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House and home

As an antidote to all the cleaning threads

(40 Posts)
MrsM Thu 24-Oct-13 09:32:53

Dust if you must.
But wouldn’t it be better,
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed?
Ponder the difference between want and need.

Dust if you must.
But there is not much time
With rivers to swim and mountains to climb!
Music to hear, and books to read,
Friends to cherish and life to lead.

Dust if you must.
But the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes,the wind in your hair,
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain.
This day will not come round again.

Dust if you must.
But bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go, and go you must,
You, yourself, will make more dust!

Rose Milligan

I wish I'd written that smile Enjoy!

Galen Sat 26-Oct-13 15:20:35

Vax!

Galen Sat 26-Oct-13 15:20:19

I seem to be in the wars with getting compensation. Following the Heathrow disaster the flowers arrived this am and I'm waiting for the cheque for £20 for the excess parking time!
Fortunately I've got a ax carpet cleaner and I've just bought some more fluid, so, I'll get Gary to do it on Monday!

petra Sat 26-Oct-13 15:14:02

Not good enough, Galen. These companies are well covered in their insurance for this.
I had a similar situation with people who put new windows in. Had a bit of a tussle with them, but got carpets cleaned.

AlieOxon Sat 26-Oct-13 12:43:02

anno ditto re storage and hoarding. That's why I have two sheds.....am now trying to declutter! My sister came and plundered my charity shop pile for her hoards!

Galen Sat 26-Oct-13 12:26:13

The ocadodo man delivered last night. He was half an hour late and he has left a trail of muddy footprints all through the hall dining room and into the kitchen angry I rang ocadodo and they said the best they can do is a £10 voucher! I'm going to have to get the carpets cleaned as I found this am (having let it dry overnight) that it won't vacuum up!

petra Sat 26-Oct-13 11:39:01

I think that some assume that clean and tidy people spend hrs every day/week cleaning and tidying: we don't. For the simple reason that the house has always been clean and tidy.

annodomini Fri 25-Oct-13 22:40:48

I lack storage space in my small house but have hoarding instincts. These two facts don't go well together.

Deedaa Fri 25-Oct-13 21:37:44

I used to be very much in awe of a friend who had a beautiful old house which was always spotless in spite of all the time she spent looking after 2 children, chickens, goats and a vegetable plot. It was a couple of years before I found out that she had an au pair!

janeainsworth Fri 25-Oct-13 21:11:04

No need toblush Mrshat.
I got distracted and hit 'send' before I had really finished.
We expect hospitals, restaurants, hotels and shops to be clean, so what's wrong with applying the same standards to our homes?

mrshat Fri 25-Oct-13 21:03:54

I echo Jane Ainsworth blush

AlieOxon Fri 25-Oct-13 20:32:29

Still haven't finished decorating my bathroom since I broke my wrist three years ago......

AlieOxon Fri 25-Oct-13 20:31:42

I don't know how people have those perfect houses. There are two near me that I have seen inside...makes me feel guilty! But I have also seen two others - one very very untidy - and the other always in the throes of DIY....now that makes me feel better!

GadaboutGran Fri 25-Oct-13 20:13:34

I clean when I have to - like when my mother comes & when I have a client come to the house, yesterday the first for ages so you can imagine the work all the de-cluttering & dusting involved. Trouble is, now all the other rooms are cluttered with the stuff dumped in them. I love a tidy enough & clean enough house - if someone else does the work but now hate having anyone else poking around my house & it doesn't seem fair to expect them to dust shelves covered in rock specimens, wind-up toys & other things my grandkids love to play with.

janeainsworth Fri 25-Oct-13 19:41:57

Well, I still have a cleaner once a fortnight as I am fortunate to be able to afford it, and I feel I'm contributing to the local economy by paying her.
I spend the time which I would have spent on housework, in my garden or doing other things that I wanted to do all the time I was working.
But if I couldn't afford to have a cleaner I would clean the house myself.

storynanny Fri 25-Oct-13 18:55:52

I like a clean tidy house but cant usually summon up the enthusiasm to clean. However when im in the mood i enjoy seeing the end result and do it to music for a bit of exercise.

kittylester Fri 25-Oct-13 07:08:28

I think its perfectly possible to think about housework thlgrin

Eloethan Fri 25-Oct-13 00:55:53

I think it's perfectly possible to think while doing housework.

Deedaa Thu 24-Oct-13 20:54:07

As one of my fridge magnets says, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste on housework"

tiggypiro Thu 24-Oct-13 18:06:36

Isn't dust a protective covering for furniture ?

ninathenana Thu 24-Oct-13 17:58:58

I don't find cleaning demeaning. In fact I worked as a school cleaner for a few years as the hours suited when children were young.
But it's not a priority in this house.

Love the poem.

merlotgran Thu 24-Oct-13 17:36:55

Been a lovely day. So lovely to have the sun shining through the windows and showing up all the dust on the furniture. hmm

Galen Thu 24-Oct-13 17:29:36

Like that!

PRINTMISS Thu 24-Oct-13 17:08:57

I have dusted for ages, it is still there, and will be when I feel like dusting, don't mind housework at all, but when I went out to work it was so necessary to keep everything in some sort of order, it is lovely now just to say Oh! to hell with it! and not feel guilty.

Marelli Thu 24-Oct-13 15:59:33

Anyone who knows me would think I'd written that......! grin

MrsSB Thu 24-Oct-13 15:34:04

I do like that. I may well pass it on.