If my kitchen floor is clean, why does it still look dirty?
Tomorrow is Drake’s second birthday, and we’re have a few friends of his over. I’ve been doing a little bit of cleaning every day. I tried to put off the kitchen floor as long as I could, but yesterday it reached a point of maximum disgustingness; I had to act. First, I scrubbed it by hand with a Dobie sponge using 2 teaspoons of Doctor Bronner’s Sal Suds to 5 gallons of hot water. Then I went over it with a mop and 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar to 5 gallons of cool water. I did every nook I could reach. That floor was as clean as it has been since we moved in. Yet it still looks dirty. The ancient, originally white tile looks grey and is stained. The corners have gunk in them that I could not scrub up. Like most other things in our kitchen (oven, sink, lack of dishwasher) I don’t love it, but replacing things piecemeal doesn’t make sense, because when (if? whimper) we do overhaul the whole, it would be a shame to have to re-do things. So for now, I do my best with what we’ve got. And I dream of a future kitchen, with a floor that doesn’t show dirt, even when it’s dirty.
August 20th, 2005 at 7:22 am
Clean floors that never look that way are part of owning an older, charming home. You did what sounds like a considerably great job on that floor and now you can rest knowing you have a clean baseline from which to keep it tidy from here on out. And if your mother were there, she’d take a flat head screwdriver to scrape up that corner stuff. I’ve seen her do that.
August 22nd, 2005 at 7:42 pm
Happy birthday to girldective’s son! RE: the floors. I can’t believe we’re writing about this. (*grin*) I did just add a note to our entry about the, erm, bathroom because of the durned old floor. Scrubbed. Bleached. Scoured. I guess when you’re seventy-plus years old, that’s as good as you get.
Received your message RE: graphic novels. Haven’t given it its proper due at M-mv yet, but something’s percolating. Did see it got some space here.
Best regards… and I hope your husband is doing well.
MFS
August 26th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Husband is doing great. Better than me, lately. And M, I hope you don’t think I’m letting down the team by writing about the domestic stuff, but I find it’s all part of the complex whole of being a thinking person–I think about everything, including the floor, and do research so I can find ecologically sound, non-poisonous cleaners, and then I do my best, try not to obsess, and let go of what goes undone, But it’s also about exercise, which cleaning the floor is, and life balance, so that cleaning is an occasional thing that happens on an as-needed (e.g., before a party) basis so that the rest of life can be spent playing with son, hanging out with husband, watching TV and movies, reading and writing. The important stuff, as you so often emphasize.