Housecleaning

I admit it, housecleaning is not my forté. My apartment is the size of a small broom closet, but it still gets plenty dirty and cluttered. I don't want to clean at day's end because I am tired after a long workday and commute, and on weekends, I tend to be a bit busy, so time isn't there to take care of cleaning things. As a result, my apartment can end up pretty awful and it gets to the point where I am very easily overwhelmed when I do decide to get in some housecleaning. I find myself staring at the mess and wondering where - and how - to start. Sometimes I wish I could just hire a maid to come in and magically clean the place for me and cook my meals, or at the very least, show me how, in my miniscule kitchen, how to prepare meals given my lack of space. But alas, I am not a wealthy woman, so I'm on my own to deal with things around my apartment. I hate feeling so tired at the end of my workday and not having the stamina to come home and start digging in, but after you work all day, the last thing you want to do is to come home and do even more work. Mostly what I want to do is to come home, sit down, put my feet up and relax. On workdays, I've been up since 5:30 a.m. and by the time I get home at 4:30, I am spent, tired and ready for a nap. Typically, I fall asleep within a half hour of coming home and stay asleep for quite a few hours. For the rest of the evening, I feel too tired to do much more than sit and read or watch TV. I want to rest at the end of a long workday, not work more cleaning house. So I've decided that the best way to try to tackle things is to parse them into 15 minute segments each day. Fifteen minutes a day is doable, in my opinion. It means that eventually, things will be cleaned up and I can relax. It may take a while, admittedly, but it will get done. I find myself just getting to the point where I can't stand how dirty and cluttered my living quarters get. It's too small for it to be such a mess, and I am feeling claustrophobic as the cold weather sets in and the house gets closed up for the season and I'm not outdoors as much.

So each day I hope to find 15 minutes to do one small portion of a room, or do something small, like what I did tonight by scrubbing the bathroom, the smallest room in my apartment. It didn't take long and now the fixtures are all shiny white and clean. Next, I need to dust and mop the bathroom floor, but that's for another day. When that's done, it's on to the kitchen. I need to dust, scrub and mop the floor, scrub the counters, clean out the cupboards and fridge (oh, how I crave a new frost free model that I do not have to defrost!) and tidy things up. The living room needs decluttered of mail and magazines and summer camping gear that has yet to be unpacked and put away. And of course, the entire room needs to be dusted. I put a furnace filter on the cold air return out in the hallway some time ago and I should probably change that as well. I don't know if it helps at all, but since our furnaces allegedly have no filters in them (and if they do, I haven't got a clue as to where), I have to do something to keep the dust at bay in my apartment. What I would really love to do is to get all the ductwork cleaned, but that could get pricey, and I know that it's not something that my landlord will spring for (he can be notoriously cheap), so if I want it done, I have to do it myself. I suppose I could call and get an estimate, but it can't be an inexpensive thing to have done. However, given that this house was once heated by an old coal burning furnace, I'm willing to bet that the ducts are pretty filthy, if the dust that comes out of them is any indication. So we'll see. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to find out the cost of such a thing and see if maybe my neighbors would chip in to have all the house ductwork cleaned so we can all breathe easier this winter. It sure would be nice not to have to do regular battle with the kitchen floor dust bunnies I sweep up on a regular basis......