paralyzed, my butt will become fused to whatever chair I am sitting on and I will be unable to clean at all. But today, I discovered the antidote!

I was asked to start cleaning when I got here, instead of waiting until the afternoon. This, in essence, made it impossible for me to think about cleaning, I just had to do it. Now, it is 3:00 in the afternoon and having cleaned the three bathrooms, the kitchen, and having swept and mopped the entire first floor, I am ready to take on everything else in the building.

Of course, I don't HAVE to, since that's not what I was asked to do... More's the pity for me and them. I would have done an excellent job. Instead, right now I am sitting here admiring my shiny, clean marble hallway and thinking, "Darn, I'm awesome..." I'd better look out before someone knocks me off my cloud.

But that's the secret. Start in the morning before I develop an apologia for why I don't have time or energy. Gosh! It almost makes me like cleaning.