In the past few years, I have decided dusting my
house is a waste of time. No matter how well it is done, in just a few days, the
dust is back.
While preparing for company a week or so ago, I did the usual
preps: vacuuming, mopping and dusting. Our company arrived. We had a great
visit, and in a few days, the company had left, and the dust was back.
The rugs
looked fine, and the scrubbed floors were still shiny, but the dust was back.
Where does it come from? All the furniture had been well dusted and polished. But now that shiny furniture was covered with a layer of gray dust.
Obviously, the dust is coming from somewhere, but where? Perhaps our dark wood furniture attracts the little particles of dust in the air.
Perhaps those bits of dust hide from the dust cloths on the tops of door
frames, tops of doors, under lamp shades and under the furniture.
Also, we’ve been told some dust contains skin flakes. Yuck! So with the help
of some family, I decided to examine and dust all those possible dust hiding
places. It took a while, but we dusted every place where dust might be hiding.
However, it was hard, exhausting work — a job we vowed never to do again. So it
comes down to removing the dust that can be seen or buying dust-colored furniture.
Guess which idea we settled upon?
Next, we come to another unpleasant chore in housekeeping: making beds with fitted sheets. Some folks have no trouble handling that chore,
but for me it’s a problem. Perhaps if I could mark the corners of the sheets
that fit at the top of the mattress, it would be easier. I tried marking, but the
marks I made with a pen disappeared when the sheets got washed. Perhaps I
should go back to flat sheets. The full-size bedsheets do fine, but the queen-size is awful!
My final housekeeping moan is keeping flies and gnats out of
the house. The creatures gather on our front stoop and just wait for the door
to open. Even before we step outside, those bugs have rushed inside. I sprayed
bug spray all over that stoop and inside the hall by the door, but enough flies
and gnats make it inside to fly all over our house. I found a glass soaking in
the sink with the entire rim covered with gnats. Ugh!
As you might have guessed, housekeeping is not my favorite activity.
It would be so much easier if I could live comfortably in a dusty, gnat- and fly-filled house.
Laura Moore can be emailed at lehmoore1@gmail.com.
