I'm taking the opportunity to do a really good spring-clean. Now that the rooms are empty after the EQC'ing, I'm slowly putting everything back and cleaning as I go. I've just washed the inside of the windows, horrified at the streams of grey water coming from them! Don't remember when I last did this; I'm basically a lazy cow. If the room looks tidy, then it's ok. It doesn't need to be clean as well.
I quite like this kind of housework. I know modern women are supposed to despise it, but it's very satisfying to sit back at the end of the day and know that the house is clean and looking it's best. Cleaning up your own messiness is not as bad as cleaning up after someone else either. It's my house and my mess, not the kids' or a slobby partner (and they invariably mess things up again as soon as you've finished). My ex's attitude was that if I wanted a tidy clean house, then I could do the cleaning and tidying. This sounds perfectly fair in theory, but when one person is constantly making work for the other one to do, it is less than considerate. To say the least. I suppose he thought he was doing me some kind of favour, giving me a reason for living, an interesting on-going hobby?
Cleaning house is an important ritual, and many cultures recognise this. The Jews clean house before Passover, getting rid of anything that might be a yeast culture. The Muslims do it at the end of Ramadan, in China everyone gets new clothes and clean new money at New Year, and I guess our spring cleaning traditionally in the Northern hemisphere probably had something to do with Easter and getting rid of the old worn-out life. It's therapeutic; have a good clean and a chuck out.
Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of spring
The winter garment of repentance fling:
The bird of time has but a little way
To fly - and lo! the bird is on the wing.
Edward Fitzgerald "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"
Go on, fling that winter garment.
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