I am by nature not a neat person. But that being said, I love the feel of a clean house. This past weekend I cleaned our apartment and when I say cleaned I mean “really cleaned.” Husband and I both tend to lean towards the messier side with clutter so I had to start there and then went into cleaning products mode.
Please don’t be too harsh on me as I begin to divulge the secrets of my messy apartment. I decided to pick up a towel and dust the base boards just to see if anything would come up. Then I stood there in horror at the amount of dust/dirt that did come up. I then felt like I could feel Mom standing there laughing at me. Laughing because whenever Sister K and I go home we have a tendency to get after Mom and Dad about the state of our house. It isn’t a disaster but with everything with Mom’s MS it isn’t exactly a priority either. Mom can’t clean it on her own, we don’t have a maid so they do what they can. But Sister K and I have a tendency to go home and get frustrated about this. We are learning to just go with it though. Realizing our parents are happy, they are doing what they can and whether or not the floor has been swept really isn’t as big of a priority as whether or not Mom has exercised today.
Sunday afternoon as I looked at the towel of baseboard dust I thought to myself, who do you think you are going into Mom’s house and judging how clean her house is when look at your own. And then I laughed. Another lesson learned. I should probably not consider myself to be high and mighty in the cleanliness department after thoroughly examining my own apartment this past weekend. I definitely got kicked off my “know it all perch” I like to place myself on from time to time.
Regardless, my apartment is now clean. And I am trying to keep it that way as long as I can.
Do you tend to be a neat or messy person by nature? How often do you clean your house? Has anyone else ever been horrified by their baseboards?
MS recess 
I am definitely a neat person, to the point of being anal about it. And I absolutely hate that about myself. But thankfully I don’t have baseboards!! Because not exactly sure how much they would get cleaned!!
But I do a deep cleaning weekly and then every other day after that I clean……but like I said I’m so anal to the point of being ridiculous!! 🙂
Haha I love this! I am going to have to get some tips- what products are your favorite to use because I am thinking I may need some better ones before my next deep clean? Baseboard cleaning I am not even sure I am doing it right, I literally just wet a washcloth and rubbed it along the top to pick up all the dust….and there was quite a bit of it. Amazing how invisible it can be 🙂
Sounds like you are doing a great job on Baseboard Cleaning to me!! 🙂 And for me, I love Comet for the Bathroom Shower/Tub and anything Lysol is my godess!! I use it in the Kitchens, Bathroom Sinks and Toilets…everywhere! Maybe I’ll be stock in it!! 🙂 But at the end of the day, I know you’re house looks great. My fault is I’m overly anal….not a good thing! 🙂
LOL! I my world, there are two kinds of cleaning–regular cleaning and Aunt Ruby cleaning. Regular cleaning is the usual–dust, vacuum and straighten up. Aunt Ruby cleaning (named for my aunt who was a phenomenal, keep the house in perfect shape person) is when you move the furniture to clean under it, clean the fingerprints off the walls, and most of all, dust the baseboards. I had to laugh when I read this. (FYI, you can occasionally sweep the baseboards with the upholstery attachment on the vacuum too.)
You had commented on my blog back in the Spring and I am embarrassed to say that I just saw it. I am going to go ahead and link to your blog in case it help direct some folks looking for info–you appear to be better at keeping up than I am! Cheers and happy baseboard cleaning!
Hi There,
Thank you for stopping by! I love the idea of “Aunt Ruby cleaning!” I didn’t move furniture so now I am thinking my deep clean wasn’t as deep clean as I thought. I need to check and see if my vacuum has an upholstery attachment…I am betting it does and I have just been ignoring it thinking it was part of the machine. Because cleaning the baseboards really did polish off my “hard work!” Thanks for the tip and for commenting!
Maybe I have missed something but why when you and your sister visit don’t you simply clean some room or project? You mention how busy your folks get with “MS”. Not sure how far away you live but perhaps a surprise cleaning why they are out for an appointment or such?
Caregivingly Yours, Patrick
We do actually try to do this but we only have so much time when we are home. The other problem is when we are home Mom would like to be out doing stuff with us since she doesn’t get to go wherever whenever anymore. But that being said I have thought about going home for a weekend and just designating it as a weekend for doing a big cleaning of the house. We try to do little things while we are there just to make a difference no matter how small it may seen. Great advice and now you’ve got me thinking about this more..