It's Time To Think About Cleaning the House for Sharon's Visit

Sunday was a somewhat lazy day. DH and I spent time in the garden, we gathered up sticks and brush and dropped them over at recycling, and we watched TV. DH fell asleep in mid-afternoon, so I got a little bit of computer time, but not quite enough to clear up the stacked-up emails on all three accounts that I use. Still, I got two of them cleared and up-to-date. That's better than it had been. 

I'm not using this program, but seriously might consider 
using it for my phone emails, which I simply can't 
keep up with and which can't be mass-deleted. I pretty 
well keep up with my computer email addresses, and I 
don't use Google for my email on my computers, but I 
do on my phone, and I absolutely HATE it. 

I've started casting a serious eye over the house, cataloging what needs to be cleaned first in my mind before Sharon arrives at the end of the month. It's actually not horrid. The kitchen is clean, of course. That room is constantly cleaned on a regular schedule. The bathrooms - the guest bathroom and the shower room are also clean, although I do need to scrub the floors in both of them. The sinks and counters are in excellent shape since I've been using the guest bathroom regularly because of my braces and the various extra things I have to use to keep my teeth in happy, clean and good health. 

Aside from mouthwash, toothbrush and toothpaste, I 
also use flossers and my oral irrigator to clean my 
teeth several times every day. I don't have one of these 
at the shop, so there I'm just using floss and brushing. 
But I've found the "water pick" to be invaluable, 
and use it every time I need to at home. It takes up 
counter space - minimal, but still...space.

The living room will need a seriously good vacuum and dust, but again, it's not too bad. The table is cluttered, but that only makes sense since I sleep there, so there are a few things (like charging cables and ear buds) that I keep handy. Still, it's again mostly a matter of getting the dust and any cobwebs taken care of. With the extra-high vaulted ceiling, there are always some cobwebs that escape my initial glances and only get caught in a serious clean. 

It's actually pretty easy to clean any minimal cobwebs from 
the ceiling. It's a bit harder to clean them from my 
copper dragon chandelier. But, I love my dragon, and 
love having him cleaned up and ready to see Sharon 
every year. 

Sharon's Room will take a bit more work. I have the portable clothes rack set up in that room, with my Mom's dresses arrayed on it. I'm not sure I'll have room in the closet for the rack. I'll have to check. Then, it's vacuuming, dusting, and a general clean. I can't open the windows for a good airing, the windows need replacement and if I opened any of them, I wouldn't be able to close them again. So, I might set up a fan in there to get the air circulated. It's a bummer about the windows, but it's an expense since we really need ALL of the windows in the house replaced. 

I have an old-style fan that I keep on the 
bureau in Sharon's room. We never know 
what the weather or temps will be when she 
gets here. It could be upper 90's hot, 
or it could be hints-of-snow cold. We've 
had it all, over the years she's been coming 
up for the State Fair. 

After that, there's just general cleaning - dusting the glass shelving for my dragons, vacuuming the hallway, and making sure that I have access to and can use the second sink in the Master Bathroom. I usually just let DH have that bathroom for himself (he's not the neatest guy in the world), but I'll need to use my sink while Sharon is here using the guest bathroom. DH will just have to tolerate me for a short time, and I'll have to tolerate him. We don't share spaces easily - LOL, but we'll work it out. It's only for a few days. 

I have always dusted first, then vacuumed. It made 
sense to me because dust settles in the lowest 
spot it can reach. Your vacuum is the final step in 
getting a clean room. So, I'll stick to that formula 
this year again. It seems to be common sense. 

All told, it's not too bad. I'll start working on this next week on my "days off", between my regular cooking and laundry. It'll all work out, I'm sure. It always seems to, and the house is actually a lot cleaner this year than it has been in some of the years past. When it's done, I feel quite accomplished and ready to face another year of spot cleaning instead of intensive cleaning. Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow.